Steve Rubin, publisher at Henry Holt and, way back, a music writer on the New York Times in its glory days, is first with a review of an old flame at the Met. And, boy, does Steve know his singers:

The Met’s revival of its 2001 production of FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN last night proved once and for all that there’s life left in the old girl yet. It was an evening that harked back to the days when this house was able to cast a notoriously difficult and demanding opera with ease, provide great conducting and an eye-filling spectacle on stage.

I do not remember Herbert Wernicke’s production with affection, but I rather loved it this time around, and not only because it gave the Met’s technical facilities a healthy workout. FRAU has a pretentious, silly storyline, but Wernicke embraces it theatricality with abandon. Whether it’s his use of the Met’s fabulous on stage elevators or his spectacular, often blinding lighting, this guy is out to grab your attention.

I had never heard any of the singers, so it is exciting to report they are all terrific. The star of the show unquestionably is Christine Goerke, whose huge, powerful dramatic soprano embraced the Dyer’s Wife’s glorious music with ease.  The German soprano Anne Schwanenwilms, made her Met debut as the Empress, and although she lacked the ethereal radiance of a Leonie Rysanek, when her voice was in full bloom it was beautiful. The other lady in the cast is the Nurse, unquestionably one of the most difficult parts in opera. Ildiko Komlosi acquitted herself admirably.

The guys were marvelous. Torsten Kerl is a genuine heldentenor, and when he sang the Emperor’s marvelous music in Act I, it was like going back to the days when strangulation was not the order of the day.  Is there a nicer guy in opera than Barak? Johan Reuter was completely winning and sang with a honey-voiced baritone that may have been one size too small for the Met, but who cares? He was irresistible.

Vladimir Jurowski let the crackerjack Met Orchestra make a resplendent racket, and blessedly, for this version is uncut, his tempos were brisk. but he never lost sight of the fact that FRAU contains some of Strauss’ most beautiful music.

It was a thrilling evening.

(c) Steve Rubin/Slipped Disc

1 ‘I started out playing funerals’ says Anne-Sophie Mutter. Click here.

2 A Flute in a Million. Click here.

3 Sellout: David Bowie makes Louis Vuitton ad

4 What do we make of John Eliot Gardiner’s book on Bach? Click here.

5 John Singer Sargeant reaches Boston, just the kind of upper class he liked. Click here.

They’ve got rid of a classy chef and plan to make it ‘democratic’.

Guess the artists will be eating out in future.

And turkeys get to vote for Christmas.

Hypnotic.

We don’t do medical scares on this site, but there does appear to be a fungal condition known as ‘saxophone lung’. It’s an allergic reaction to inhaling germs in instruments that have not been properly cleaned. Early this year, an English player almost died of it. Read more here. Now start flossing.

The Purcell School has finally come out into the open about the dismissal of the head of music and his deputy. Questioned by the local newspaper, the Watford Gazette, head teacher David Thomas said: ‘Quentin Poole left the school by mutual agreement at the end of the last academic year.’

Really? Then why do we hear he’s pursuing a case for unfair dismissal?

Stephan Herheim’s Covent Garden production opens with a man sitting in the left-hand corner of the stage reading a newspaper while the French invaders prepare for mass rape. He is visible once more at the opening of Act four. One of Herheim’s production team fills seven pages of the programme book, explaining the ‘concept’ behind this show, which is set inside the Paris Opéra where the opera had its 1855 premiere.

He does not mention the newspaper, but the metaphor is easily understood: nothing is real, all is a mirrored reflection of something else. We, the audience, are watching the audience who are watching the cast who are watching… and so on…. at the original production. That’s what concept opera does: it distances you from the work.

There is much in the show that is scenically brilliant – the shifting wall of mirrors, the execution block – and much that is infuriating and irrelevant.

A troupe of ballet girls served chiefly to tamp down whatever emotion might have been aroused. A child executioner is a blatant joke at our expense. At the climax, a massacre, the Norwegian director cuts to silence and blazes the stage lights at the audience. Get it?

Concept opera, like adolescence (and, perhaps, senescence) is a phase through which opera is passing. It may already be growing out of it. Herheim, sensationally fashionable in Germany, does not travel well.

The singing and acting were world class. Bryan Hymel as Henri could have done with a touch more volume and Erwin Schrott as the destructive revolutionary Procida hurled himself about too much to give vocally of his absolute best, but Michael Volle as the governor, De Montfort, was  imposing in every sense and Lianna Haroutounian was sweet-toned and affecting as Hélène. It’s tough for singers when the director does not allow them to develop character and this cast performed splendidly under some adversity. The orchestra played as amply as we have come to expect when Antonio Pappano conducts and the chorus were in fine voice.

A larger chorus might have been even finer, but they’d spent the money on those trippy ballet dancers and saved on the musical essence.

photos: ROH

In what looks alarmingly like a copycat trend, the classical radio station in Houston, one of the richest US cities, has conducted a morning of the long knives, getting rid of all its established presenters. Apparently the last fundraising drive was ‘a colossal failure’. Who cares? Not Houston.

The Finnish pop singer Anssi Kela has a hit on his hands. Called Restless Girl, it got one million plays over four months on Spotify (total number of Finns in the world: 5 million).

Anssi has decided to go public on his Spotify earnigs. At 0.02 Euroe cents per play, he was paid 2,300 Euros (US$3,200) before tax. Anssi has now joined the bandwaggon of Radiohead-led musicians who are pulling their tracks off the music-sharing service.

UPDATE: Industry sources say Anssi’s figure may be the amount he received after his record company, Sony Music, took its cut. Even if it were ten times as much, however, it would still be pathetic for a million-play hit. In other news, Spotify is trying to raise fresh tech investment in California.

photo: Gianluca Mezzofiore

IB Times reports:  Up to 40 demonstrators held the protest outside the Barbican in London before a performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Human rights protesters held up sparklers with the message: “Sparkle for freedom in Russia. Putin suppresses, we sparkle”, shouting “Gay rights for Russia”, “Some Russians are gay get over it”, “Shame on you Gergiev, stop supporting Putin”.  A minor scuffle erupted when a friend of Gergiev argued with the protesters.

The demo appears to have been fairly inconspicuous. Several people who attended the concert report that they failed to notice it.

A review in the Times this morning speculates that Gergiev may be asked to leave the LSO sooner than announced, in 2015, in order to protect the orchestra’s brand. As far as we can tell, this line of thought is completely unfounded.