Royal Opera's New Season 2006-7
The season opens with a revival of “Faust”. This is an excellent production by David MacVicar. Angela Gheorghiu returns as Marguerite (I thought she was superb in the original run two years ago) with Piotr Beczala as Faust and John Relyea as Mephistofeles.
Concert performances of Halevy’s “La Juive” are an interesting novelty. But the presence of Dennis O’Neill as Eleazar will keep me well clear of them.
Those who think that everything written by Mozart is wonderful will, I am sure, want to go to “La Finta Giardiniera” (written when he was 18). For myself, I could think of a lot more deserving cases for a full scale new production.
Antonio Pappano makes his first appearance of the season conducting a revival of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. I thought this was a brilliant production of an extraordinary opera when it was new and would certainly go back to it. Many of the original cast return, including John Tomlinson as Boris, Katerina’s father-in-law, whom she murders with poisoned mushrooms. EvaMarie Westbroek makes her ROH debut as Katerina.
The revival of the long-established Copley production of “La Boheme” might be worth catching for Marcelo Alvarez as Rodolfo, as might “The Queen of Spades” for Katerina Dalayman’s debut in the role of Liza. I have never heard Vladimir Galouzine (Herman), but recent reports have not been encouraging.
Bizet’s “Carmen” is not one of my favourite operas but the ROH are obviously seeing it as a big event of the season with a new production, Pappano conducting and fifteen performance by two casts. Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen A) is described ‘one of today’s greatest sopranos’ on the cover of this month’s “Gramophone”. Jonas Kaufmann (Don Jose A) is interesting casting. Not sure it will be quite his part but he will certainly look good, as should Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as Escamillo.
What should be the star event of the season comes in January with a new production of “La Filled du Regiment” with Natalie Dessay as Marie and Juan Diego Florez as Tonio. The only possible downside to this is that Bruno Campanella is to conduct but I am sure those top Cs from JDF will make me even forget that.
A revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s rather hit-and-miss “Trovatore” (has anything been done about that ridiculously camp sword play during the soldiers’ chorus?) looks interesting for Alvarez as Manrico and Stephanie Blythe as Azucena. For those who may worry that Alvarez is too light for the role should remember that Manrico is largely a lyrical role that happens to have one big heroic aria and that, as well as singers such as Del Monaco and Corelli, singers like Bjoerling and Bergonzi also had great success in it.
Lovers of Handel opera will be delighted to see a revival of “Orlando” with Bejun Mehta in the title role and Charles Mackerras conducting.
Anyone who missed the original run of Thomas Ades’s “The Tempest” in 2004 should take the chance to see it in 2007. This is a ‘proper’ opera written by a major musical talent. It also shows off some star performances by Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, and, most remarkably of all, Cyndia Sieden as Ariel: her part makes the Queen of the night seem modest in tessitura.
Spring brings an evening of light entertainment with a double bill of Ravel’s “L’Heure Espagnole” and “Gianni Schicchi”. New productions by Richard Jones who can be brilliant or awful – these works might just suit his unusual talent. Pappano conducts and Bryn Terfel sings Gianni Schicchi for the first time.
Sondra Radvanovsky and Mark Elder might just tempt me to Verdi’s “Stiffelio”, but Jose Cura will scare me away. And it is a rather dull opera.
I will definitely be tempted to give “Pelleas et Melisande” another try. The last time I saw it I spent the first half hour thinking ‘I could listen to this all night’ and then the next three hours realizing that was exactly what I was going to have to do. The presence of Simon Keenlyside as Pelleas and Simon Rattle conducting might just win me over for the whole evening.
The combination of Karita Mattila and Pappano in the new production of “Fidelio” will be attractive to many. The production is by Juergen Flimm. The only production of his I have seen was his “Otello” in Berlin five years ago: it was rubbish.
Concert performances of “Thais” at the end of June look very enticing. I love Massenet’s music and a cast led by Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson and Joseph Calleja looks hard to miss.
The first revival of the ROH’s new production of “Tosca” brings Violeta Urmana, Salvatore Licitra and Mark Delavan. If they are all on good form it could be a very good night.
The season ends with what looks like fairly routine revivals of “Rigoletto” (Agache, Gipali and Ciofi) and “Cosi fan Tutte”. The latter notable for Thomas Allen’s Alfonso and being conducted by Colin Davis.
Full information about the whole season can be found on the ROH website at:-
http://info.royaloperahouse.org/News/Index.cfm?ccs=971
Concert performances of Halevy’s “La Juive” are an interesting novelty. But the presence of Dennis O’Neill as Eleazar will keep me well clear of them.
Those who think that everything written by Mozart is wonderful will, I am sure, want to go to “La Finta Giardiniera” (written when he was 18). For myself, I could think of a lot more deserving cases for a full scale new production.
Antonio Pappano makes his first appearance of the season conducting a revival of “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. I thought this was a brilliant production of an extraordinary opera when it was new and would certainly go back to it. Many of the original cast return, including John Tomlinson as Boris, Katerina’s father-in-law, whom she murders with poisoned mushrooms. EvaMarie Westbroek makes her ROH debut as Katerina.
The revival of the long-established Copley production of “La Boheme” might be worth catching for Marcelo Alvarez as Rodolfo, as might “The Queen of Spades” for Katerina Dalayman’s debut in the role of Liza. I have never heard Vladimir Galouzine (Herman), but recent reports have not been encouraging.
Bizet’s “Carmen” is not one of my favourite operas but the ROH are obviously seeing it as a big event of the season with a new production, Pappano conducting and fifteen performance by two casts. Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen A) is described ‘one of today’s greatest sopranos’ on the cover of this month’s “Gramophone”. Jonas Kaufmann (Don Jose A) is interesting casting. Not sure it will be quite his part but he will certainly look good, as should Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as Escamillo.
What should be the star event of the season comes in January with a new production of “La Filled du Regiment” with Natalie Dessay as Marie and Juan Diego Florez as Tonio. The only possible downside to this is that Bruno Campanella is to conduct but I am sure those top Cs from JDF will make me even forget that.
A revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s rather hit-and-miss “Trovatore” (has anything been done about that ridiculously camp sword play during the soldiers’ chorus?) looks interesting for Alvarez as Manrico and Stephanie Blythe as Azucena. For those who may worry that Alvarez is too light for the role should remember that Manrico is largely a lyrical role that happens to have one big heroic aria and that, as well as singers such as Del Monaco and Corelli, singers like Bjoerling and Bergonzi also had great success in it.
Lovers of Handel opera will be delighted to see a revival of “Orlando” with Bejun Mehta in the title role and Charles Mackerras conducting.
Anyone who missed the original run of Thomas Ades’s “The Tempest” in 2004 should take the chance to see it in 2007. This is a ‘proper’ opera written by a major musical talent. It also shows off some star performances by Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, and, most remarkably of all, Cyndia Sieden as Ariel: her part makes the Queen of the night seem modest in tessitura.
Spring brings an evening of light entertainment with a double bill of Ravel’s “L’Heure Espagnole” and “Gianni Schicchi”. New productions by Richard Jones who can be brilliant or awful – these works might just suit his unusual talent. Pappano conducts and Bryn Terfel sings Gianni Schicchi for the first time.
Sondra Radvanovsky and Mark Elder might just tempt me to Verdi’s “Stiffelio”, but Jose Cura will scare me away. And it is a rather dull opera.
I will definitely be tempted to give “Pelleas et Melisande” another try. The last time I saw it I spent the first half hour thinking ‘I could listen to this all night’ and then the next three hours realizing that was exactly what I was going to have to do. The presence of Simon Keenlyside as Pelleas and Simon Rattle conducting might just win me over for the whole evening.
The combination of Karita Mattila and Pappano in the new production of “Fidelio” will be attractive to many. The production is by Juergen Flimm. The only production of his I have seen was his “Otello” in Berlin five years ago: it was rubbish.
Concert performances of “Thais” at the end of June look very enticing. I love Massenet’s music and a cast led by Renee Fleming, Thomas Hampson and Joseph Calleja looks hard to miss.
The first revival of the ROH’s new production of “Tosca” brings Violeta Urmana, Salvatore Licitra and Mark Delavan. If they are all on good form it could be a very good night.
The season ends with what looks like fairly routine revivals of “Rigoletto” (Agache, Gipali and Ciofi) and “Cosi fan Tutte”. The latter notable for Thomas Allen’s Alfonso and being conducted by Colin Davis.
Full information about the whole season can be found on the ROH website at:-
http://info.royaloperahouse.org/News/Index.cfm?ccs=971
posted by Alnwickian at 12:09 pm
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