Warning: Calixto Bieito to stage 2020 Ring

Warning: Calixto Bieito to stage 2020 Ring

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norman lebrecht

March 06, 2019

If you are wary of the frontline directors of Shlock opera, avoid Paris next season.

The Spanish homme terrible has been engaged to produce Wagner’s Ring at the Paris Opera, it was announced last night. Jonas Kaufmann is down to sing Sigmund in Die Walküre.

Other new productions: Traviata, Manon, Rameau’s Indes Galantes and Prince Igor.

 

 

Comments

  • Alexander says:

    judging from the picture you attached to this topic Mr.Bieito was inspired viruses as they are usually depicted in science fiction … tastes differ 😉

    • Harrumph says:

      I hear Clive Barker has rewritten the libretto.

      • Alexander says:

        Clive Barker is a serious warning 😉 …. just imagine what could he do with the plot of La Traviata – ( inspired by viruses) – the huge microbe of tuberculosis instead of a poor woman singing Sempre libera …. oh no 😉
        PS any way time will tell , Paris opera is a great company and ( I hope) they know what they are doing

    • John Borstlap says:

      The picture is often circulated as being part of Bieito’s production, but in reality it is a photograph of one of the audience members after attending a Bieito production, showing a medical condition which happens often after his interventions in repertoire operas, and which requires extensive medical treatment.

  • John Rook says:

    “Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.”
    ― Karl Lagerfeld

    The same is true of theatres that hire Calixto Bieito.

  • Cynical Bystander says:

    Castorf gave Wagner a going over and it became a ‘classic’ Another seeing too, this time by Bieito, will I’m sure start as a scandal and end as a triumph. I’m equally sure Wagner can withstand any assault by enfants terribles, him being one himself, with views that make them look like little more than parvenus.

  • Petros Linardos says:

    Both Paris and MET have planned five new productions for 2019-2020, but the MET bashing started with the headline:

    https://slippedisc.com/2019/02/all-the-met-can-afford-is-five-new-shows/

    • norman lebrecht says:

      The Ring consists of 4 operas.

      • Florian Kaspar says:

        As far as I know, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” will have their opening nights in the 2020-21 season. This boils down to six new productions for the next season…

      • Maurice says:

        Depends on your definition of ‘opera’! Wagner wrote just one work, to be performed on three days and a preceding evening (ein Bühnenfestspiel für drei Tage und einen Vorabend).

  • Bogda says:

    This has been known for quite some time and has generated a lot of buzz among those who are not wary of the “frontline directors of Shlock opera”. As a matter of fact I’m more than sure that the whole Ring will be sold out within days, so the more people stay away because of Bieto the easier for the rest of us to get tickets.
    And next years promise quite a lot of “shocking Ring” productions Herheim and Tcherniakov in Deutsche und Staatsoper Berlin and Gürbaca in Bayreuth. Quite exciting 😉

    • Stephen Diviani says:

      Well said. My fear is that opera in London will become very staid, so I’ll be travelling abroad to see productions. When I can afford, of course.

  • Viola da Bracchio says:

    Clixto Baito

  • R. Brite says:

    Can’t be too much worse than Günter Kramer’s effort of 2010-11.

    • Tristan says:

      very righty said! And Biexto might definitely be better then the horrible Castorf! Deutsches Regietheater which is one reason for struggling selling rates; people are simply fed up with most of the ugliness

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