I Always Wondered about Figaro and the Count...

From the Barihunks Blog: I think this counts as an April Fool, but it is  an interesting plot twist! 

Barihunks confounding Susanna offstage in Vienna Marriage

Degout and Esposito

From Kasarova to Lehtipuu via Other People's Blogs

Today, for some reason (probably because I saw the CD on the shelf), I decided to listen to Vesselina Kasarova's Lieder recital from 1999. Then I decided to see if I had ever gotten around to ripping it to iTunes. 

Aha! There it is in iTunes, but there's no cover photo (iTunes is not great at tracking down classical album covers.) So, of course, I Google images for "Kasarova Lieder."

The first image was the CD cover (now duly saved and linked to the files in iTunes). The fourth image linked me to a blog post by Smorgy called Why I Love Vesselina Kasarova. That Smorgy loves Kasarova is not news, but why Smorgy loves Kasarova was a new story for me. And it's a wonderful story. Her post also touches on indiscriminate "music criticism" that has little to do music or with actual criticism.

(Mostly) French Operas Online at Culturebox

A pair of Py productions:

Hamlet at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie
Through June 17, 2014

Dialogues des Carmelites at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
Through June 22, 2014

French impressions of exotic lands:

Les Indes Galantes  at the Opéra National de Bordeaux
Through August 26, 2014

and An American in Paris:

Einstein on the Beach at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Through July 4, 2014

Two Py, Not Square (Dialogues des Carmélites and Hamlet)

Stage director Olivier Py is busy all over Europe these days. Videos of two of his latest productions can be viewed online (and they're not on YT, so they won't magically disappear without warning.) On a post over at the Parterre Box*,  redbear commented:

...his Theatre des Champs-Elysees “Dialogues” [is] a “perfection rarement atteintes” and the “Hamlet” in Brussels last month “brillante.”

At Arte Live Web, where you can watch a video of Dialogues des Carmélites (featuring French divas Véronique Gens, Sophie Koch, and Patricia Petibon as Blanche) for about six more months, we learn:

Francis Poulenc's composition is based on the eponymous drama by Georges Bernanos and is an outstanding masterpiece of French opera of the 20th Century. The historical setting and the extraordinary protagonists make "Dialogues of the Carmelites" as an impressive allegory on human existence, death and the relationship of people to each other and to God.

Then check out Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet at La Monnaie; and not just because there's a nude barihunk (thank you, barihunks.com). It also is an opera we don't get to hear that often, and it's an impressive production. Marc Minkowski conducts, and Stéphane Degout is the wonderful Hamlet (he was a super Pelleas last season, too); Degout's brief nakedness adds a special creepiness to a mother giving her grown son a bath. Mathieu Rémy as Laertes is a tenor to watch out for, too. You can see the full opera on France's Culturebox until June 2014. 

My fluency in French is slightly below survival level, so even though I know the basic plot of each opera, I found these synopses from the Metropolitan Opera very helpful:

Hamlet

Dialogues des Carmélites

*A rather interesting (and impressively civil) discussion regarding pros and cons of Regieoper.

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.

Cosi Fan Tutte – Salzburg M22 (Part 3: Marry Me A Little)

The ending of Cosi is ambiguous and ripe for interpretation—especially once the men have seduced both sisters. Alfonso says the best revenge is to marry the sisters. But he doesn't say which one each should marry. 

In the original, it’s assumed they should marry their original partners; but many have argued convincingly that the new pairs are better matched.

Cosi Fan Tutte – Salzburg M22 (Part 2: Fencing, the Feather, the Apple, and the Egg)

The Fencing:  In the opening scene Don Alfonso (Sir Thomas Allen) is coaching  Ferrando (Shawn Mathey) and Guglielmo (Stéphane Degout) in fencing skills. The swordplay is a clear image to associate with the conflicts in the opera. In the opening of Act 2, the sisters mirror the boys by pretending to fence with their fans.