Strauss
Prom 58: Salome, Deutsche Oper Berlin, RunniclesSunday, 31 August 2014
So here’s where I join the ranks of Old Opera Bores by declaring this Salome, Nina Stemme, the best I’ve seen since Hildegard Behrens in 1978, and this Salome as in Richard Strauss’s Wilde opera from Donald Runnicles and his Deutsche Oper Berlin... Read more... |
Prom 34: Piemontesi, BBCNOW, SøndergårdTuesday, 12 August 2014
Some things that spread like wildfire, like ebola and wildfire itself, are not good news at all. But performing Nielsen’s symphonies? That’s another matter entirely. In the next concert season, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia both... Read more... |
Prom 19: BBC Singers, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, PetrenkoFriday, 01 August 2014
A monstrous celebration prefaced by thunderous organ chords is always going to be more the Albert Hall’s kind of thing than a comic opera viewed through the wrong end of the telescope. So Strauss’s Festival Prelude kicked off a first half of 150th... Read more... |
Prom 6: Der Rosenkavalier, LPO, TicciatiWednesday, 23 July 2014
If last year’s Ring cycle triumphantly proved that world-class opera can be done at the Albert Hall, this Rosenkavalier suggests that the less epic end of the repertoire isn’t such a sure thing. That is not to say that this performance was dud, far... Read more... |
Prom 4: World Orchestra for Peace, GergievMonday, 21 July 2014
This was a rare outing by the World Orchestra for Peace, which has performed fewer than 20 concerts since the death of its founder Sir Georg Solti in 1997. UNESCO had designated this BBC Prom as "The 2014 Concert for Peace", the definite article... Read more... |
Ariadne auf Naxos, Royal OperaThursday, 26 June 2014
Can it really be 12 years since Antonio Pappano inaugurated his transformative era as the Royal Opera’s Music Director conducting Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos? Christof Loy’s production seemed so radical at the time. We were put off our guard by... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Dresden and Berlin: Happy Birthday, Richard StraussWednesday, 11 June 2014
Richard Strauss was born in Munich 150 years ago today. Christian Thielemann is celebrating the fact by conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden in the juiciest of all-Strauss operatic potpourris, a festive concert to be held in the city’s glorious... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Budapest: Magyar StraussSunday, 08 June 2014
If the Hungarian State Opera wanted to demonstrate that it is now back on top form, it could not have chosen a better way than this six-opera celebration of Richard Strauss’s 150th anniversary. Mahler conducted here before moving to Hamburg, Vienna... Read more... |
Der Rosenkavalier, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall BirminghamSunday, 25 May 2014
A trio of Rosenkavaliers: what more could one want as we near Richard Strauss’s 150th birthday? Well, more of the less often performed operas, for a start. But as this is the Straussian cornucopia, it’s not going to tire those of us who love it... Read more... |
Caspar Gomez hits Glyndebourne Opera FestivalTuesday, 20 May 2014
It’s certainly different from the Glastonbury shuttle, I’ll tell you that. I’m sitting with Finetime on the minibus that takes festival-goers from Lewes Station to the opening day of Glyndebourne Opera Festival 2014.Finetime’s looking very much the... Read more... |
Der Rosenkavalier, GlyndebourneSunday, 18 May 2014
What spontaneous use might a silver rose take on after its formal presentation by a chubby cherub of a cavalier to a bartered bride-to-be? This and a thousand other score-co-ordinated details are things you never can predict in the hands of that... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Robin TicciatiSaturday, 10 May 2014
Poised when I met him six weeks ago between 40th anniversary celebrations of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, of which he has been a shaping chief conductor for the past five years and putting his new music directorship of Glyndebourne... Read more... |
