The Classical Music Network (English) Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:42:18 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
Ensemble Nikel (© Courtesy of the Artists)


“Oh, oscillating wildly, Gut-wrenching sub-bass and piercing treble...”
From Us Dead Talk Love


“Of all the many birds that fly/I like the pig”
Animals, by Hebe Uhart


For a decade now, Time:Spans has given us three weeks of rumbling, shouting, whispering, aleatory, atonal, jazzy simple and incomprehensible 21st Century music. Those accustomed to music of our time (which is the only music heard in the 19th Century) will know the names. Others (me, for instance) will be ignorant, s]]>... Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17128
(© Amati Bacciardi)


Italian director Rosetta Cucchi, whose successful staging of Alfano’s Risurrezione in Florence was riveting, had the idea that mezzo Daniela Barcellona would portray Isabella as a drag queen. Though the production never sank into slapstick, Cucchi’s examination of society’s role assignation of the genders could have been more profound. Mustafà’s interest in a dominant woman could have been more probing.


The setting is meant to be Ottoman-ruled Algiers a few centuries ago. Instead, Cucchi transposes th]]>... Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17125
L. Brownlee, A. Bartoli (© Amati Bacciardi)


Based on a French tragedy, Zelmire, by Dormont de Belloy (1727-1775), Rossini’s opera Zelmira (1822) was his last for Naples, the city in which he wrote his greatest opere serie. It had been completely forgotten until 1965, when it was revived for the Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani. With the great Rossini revival in the 1980s, it enjoyed new life at the Rome Opera in 1989, with Cecilia Gasdia, Chris Merritt and William Matteuzzi. The Rossini Opera Festival produced it in 2009 with Kate Aldrich, Gregory Kunde and Juan Diego Flórez. The present production was m]]>... Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17126
J. Carneiro (© Vasco Vilhena)


“I’ve been around for quite a while and—Pachamama (the Aztec Earth Mother) willing—I’ll be here another 50 years. I would love to hit one hundred and be active and to see how things turn out. I want to see if we get ahead of the climate crisis. I want to see if we can have this incredible, rich, vibrant, classical art form and have a whole wonderful peaceful militia of art citizens out there doing incredible humanitarian work and writing beautiful music.”
Gabriela Lena Frank


“I have never doubted the importance of melody. I like melody very much, ]]>... Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17109
A. Schager, C. Nylund (© Enrico Nawrath)


Tristan und Isolde is a colossal work, not only for its length (six hours, including two one‑hour intermissions) or for the effect the famous Tristan chord had on Western music, but also for the symbolism it represents. Wagner was hugely influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy when he wrote this masterpiece, and he was also conducting an illicit affair with Mathilde, the wife of his benefactor, Swiss businessman Otto von Wesendonck.


In Mascagni’s rarely-performed opera Nerone, one character says “Se amor non uccide, amor non è” (If love does]]>... Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17116
M. Torbidoni (© Luna Simoncini)


Composed two years after Verdi’s worst opera, Alzira, which Verdi himself described as “Questa è propio brutta,” and the same year as another dud, I masnadieri, a mediocre work that survives only as a vehicle for coloratura sopranos, it’s astonishing that the contemporaneous Macbeth is of such superior quality. Part of the reason for its excellence is that some of its best passages were composed in 1865 for the far superior but rarely-performed French version of the opera. Last autumn’s Verd]]>... Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17121
P. Beczala (© Enrico Nawrath)


Surely one of the most idiotic Lohengrin productions in history, Yuval Sharon’s reimagining looked like low‑budget science fiction schlock. Even the technical effects were on the primitive side. Here, the inhabitants of Brabant, including Elsa, are insects, possibly a variety of moths. The question is, of course, why? Who thought the story of Lohengrin would be particularly to be performed by hexapod invertebrates? We’ll never know. Perhaps the set and costume designers’ affinity for winged creatures? If so, swans would have done nicely.


An attribute o]]>... Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17112
K. Kamensek (© Yossi Zwecker)


“I had in mind one of those seconds in life that is frozen in the memory, forever - a sudden death, a single instant in which life turns upside down, different from the experience of death after a long agony.”
Osvaldo Golijov, on the song “How Slow the Wind”


“As a musician, I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note.”
Georges Bizet


Had Karen Kamensek led the Summer for the City Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center on]]>... Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17098
K. F. Vogt (© EnricoNawrath)


In this age of Netflix and binge-watching, we can’t wait to devour the final episode, even if our interest may have flagged along the way. But Valentin Schwarz’s Ring cycle could never be described as a riveting adaptation. It was a weird decision to render a profound work based on Norse mythology into a Dallas‑like family drama devoid of its mythologically-based magic. At times, this was an amusing exercise. But too often, the ideas conveyed were offensive. While we are aware of human foibles, especially within family dynamics, the child kidnappings, incest, attempted rape a]]>... Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17107
(© Enrico Nawrath)


In this production, the story of Parsifal has been deprived of its spirituality, the very essence of Wagner’s ultimate opera. American director Jay Scheib’s main take is an environmental lamentation of the deleterious effects of the mining of cobalt and other rare metals, but only by reading the programme notes can one know this. It’s a variant on James Cameron’s Avatar (2000), but without the inconvenient natives. To compensate for this elimination, the monastic order itself is given a “native” look. The batik outfits may have evoked Indonesia, but the setting is inspired by the South Pacif]]>... Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17096
V. Randem, K. F. Vogt, Y.‑C. Huang, Statisterie der Bayreuther Festspiele (© Enrico Nawrath)


Though much was offensive in director Valentin Schwarz’s take on the Ring as experienced in the first two episodes of his Netflix‑style adaptation, one could not help but be curious as to how Siegfried would be handled. In this third episode, there are more offensive moments, but also some interesting ideas.


Mime seems to have taken over Hunding’s hut, though the conniving dwarf has much more taste than Hunding and Sieglinde combined. The modest dwelling is more pleasant (imagine a ch]]>... Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17095
T. Konieczny, C. Foster (© Enrico Nawrath)


I was eagerly awaiting this, the second episode of the family saga dreamt up by Austrian director Valentin Schwarz. Despite several troubling aspects inherent in transporting a story of Norse gods to fit the foibles of present‑day family feuds, one felt compassion for the lives of these dysfunctional characters. In Das Rheingold, seen the previous day, making the Nibelungen the trailer‑park wing of the family seemed like a valid device to explain visceral animosities and hatreds. Masonic s]]>... Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17091
D. Behle, T. Kehrer, P. Zielke (© Enrico Nawrath)


Several friends warned me to steer clear of Valentin Schwarz’s Ring. While I understand their reservations, I don’t share them. In fact, I quite enjoyed myself. It’s certainly true that some of the director’s ideas can’t be reconciled with the libretto, also signé Wagner. Given the complex familial ties among many characters in The Ring, Schwartz’s decision to frame the saga through the lens of family dynamics is both compelling and apt. The enduring appeal of such narratives is evident in the widespread success of shows like Succession and The]]>... Sat, 26 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17089
G. Zeppenfeld, C. Nilsson (© Enrico Nawrath)


Wagner’s only comedy, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, is not a farce, but rather a poised, ironic view of art and life. It’s an even more subtle “comedy” than Verdi’s Falstaff or Mozart’s Così fan tutte, pinnacles of refined artful comedy in opera. Alas, German director Matthias Davids, a specialist in musical comedies, opted instead for a Broadway interpretation. While the result was somewhat enjoyable, it sadly missed the essence of the work.


The first act opens to St-Catherine’s church, atop a hill with a long staircase. Down in the ]]>... Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17108
(© Bayreuther Festspiele)


Opera for children? Is it a viable idea? Can children appreciate such a stylized art form? I remember being kicked out of opera appreciation class in my early teens for giggling on hearing a soprano emit alarmingly high notes. This is despite having seen Rigoletto, age eight, in my native Cairo. That first opera had made quite an impression, for its exotic costumes, sets, voices and above all, the intrigue. Add to that the 1869 Khedivial Opera House’s posh atmosphere, replete with elegant women in décolleté evening dresses.


It’s important that art be accessible,]]>... Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17097
M. Abels/J. Glover (© Eric Schwabel/John Batten)


“Rococo composers wanted to convey the lightness of heart and simplicity of emotional states, by focusing the artistic expression on a single effect, as opposed to conflating multiple disparate emotional states as a counterpoint to themselves.”
Anonymous, “Pianos-Luxury.com”


“I’m a Baroque person. More than Baroque, I’m a Rococo person. I don’t draw straight lines.”
Nuno Roque


The word “swoon” hasn’t been printed since Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. So let me break the mold. The first time I]]>... Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17083
A. Akhmetshina, J. Tetelman (© Bettina Stöss)


Nineteenth Century French opera once enjoyed great popularity, but in the last half century, public enthusiasm for it has waned. One reason is the dearth, in the educational system, of specialized vocal training, especially in the French style, in the now‑globalized operatic sphere. Without an understanding of this style, and without the elegance and clear diction required, these operas are but a painful exercise for audiences, replete with dated mannerisms. At best, they’re generic pieces lacking in style or context.


Luckily, there have been a few n]]>... Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17082
F. Fagioli/S. Plewniak(© Buster A. Dog)


“The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung by an Athenian eunuch with the harp.”
William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream


“You were wonderful singing my aria. I even think I recognized one or two of my notes.”
Gioachino Rossini, to a castrato soloist in one of his operas.


The Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra gave their preview showing on July 21. Last night, though, they gave their first concert, this in the Allian]]>... Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17077
Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra in Versailles Palace
(© Courtesy of the Orchestra)


“Thou knowest, o Lord, as well as I, that I am only a composer of opera buffa.” Giacomo Rossini


“Everything in French music is dead, outside of the authority of fools.”
Hector Berlioz

New York’s most innovative producers, “Death of Classical”, has produced concerts in the most ghoulish settings, including crypts, cemeteries, and cathedral basements. Last night, for the first two concerts of the Versailles Royal Opera Orchestra, the Death of Classical world was turned u]]>... Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17066
R. Iniesta (© Luna Simoncini)


In addition to his standing as the most prominent opera composer of his time, Verdi had a natural flair for theatre. Of his twenty‑ eight operas, twelve were originally iconic plays by some of the world’s greatest authors. Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff were his takes on Shakespeare; I due Foscari and Il corsaro were after Byron; Giovanna d’Arco, I masnadieri, Luisa Miller and Don Carlos after Schiller, Ernani and Rigoletto after Victor Hugo; and La traviata after Alexandre Dumas fils. His logic was that a s]]>... Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17120
B. Rae, P. Rose (© Bernd Uhlig)


The enduring strength of Richard Strauss’s operas is in part thanks to his excellent choice of collaborators for his libretti. From Elektra (1909) until Arabella (1933), this had been Austria’s Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874‑1929), the greatest librettist since Mozart’s Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749‑1838). One exception is Intermezzo (1924), a very personal opera, based on a chapter from the composer’s own life, for which Strauss also wrote the libretto.


In 1931, an extremely fortunate Strauss met Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881‑1942), wi]]>... Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17073
J. France (© Pablo Strong)


The stage at Holland Park runs along a facade of Holland House, a Jacobean mansion that was largely decimated during the Blitz, and the audience sits under a weatherproof canopy facing it. For a director it must be a nightmare as it is all width and no depth, though to increase the latter the orchestra sits in a shallow pit in the middle of the stage, allowing an extended acting area in front of it; but in turn that means that the action has to work around the players. Imagine a wide catwalk with an orchestra in the middle. It works well for a panorama, but if you’re not careful you can end u]]>... Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17088
V. Karkacheva (© Bernd Uhlig)


Best known for his Requiem and his piano and chamber works, few are aware that Fauré also wrote two operas, both inspired by Greek mythology (though one, Prométhée, from 1917, is considered a tragédie lyrique, or grand cantata). The present work was created at the urging of the French Wagnerian soprano Lucienne Bréval, who introduced Fauré to young poet and dramatist René Fauchois (1882‑1962), who’d just finished the libretto to a five‑act opera, Pénélope. Preoccupied with his job as Director of the Paris Conservatoire, Fauré insisted on shortening it to ]]>... Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17065
(© Thomas Aurin)


Two years after the premiere of Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) in 1928, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht presented their Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). The former was a remake of John Gay’s 1728 work The Beggars Opera, set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch, showing the underbelly of London while parodying bourgeois values. The latter was more ambitious ideologically, a vehement tirade against capitalism, which, while occasionally revived even to this day, was then, as an entertainment, too didactic to catch on]]>... Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17075
L. Oropesa, C. Castronovo (© Wilfrid Hoesl)


I masnadieri is one of Verdi’s weakest operas. Its music is typical of early Verdi, with the bandmaster’s son’s Umpapa rhythms and ubiquitous tempo di Walzer that he eventually shed before maturing into Italy’s greatest operatic composer. The libretto, based on Schiller’s play Die Räuber, is by the forgettable Andrea Maffei, a competent translator and salon revolutionary patriot in the days of the Italian Risorgimento, but far from an ingenious librettist. The work’s claim to fame is that it’s Verdi’s only opera written for London. The role of Am]]>... Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=17058