Doctor Atomic Streaming Live from Strasbourg – May 6, 2014

A new production of John Adams' Doctor Atomic will be streamed live on Culturebox and Medici TV tomorrow at 2:00pm Eastern time; 8:00pm in France).

Doctor Atomic arose from a series of commissions by the San Francisco Opera House on the theme of Faust, and more precisely on what relevance this mythical topic could still have in a country like the United States. John Adams and his librettist Peter Sellars had the idea of linking up Faust's demiurge utopia with one of the greatest scientific and human adventures of the 20th century – the Manhattan Project, which was to end in developing the most excessive, most Mephistophelean weapon in history: the atomic bomb. Mastering matter to make a weapon of destruction – what more could inspire these two artists who were so close to the daily reality of their contemporaries and the excesses of our world...

 – from the Opéra national du Rhin website

Update 5/7/2014: This is will be available for free on MediciTV for about a month or so, and for about a year on Culturebox. 

Dr. and Mrs. Oppenheimer will be sung by RnR favorites: Baritone Dietrich Henschel, seen and heard in Pelléas et Mélisande, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and Capriccio, to name a few; and mezzo Anna Grevelius, who we developed a crush on when she appeared at La Monnaie as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito.

Pelléas et Mélisande – La Monnaie-De Munt, Brussels

I am sure I could find people to argue with me about this, but I think Pelléas et Mélisande is such a strange opera that there really is no wrong way to stage it. There certainly is no literal way to stage it! This work becomes whatever the listener/viewer makes of it. 

Stéphane Degout and Dietrich Henschel

Keris9 at Opera Journal just reviewed this production from La Monnaie-De Munt, Brussels. It will only be available for streaming from the opera company website till May 24, so I decided to get out this notice and link to the review now, instead of waiting till I can review it myself.

Go watch it now! We can talk about it later.

La Monnaie-De Munt, Brussels
Ludovic Morlot, Pierre Audi, Anish Kapoor, Stéphane Degout, Monica Bacelli, Dietrich Henschel, Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Frode Olsen, Patrick Bolleire, Alexandre Duhamel, Valérie Gabail

La Monnaie Internet Streaming through May 24, 2013

Update 05/26/2013: This is now available at arte.tv (for about 6 months.) No subtitles.

Richard Strauss: Capriccio – Paris, 2004 (Part 2: The Decision Not to Decide)

Strauss is great at setting conversation, which is good, since Capriccio is “A conversation piece with music.” When everyone is teasing La Roche about his mythical presentation, the poet and composer play with the model set and the costumes; the Italian singers squabble, the Countess, Count, and Clairon chat and laugh, and poor La Roche blusters indignantly. (Here the subtitle folks do finally give up on trying to represent every word of text.) A backdrop flies in from above and the stagehands wrestle with it. The dancer dances. And it all makes musical sense.  

Richard Strauss: Capriccio – Paris, 2004 (Part 1: Opera about Opera)

Somewhat like Ariadne auf Naxos, Capriccio is an opera about opera. During the prelude (seen in a previous post) we see the Countess entering the opera house and sitting down to hear Flammand’s music. Here, we are clearly in the theater.  Robert Carsen seems to love this kind of stuff—using a novel setting that allows us see and hear the piece from a different angle. 

An Otterphile Bonus – The Eyes Have It

I made this clip for my review of Capriccio, (yes, that review really is coming up – next week, in fact!) but I just couldn’t wait to share it. This is the scene in which the actress Clarion (Anne-Sofie von Otter) is “auditioning” the Count (Dietrich Henschel), an amateur thespian. Watch as ASvO channels Norma Desmond via Carol Burnett.