Evening at the opera

'Yevgeny Onegin' of Tchaikovsky at 'De Munt' in Brussels. Good voices and a wonderful acting of the chorus. 6 out of 10

Evening at the opera

'La Cenerentola' of Gioachinno Rossini. I was looking forward to this one ... the setting was design by François Schuiten (very known drawer of cartoons - known for the 'Obscure Cities'-series), but what a desception !!! could have been must better ...
4 out of 10 ... As always one has to be carefull in hoping for a good moment , a lot of parameters plays with the definition of 'good moment' !!!

Evening at the opera-house 'De Munt'

Went to the opera-house for a concert directed by Antonio Papano (futur musical director of Covent Garden).
On the program :
Aria of Florestan of Beethovens 'Fidelio' ... could be better
A complete opera in concert 'Il Prigioniero' of Luigi Dallapiccola ... superb !!!
Last movements of the 9th Symphony of Beethoven ... very known as always
Fine evening :-))

Evening at the opera

Went to the new world-creation of Philippe Boesmans 'Wintermärchen' an new opera in 4 acts adapted from Shakespeare 'The winter's Tale'. It was snowing outside and on the scene ... fine production with superb setting and voices and wonderful music. For me the 3rd act (integration Jazz-music from Aka Moon - even improvising on scene) was not necessary : it broke too much the opera in two parts. Understand my point of view. I am not against integration of other kinds of music in the opera-house, it just irritated me. A superb Dale Duesing, Susan Chilcott, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Cornelia Kallish and even Heinz Zednik (known for his Loge/Mime interpretation in Cherau's Ring)... all by all a fine opera (but not as strong ad Boesmans previous opera Reigen).

Evening at the opera

Went to 'The Entführung aus dem Serail' of Mozart. For me it was a very good performance. Singers all right (Elzbieta Szmytka as Konstanze was not so good in the first act, but she did very very well in the second act). Scenes and costumes also good. The only think that bothered me is that they build a platform that came partly above the orchestra. This way they cut the whole scene in three parts : a platform in front, a pit with an oriental water-fountain in the middle and a 'background' in which they showed in each act a different landscape (1st act : serail-room, 2nd act : a garden at night, 3rd act : garden landscape during day with broken column ?). I didn't understand why he wanted to build the platform and almost not use the second-pit-scenery. Apart from this negative issue I had a wonderfull evening.

Evening at the opera

Took a friend at the opera : Verdi's Rigoletto. Beautiful music and lovely voices. I had some remarks on the scenic part. Stéphane Braunschweig put coffins throughout the scenic action. I can imagine his ideas behind it, but for Verdi's music I find it a bit dark. All by all a good evening and 6 out of 10 points.

Evening in Brussels

Went to a concert in the 'Paleis voor Schone Kunsten' (translation: Palace for Beautiful Arts') On the program : symphonic orchestra of the opera house 'De Munt' with choir and solo conducted by Antonio Pappano. They played first 'Le tombeau resplendissant' of Olivier Messiaen (superb piece) and the 'Messa di Gloria' de Giacomo Puccini (a bit to easy for me).