Opera house of the year is… them, again
mainAn Opernwelt survey of 50 music critics across Europe and the US has chosen Frankfurt as Opera House of the Year – for the fourth time.
No disrespect to the great financial centre, but Munich is presently producing the highest standards in history, Berlin’s Komische Oper is on fire, La Scala as bounced back from the doldrums and Canadian Opera warrants attention. Why Frankfurt is a bit of a mystery.
Something wrong with the collective judgement of Opernwelt’s critics?
Orchestra of the year is Munich’s, production of the year is Barry Kosky’s Meistersinger at Bayreuth (pictured) and conductor of the year is John Eliot Gardiner.
Really.
Change those critics.
It would be interesting to know the criteria. A while ago, Stuttgart walked off with the title every year. Munich was more than just a major player then, too. Odd.
The criteria are the whims and fancies of the 50 critics. The only real criteria is whether a nomination can garner a sufficient enough consensus to win (ie. Frankfurt this year won with 10 of 50 votes).
This also accounts for the frequent objections coming from the opera-going public regarding some of the choices and it further accounts for the often rather vague reasoning as to why an opera company won; Frankfurt this year won because of “intelligently balanced programming, strong directorial scripts, excellent repertoire cultivation and a high degree of ensemble-culture”.
Some other awards, just for general information:
– Opera Orchestra of the Year is the Bayerisches Staatsorchester (for the 5th consecutive time)
– Opera Choir of the Year is the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart
– Opera Newcomer of the Year is the soprano Anna El-Khashem (member of the opera-studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper)
– Opera Director of the Year is Peter Konwitschny
Good that the BSO is consistently n°1. As for Konwitschny, doesn’t he have a monopoly on this award? It certainly seems so.
Meant to mention the ensemble culture. Stuttgart was famous for it a few years ago; that mantle seems to have passed to Frankfurt. It’s important; there seem to be fewer and fewer major ensembles and FfM’s appears to be extraordinarily good. Good for them.
Konwitshny director of the year? Wtf?
For the 6th time at that I believe.
He who can, does. He who cannot, reviews.
… in the category “Most Annoying Opera Experience,” [opinions] ranged from the harassment of … Kirill Serebrennikov to the stage design of painter Georg Baselitz for Parsifal at Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Think Carmen in a rubber gorilla suit at Covent Garden might give that title a bit of a run…
Not sure if you’re aware but that Carmen is originally Frankfurt production, that was later transferred to London 😉
Who made you the arbiter of world-wide, epoch-wide standards?
How many productions in Frankfurt did you attend this year, Norman?
Forget it all, it’s the most ridiculous survey that exists and as mentioned previously, 90% of the critics nowadays have no bloody idea – like most managers of opera companies
La Scala under ageing Pereira has definitely not improved, wishful thinking
The best house at the moment is Munich, no doubt!
Berlin needs a facelift, Barenboim has been around for much too long, besides he and Rattle among the most overrated conductors.
No wonder like those critics call Ffm the best house.
It’s amusing but nothing else and no one should take it seriously.
Much depends on why you go to the opera.
My choice is repertoire, and while not defending DB and SR, the Staatsoper in Berlin is mounting Medea, Betrothal in a Monastery and Hippolyte et Aricie this season.
It’s also been worth the trip to Frankfurt to see Vanessa and Owen Wingrave.
With all due respect to Munich, it’s hardly at the level of Paris. Most productions are provocative but nothing more, they really haven’t staged any important or relevant production in years. They have house stars (Kaufman and Harteros mainly) but hardly able to attract anyone else apart from their standard cast. The whole house hangs on Petrenko, without him it’s not quite that interesting. And that’s the problem.
Innovative productions and new works play a big role in their evaluations, hence the success of Frankfurt.
Sebastian Veigele the chief conductor and musical director of Frankfurt opera house is a wonderful musician a conductor.
I am not surprised.
Veigele*Weigle*