Georg Nigl (Nekrotzar), Gerhard Siegel (Piet) © Michael Pöhn/Wiener Staatsoper Punctuated sounds; a fanfare of staccato trumpets, announcing the end of the world. Gyorgy Ligetti’s music, ever-fascinating, is a rich palette of orchestral sounds. It’s already familiar to us from Kubrick’s (1968) 2001 A Space Odyssey, a breakthrough sci-fi experience, the soundtrack a best-seller, Ligetti’s music integral to the film’s success. Ligetti’s score for Le Grand Macabre– played by Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado – depicts a futuristic world, a dystopia. It’s anti-opera, (not ag ..read more

Jonas Kaufmann as Otello © Michael Pöhn/ Wiener Staatsoper Isn’t it time for a black Verdi’s Otello? No, this isn’t a ‘woke’ argument for black artists’ automatic right to black roles, but for the enrichment of diversity. Anyway, in the 1880s of Verdi’s opera there weren’t enough available black operatically trained singers for the role, even had Verdi so intended. The opera stage, as in theatre, is a space for dramatic imagination. Great performances are not simply through costume, make-up, but inner creativity. And in opera, musical values are what it’s about; especially the voice. Althoug ..read more

Roberta Mantegna (Pauline), John Osborn (Polyeucte) © Werner Kmetitsch To Donizetti’s stirring Overture (RSO Wien/Jérémie Rohrer), a young woman stands centre stage. Behind her, MY NAME IS PAULINE: I AM ARMENIAN. I am the other. My name is suffering. Then, the historical agenda, 1915. The Ottoman empire ordered the slaughter of a million Armenians. More quotations, from Nietsche to Feuerbach (in German). We are Aurora…The Opera is a song of mourning. But is it? Director CezaryTomaszewski has superimposed his agenda onto Donizetti’s (1840) opera, Les Martyrs, which takes place in 3rd Century ..read more

Vera-Lotte Boecker (Daphne) © Michael Pöhn/Wiener Staatsoper A haunting oboe solo, the opening chamber music, late Strauss, is delicate, melancholy, but with drums anticipating storms. He, in a black cassock, lower stage, is like a (Freudian) psychoanalist; the beautiful young blonde lies ‘sleeping’ on a couch. The set (Nicholas Joel), is truly fabulous, Greek gods either side of the proscenium. It resembles an exotic temple, probably Greek, with ancient symbols on the tiled walls, the back stage wall scored in a corn motif. It’s as if she’s re-living the story- based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis ..read more

Pretty Yende (Amina), Javier Camarena (Elvino) © Michael Pöhn/ Wiener Staatsoper The brief Overture-spritely wind instruments, flutes, piccolos- Vienna State Opera orchestra under Giacomo Sagripanti, play Bellini’s melodious score with mercurial lightness. Then the Chorus off-stage sing ‘Long Live Amina’, the bride to be. The silver-grey set (Marco Arturo Marelli) is superb; in the round, with an upper balcony, centre-stage the wedding table, curtained-off, a stage-within-a-stage. Lisa (Maria Nazarova), huddled-up, everyone’s celebrating, but her, Elvino’s former fiancee. Now she puts up wit ..read more

Anna Lingenhel, Anett Fritsch, Stephanie Maitland, Monica Sandalescu © Barbara Pálffy Nicolai’s classic 19th century opera has had a makeover at Vienna Volksoper. But, judging from the posters of a sleazy strip club, is it a makeover too far? Nicolai’s opera came 40 years before Verdi’s Falstaff, but Nicolai focuses on the ‘Merry Wives’, rather than Shakespeare’s larger-than-life anti-hero. Falstaff’s plots to woo Windsor’s two most desirable and rich wives are doomed to farce, but director Nina Spijker sees the women’s upturning their scheming men as implicitly the beginning of a ‘women’s r ..read more

Hedwig Ritter (Eurydice) © Barbara Pálffy/Volksoper Wien The House Manager announces cast changes due to illness. Hedwig Ritter (Eurydice) couldn’t sing, and Timothy Fallon’s Pluto would be sung by Victoria Rottensteiner, but off-stage. In fact, she had sung the part in Berlin, and in French! In the event, Victoria’s marvelous soprano- from the rear of the orchestra- was a highlight. ‘We will fail gloriously,’ bravely ad-libbed the ‘compere’. Well, they failed. But producers’ Spymonkey (Toby Park and Aitor Basauri) motto is ‘No risk, no fun!’ It opens with the appearance of Jacques Offenbach ..read more

Josh Lovell , Stephanie Houtzeel, Andre Schuen, Stefan Cerny © Michael Pöhn /Wiener Staatsoper Le Nozze de Figaro is the first of Vienna State Opera’s set of Mozart/Da Ponte comedies, directed by Barry Kosky in repertory. I was sceptical, suspecting, from the sharp, modern outfits, radical cuts. But musically, under Philippe Jordan, it was immaculate. Where it triumphed was in the staging, its brilliant comic timing. It is great comedy- witty like Shakespeare’s, with tragic moments- comedy often missing in over-deference. Susanna (Maria Nazarova) is dressed as a modern chambermaid in black ..read more

Georg Nigl (Nekrotzar), Gerhard Siegel (Piet) © Michael Pöhn/Wiener Staatsoper Punctuated sounds; a fanfare of staccato trumpets, announcing the end of the world. Gyorgy Ligetti’s music, ever-fascinating, is a rich palette of orchestral sounds. It’s already familiar to us from Kubrick’s (1968) 2001 A Space Odyssey, a breakthrough sci-fi experience, the soundtrack a best-seller, Ligetti’s music integral to the film’s success. Ligetti’s score for Le Grand Macabre– played by Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Pablo Heras-Casado – depicts a futuristic world, a dystopia. It’s anti-opera, (not ag ..read more

Jonas Kaufmann as Otello © Michael Pöhn/ Wiener Staatsoper Isn’t it time for a black Verdi’s Otello? No, this isn’t a ‘woke’ argument for black artists’ automatic right to black roles, but for the enrichment of diversity. Anyway, in the 1880s of Verdi’s opera there weren’t enough available black operatically trained singers for the role, even had Verdi so intended. The opera stage, as in theatre, is a space for dramatic imagination. Great performances are not simply through costume, make-up, but inner creativity. And in opera, musical values are what it’s about; especially the voice. Althoug ..read more