Sunday, December 22

Tag: Soloman Howard

La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD
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La Forza del Destino – Met Opera Live in HD

It has been some thirty years since there was a new production of this opera at the Met and twenty years since that’s last production with a more recent attempt in 2017 faltering due to financial reasons. Well, the financial challenges remain, as they do for all of us, so it was a treat to take in Director Mariusz Treliński’s dark contemporary re-telling which coming in at almost four and a half hours, including two intervals, is a big production in every sense. Leonora (Lise Davidsen) plans to elope with Alvaro (Brian Jagde) but when her father, the Marquis of Calatrava (Soloman Howard), storms in, Alvaro’s attempts to make peace accidentally results in her father’s death. Leonora flees from her revengeful brother, Carlo (Igor Golovatenko), and whilst Preziosilla (Judit Kutasi) sings a...
Das Rheingold – Royal Opera House (Live Transmission)
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Das Rheingold – Royal Opera House (Live Transmission)

When you put two geniuses together there is no guarantee that what they create will match the expectation; there is no such concern here as Antonio Pappano conducts Barrie Kosky’s bold new imagining of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the musical brilliance of the orchestra matched by an outstanding cast. This production marks the start of a new Ring Cycle for The Royal Opera and this is undoubtedly a prelude of exciting things to come from the wonderful pairing of Pappano and Kosky. Any new production of Wagner’s Ring has to remain faithful to its mythical origins but also needs to find a way to connect to its modern audience, but that balance is achieved and some in this vibrant theatrical production set at the beginning of time and of life. Rufus Didwiszus’s simple yet symbolic monochr...