School for lovers: Loy’s bitter lessons at the Salzburg Festival

By Mark Pullinger, 02 August 2020

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“Elsa Dreisig and Marianne Crebassa make a delectable pair of sisters”

Reviewed at Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg on 2 August 2020

Mozart, Così fan tutte

Joana Mallwitz, Conductor

Christof Loy, Director

Johannes Leiacker, Set Designer

Barbara Drosihn, Costume Designer

Olaf Winter, Lighting Designer

Vienna Philharmonic

Concert Association Vienna State Opera Chorus

Niels Nuijten, Dramaturgy

Elsa Dreisig, Fiordiligi

Marianne Crebassa, Dorabella

Bogdan Volkov, Ferrando

Andrè Schuen, Guglielmo

Johannes Martin Kränzle, Don Alfonso

Lea Desandre, Despina

Huw Rhys James, Choirmaster / chorus director

Giordano's Fedora at the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Elena Luporini, 27th November

A new production of Fedora at the Deutsche Oper Berlin warms up the cold German winter, featuring strong lead performances by Vida Miknevičiūtė and Jonathan Tetelman.

***11

Elisabet Strid renders Tosca an Everywoman in Helsinki

No’a L. bat Miri, 19th November

Christof Loy’s psychological staging returns to the stage of Finnish National Opera, with Swedish soprano Elisabet Strid compelling in the title role.

****1

Christof Loy’s understated Werther at the TCE

David Karlin, 22nd March

Massenet’s take on Goethe’s blockbuster novella of unrequited love and suicide is handled with great subtlety by Christof Loy and Marc Leroy-Calatayud. Benjamin Bernheim and Marina Viotti lead a starry vocal cast.

****1

Real and emotional fires light the stage in Respighi’s La fiamma

Zenaida des Aubris, 29th September

Christof Loy and Carlo Rizzi score a great success in bringing Respighi’s rarely performed opera the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

****1

Pappano and Loy bring empathy to Elektra at Covent Garden

David Karlin, 12th January

Christof Loy’s thoughtful staging enlightens the character of the protagonists in Sophocles’ tale of matricide; Sir Antonio Pappano extracts great nuance and beauty from Strauss’ score.

****1

A revenger’s tragedy: La forza del destino returns to London

David Karlin, 19th September

Christof Loy's 2019 production proves even more compelling second time round, with excellent acting and a properly heroic tenor performance from Brian Jagde.

****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.