Contents
FRONT OF HOUSE
EDITORIAL What will 2020 hold for opera? LETTERS Your thoughts and suggestions OPINION Why we need more opera houses NEWS AND NOTES Cecila Bartoli to run Monte Carlo Opera. Memories of Jonathan Miller LETTER FROM… Sarasota –upholding tradition in sunny Florida
REVIEWS - LIVE PRODUCTIONS Tosca at La Scala (50), Donizetti Opera Festival (L’ange de Nisida, Lucrezia Borgia) (54), Ermione at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples (58), Die Walküre at Gothenburg Opera (60), Sweeney Todd at Bergen National Opera (62), Le Nozze di Figaro at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (64), Prince Igor at Bastille Opera (66), Death in Venice at the Royal Opera House (68), Carmen at WNO (70), Le Grand Macabre at the Semperoper, Dresden (72), Orlando at Vienna State Opera (74) CD &DVD REVIEWS A powerful new recording of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet. Jakub Józef Orliński’s latest album. Comparing the latest versions of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice on CD and DVD, and more…
R O M PAY
: S I M O N
P H OTO
C O V E R
- SPOTLIGHT YOUR MONTHLY GUIDE TO OPERA WORLDWIDE New Productions • World Premieres • Exceptional Casts Rarities • Opera Now Choice
D A R I
OA C O S T A
‘My friends ask me what it’s like doing Tristan. I say it’s like leading a guided meditation’
CONTENTS
YOUR SPIRIT GUIDE TO WAGNER American Heldentenor Bryan Register explains why yoga and meditation are integral to his revelatory performances of Wagner CHINA’S LEAP FORWARD Cross-cultural and contemporary trends are brought to the fore at the Beijing Music Festival TESTING A NEW RECIPE How OPERA2DAY challenges traditional notions of what opera means in the modern world THE DIRECTOR – SAVIOUR OR SCOURGE? As a prelude to a new series on opera directors, we ask if the vogue for conceptual productions in contemporary settings is keeping opera alive or turning audiences off
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WHEN MILLER MET MOZART Jonathan Miller’s genius way with Mozart operas is his real legacy as an artist
IN PROFILE Benson Wilson is a young Samoan who is taking all the top prizes in opera as he sets out on a heaven-sent career
ACROSS GENDERS Cecilia Bartoli with a beard? Whatever next? Opera’s continuing challenge to gender norms
ON A PERSONAL NOTE Adam Spreadbury-Maher gives his audiences an unique perspective on opera in intimate spaces
TRAVELS IN SARDINIA Opera adds to the charm of one of the Mediterranean’s most beguiling destinations
FROM THE WINGS Can Puccini’s warhorse La bohème really ever speak to us afresh? Prepare to be surprised…
Q&A Lawyer Leslie MacLeod-Miller
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