Contents
FRONT OF HOUSE EDITORIAL Don’t shut us down LETTERS Your views and suggestions ESSAY Surtitles –an art in themselves? NEWS & NOTES German opera faces crisis as Covid returns, new Japanese opera explores Artificial Intelligence, Renée Fleming’s VOICES series in Washington DC LETTER FROM… Riga –Latvia’s capital and operatic jewel of the Baltics
E L E N A
C H E R K A S H Y N A
‘I liken the competitive world of singers to that of roses and tulips in a garden. Each flower doesn’t think about the other flower. All it knows
is how to bloom’
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REVIEWS - LIVE REVIEWS Welsh National Opera Madama Butterfly (46); London Fringe Round-up: Theatre of Sound, Bluebeard’s Castle (48) Amy Beach’s Capildo (49) Fulham Opera, Die Ägyptische Helena (50); Gothic Opera La Nonne sanglante (51) LPO, Bluebeard’s Castle (51) GAFA Der Ring des Nibelungen (52); Guildhall Bizet/Viardot double bill (54); Teatro La Fenice Fidelio (56); Deutsche Opera Berlin Ring Cycle (59); Hanover State Opera Otello (62); New National Theatre Tokyo Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (64) - RECORDINGS New releases on CD & DVD including solo albums from Anna Netrebko, Marianne Crebassa and Sabine Devieilhe; Mozart’s Mitradate, re di Ponto; Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko; Dvorák’s Rusalka. Leoncavallo’s Zazà from the Theater an der Wien (Opera Now Choice)
- SPOTLIGHT
COVER PHOTO: ELENA CHERKASHYNA
www.operanow.co.uk
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CONTENTS
The Gift that keeps giving Pretty Yende’s journey from a remote South African town to the world’s great opera stages takes a new turn as the charismatic soprano talks to Helena Matheopoulos about the development of her voice from its bel canto core into bigger, lyrical roles
Hungarian hub The impressive new Eiffel Art Studios in Budapest mark the start of a new era for Hungarian State Opera. Adrian Mourby reports from his recent tour
Christian Lacroix The fashion legend makes his opera directing debut in Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne
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Transforming Opera North’s fortunes A £17 million legacy has brought a whole new dimension to what’s on offer at Opera North. Robert Thicknesse went to have a look
Bon voyage! Opera Now selects its opera tour highlights of 2022
My Favourite Things British bass Matthew Rose on why golf and the colour blue really matter
Quiz Test your opera knowledge in 20 cunning questions
OperaNow January 2022 3
