Friday, November 22

Tag: Marco Armiliato

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – MET Opera Live in HD at Biografen Kino, Lund
REVIEWS

Les Contes d’Hoffmann – MET Opera Live in HD at Biografen Kino, Lund

Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann is the most enduring ‘serious’ opera from a composer better known for his operettas and Gina Lapinski’s 2016 revival of Bartlett Sher’s evocative Kafkaesque production provides the perfect vehicle in which Offenbach’s story – in turn witty, erotic, and macabre – and highly melodious music come together to form a deeply and satisfying whole. Set in the 19th C, the great storyteller Hoffmann (Benjamin Bernheim) is losing himself to drink. His rival in love, Councillor Lindorf (Christian Van Horn), claims that Hoffmann knows nothing of the heart, and so goads Hoffmann into telling the tales of his three great loves – each destroyed by a villain who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lindorf… First Hoffmann tells of his infatuation for the mechanical doll, ...
Turandot – The Metropolitan Opera, New York
REVIEWS

Turandot – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

The Met Opera’s latest faithful revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 production remains a sight to behold along with every other sensory overload you can imagine as the volume is most definitely turned up to 11 and beyond. In legendary Peking, any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot (Liudmyla Monastyrska) must answer three riddles: if he fails, he will die. Among the crowd Calàf (Yonghoon Lee) discovers his long-lost father, Timur (Ferruccio Furlanetto). As the latest failed suitor goes to his death, the crowd implore the princess to spare him, but she orders the execution to proceed. Calàf is transfixed by her beauty and decides to win her heart. Timor and the slave girl Liù (Ermonela Jaho) as well as the ministers Ping, Pang, and Pong try to discourage him. Whilst the three mi...