N E Z E N C E VA
E L E N A
CONTENTS
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FRONT OF HOUSE | Contents
20
B A R D A
C L I V E
64
I S H K I N
I I S H
G E N N A D
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‘Opera for me is life. I take it really seriously – maybe too seriously.’ Kristine Opolais
FRONT OF HOUSE 5 EDITORIAL New operatic frontiers
6 FEEDBACK Your thoughts and suggestions
9 NEWS & NOTES Racism protests at Los Angeles Opera | Ash-scattering brings Met to a halt | Letter from Mumbai | and more...
MAIN STAGE 12 ALL OF ME Fêted for her raw passion in Puccini, the Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais explains how putting so much emotion into her music-making has taken a personal toll
20 A WEEKEND IN… Prague – the culturally rich Czech capital with three opera houses to its name
23 COMING IN FROM THE COLD A new festival in the Russian city of Vladivostok celebrates this region’s unique identity through opera
26 PEACEKEEPING MISSION Superstar mezzo Joyce DiDonato introduces the themes of her new Warner album In War and Peace
31 LORDS OF THE RING The Hong Kong Philharmonic continues its orchestral rite of passage with Wagner’s Die Walküre , the second instalment of Naxos’s Ring cycle
34 FIRST IMPRESSIONS Discover the motives behind La Scala’s controversial project to perform Puccini’s operas in their original versions
38 TRAVELS WITH MY OPERA GLASSES Professor Anthony Ogus heads to Italy for some Verdi and Rossini
40 SQUILLO Michael White sings the praises of novelist and librettist Janice Galloway
41 NEXT ISSUE Take a sneak peek at what’s coming up in Opera Now January
THE CRITICAL VIEW 43-68 LIVE REVIEWS Shostakovich’s Nose gets a sensational staging at Covent Garden | Rushdie novel inspires a haunting world premiere in Saint Louis | Offenbach’s Hoffmann flops in Vienna | Opera North fields a superb autumn season | Festival coverage from Parma and Jesi | New productions in London, New York, Boston, Berlin, Antwerp and Dublin
69 FIRST TIMERS Tosca at English National Opera
71 NEW RELEASES Opera on CD, DVD and Blu-ray
74 BOOKS Great tenors of our time
BACK STAGE 77 COMPANY PROFILE Helikon Opera – Moscow’s innovative grass-roots company
90 EPILOGUE Opera Now’s cryptic crossword for opera lovers
81-88 SPOTLIGHT Opera Now’s INTERNATIONAL GUIDE to the best live performances this winter
PLUS Opera on screen
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SEE PAGE 80
Kristine Opolais. Photo by Kristian Schuller
www.operanow.co.uk
DECEMBER 2016 Opera Now 3
