Best opera house in Europe?

Best opera house in Europe?

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norman lebrecht

October 07, 2011

The German magazine Opernwelt has chosen its opera house of the year.

Any guesses? It’s La Monnaie in Brussels. Check it out. Here’s why.

Oh, and it gets best production of the year for Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots.

Comments

  • Michael Hurshell says:
    October 7, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    While Opernwelt is entitled to its opinion, I would like to note that their choices (best house of the year, best production of the year etc.) never seem to have anything to do with the qualities of the orchestras or singers… it’s Regie, Regie, Regie all the way. And while I have great respect for the institution of La Monnaie, there are orchestras that are in another league … Vienna, Berlin, etc etc. I wouldn’t be sad if the focus were shifted back just a bit towards music…

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  • GW says:
    October 8, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    Michael Hurshell, if you examine the lists more closely, you will find that the Frankfurt Opera is ranked number two in the best house category (2010 in the first place) while its orchestra is ranked one in that category. for the third year in a row While Frankfurt’s productions have a Regie-character, they are never over-the-top and the emphasis is very strongly on musical quality, with the orchestra (under Sebastian Weigle) quite deserving of its position and the ensemble soloists first-rate, so your description of the Opernwelt rankings is not entirely deserving
    .

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