Listen with Mother: Tsar Saltan as autism parable at La Monnaie

By Mark Pullinger, 17 June 2019

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“in his native Russian repertoire, he can be touched by genius”

Reviewed at La Monnaie | De Munt: Grand Hall, Brussels on 16 June 2019

Rimsky-Korsakov, The Tale of Tsar Saltan

La Monnaie | De Munt

Alain Altinoglu, Conductor

Dmitri Tcherniakov, Director, Set Designer

Elena Zaytseva, Costume Designer

Ante Jerkunica, Tsar Saltan

Svetlana Aksenova, Tsaritsa Militrisa

Stine Marie Fischer, Tkachikha (Weaver)

Bernarda Bobro, Povarikha (Cook)

Carole Wilson, Babarikha (Old Woman)

Bogdan Volkov, Tsarevich Gvidon

Olga Kulchynska, The Swan Princess

Alexander Vassiliev, Skomorokh

Vassily Gorchkov, Old man

Nicky Spence, Messenger

La Monnaie Chorus

La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra

Gleb Filshtinsky, Lighting Designer

Benvenuto Cellini: Strassberger loses the plot at La Monnaie

No’a L. bat Miri, 28th January

Thaddeus Strassberger’s Brussels debut presents Berlioz's opera semiseria with plenty of good music but far more visual noise.

***11

Verdi caught in La Monnaie's revolving door

Eleanor Knight, 22nd March

A marathon double bill using music from Verdi's early operas largely falls flat in Brussels.

**111

Mixed messages lost in the medium: Foccroulle's Cassandra

Eleanor Knight, 10th September

Foccroulle’s limited score imitates environmental catastrophe while Jocelyn’s libretto tries – unevenly – to understand why we might ignore it.

**111

Black Swan: Barbara Hannigan returns in Warlikowski's Lulu

Kevin W Ng, 18th November

Barbara Hannigan is better than ever in Krzysztof Warlikowski's iconic Lulu at La Monnaie – an historic event.

*****

Portals into the surreal in La Monnaie's The Turn of the Screw

Katherine Syer, 30th April

A highly satisfying level of polish in La Monnaie's stream in which one recognizes a precisely executed live performance at its core – one that would be thrilling to experience in person.

****1

Black gold: Rimsky-Korsakov in Brussels

Matthew Rye, 13th December

Laurent Pelly exploits the satirical side of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel at La Monnaie in a darkly humorous but colourfully performed production.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Listen with Mother: Rimsky-Korsakov's Tsar Saltan as autism parable at La Monnaie