Tannhäuser

by Richard Wagner

seen by live streaming from The Metropolitan Opera New York on 31 October 2015

In a production originally given by Otto Schenk in 1977, James Levine conducted and Tannhäuser was sung by Johan Botha, Elisabeth by Eva-Maria Westbroek, Venus by Michelle DeYoung, Wolfram by Peter Mattei, and Landgrave Hermann by Günther Groissböck. The sets were designed by Günther Schneider-Siemssen, a name now from the past in Wagner lore.

Tannhäuser takes place in an identifiable time and location, and this production is totally naturalistic in both these details, with an atmospheric mountain road and way-side shrine for the Wartburg, and a grand hall for the singing competition. The costumes are sumptuously medieval, in subdued but warm tones and gorgeous fabrics. Nothing looks synthetic (which is not to comment on the actual fabrics used) and the bright blue and reds imported from illuminated manuscripts so often seen in recent historical or fantasy dramas were mercifully absent. It has to be said that the exterior scene in particular looked decidedly old-fashioned, given the current plethora of abstract Wagner productions, very like a Romantic painting come to life, but in some ways this was refreshing.

Ariadne auf Naxos

by Richard Strauss, libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

seen at Covent Garden on 10 October 2015

This revival of Christof Loy's 2002 production was directed by Julia Burbach, designed by Herbert Murauer and conducted by Lothar Koenigs. It featured Karita Mattila as Ariadne, Robert Dean Smith as Bacchus and Jane Archibld as Zerbinetta, with Ruxandra Donose as the Composer, Thomas Allen as the Music Master, Norbert Ernst as the Dancing Master and Christoph Guest as the Major Domo.

The opera comprises firstly a Prologue, in which preparations are being made and disrupted for the performance of a new opera about Ariadne at a private party, and secondly the Opera itself as 'amended' by the requirements imposed during the Prologue. It was developed (in 1916) from a 1912 project in which von Hofmannstahl and Strauss collaborated on a German version of Molière's play 'Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme'. This helps to explain the rather unusual construction of the piece. Somewhat in the manner of 'The Taming of the Shrew', once the framing device has set the scene and fulfilled its comic potential, it fades away; when the Opera is finished, so is the whole performance.

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

by Dmitri Shostakovitch

seen at the Coliseum on 8 October 2015

This new production from ENO (in participation with several European opera houses) is directed and designed originally by Dmitri Tcherniakov, and conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, he new music director of English National Opera. It stars Patricia Racette as Katerina, John Daszak as Sergei, Robert Hayward as Boris and Peter Hoare as Zinovy.

The story, based on a work by Nicolai Leskov, is grim and oppressive: Katerina, the bored second wife of Zinovy, takes as a lover the new employee Sergei. When her father-in-law Boris discovers the affair (and also tries to rape her) she adds rat poison to his dish of mushrooms, and he dies in great pain. Later Zinovy is murdered by the couple. On their wedding day Katerina breaks under the strain of a police raid and confesses the murders. While the pair are in prison, Sergei has become indifferent to Katerina, and tricks her into giving him some new stockings which he immediately gives to a new woman. Katerina plots the death of this woman and herself.

Le Nozze di Figaro

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

seen by live streaming from Covent Garden on 5 October 2015

This is a revival of David McVicar's 2006 production overseen by Leah Hausman, designed by Tanya McCallin and conducted by Ivor Bolton, with Erwin Schrott as Figaro, Sophie Bevan as Susanna, Kate Lindsey as Cherubino, Stéphane Degout as the Count and Ellie Dean as the Countess.

Orphée et Eurydice

by Christoph Willibald Gluck

seen at Covent Garden on 30 September 2015

This is Gluck's 1774 revision of his Italian opera of 1762, prepared for the Paris Opera. The castrato role of Orfeo was altered to be sung by a (high) tenor, and the dance movements were substantially expanded to satisfy Parisian taste.

This production is directed by Hofesh Shechter (principally for the choreography) and John Fulljames. Orphée is sung by Juan Diego Flórez, Amour by Amanda Forsythe, and Eurydice by Lucy Crowe. John Eliot Gardiner conducted the English Baroque Soloists with the Monteverdi Choir, with the Hofesh Shechter Company providing the dancers. The set and costumes were designed by Conor Murphy, and the lighting by Lee Curran.