Opera Review: Pride. Prejudice and a Zombie

Gerald Finley is Don Giovanni from Glyndebourne.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gerald Finley and Luca Pisaroni in Don Giovanni.
Photo by Bill Cooper © 2011 EMI Classics/Glyndebourne Festival.

Mozart's Don Giovanni has long been burdened with the title of the "greatest" of all operas. And yet, it remains an elusive subject for directors who seek to bring something new to the tale of a rakish nobleman and a dinner date gone horribly wrong. This performance from the Glyndebourne Festival (originally released by EMI, broadcast by Medici.TV and viewed on Amazon Prime Video on Demand) preserves the production by the team of director Jonathan Kent and Paul Brown that graced the Glyndebourne Festival in 2010.

Recordings Review: Finally Uncorked!

Glyndebourne releases a classic L'Elisir d'Amore.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sometimes a fine wine must remain in the cask before its full body and rich accents can be sampled and savored. This superb live recording of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, bottled at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1962, remained unreleased until 2009.

Weighing In...On Singers' Weight

A few words on the Glyndebourne Rosenkavalier controversy.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Confronting her critics: Tara Erraught (right) in Richard Jones' new production of
Der Rosenkavalier at the 2014 Glyndebourne Festival.
Photo by Tristram Kenton © 2014 Glyndebourne Festival.

There's been a lot of Internet space occupied lately by the controversy following reviews of the new Glyndebourne production of Der Rosenkavalier.  Last week, British critics from major newspapers (including The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times) took mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught to task for her body type in the performance of the opera's titular role. The controversy has since jumped the Atlantic and received coverage from the Washington Post and the New York Times website.

Opera Review: The Road to Melville

Glyndebourne's Billy Budd sails to BAM.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Captain Vere (Mark Padmore, left) confronts Billy (Jacques Imbralio) and Claggart (Brindley Sherratt)
in Act II of Billy Budd. Photo by Richard Hubert Smith © 2013 The Glyndebourne Festival.

Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera Billy Budd is one of the composer's most powerful, and challenging creations. Based on the novella by Herman Melville and set to a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, a performance requires a top-flight orchestra, crack choral singing and a compelling set of leads to bring Herman Melville's novella of life in the British Royal Navy in 1799 to vivid life. Finally, the naval action must look and feel convincing, or the production will simply sink.

DVD Review: The Shoe Must Go On

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from Glyndebourne.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cobbler Hans Sachs (Gerald Finley (r.) tries to get some work done as
Beckmesser (Johann Martin Kränzle) warbles in Act II of
Die Meistersinger. Image from the Glyndebourne Festival © 2011 OpusArte.

This DVD performance (released on two discs or a single Blu-Ray by OpusArte) was shot in June 2011 at the Glyndebourne Festival. It is just the second Wagner opera to be performed at Glyndebourne following a 2003 Tristan und Isolde. (It marks a collaboration between this house, San Francisco Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, who will mount this staging in February 2012.)The show features a youthful, energetic cast who exhibit a thorough dramatic involvement in this vast comedy, anchored by the Sachs of Canadian baritone Gerald Finley.

DVD Review: Queen Takes Knight

Nina Stemme in the Glyndebourne Tristan und Isolde.
by Paul Pelkonen

First-date jitters: Isolde (Nina Stemme) confronts Tristan (Robert Gambill) at Glyndebourne.
Photo © 2007 Glydebourne Festival/Opus Arte.

In the last decade, soprano Nina Stemme has transited from singing Mozart to heavier German repertory. This three-DVD set, released in 2008 by OpusArte captures Ms. Stemme as Isolde in the Glyndebourne Festival's first-ever staging of a Wagner opera. Jiří Bělohlávek conducts the London Philharmonic in a sweeping, slow reading of the score that draws out much of Wagner's musical detail.

The Irish princess is one of the most complicated roles in opera, traveling from rage to redemption and stopping along the way to fall in love with Tristan, the Cornish knight assigned to bring her to his feudal lord, King Marke. Ms. Stemme sings the two Act I narratives with power and detail, injecting vivid meaning into each word as she tells Brangäne of Tristan's betrayal.

In this Spartan setting by Nikolaus Lehnoff, those details are necessary for the viewer to understand what's going on. Set designer Roland Aeschlimann creates an abstract space, a large torus that looks like the "Guardian of Forever" on the original Star Trek. All the characters move through this torus which is carefully lit to reflect contrasting moods. The only ill effect of this "mystic donut" is that it muffles the chorus and offstage horns.

Opera Review: Let Them Eat...Each Other

Hansel and Gretel at the Met.
by Paul Pelkonen

Julia Child-killer. Robert Brubaker (r.) as the Witch menaces Gretel in
Act III of Hansel and Gretel. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera marketing department touts Hansel and Gretel as its holiday offering, with a fairy-tale story geared toward children. It promotes images of friendly chefs, and a whimsical (fish-headed) waiter serving up dishes to two hungry tykes lost in the woods. But in choosing to revive Richard Jones''s food-obsessed production (originally seen at the Welsh National Opera in 1999) the company has missed the point of the work.