Sunday, December 22

Tag: Bruno Ravella

Zoraida di Granata – Teatro Sociale, Bergamo
27Nov By Mark DavorenNo Comments
REVIEWS

Zoraida di Granata – Teatro Sociale, Bergamo

Director Bruno Ravella excels with a stunning interpretation of Donizetti’s 1824 version of his two-act heroic opera in this new production by the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti in co-production with Wexford Festival Opera, that resonates strongly with events currently unravelling in Ukraine and the Middle East. Based in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in Andalusia, Almuzir (Konu Kim) has killed the king of the city by usurping his throne and would like to marry his daughter, Zoraida (Zuzana Marková), who is in love with Abenamet (Cecilia Molinari), head of the Arab aristocratic clan of the Abencerragis. Having declared war on the Spaniards, Almuzir entrusts the command of the army to Abenamet, ordering him to return with the flag. He has however set a trap for his rival by arranging for...
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Faust – Royal Opera House
20Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Faust – Royal Opera House

Everybody knows the tale of Faust although Gounod’s popular five-act, Parisian grand opera from 1859 is in fact adapted from Michel Carré’s play ‘Faust et Marguerite’ which was itself based on Part I of Goethe’s epic poem Faust. Very much reflective of the nature of Second-Empire Paris at that time, the obvious question is whether its themes remain relevant and recognisable to a 21st C audience. Director David McVicar wisely recognised that human nature doesn’t really change and the issues of sensuality and hedonism, religion and morality, bourgeois consumption versus socialist redistribution, to name but a few at the heart of this opera, continue to go hand in hand, and his richly layered 2004 production for Royal Opera House brilliantly captured these through the artificial edifices o...
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