Broadcasts and Film

Glyndebourne’s 2012 Marriage of Figaro was exceptional entertainment and kicked off Open House 2020

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom Glyndebourne Open House – Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro: Soloists, Glyndebourne Chorus and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Robin Ticciati (conductor). Glyndebourne Festival Opera performance 17.8.2012 and streamed and reviewed on 24.5.2020. (MMB)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s 2012 Le nozze di Figaro (c) Alastair Muir

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The Met’s 2007 Il barbiere di Siviglia proves an escape from our current reality and a couple of hours of bliss

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United StatesUnited States Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York / Maurizio Benini (conductor). Performance of 24.3.2007 and reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream (MMB)

Peter Mattei (Figaro), Joyce DiDonato (Rosina), & Juan Diego Flórez (Count Almaviva)
(c) Ken Howard/Met Opera

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‘Mein lieber Schwan’: can a 1986 Met Lohengrin teach us anything 34 years later?

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United StatesUnited States Wagner, Lohengrin: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York / James Levine (conductor). 10.1.1986 performance from the Metropolitan Opera House reviewed as a Nightly Met Opera Stream on 20.5.2020. (JPr)

Peter Hofmann (Lohengrin), John Macurdy (Henry) & Éva Marton (Elsa)

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Educating Rita, says who?

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The OED on education refers an inquirer through a Middle English (ME) root of educe meaning to bring out or develop (something latent or potential): very much Willy Russell’s territory in his melodramatic farce of 1980 at the Royal Shakespeare Company;  which in turn became an even more successful (1983) film of the same name. whose stage version also had the same leading actors as the film. But that is only half the story.

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Opera Philadelphia’s Digital Festival O Presents We Shall Not Be Moved

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United StatesUnited States Roumain, We Shall Not Be Moved: Soloists, Opera Philadelphia Orchestra / Viswa Subbaraman (conductor). Opera Philadelphia, Wilma Theater, Philadelphia. Performance of 20.9.2017 reviewed as part of Digital Festival O. (RP)

Lauren Whitehead (Un/Sung) in We Shall Not Be Moved (c) Dominic M. Mercier

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Looking back at Petra Lang’s vividly sung Brünnhilde in Vienna State Opera’s 2017 Götterdämmerung

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AustriaAustria Wagner, Götterdämmerung: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera / Peter Schneider (conductor). Performance of 5.6.2017 from the Vienna State Opera and reviewed as a Wiener Staatsoper Live stream on 19.5.2020. (JPr)

Petra Lang (Brünnhilde), Falk Struckmann (Hagen), and Markus Eiche (Gunther)

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Looking back at Rattle and the LSO’s new Turnage and Mahler Six in 2017 proves consoling rather than tragic

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom Turnage, Mahler: London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Barbican Hall performance from 19.1.2017 and reviewed on 18.5.2020 as an Always Playing full-length concert from the LSO’s archive. (JPr)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO (c) Tristram Kenton

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The Met’s first live TV broadcast: memories of Pavarotti and Scotto in a 1977 La bohème

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United StatesUnited States Puccini, La bohème: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York / James Levine (conductor). 15.3.1977 performance reviewed as the Viewers’ Choice Nightly Met Opera Stream on 9.5.2020. (JPr)

Renata Scotto (Mimì) and Luciano Pavarotti (Rodolfo) (c) Met Opera Archives

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