Coliseum; Barbican; Linbury Studio; Queen Elizabeth Hall, all London
Based on column inches and lurid images alone, never mind the incalculable online torrent, the big event this week was Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust at English National Opera. After squawks over the company's recent choice of directors from outside opera, it was a pleasure to witness a superbly staged, ingenious production from opera novice Terry Gilliam, best known as a Hollywood director and genius ex-Python animator. If you want to use film in opera, and most now do, Gilliam shows you how.
Musical standards, with Edward Gardner in the pit, were secure though not vintage, and Berlioz's infinitely delicate score survived just about intact despite being zipped into an all-in-one concept and tumbling out wittily for a choreographic Treaty of Versailles and a dance of the gas masks. The iconography – the 1936 Olympics, Kristallnacht, a glimpse of the Obersalzberg – pinned us...
Based on column inches and lurid images alone, never mind the incalculable online torrent, the big event this week was Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust at English National Opera. After squawks over the company's recent choice of directors from outside opera, it was a pleasure to witness a superbly staged, ingenious production from opera novice Terry Gilliam, best known as a Hollywood director and genius ex-Python animator. If you want to use film in opera, and most now do, Gilliam shows you how.
Musical standards, with Edward Gardner in the pit, were secure though not vintage, and Berlioz's infinitely delicate score survived just about intact despite being zipped into an all-in-one concept and tumbling out wittily for a choreographic Treaty of Versailles and a dance of the gas masks. The iconography – the 1936 Olympics, Kristallnacht, a glimpse of the Obersalzberg – pinned us...
- 5/14/2011
- by Fiona Maddocks
- The Guardian - Film News
Rufus Wainwright is to be joined by family and friends for a five-night residency at London's Royal Opera House this July. The concerts will from July 18 to July 23 at the historic venue, with Wainwright adopting a different theme each night, including his tribute to Judy Garland for the first concert and his July 22 gig. He will joined by on July 19 by sister Martha, who frequently backed Rufus on tour earlier in her career. The singer's father Loudon will guest two nights later in a rare stage pairing for the duo, who have struggled with personal difficulties for many year. On the final evening, opera stars Janis Kelly and (more)...
- 5/3/2011
- by By Justin Harp
- Digital Spy
I think fans of singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright would agree that his best work has an operatic quality. His performances on record and in concert—for instance, his tribute to the late Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall in 2006—achieve an emotional depth and intensity that call to mind a great tenor pouring out his heart on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera house in New York or La Scala in Milan. So, when I heard that Wainwright had written a traditional opera that just opened at the Manchester International Festival in Manchester, England, I wanted to know more. Prima Donna, as Wainwright christened his creation, had its premiere at the Manchester Festival on July 10 and will play to audiences there through July 19. Set in Paris in 1970 and performed in French, Prima Donna is the story of Régine St. Laurent, an aging opera star (with a name that certainly does recall...
- 7/17/2009
- Vanity Fair
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