A Surreal Double Bill: Larmes de couteau and Full Moon in March at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

'There is happiness' and two burning hearts in a soft landscape as a big painting decorates the transparent curtain, as part of this new interpretation of the opera by young Richard Wagner. This reference to the libretto by the master is designed by Director Andreas Homoki who sets the legend of this divine hero and his swan in a very traditional Bavarian environment. The Munich Hofbräuhaus seems to be the model of the stage design and so does the traditional Bavarian costums...

Surprisingly, a major title of the French operatic tradition such as Gounod’s Faust had never been staged before at the Salzburg Festival. It happened this year in a production signed by Austrian director Reinhard von der Thannen, responsible for sets and costumes as well. However solid the cast was, the main focus of the production was certainly von der Thannen’s staging  – and with good reason (one could actually tell right from the programme notes, entrusted to...

Jules Massenet is one of the great representative of the French Grande Opera. He has left a remarkable heritage of operas but only few have made it continously into the calendar of the opera theaters. Thaïs premiered in 1894 as one of the rarely staged masterpieces which makes it from time to time into concert halls in concert version. The composition was originally arranged for the Opera comique in Paris but was first shown in the Opera Garnier, where it had been performed the most...

Rien - "Nothing" thrones over the bright white stage. "We start from nothing and return to nothing" might be one theme of this contradictory direction of Reinhard von der Thannen. He is responsible for the direction, the costumes and the stage design of this first presentation of this opera in Salzburg. He has studied and worked with Hans Neuenfels, originally as stage and costume designer, and you can feel the influence and some memories of the controversial...

The British composer Thomas Adès has gained international reputation with his opera compositions of The Tempest premiered 2004 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Powder her Face premiered in 1995 at the Cheltenham Festival as well as conductor and pianist. He has been committed by the Salzburg Festival for their yearly contemporary opera. Together with director Tom Cairns, Thomas Ades has created the libretto based on Luis Buñuel script and film El ángel...

Jean Philippe Rameau has been a highly regarded composer during the French Baroque period and an important representative of the special French genre Opéra-Ballet, where music, stage and dance play an equal importance. The story is a typical baroque play of intrigues, jealousy, fidelity and love which can take place everywhere and does not really have any content. Les Indes galantes are sent over the exotic world to explore human relations of love, arriving in Peru,...