LA SONNAMBULA – REVIEW OF 2025 TRANSMISSION LIVE IN HD FROM THE MET

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Met Live in HD is back with nine operas to be streamed by the Metropolitan Opera from New York’s Lincoln Center to a movie theatre near you. The opening production is Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula that was shown on October 18, 2025,  to be followed by La Boheme on November 8, 2025.

It is a new production directed by tenor Rolando Villazon. There are some eyebrow-raisers but overall, it is a stunning production. It follows the 2009 production by Mary Zimmerman which was roundly booed because of her setting the opera in New York as if it were being rehearsed. The singing was outstanding with Natalie Dessay and Juan Dieo Florez in the lead roles but that did not discourage the pronounced disapproval of the audience.

The plot of La Sonnambula is thin and silly but Bellin’s music and bel canto arias raise it to a level of its own in the repertoire. We are in a Swiss village in the past and Amina and Elvino are in love and about to get married tomorrow. Count Rodolfo, a perfect gentleman, arrives in the village and Amina sleepwalks into his room and is found wearing his robe. The conservative villagers go into shock and Elvino goes into an apoplexy of jealousy. The wedding is off and the villagers turn on Amina.

Several scenes later and a lot of gorgeous singing, Amina’s innocence is established and she and Elvino get married and live happily ever after.  

La Sonnambula is a bel canto opera which means that it makes extraordinary demands on the singers. They must sing beautifully, of course, and be able to reach high notes and go to low notes effortlessly. The vocal beaty must be pronounced and it is a style of singing that few singers can accomplish.

 Deborah Nansteel as Teresa, Nadine Sierra as Amina, 

Nicholas Newton as Alessio, and Sydney Mancasola as Lisa 

in Bellini's "La Sonnambula." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

This production has singers that meet and surpass those criteria. Soprano Nadine Sierra sings Amina, the sleepwalker, who goes from bliss to despair on being accused of infidelity. She has a surpassingly beautiful voice and can reach the highest soprano notes and sing with sustained emotion be it of joy or pain. Her tone, her expression and the beauty of her singing place her in the highest category of sopranos. A thrilling performance.

Tenor Xabier Anduaga is the ardent lover Elvino who goes into a fit of jealousy at the thought that Amina spent time in Count Rodolfo’s room. He has a supple voice that combines beauty and flexibility, allowing him to sing gorgeously and appear to be doing it effortlessly. Sierra and Anduaga have some magnificent duets that make you forget the silliness of the plot.

Bass Alexander Vinogradov sings the role of Count Rodolfo, an impeccably dressed and mannered aristocrat. He sings with beautiful sonority and being a man of integrity saves Amina’s reputation. He is a pleasure to watch and hear.

Villazon added a solo dancer to the production. Niara Hardister, dressed in ethereal white, appears most of the time on the upper tier or roof of the two-tier set and she could be Amina’s alter ego or sleeping self which means I have no idea what she is doing in the opera.

The set by designer Johannes Leiacker shows a white-painted main stage area with doors in the back and a white roof above it. the roof is covered with snow and beyond we see a dramatic view of the Alps. That part of the background changes to dark and threatening clouds and with projections of designer Renaud Rubiano we get a dramatic set for the production.

Interestingly Rodolfo, Elvino and the dancer descend to the main stage area from the roof using a ladder.

This is a superb production of the opera despite the several quirks that Villazon has added to it. The thin plot is subject to some very odd interpretations and interpolations but Villazon has resisted such directorial self-indulgence and gives us a marvelous production.

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La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on October 18, 2025. There will be an encore showing on November 1, 2025. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE MAGIC FLUTE – REVIEW OF 2025 OPERA ATELIER PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Opera Atelier, the magical organization of Marshall Pynkoski  and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg,  is celebrating its 40th year of productions in Toronto and around the world with a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. They give us a vibrant, exciting, colourful and  enjoyable production that must not be missed.

Anyone who has never seen a production of The Magic Flute is in for a treat. Those who may have seen it many times (23 times for me) will be reminded that you never tire of seeing some works.

If you have never seen the opera, you may want to read some background. It is not really an opera but a singspiel. That means a play with songs, maybe like a traditional musical. It has dialogue and songs and it was written for the popular theatre in 1791 for the purpose of making money. The libretto  was written by Emanuel Schikaneder a man who worked in the popular theatre, the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. It uses common German, has low (make that people’s) comedy and high Masonic wisdom and ambitions. Don’t worry about the latter, you don’t have to know anything about the Masons.

Prince Tamino is lost in the forest and almost devoured by a prehistoric Monster. Tenor Colin Ainsworth has sung this role many times and handles it again with vocal assurance and splendor. Tamino is saved by three beautiful and gorgeously dressed Ladies (Carla Huhtanen, Danielle MacMillan and Laura Pudwell) who work for the Queen of the Night (Rainelle Krause). They go to tell their employer about Tamino and Papageno (Douglas Williams) who arrives to claim credit for saving him. He is funny.

The Queen of the Night is not funny but she has a beautiful daughter called Pamina (Meghan Lindsay) and she can belt out some high Fs to knock your socks off. She wants to kill Sarastro, her husband, and the high notes sound like bullets from an AK-47 Kalashnikov. The shots, I mean high notes, may not have been perfect but the audience went wild over them on opening night.

Scene from The Magic Flute. Opera Atelier

That’s the high-minded stuff. The people’s humour is provided by Papageno, the bird catcher who lives in the forest, knows nothing about the rest of the world, is a bit of a coward and wants to find a pretty maiden to marry. A lovable human being. Williams has  a terrific bass-baritone voice and a well-developed sense of comic acting.

Tamino arrives at the Temple of Wisdom. Pamina’s father Sarastro (a splendidly voiced bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus) is the kind ruler and all will become clear when Tamino qualifies to join the brotherhood of the Temple. We meet the nasty and lustful Monostatos (tenor Blaise Rantoanina) who has a comic side. Pynkoski underplays the evil in Monostatos and emphasizes his clownish part,  

Tamino and Papageno must endure trials to prove their virtues in order to join the temple. We have the serious and the comic in tandem with hilarious results when Papageno cannot keep up. We all know that the two will make it and Tamino and Pamina will show their requisite character traits to join the Temple and marry.

Papageno will get his playful Papagena (Opera Atelier veteran and lovely-voiced soprano Karine White).

This production is spoken and sung in plain English from a translation by Andrew Porter. There are even surtitles for the songs but you may not need to look at them all.

Gerard Gauci designed the colourful and otherworldly sets. The Queen of the Night is lowered from up high to the stage in spectacular fashion. Colors, beauty, spectacle are emphasized and the mythical story is reflected in the costumes of original designer Dora Rust D’Eye and Resident Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco.

Ms Zingg has choreographed the dances performed by the Artists of Atelier Ballet with the usual iridescent beauty.

The Tafelmusik Orchestra performed on period  instruments under the baton of David Fallis.   

If this is your first Magic Flute or you need more than your fingers to count the number of times you have seen it, it is all the same. You will be captivated by the magic flute, the magic love story and the magic fun of this production.

I tip my hat once more to our local magicians, the co-artistic directors of Opera Atelier, Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg for their extraordinary contribution to civilized life in Toronto.
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The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder opened on October 15 and will be performed until October 19, 2025, at the Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.operaatelier.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto.

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE – REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company has mounted a redoubtable and enjoyable production of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. The production is rented from Malmo Opera and we can blame the Swedes for some of the quirky bits and give credit to the COC for the rest.

Gounod’s opera is of course based on Shakespeare’s  play as adapted for opera by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. It was first performed in Paris in 1867 and is generally received well if not enthusiastically. The last time it was produced by the COC was in 1992 and this production, as I said, was rented from another opera company.

The singing is generally superb. Tenor Stephen Costello delivers a strong and sonorous Romeo. At times he sounded stentorian but that may be in comparison to Kseniia Proshina’s Juliette. Proshina has a beautiful soprano voice and she delivers a highly sympathetic heroine. But she does not have a big voice with its attendant issues in a big opera house. But conductor Yves Abel handled the situation brilliantly. He reduces the volume of the COC Orchestra when Proshina is singing and avoids drowning her. She is capable of some beautiful flourishes at full throttle and with that and Abel’s handling of the orchestra we got splendid performances from Proshina and Costello.

Veteran Toronto bass Robert Pomakov sings Friar Laurence (I use Shakespeare’s names) with apt resonance and becoming humanity. In his first appearance he wears a white lab coat and he appears like anything but a friar. When next time we see him at the Capulet palace instructing Juliette about faking her death, he has found his cassock and perhaps his religious calling. 

A scene from the COC's production of Roméo et Juliette. 

Photo: Michael Cooper

Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner sings the colourful role of Mercutio and he gets Queen Mab’s aria to show his vocal mettle. He does. Tenor Owen McCausland sings the hot-headed Tybalt who is killed by Romeo after he, Tybalt, kills Mercutio.   

There are about half a dozen other characters that do a fine job. The role of Stephano sung by Alex Hetherington is worthy of mention. Alex is a soprano and Stephano is a pants role and I could not immediately tell that Alex is a woman. Stephano gets a very good aria of his own and he sings superbly in the role.

The set by Emma Ryott goes for dark tones, not to say a gloomy atmosphere. It is not always clear what she is after but the story line and the singing keep us too busy  to worry about the sets and the lighting designed by Charlie Morgan Jones. The program notes tell us that the production sets the opera in New York on New Year’s Eve 1889. The Capulets are having a big circus-theme garden party that many Montagues crash. That explains some of the ridiculous costumes designed by Ryott and having the upstanding Count Capulet (Mark Stone) stripped of most of his clothes.  

And speaking of quirky, Lane (or was it the Malmo Opera director?) has Juliette die standing up. I noticed the quirks in passing and they had little effect on my enjoyment of the performances.

Conductor Yves Abel deserves great praise for his lively treatment of the score and especially his sensitivity and adroitness in keeping the balance between pit and stage at all times. The COC Orchestra deserves kudos and the Chorus earned extra praise for their wonderful performance.

A production not to be missed, quirks and all.
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Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod opened on September 27 and continues on various dates until October 18, 2025, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

ORFEO ED EURIDICE - REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company shied away from Gluck’s masterpiece Orfeo ed Euridice  until 2011 but when it first produced it, the COC hit paydirt. The source was Robert Carsen’s dark and gloomy vision of the opera that proved emotionally captivating and intense. It was a co-production with four other opera companies including the Lyric Opera of Chicago and it proved stunningly successful. Fourteen years later, the COC has mounted an equally successful revival of the production with Revival Director Christophe Gayral.

When the performance begins, we see an expanse of dark earth covering the stage of the Four Seasons Centre. The sky at the back is gloomy and darkness is the dominant feature. There is a mound of earth beside an open grave and we hear the somber, funereal singing of the chorus. They are supposed to be shepherds and nymphs but they are all dressed in black and we can’t really see them in the darkness.

They are mourning the death of Euridice (soprano Anna-Sophie Neher), the beautiful, young wife of Orfeo. Euridice’s corpse is lowered into the tomb. Some dirt is shoveled in it. The grief-stricken Orfeo (Iestyn Davies) appears, the chorus leaves and it his turn to express his deeply-felt anguish. He asks for the intercession of the gods and eventually resolves to seek her in the underworld. Countertenor Iestyn Davies expresses his tumultuous emotions with heart-rending poignancy and sonority.    

Lights are placed around the grave by members of the chorus and the funeral gains tragic dimensions and somber beauty.

Amore (Catherine St-Arnaud), the god of love, takes pity on Orfeo and agrees to send him to Hades to recover Euridice but subject to some strict conditions. St-Arnaud does not have a big voice and for a moment was almost overwhelmed by the orchestra but balance was restored and she gave a marvelous performance.

Iestyn Davies and Anna-Sophie Neher in Orfeo ed Euridice. 

Photo: Michael Cooper

In the second act, Orfeo has reached the underworld where we see the stage covered with beings covered by sheets that resemble burial shrouds. They are the Furies, the guardians of Hades who do not allow living beings to enter. Orfeo convinces them with the depth of his sorrow to permit him to pass to Elysium, (think of it as the nice part of hell) to claim his Euridice.

The chorus has become a chorus of heroes and Orfeo meets Euridice but he cannot look at her until they come back to earth. Elysium is a place of beauty but Carsen will not allow the gloomy atmosphere to change. The rest of the journey is unbearable as Euridice fears that Orfeo no longer loves her and they reach the breaking point when she is not sure that she wants to return to earth, He can no longer endure her doubts and looks at her. She dies. 

We have reached the climax of pain and grief and there is nothing left for Orfeo but to commit suicide. He sings the extraordinary aria “Che faro senza Euridice” (What will I do without Euridice.) But love conquers all and the god of love intercedes again and Orfeo and Euridice are united, the lights shine, the nymphs and shepherds still dressed funereally celebrate and they all live happily ever after.

Iestyn Davies occupies the niche of a countertenor voice that has relatively few singers. He has a big, beautifully calibrated voice that can express the anguish, the resolution and the temporary joy of Orfeo to perfection. The COC Chorus is superb in its rendition of its several representations of singing that it delivers.     

The myth of Orpheus and Euridice has proven to be a prime inspiration and challenge for composers. There are almost a hundred operas based on the myth and what composer could resist the challenge of writing music that would sway the guardians of the underworld?
There are many ways of producing Orfeo ed Euridice and Carsen has chosen his own way, emphasizing the dark and solemn aspects. He designed the gloomy lighting with Peter Van Praet, and Tobias Hoheisel designed the sets and costumes. The rest was up to the singers and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus to deliver the extraordinary beauty and emotional power of a great opera.
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Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck opened on October 9 and will be performed seven times on various dates until October 25, 2025, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.coc.ca 

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival once again tips its hat to Broadway by producing Sunday In The Park With George, the 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.  The musical has won a carload of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.

George of the title is French painter Georges Seurat who painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte between 1884 and 1886. The island is in the Seine and was frequented by ordinary Parisians on Sundays and Seurat wanted to capture them promenading there. The plot of the musical is fictional so don’t try to learn anything about Seurat from it.

In the opening scene of the musical, George (John Riddle) tells us what a painter faces: "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony." It is a tall order for the painter who is sitting in front of an easel and sketching his model Dot (Marina Pires). She is bored and frustrated (and very funny) at having to get up early every Sunday and stand still and pose as ordered by George. She is also his mistress. Parisians start arriving on the island.

An Old Lady (Lauretta Bybee) comes with her Nurse (Taylor-Alexis DuPont)and the latter plops her on the ground with some difficulty. The Old Lady turns out to be George’s Mother. The musical has 36 characters played by 17 singers/actors but many of them are inconsequential.

The action picks up and we see numerous vignettes. Artist Jules (Marc Webster) and his wife Yovonne (Claire McCahan) opine that George’s painting has “No life,” Dot befriends Louis, the baker, the two Celestes (Angela Yam and SarahAnn Duffy) argue over who will get the better-looking soldier and so on. George continues painting. 

John Riddle as George with the painting A Sunday Afternoon on
 the Island of La Grande Jatte. 
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

A pair of American tourists Betty (Claire McCahan and Bob Greenberg (Marc Webste) represent one view of the stupid American tourist from the South and they are very funny.

The plot complications recur and develop while George and Dot reach an impasse. She is carrying his child and she wants to marry Louis (Sahel Salam) and go to the United States. Jules sneaks away for a bit of fun with Frieda (Viviana Aurelia Goodwin) and his wife Yvonne finds out about it. Oops. Mayhem breaks out on the island. George takes control, after all it is his painting, and its subjects take their place in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which will end up in the Art Institute of Chicago.

That is the first act of the musical with some humour, drama and numerous complications and the appropriate ending with the completion of the work.

But Sondheim and Lapine add a second act that takes place 100 years later, in 1984. with George’s great-grandson also called George. The latter has a machine called "Chromolume #7" and he is showing his great-grandfather’s work with that machine and with the help of his 98-year-old grandmother Marie (Marina Pires), the daughter of Dot. Marie tells us what her mother told her on her deathbed.  Then Marie speaks to her mother in the painting.  Then a vision of Dot appears and by that time I have lost almost all interest in what is going on.

There are excellent performances by the cast. John Riddle is a dedicated, serious minded almost obsessed artist. He is lithe of foot and voice and a distinguished performer. The Americans provide good humour and Julius and Yvonne are notable for their work.

The sets by John Conklin are minimalist but effective. He set the standard for set design for all the season’s operas and deserves a standing ovation.

Director Ethan Heard does a fine job in the first act but I got diminishing returns in the second act that all but killed it for me.

Conductor Michael Ellis Ingram led the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra for an enthusiastic audience.  
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Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) is being performed six times until August 17, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The House On Mango Street is a new opera by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) It is based on Cisneros’ novel and it had its premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in July of 2025.

The opera has thirty characters played by 22 actors/singers and is set in a poor, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. The opera, like the novel, is episodic and deals with an array of events and personal stories in the lives of the residents of the community.

The main character is Esperanza (Mikaela Bennett), a young woman and aspiring writer. The opera opens with her at an old-fashioned typewriter pecking away stories about her life. The novel was published in 1984 and predates computers but the central message of the opera and the novel is Esperanza’s desire to get out of the hellish neighborhood.

Sally (Taylor Alexis-Dupont) is an adolescent who wants to have fun with the boys of the neighborhood but the two sides may have different ideas about fun. Sally, we learn, wants to keep the boys at bay but her real problem is an abusive father that she keeps as a secret.

We have Lucy (Samantha Sosa) and Rachel (Kaylan Hernandez) who are prepared to be Esperanza’s friends forever. But that will only happen if she gives them five dollars to buy a bike. Are they from Sicily?

Cast of House on Mango Street. 
Photo by Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Geraldo (Angelo Silva), a young, undocumented street vendor has the most tragic end. He is killed in a street scuffle and the people  who witnessed the shooting “saw nothing. 

As I said, the opera has some thirty characters and the plotline becomes  unfocused and confusing. It would be pointless to name them all. The music seems to emanate from numerous styles that I could not recognize. More focus would have been better.

Set Designer John Conklin went to market in his set design. Two brightly lit towers represent two houses or whatever else you want. Extensive use of lighting patterns, projections by Greg Emetaz and by Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker provide a dizzying kaleidoscope of effects. Is there such a result as too much of a good thing? We get the life of a poor immigrant community, individual stories from many of them, an array of musical styles  -  it is too much to absorb on the first viewing of a new opera.

Costume Designer Erik Teague provides costumes that represent poor teenagers as well as more elaborate costumes for some who have different tastes. There is no issue with his designs.

Director Chia Patino manages the thirty characters in the two towers and on stage with efficiency. She does a fine job with the street fight and handling the emotional and humorous parts of the opera.   

Conductor Nicole Paiement conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera through the many musical styles that the score calls for.

It may seem that I did not enjoy the new opera at all. That is not entirely true and totally unfair for a new and thus unfamiliar work. The Glimmerglass Festival deserves kudos for commissioning the work and Bermel and Cisneros for creating an opera from her novel. There was exceptionally high-quality singing and some of stories were moving, tragic and funny. Unfortunately, I found the work as a whole disappointing.
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The House on Mango Street by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) is being performed six times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor Culture of The Greek Press

THE RAKE’S PROGRESS – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has staged a powerful and stunning production of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress during the 50^th anniversary season at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. The production features a strong cast directed by Eric Sean Fogel and the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus conducted by Joseph Colaneri.

The Rake’s Progress was a series of paintings by the eighteenth-century English painter Thomas Hogarth who charted the life of Tom Rakewell, “the rake.” Progress is meant ironically because Tom went from the heir to a large fortune to a life of luxury, waste, prostitution and loss of everything including his sanity. The aptly named Anne Trulove, the beautiful woman that he loved and abandoned continued to love him to the bitter end.

Igor Stravinsky was quite taken by the paintings and he decided to turn them into an opera. The libretto based on Hogarth’s paintings was prepared by the august W. H. Auden and Chester Simon Kallman  and was first performed in 1951 in Venice.

The Glimmerglass Festival production features Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer as Tom Rakewell. (The Glimmerglass Festival Program says he is from New York, New York! This is not the time to make mistakes like that.) He is from Toronto). Regardless of his origin, he turns in an energetic performance physically and especially vocally. He fulfills Rakewell’s complex role with superb singing and acting through the many stages of the rake’s life. It was a delight to hear and watch him

The lovely Anne is the antithesis of Rakewell and I pay tribute to soprano Lydia Grindatto. She plays the faithful and pure lover of Rakewell and pursues him until his bitter end. She sings the arias and duets with beauty and splendid vocal finesse. She makes the most difficult phrase appear simple, natural, and beautiful.

 

Aleksey Bogdanov (Nick Shadow), Adrian Kramer (Tom Rakewell)

Photo © The Glimmerglass Festival | Kayleen Bertrand

And we have the Mephistopheles of the opera, Nick Shadow (baritone Aleksey Bogdanov). He has the attire and manners of an English gentleman and tells the lazy lout Rakewell that he has inherited a large fortune. He invites him to enjoy the life that money can provide and Rakewell follows him to London to a “better life” in a brothel. Bogdanov has a sonorous and convincing baritone voice and manages to control Rakewell to the bitter end when he asks him for his soul in payment for his services. A marvelous performance by Bogdanov.

The first step that Rakewell takes on his way down is at the brothel where he meets Baba the Turk (mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel). She has a big voice and a pronounced presence on the stage. She may be considered nasty but she has, as they say, about members of her profession (and I mean prostitutes and not singers), a heart of gold. Baba marries Rakewell but when Anne shows up, she speaks well of him. I have no doubt that Deborah too has a heart of gold and she gives a grand performance.

Anne’s father Trulove (bass Marc Webster) sings with gorgeous sonority and sensitivity as the concerned parent who finds a job for the wastrel Rakewell. He has a relatively small roll but he makes the most of it. Well done.

The set by John Conklin is minimalist and unrealistic. The lighting by Robert Wierzel features generous use of projections illustrating certain events. They do the job. In the opening scene we see a cutout of the Venus de Milo statue, the one of the goddess of love with the missing arms. It disappears when Rakewell goes astray but at the end of the opera he thinks he is Adonis, the beautiful youth that Venus loved passionately.

Director Fogel handles the complex plot and characters with an eye to detail and drama. He gives us a coherent and splendidly done production.

Colaneri conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus through Stravinsky’s multifaceted and complicated score brilliantly. We are left with a production to remember.
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The Rake’s Progress by Igor Stravinsky is being performed six times until August 15, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information at www.glimmerglass.org/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press 

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival is celebrating its 50^th anniversary season and that speaks of its longevity and the high quality of its productions. For those who have not been there, it is held in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre on the shores of Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Doesn’t ring a bell? How about it is next door to Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame? That’s better.

 This year the Festival offers four operas among other events. The operas represent the usual eclectic choice this year of the effervescent Artistic and General Director Rob Ainsley. Puccini’s Tosca is the staple. Sunday In The Park With George is the American classic musical. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress is the adventurous 20^th century classic  and The House on Mango Street with music by Derek Merkel and libretto by Sandra Cisneros and Bermel is a new opera.

Director Louisa Proske and Designer John Conklin offer a unique, imaginative and brilliant production of Puccini’s masterpiece. They have their own take on the opera and despite some aspects that may strike us as unorthodox or head-scratching the result is a marvelous production.

First, the singers. You can’t have a Tosca without a highly qualified soprano. American soprano Michelle Bradley delivers a stunning performance in the lead role. She has a big, brilliant and expressive voice that simply knocks you over. She can be the jealous woman who goes crazy over the idea that her lover Cavaradossi is painting another beauty, a passionate lover in her duets with the same man and a fury when confronted by a sadistic would-be rapist. She can belt out her phrases and express tender memories as in “Vissi d’arte”.    

The other essential part of the opera is the sadistic Scarpia sung here by American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley. Scarpia relishes his lust and tells us he prefers force over consent. He is a rapist. He has the great scene with Tosca where he tries to seduce her and rape her. He thunders his joy at torturing people and at his absolute control over them. We watch with delight as Tosca stabs him to death on the bed in his office where he had a woman before Tosca arrived.

 

Greer Grimsley as Baron Scarpia, Yongzhao Yu as 

Mario Cavaradossi, and Kellan Dunlap as Spoletta. 

Photo Credit: Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

American tenor Yongzhao Yu sings a fine Cavaradossi. He sings a sound E lucevan le stelle but he is out sung in his duets with Tosca.

Proske and Conklin put their own stamp on the production. As the lights go on, the set appears and it seems that the monumental interior of the Church of St. Andrea where the first act is set is being renovated. There are tarps and scaffolding all around except for the back of a large easel and a small Madonna on a pedestal. We never see what Cavaradossi is painting. The tarps do fall for the Te Deum at the end of the act but there is no spectacular splendor.

The second act is in Scarpia’s presumably opulent office. The furniture is ordinary to cheap and there is a bed with a women getting dressed after having finished the obvious. There is a table, a bathroom with a shower and a cheap desk. The torture room is in the back.

All the furniture from Scarpia’s office is removed for the third act which is supposed to take place atop the Castel Sant’Angelo. It does not. There is no parapet for Tosca to jump off and Proske solves the problem with a gun. Tosca shoots herself.

We may miss the Zeffirellian grandeur but surprisingly the changes do not take away from the drama and effectiveness of the production. There are many nice touches. When the sacristan Sergio Martinez sees Cavaradossi’s painting he is startled and when he sweeps the floor, he pushes the dirt under the tarps. Funny.

For the Shepherd’s Song, Proske develops a scene with a small angel, a priest and a ritual with the Madonna (I think) appearing. It is cute and necessary for the stage to be cleared for  the following scene.

Proske along with Conklin gives us an original and stunning production of an old chestnut.

Conductor Joseph Colaneri leads the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus to a rousing performance that earns them all a standing ovation.

The Glimmerglass Festival strikes a significant note for freedom and democracy. The cover of its impressive 158-page program shows an unprepossessing picture of a wall. In fact, it is the space where Cavaradossi will be killed and Tosca commits suicide. The photograph on the program is not an accident. Tosca is about political oppression, abuse of power and murder and torture of people.

Before the opera begins, we read projected on a screen the words Prof. Timothy Snyder about tyranny. I do not recall the exact text but these words from him give you the idea: We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. He is talking about America today and the Festival shows guts where many Americans cave in to despotism.

Bravo Glimmerglass Festival.

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is being performed ten times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto 

LOUISE – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Louise is an opera by Gustave Charpentier that has the distinction of being the first opera of the twentieth century or so they tell us. Charpentier (1860-1956) had a long life but wrote only one viable opera. It was successful for a while, but it has fallen out of favour, and one is grateful to the Aix Festival for producing it. 

It is a love story that branches out into family dynamics, social commentary especially about women’s rights and provides a vignette of moral standards of the time.

Louise (Elsa Dreisig) is in love with Julien (Adam Smith), but she is caught in the social mores and family traps of the era and there are few choices for working class girls in late 19^th century France. She wants to start a new life with her lover in Paris, the symbol of freedom, but her parents do not approve of her leaving them. She rebels and does move to Paris. but the breakup with her parents and her choice of work as a seamstress are not completely successful. In the end she does find happiness with her lover and with life in Paris, but she is wracked with guilt about her decision.

In the midst of enjoying the pleasures of freedom, love and parties, her mother (Sophie Koch) shows up and breaks up the party by telling Louise that her father is not well. Louise returns home to the tense and unhappy atmosphere and eventually she finds the strength to break the chains of family pressure and morality of her class and leaves her father and his curses.

Despite its broader tentacles, this is a sappy story, but Charpentier gives us a lot more than that and makes Louise an enjoyable work. He adds a couple of dozen characters from Louise’s place of work and Parisian society and creates a celebration with Louise’s coworkers as well as street parties with a colorful and fascinating cross section of working-class Paris.

It includes a crowd of pleasure seekers, street vendors and a night prowler who calls himself The Pleasure of Paris (played colourfully by Adam Smith). Soon Louise’s co-workers join the festive crowd, and all present a vivid and joyous scene in the opera. In the meantime, Julien is serenading Louise and her co-workers tease and even ridicule her, but in the end the two lovers leave together. 

Scene from Louise, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 

Photo: © Monika Rittershaus

The two lovers escape and move into their own apartment and Louise sings the opera’s most famous aria “Depuis le jour” about how wonderful life is, about being in love, about her first kiss, about life in Paris. It is beautifully done by Dreisig.

Nicolas Courjal starts as a tired, and brooding father who adores his daughter but ends up as a nasty man who cannot let his daughter grow up. Sophie Koch starts as a tyrannical mother, overprotective of her daughter but her character matures and, in the end, she ends up breaking away from the patriarchal family. The adoring father does not appear to accept change.

The four singers who handle the immediate family show vocal beauty without being stressed with pyrotechnics. The crowd scenes are handled beautifully, and they provide a much-needed balance to the family squabble and the need for the young lovers to break away from the apron strings of the traditional family of the day and strike a note of freedom and of course give us Paris as a symbol of liberty.

The set by Etienne Pluss consists of the stage of the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê being turned into a large well-appointed room. There are couches lined up at the back with large windows above that. This could be a huge waiting room, and it does not represent the home of Louise’s working-class family. The basic structure serves as the humble apartment of the lovers and her workplace as well as the street party. The windows are shuttered and closed to indicate change of venue, but the changes are subtle, and we prefer to watch the action rather than the set changes.

In the end this production of Louise expertly directed by Christof Loy presents us with a coherent, well-done work that deserves more attention and productions than it is getting. Loy and dramaturg Louis Geisler add a nice touch at the end of the opera. Louise’s mother exits with her when she leaves her family home. The mother has seen the light. The father has not.

Giacomo Sagripanti conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera of Lyon in a vivacious performance of a highly enjoyable night at the opera.

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Louise by Gustave Charpentier was performed a total of four times until July 13, 2025, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE NINE JEWELLED DEER – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Nine Jewelled Deer is the intriguing title of an opera offered by the Aix-en-Provence Festival. It is by Sivan Eldar, Ganavya Doraiswamy and Lauren Groff who are unknown to me, adding mystery to intrigue. It played at Luma Arles for three performances and that required a bus ride from Aix-en-Provence to Arles. It also performed in the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence for an additional three times.

What is it all about? A program note gives us the basic elements of the new work whose premiere we are about to witness. I can do no better than to quote it:

A thousand-year-old cave painting in China depicting a drowning man saved by a marvellous deer whose existence he must not reveal; a cramped kitchen in modern-day India where an old woman takes in victims of life’s misfortunes and heals them through song; the garden of a former prostitute, where a monk teaches the secrets of “Enlightenment” – that supreme state of knowledge and compassion.

The opera is the work of Sivan Eldar, a composer and instrumentalist with broad experience. Her biographical information states that she started as a pianist and vocalist and has broadened her interests into electric and electronic instruments and more. Ganavya Doraiswamy was raised in Tamil Nadu, South India where she learned singing, harmonium and classical Indian dance. She further studied spirituality “with a focus on freeing individuals from power relationships and from identity ascription” according to her bio.

The performers are Ganavya Doraiswamy and Anura Sairam, vocalists, with   Nurit Stark, violaist and violinist, Sonia Wieder-Atherton, cellist, Dana Barak, clarinettist, Hayden Chisolm, saxophonist, Rajna Swaminathan, percussionist and Augustin Muller playing electronic – Ircam.  

Scene from The Nine Jewelled Deer. 

Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2025 © Ruth Walz

The performance takes place in a large hall in Arles where seats are installed on one side, and we watch the action on the ground level in front of us. This is not a theatre in a traditional form. The players named above open the show with one of them asking us to sing a one-phrase refrain in Tamil as she sings the song. Most of the audience joins in what sounds like a beautiful, perhaps haunting, prayer or invocation

The names of jewels are projected in English on a screen. DIAMOND, PEARL, SAPHIRE, CORAL, EMERALD etc. with comments about each of them by one of the vocalists but I do not know who. The instrumentalists play music that varies from melodious to dissonant, to jazz and such that I cannot put my finger on all the types that they cover.

The spoken text and the songs are in English or in Tamil. There is one section that lasts for about half an hour where a grandmother tells a story to a young listener and then the listener responds to the story, all in Tamil without surtitles.

The story of the drowning man and the deer that saved his life is told. The writers are careful not to identify the deer as a stag or a doe so as not to appear sexist. The pronoun “it” would serve perfectly without the necessity of any further explanation.

The blurb quoted above contains promises that may all have been broached but I did not get them all and some may have been in Tamil. The saved man keeps his promise to the marvelous deer and did not disclose who saved him from drowning until the King who is trying to find the deer because his Queen wants it, offers a reward including some virgins and the poor saved man breaks his promise and reveals his saviour. The King finds the deer and is about to shoot it with his bow but the arrow melts and the deer is saved.

The show stretches the definition or at least my narrow idea of opera but that is of no importance. New and innovative works are not just desirable but necessary. The Nine Jewelled Deer is based on ancient Indian tales that relate stories of Budha’s previous lives and incarnation. The opera is based on one of the numerous Jataka Tales that are, unfortunately, unfamiliar to me. There are projections of paintings during the performance and unfortunately, I could not understand their meaning.

The production is directed by the wild, wildly imaginative and brilliant Peter Sellars. I do not expect to understand what he is doing on a first (at least) viewing.
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THE NINE JEWELLED DEER by Sivan Eldar, Ganavya Doraiswamy and Lauren Groff, directed by Peter Sellars, visual artist Julie Mehretu played at Luma, Arles and at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence from July 6 to 14, 2025 as part of the Aix-en-Provence Festival.  

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press 

THE STORY OF BILLY BUDD, SAILOR - REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Billy Budd is a fictitious character created by Herman Melville in an unfinished novella known as Billy Budd, Sailor. It drew much literary attention competing with the author’s much more famous Moby Dick. Benjamin Britten was drawn to the story and composed an opera based on a libretto in four acts by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier that opened in 1951. It was rewritten as a two-act opera that premiered in 1960.

Like all good stories, Billy Budd is based on a simple story that opens much more when pondered. Billy Budd is a young, innocent, decent and handsome young man who is “impressed” (taken by force) as a sailor on The Indomitable, a warship. He encounters decency and evil, hatred and malice and eventually is convicted and sentenced to death in accordance with articles of war.

Oliver Leith did the musical adaptation. Ted Huffman did the stage direction, adaptation, costume design and accessories. The two have syncopated Britten’s work into a chamber opera that ten singers who perform all the roles play all the instruments in the intimacy of the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-de-Provence. They deliver a captivating 140 minutes of opera that is emotionally intense and gripping.

The story begins with Captain Edward Fairfax Vere (Christopher Sokolowski who also plays Squeak), a naval officer and man of culture, as an old man recalling the events of his life, struggling with his conscience and remembering the story of Billy Budd. We then go back to 1797 on the deck of The Indomitable where the decent Billy Budd encounters the ship’s Master-at-arms John Claggart (Joshua Bloom who also plays Dansker), an evil man. This is where we go beyond the story of one man but are forced to think about good and evil, justice and injustice and innocence and corruption. 

Scene from The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor. 

Photo: © Jean-Louis Fernandez

Claggart plots to destroy Billy Budd, and he plots against him including attempting to bribe him into starting a mutiny. He brings Budd in front of Vere on trumped up charges and the innocent sailor is so shocked that he cannot utter a word. Billy Budd has a terrible stammer and is unable to speak under pressure. Vere is forced to condemn Budd to death, and he is hanged on the ship’s deck in a terrifically staged scene that that leaves you stunned. 

Baritone Ian Rucker as Billy Budd vocally exudes the innocence, eagerness and humanity of the young sailor. He knows that he is innocent even if in a moment of anger, he struck Claggart who died from the blow. The punishment for striking an officer is death and Billy Budd takes the inevitable punishment with grace. A wonderful performance. 

The venomous Claggart is performed with exceptional malice by bass Joshua Bloom. He struck me as a man with motiveless malignity, a description someone coined about the villainous Iago, Othello’s destroyer.  

Tenor Sokolowski’s Captain Vere presents perhaps the most interesting character because he represents more than just the events of 1797. He straddles the moral code of the warship with the knowledge of later reflection of what he did. Did he lack the moral backbone to refuse to execute an innocent man? Is he trying to salve his conscience in old age? It is a subject for discussion that Sokolowski sings so eminently well in his performance of the role.

The musicians deserve a special bow. Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor and keyboards, Richard Gowers, keyboards, Siwan Rhys, keyboards and George Barton, percussion. They are on stage behind the singers ready to lend a hand, when necessary,
A superb syncopation and presentation of Benjamin Britten’s opera.
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The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor  by Ted Huffman and Oliver Leith after Benjamin Britten played four times until July 10, 2024, on various dates at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

 James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

LA CALISTO – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The Aix-en-Provence Festival offers a beautiful production of La Calisto, Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 wonderful opera at the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê. It is splendidly sung accompanied by the orchestra conducted by Sebastien Daucé and directed by Jetske Mijnssen. It has magnificent sets by Julia Katharina Berndt and it all adds up to a marvelous night at the opera. It is done in the open air under the stars and who cares if it starts at 9:30 p.m. and lasts until almost 1:00 in the morning.

La Calisto is based on Greek mythology via Ovid’s Metamorphoses and has a noble theme of saving the world, but the reality is a lot of testosterone-driven gods and mortals, and followers of the goddess Diana. That means virgins, gods and men and a lot of sexual attraction, rejection and tragedy turned into apotheosis.

The main story is about Callisto (Laurenne Oliva), the beautiful nymph and dedicated followers of the goddess Diana (Giuseppina Bridelli), the virgin goddess whose followers are of course virgins. Oliva has a gorgeous voice, and she defines a woman of class and high manners.

Enter Jupiter (Alex Rosen) who wants to save the world but as we know he has more testosterone than sense. He sees Calisto and wants her. She rebuffs him and he wants to rape her. But his companion and son Mercury (Dominic Sedgwick), the god of lies, suggests a gentler method: deceit. Jupiter disguises himself as Diana and approaches Calisto sexually. Calisto responds positively. Kudos to Rosen and Sedgwick as singers and performers. 

But we know that problems are inevitable. First, Calisto approaches the real Diana lovingly and is thrown out of the group of virgin followers. Worse is to come when Juno (Mrs. Jupiter) figures out her husband’s ruse and takes revenge on the poor Calisto but that can wait for a couple of hours. 

Scene from La Calisto,. Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 
Photo © Monika Rittershaus

In the meantime, the handsome shepherd Endymion (Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian) comes looking for Diana. He is madly in love with her, and she loves him but secretly because of her vow of chastity. Linfea (Zachary Wilder), an innocent virgin, has some amorous urges but she knows nothing about men and love. When the Satyr (countertenor Théo Imart) approaches her with a marriage proposal she rejects him, and he is very unhappy about that. The god Pan (tenor David Portillo) is also madly in love with Diana, but he too is rejected. Will Diana relent and accept sexual fulfilment. I won’t tell you everything.

Pan, the Satyr and Silvano (bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams), decide to spy on Diana to figure out what she is up to! Well, she finds Endymion sleeping and sidles up to him amorously, but the three spying clowns see them. Endymion does not get anything.

We need more complications and some real fury. Who better than the harridan of the mythical world Juno (Anna Bonitatibus). She knows of Jupiter’s debauchery and descends to Earth for the details and revenge. She overhears Calisto's tears and questions her, recognizing in her story her husband's methods. Jupiter appears in the guise of Diana, but Juno recognizes him by the presence of his sidekick Mercury. In short, Juno figures out what her husband is doing.  

La Calisto has a large cast and many of the singers have more than one role. David Portillo sings La Natura. Pan and Furia. Jose Loca Loza plays Silvano and Furia. Imart sings Destino, Satirino and Furia. Bonitatibus is June as well as L’Eternita. Kudos for highest quality singing and acting.

There are amorous, humorous and dramatic complications carried by comic scenes, gorgeous arias and accompanying choral pieces that are a delight to the ear and the eye. 

The set by Berndt consists of a paneled stage with a revolving middle piece. Half of it is an open half circle whereas the other half resembles the rest of the stage. It is effective, practical and beautiful. The costumes by Hannah Clark are just what you expect immortals, nymphs and shepherds to wear. They may look suspiciously like fancy baroque attire but who are we to argue with the gods.

There is the ugly side of the opera where Juno turns Calisto into an ugly animal, a bear according to Ovid. But Fate intervenes and Calisto is turned into an eternal constellation. Jupiter and Callisto come down to earth to say farewell as a celestial choir celebrates the  lovers. And so do we.
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La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli  opened on July 7 and will be performed a total of eight  times until July 21, 2025, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is in full swing for its 77^th season from July 4 to 21, 2025 in a picture-perfect medieval city. Its eclectic program of operas includes Don, Giovanni, an adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd as The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor, Cavalli’s La Calisto, The Nine Jeweled Thief, a new work by Siva Eldar and Ganavya Doraiswamy and Louise.

Don Giovanni is the big, classical opera of the season and it is conducted by the inimitable Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The production is directed by Robert Icke, a brilliant theatre director who is making his debut as a director of opera.

Like all directors, Icke wants to put his own imprimatur on the production, and he does that in spades. There is a wide range of changes, tweaks, adaptations that a director can do even with a work as well known as Don Giovanni. He can dramaturge the libretto and change the era, add or delete characters and change the spirit of the work almost beyond description.

Ickes does all those things, and he adds so many twists that I could hardly keep up with a very familiar libretto. Don Giovanni opens with the dramatic overture, but Icke adds stage action during the playing of it. We see projected on a screen an old man in a room with a chair, table and some stereo equipment. He is trying with difficulty to get some music to play on his system. After a few minutes of trying, he succeeds in getting the overture to Don Giovanni to play. He falls on the ground and we get a closeup of him. He is apparently dead. I assume the old man is Don Giavanni but, by the end of the performance I think it could be the Commendatore. We saw the Commendatore killed in the first scene, but he walked off the stage instead of being carried out. We are used to seeing the Commendatore’s statue thundering in the final scene but according to Icke he makes several appearances during the performance. 

Andrè Schuen , Amitai Pat Photo (© Monika Ritterhaus)

My initial complaint to seeing the Commendatore, if it was him, was that I paid attention to the scene instead of listening to the great overture. The situation became worse when I could not figure out who is who as between Don Givanni and the Commendatore. And that is just the beginning of Icke’s tinkering more accurately bludgeoning Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s work.

Before outlining some other aspects of Icke’s approach, I want to give credit to the performers. I start with the women who excelled in their singing and acting. I start with Golda Schultz as Donna Anna. She is the tricky one who pretends to grieve for her father and is supposed to be engaged to and in love with Don Ottavio, but in fact is in love with Don Giovanni. Gorgeous voice and able to manipulate all situations, Schultz gives a bravura performance.

We note that Donna Anna comes out of her room in the opening scene where she was perhaps raped or at least molested, wearing a gray dress with no evidence of interference. She approaches Don Giovanni lovingly. We get her number.

Kudos to mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena as Donna Elvira. Don Giovanni seduced her and abandoned her and now she wants to find him and tear his heart out unless he comes back. (a slight qualification there). Kozena captures the pain, anger and longing of Donna Elvira as she belts out her complex arias. She expresses her anger as she is searching for Don Giovanni on the street and he “smells” a woman. According to Icke, she is in her bedroom. Sure.

Zerlina (soprano Madison Nonoa) is the pretty peasant girl on her wedding day Zerlina is lovely of voice and face (but not too bright) and she almost falls for Don Giovanni. I think Icke takes her a step further and she kisses him. She knows how to manipulate her nice Masetto (bass Pawel Horodyski) even after he gets a thrashing. Masetto is a peasant, but Icke makes no point of that,

Baritone Andre Schuen as Don Giovanni and bass Krzysztof Baczyk as Leporello make a fine pair of vocal scoundrels, but I am not sure what Icke has in mind about the first. I may well have missed Icke’s point about Don Giovanni but as I said I was following so many confusing strands, his message escaped me. I am still trying to figure out how he got into hospital and ended up running around with a pole for intravenous medication.  

Aside from Masetto, the other nice guy is Don Ottavio (tenor Amitai Pati) who is engaged to Donna Anna. Ottavio gets some beautiful arias expressing ardent love and Pati does a superbly expressive job.

In some scenes videos are projected in the top half of the stage and the bottom looks like a basement. There is frequent use of projections, and it is not always clear what they mean. At one point Leporello leads Donna Elvira from her upper storey apartment and Don Giovanni serenades her maid. Her maid looks like a 10-year-old girl whom we see several times. Is Don Giovanni asking her to dispel his sorrows, and compliments her lips as sweeter than honey and more? The word for this is paedophilia but is that what Icke is getting at? Icke has surpassed all bounds and has gone on an ego trip that has nothing to do with sound directing.

Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra play Mozart brilliantly despite the confusion on stage and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir handles the choral parts superbly. Don Giovanni is probably indestructible but there are times when Robert Ickes makes you wonder.
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Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart opened on July 4 and will be performed eight times until July 18, 2025, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com/ 

James Karas is Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press