FRONT OF HOUSE

ˆ EDITORIAL

Why touring opera matters

˝ LETTERS

Your views and suggestions

ˇ NEWS & NOTES

Barenboim steps down in Berlin; Glyndebourne cuts its tour; Fujisawa Civic Opera’s 50th anniversary (12); Regents Opera launches new Ring Cycle (14)

REVIEWS

˜-ˆˆ LIVE REVIEWS

ASIA New National

Theatre Tokyo Boris Godunov (32)

EUROPE Donizetti Opera Festival, Bergamo Yeomen of the Guard (34); Rome Opera Dialogues des Carmélites (38); Teatro La Fenice, Venice Falsta˜ (40); La Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels On purge bébé (42); Dutch National Opera Turandot (44); Theater an der Wien La gazza ladra (46)

USA Metropolitan Opera, New York The Hours (49); Florida Grand Opera El°matrimonio secreto (52) LA Opera Lucia di Lammermoor (54)

˝˛-˝ RECORDINGS

New releases on CD, Digital & AV including: Handel’s Xerxes from 1962; Cherubini’s Les Abencérages from the Bru Zane Foundation; L’elisir d’amore filmed at the Donizetti Festival; Opera Now Choice: Reencuentros, featuring mezzo soprano Cecilia Duarte

˝°-˘˛ SPOTLIGHT

Worldwide Opera Guide and answers to this issue’s Quiz (p71)

COVER PHOTO: GEORGE KADARVAR/ DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

ANTON WELT

CONTENTS

˛˝ Cover feature

Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov is among the most engaging singers in opera today. Immersed in theatre from an early age, he tells Opera Now’s Helena Matheopoulos how he strives for dramatic authenticity, thrilling audiences with his insights into some of opera’s most psychologically complex characters

˜˙ Tokyo celebrates

Yukiko Kishinami reports from the 25th anniversary of the New National Theatre in Tokyo, transforming the fortunes of opera in Japan

ˆ˝ Early French

Colin Clarke applauds a hidden gem of the French Baroque in an Italian guise: Francesco Sacrati’s La finta pazza, reviewed in performance and on disc

˘˜ My Favourite Things

Current title-holder of Cardi˜ Singer of the World, Korean baritone Gihoon Kim, explains how a traditional Korean mask keeps him smiling

˘° Quiz

Which opera singer has the biggest Instagram following? Test your opera knowledge in our monthly quiz

KLAUS BRUNS

˜° Animal Farm

George Orwell’s biting political satire on the Russian revolution and the rise of Stalinism reaches the operatic stage in Amsterdam. Opera Now interviewed the work’s Russian composer, Alexander Raskatov