Travelling and enjoying opera performances
The long awaited and triumphal coming-back prima happened a few days ago, thus all of us gathering for the second performance of Lohengrin in Opera Bastille were throbbing impatiently in presentiment. In the adrenaline rush just a day before the sacred date I have logged onto Opera de Paris web page and sourced another ticket, […]
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Giacomo Puccini is one of my favourite composers, but somehow until now I have seen La Fanciulla del West only as livestream or MetHD and thus was quite eager to see it live with a great cast. As there was a plan to come to Vienna for La Sonnambula, the opportunity to see Aleksandrs Antonenko and […]
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To get into opera travel on Friday, 13th might be an adventurous proposal even for the least superstitious opera fan as it turned out. Flight delay, mad dash by a taxi from the airport to arrive at the evening box office to collect the ticket just 5 minutes to start, then get changed in a […]
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The opening of the new season in Teatro alla Scala is the event of utmost importance that stretches beyond Italian borders both in societal and cultural aspects. This year, the third part of the project launched by Maestro Chailly to reabilitate originally composed versions of Puccini operas – now Madama Butterfly (1904), gained unprecedented publicity […]
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Was it real or did I dream it? How much of our lives are real, how much of it all happens in our minds? Are we mostly mirroring the world or being a mirror for the world ourselves? Have you experienced any traumatic experience, being it sexual assault or another form of violence, that made a […]
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One of the most intriguing questions while preparing for Cavalleria Rusticana / Sancta Susanna at Opéra Bastille was an unusual pairing of those two operas and intrigue how the director would have solved linkage between those quite different pieces. What was clear before the performance – this will be unsurpassed opportunity to hear two outstanding […]
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The opera exploration journey this year has brought me to know several masterpieces from classical heritage which are not part of the popular “go-to” list, including Arrigo Boito and “Mephistophele”, Frommenthal Halevy and “La Juive”, and now also Giacomo Meyerbeer and “Les Huguenots”. Until now I have heard several arias, and when Deutsche Oper Berlin […]
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Another night with high expectations was turned into mild disappointment in the planning phase and then into unanimous approval and enthusiastic applause by sold out and packed Opera Bastille cheering main protagonists, conductor and director who was not there to receive gratitude from the public. The run of performances of Les Contes d’Hoffmann was highly […]
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The excitement was in the air, and just looking around you can notice an obvious difference in the audience of the premiere night – most of the people know each other, greeting, chatting and looking for the rooms where their designated reception is held. The main sponsor of BSO, The Linde Group, gathers their crowd at […]
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It was unplanned, spontaneous decision triggered by email received on Friday when packing for my trip to Paris for two first performances on Opera de Paris subscription package – “Eligabalo” at Palais Garnier and “Samson et Dalila” at Opera Bastille. The message stated that due to strike announced the performance of Samson et Dalila might be […]
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