Paris steals the show with next season’s operas
OperaAlexander Neef and Gustavo Dudamel have eight eye-catching new shows and plenty of star vehicles in their shop window.
The former include Lise Davidsen as Salome, Radvanovsky as Turandot and Benjamin Bernheim as Hoffmann.
Among the new shows are Kirill Serebrennikov’s French debut with Piotr Beczała as Lohengrin; a Peter Sellars working of Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda; Charpentier’s Médée directed by David McVicar, conducted by William Christie; the return of Spontini’s La Vestale, unstaged in French since 1857; Massenet’s Don Quixote with Ildar Abdrazakov (maybe); Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and the French premiere of Thomas Ades’s The Exterminating Angel in a Calixto Bieito production.
Full pack here.
The opera house at the other end of the Eurostar will struggle to match that razzle-dazzle.
In few years, maybe we will say that Paris is living today a kind of golden age concerning classical and opera thanks to Mäkelä, Dudamel and the good shows around from abord like it was the case I imagine in the late 70’s and 80’s in London.
A curious comment. The 1970s and 80s were the golden age for the Paris Opera when Rolf Liebermann was in charge. Lavish productions and top drawer casts. It’s never been as good since.
Francis and I remember the ’80s rather differently. Paris productions, as I recall them, were characterized by slopping orchestral playing and choral work, especially in the first half of the decade. Management finally got rid of a lot of dead wood in the second half, and things have been much better since.
Yet another unfavourable comparison to bait people into clicking.
‘Magic Fire Music’ seems most appropriate for Paris at the moment. I blame Brexit.
Yet you’re not calling them out for casting Netrebko and Eyvazov in Adriana Lecouvreur???
Good to see a Massenet opera other than Werther and Thais being staged there. Besides, a French opera season without Massenet is like a Russian season without Rimsky.
Covent Garden are so delusional or too broke to compete.
La Vestale! Talk about long overdue… One can only hope that the soprano in the title role, someone unknown to me, can hold a candle compared to Callas. Michael Spyres in the lead male role should be excellent.
You will enjoy it mor if you don’t make comparisons to Callas.
Riots permitting.
There appears to be a Turandot moment. Brussels – which has had an extremely successful 22/23 season – is showing Turandot next season. It will be the fourth time I have attended the opera in various opera houses.
Quick comparison of this with the Met’s season reveals that the US in serious cultural decline.