The Classical Music Network (English) Sat, 01 Aug 2026 20:48:23 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
N. Brownlee, E. Teige (© Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)


The Bayreuth Festival’s revival of Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Der fliegende Holländer remained one of the most divisive Wagner productions of recent years: a staging that replaced the composer’s metaphysical drama with an elaborate psychoanalytic revenge narrative, while simultaneously achieving moments of undeniable theatrical power. Whether one regarded it as an act of penetrating reinterpretation or an unnecessary act of dramaturgical vandalism depended largely on one’s tolerance for directors rewriting libretti rather than illuminating them.

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(© Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)


Among the four evenings of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, Die Walküre has always occupied a unique position. If Das Rheingold erected the philosophical edifice of the tetralogy, Die Walküre endowed it with flesh, blood and tragic humanity. Nowhere did Wagner more perfectly unite metaphysical speculation with overwhelming emotional immediacy. It was therefore particularly dispiriting to witness this inexhaustibly rich drama once again subordinated to Bayreuth’s misguided AI experiment.


Marcus Lobbes, grandly styling himself an “AI cura]]>... Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17740
(© Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)


The 150th anniversary of the first Bayreuth Festival was always destined to invite retrospection. Rather than commemorating the occasion with an entirely new scenic Ring, however, festival director Katharina Wagner opted for a far more experimental proposition: a semi‑staged cycle in which artificial intelligence generates projections in real time, responding to Wagner’s score, the sung text and even the performers’ movements. The undertaking was born as much of financial expediency as of a desire to explore new theatrical frontiers. Wagner himself was never averse to te]]>... Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17739
G. Scherer, J. Holloway, A. Schager
(© Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath)


Richard Wagner’s Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is a five‑act grand opera composed between 1838 and 1840 and premiered in Dresden in 1842. It is based on Edward Bulwer‑Lytton’s 1835 historical novel Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes, itself inspired by the life of the fourteenth-century Roman revolutionary Cola di Rienzo.


At the time Wagner wrote Rienzi, he was deeply influenced by French grand opéra, particularly the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Fromental Halévy and Daniel Au]]>... Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17737
M. Kurmanbayev, D. Haller, M. Viotti
(© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)


Rossini’s Semiramide (1823) has long been recognised as the summit of his Italian opera seria. His final work for the Italian stage before embarking upon his Parisian career, it distilled the composer’s mature bel canto style while simultaneously looking backwards. Its monumental architecture, heroic protagonists and lavish vocal ornamentation consciously evoked the grandeur of eighteenth-century opera seria. Richard Osborne aptly dubbed it “Tancredi revisited”: both operas drew upon Voltaire and were fashioned ]]>... Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17730
C. Muschio, P. Kabongo (© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)


Among Gioachino Rossini’s so-called semiserie operas, La gazza ladra (1817) occupies a singular position. Premiered at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala only months after La Cenerentola, it combined comic and serious elements on an unprecedented scale, uniting domestic drama, social injustice and moments of genuine pathos with Rossini’s inexhaustible melodic invention. Adapted from the French melodrama La Pie voleuse by Théodore Badouin d’Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez, the opera explores the fragility of justice in a rigidly hierarch]]>... Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17724
H. Clark with cast (© Maria Baranova)


“My music is melodious, beautiful, and unfortunately presents no problems to ears developed beyond the 19th century.”
Richard Strauss before the 1928 premiere of Helen in Egypt


“Oh, how I wish I could rub my beauty out like a picture, and assume hereafter in its stead a form less comely. This is the doom and depth of my despair: the very beauty that makes other women happy has proved for me a blasting curse.”
Euripides, Helen


The weirdness of Leon Botstein’s latest production, Richard]]>... Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17731
I. Monteverdi (© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)


Premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Moisè on 24 November 1812, L’occasione fa il ladro occupied a singular position among the five one‑act farse that Rossini composed for that theatre. During the composer’s lifetime, it proved the most successful of the series, before disappearing almost entirely from the repertory after his death. Its neglect has always seemed undeserved. Composed, according to tradition, in the astonishing span of only eleven days after contractual disputes had delayed Rossini’s arrival in Venice, the score already revealed the astonishing]]>... Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17728


Founded in 1989 under the artistic direction of Jochen Schönleber, the Rossini in Wildbad Festival took as its point of departure the composer’s celebrated sojourn in the spa town in 1856, when Rossini sought relief from his ailments in the healing waters of the Black Forest. Rather than exploiting this historical coincidence as a mere marketing device, Schönleber transformed it into one of Europe’s most adventurous bel canto festivals, devoted not only to Rossini but also to forgotten contemporaries, critical editions and the cultivation of young artists. This season once again demonstrated that spirit of discovery by juxtaposing familiar mas]]>... Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17726
M. Torriglia, E. Fosset, D. Voronov, J. Amirault
(© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)


Le festival Rossini in Wildbad réserve chaque année quelques découvertes  : des voix promises à un bel avenir mais aussi des œuvres rarement montées de Rossini ou de compositeurs méconnus, comme ce Mariage en poste de Jean‑Baptiste Weckerlin (1821‑1910), un natif de Guebwiller, donc presque un voisin, Bad  Wildbad étant proche de l’Alsace. Voilà une figure oubliée de la musique française. Ce musicien a exercé la fonction de bibliothécaire tout en se consacrant à la musicologie et à la musique folklorique]]>... Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17738
D. Voronov, J. Amirault, E. Fosset
(© Patrick Pfeiffer für Rossini in Wildbad)


Having attended many of Europe’s leading opera festivals over the years, I finally discovered one that had long eluded me: the Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival. I confess that I had approached it with a measure of scepticism. Another Rossini festival inevitably invited comparison with Pesaro’s illustrious Rossini Opera Festival, whose artistic standards remain formidable. Yet Bad Wildbad quickly dispelled such reservations. Nestled amidst the idyllic landscape of the northern Black Forest, the elegant nineteenth-century spa town pr]]>... Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17727
A. Grigorian (© Timofei Kolesnikov)


Few artists on today’s operatic stage generated the level of anticipation that accompanied Asmik Grigorian’s return to the recital platform. The original programme alone promised an evening of uncommon distinction, juxtaposing French melodies with Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, repertoire that invited not merely vocal display but the highest degree of stylistic refinement. Fate, however, intervened. After a brief delay, it was announced that Grigorian had spent the previous week incapacitated by illness and had only just recovered sufficient voice to appear. Her decis]]>... Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17708
(© Geoffroy Schied)


There is a persistent tendency in contemporary opera production to regard the supernatural as an embarrassment. Ghosts become hallucinations, gods become politicians, miracles become psychological projections. Yet in certain works magic is not decorative but structural: remove it, and the drama itself risks collapse. Handel’s Alcina belongs unmistakably to this category. First performed in London in 1735 and adapted from episodes of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1532), it is less a fairy tale than a meditation on power, desire and self‑delusion, but those themes are articulated through e]]>... Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17710
Y. Lee, J. Stén, T. Obermayr (© Marie‑Laure Briane)


Gärtnerplatztheater’s Opernstudio offered an evening of opera and musical theatre in a production that attempted to weave its varied arias, songs and ensembles into a coherent narrative. The selection of musical numbers was delightful, but the constructed storyline ultimately failed to convince.


A beach setting proved appropriate given the summer heat. Four young people applied a “magic” sunscreen that caused hallucinations, awakening passions ranging from love and sexual desire to jealousy, revenge and despair.


Dire]]>... Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17707
(© Marie-Laure Briane)


Among the many injustices of operatic history is the neglect that has befallen Johann Strauss’s Waldmeister. Premiered at the Theater an der Wien in December 1895, the composer’s penultimate operetta has long remained in the shadow of its more illustrious siblings, its inspired score burdened by a libretto of conspicuous fragility. Yet the Gärtnerplatztheater’s new production, mounted last season in celebration of Strauss’s bicentenary and presently reprised, makes a persuasive case that even this most problematic of works can, in sufficiently intelligent hands, reveal unexpected charms.
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(© Matthias Baus)


Samson et Dalila is among those operas that survived not because of their drama but because Saint‑Saëns transformed an improbable biblical tale into a work of extraordinary sensuality. The contrast between the austere, almost prosaic first act and the eroticism of the second remains striking, and it is no surprise that “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” became the composer’s most enduring vocal inspiration.


Martinique-born poet Ferdinand Lemaire (1832‑1879), who wrote the libretto, convinced Saint‑Saëns to transform the biblical story into a through‑composed ]]>... Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17699
D. Hellberg, E. Windegger (© Anna Schnauss)


Set in a corrupt, semi-mythical Victorian London, Die Dreigroschenoper unfolded around the criminal Macheath, the charismatic gangster who secretly married Polly Peachum, daughter of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum. Peachum, himself no less a capitalist than any respectable businessman, had built an enterprise upon the organised exploitation of London’s beggars, transforming destitution into a profitable commodity. Incensed by his daughter’s marriage, he resolved to have Macheath arrested and hanged. Macheath initially eluded capture through the protection of Tiger Brown, the cit]]>... Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17698
(© Markus Tordik)


While it was once fashionable to dismiss Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem (1918‑1996) as a conservative whose refusal to embrace the serial orthodoxy of post‑war Europe condemned him to historical marginality, hearing Der Besuch der alten Dame (1971) today, one suspects the opposite. And while his more radical contemporaries now seem historically important but theatrically inert, von Einem’s work is more relevant than ever, because dramatic truth (rather than theoretical innovation) were always his principal concern. His language may be harmonically expanded, but it never abandons l]]>... Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17695
(© Geoffroy Schied)


Premiered in 1847, Macbeth is Verdi’s best opera from his early period, prior to his middle period’s Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853) that established him as the leading opera composer of his time. Based on Shakespeare’s play, it’s one of the most powerful tragedies since those of Ancient Greece. It describes the ambition of a weak man pushed by his ruthless wife and their eventual downfall. The witches, whose soothsaying treacherously incites Macbeth’s ambitions, have the same effect as the intervention of the gods in Greek tragedies. Dramatically,]]>... Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17692
M. Laurenz, S. Starke, A. Zaharia, M. Dietrich (© Stephan Rabold)


Since the turn of the last century, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail has ceased to be produced with the same frequency as in earlier decades. This is despite the fact that after the three Da Ponte operas (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte) and Die Zauberflöte, it’s his fifth most popular opera. Even his Graeco‑Roman operas, Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito, appear more frequently at opera houses worldwide. The reason is due to the relative triviality of the subject matter and to st]]>... Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17700
(© Brescia e Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)


Un seul être vous manque... La reprise de Lucia di Lammermoor à la Scala se révèle moins attrayante qu’initialement prévu en raison de la défection de Pene Pati dans le rôle d’Edgardo. Son remplaçant, Piero Pretti, livre une performance vocalement correcte mais qui manque de charisme et d’éclat. Son incarnation reste trop effacée pour porter toute la dimension héroïque et passionnée du personnage. La Lucia de Rosa Feola s’éloigne des interprétations purement belcantistes traditionnelles. Si la virtuosité technique pure et les ornementations de la chanteuse manquent parfois]]>... Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17697
A. Anger, I. Roberts, J. Baeckstroem, N. Brownlee
(© Monika Rittershaus)


Few opera houses could claim Munich’s Wagnerian authority. It was here that Das Rheingold and Die Walküre premiered, and any new Ring at the Bayerische Staatsoper inevitably had to contend with that legacy. Tobias Kratzer’s new Die Walküre succeeded because it pursued innovation through a profound reading of the text rather than gratuitous provocation. His imagery arose organically from the libretto’s psychological logic, so that every scenic gesture felt dramatically inevitable rather than symbolic for its own sake.... Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17694
I. Staple, M. Nagl (© Wiener Staatsoper/Michael Pöhn)


I may be in the minority, but I haven’t been a fan of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for years. While I acknowledge its music is sublime, with several of its arias among the most memorable in opera, Schikaneder’s libretto is problematic. It’s further complicated by directors wrongly revering it as one of the noblest works ever. Worse, they interpret Act II’s notorious Masonic rites as something sacred.


Since my initial exposure to Die Zauberflöte in my late teens, I’ve found the argument nonsensical and the Masonic rites puerile. I couldn’t]]>... Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17684
(© Tatjana Dachsel)


One hundred and twenty-five years after its 1902 première, Pelléas et Mélisande remains avant garde, at least dramatically. Debussy’s œuvre is familiar to many thanks to such seminal orchestral works as La Mer and piano works such as Suite bergamasque, neither of which are a challenge for the contemporary listener. However, the libretto for Pelléas, a variant of Dante’s Francesca da Rimini love triangle, is more aesthetic than realistic.


Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1892 play Pelléas et Mélisande fascinated musicians of the epoc]]>... Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17704
(© Marie-Laure Briane)


The quintessential romantic ballet, Giselle is for a ballerina the Everest of roles. More than any other role, Giselle features two idealized aspects of femininity, the innocence of the village girl (Act I) and an ethereal quality when Giselle is transformed into a Wili, a vengeful spirit of a girl forsaken by her lover and who dies due to his perfidy (Act II).


The story of Giselle was inspired by a fairytale in De l’Allemagne (1822), an exposé of Germany, its customs and traditions including some of its legends, written by the Romantic German poet Heinrich Heine (]]>... Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17688