#claus guth

[itsa-me-cavaradossi]

The final scene of the 2025 Teatro Real production of Mitridate, re di Ponto (dir. Claus Guth).

Need just one more minute to scream over the freaking lighting design for this production, oh my gawd.

[playbill]

First Look at Paris Opera's New La Bohème—Set in Space

[count-di-luna]

Don Giovanni is usually not what I’d call depressing but this performance left me feeling like I usually do after Peter Grimes

Also: is there Don Giovanni/Leporello fic specifically for this production?

[verdiprati]

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Erraught, Finley, Hallenberg (x2), Prina, von Otter, and more

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

Tara Erraught sings “Che farò senza Euridice” and “Chiamo il mio ben cosi” from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice as part of a program with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. Wednesday, May 24 on BR Klassik.

Gerald Finley and Julius Drake perform a song recital featuring works by Schubert, Poulenc, Ravel, Turnage, and Britten at the Schwetzingen Festival. Wednesday, May 24 on SWR2. 

This looks like an interesting Beethoven 9: the soloists are Christina Landshamer, Ann Hallenberg, Werner Güra, and Kresimir Strazanac; the conductor is Philippe Herreweghe, with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Thursday, May 25 on Klara. 

The video of the recent Rodelinda directed by Claus Guth in Madrid is still available on Medici.tv, but here’s an option if you’d just like to have the audio. Lucy Crowe, Bejun Mehta, Jeremy Ovenden, Sonia Prina, Lawrence Zazzo, and Umberto Chiummo are the stars. Saturday, May 27 on Radio Clásica.

If you favor modern opera, you’ll want to catch the broadcast of Adès’s The Exterminating Angel from the Royal Opera. The cast is stuffed to the gills with good singers; I’ll especially mention Anne Sofie von Otter, Iestyn Davies, Ed Lyon, Sophie Bevan, John Tomlinson, and Thomas Allen as names that jump out to me, but that’s not to say that there are any slouches in the rest of the cast. I gather there are live sheep in the production but I have no idea whether you’ll hear them on the radio. Saturday, May 27 on BBC Radio 3 (should be archived online for a month afterward). 

The Händel-Festspiele Halle has promised “a wild gala concert” with Ann Hallenberg and Il Pomo d’Oro performing works by a mix of composers on the theme of “Carnevale 1729.” Sunday, May 28 on MDR Kultur. 

[itsa-me-cavaradossi]

Having a totally crazy time watching the Claus Guth production of Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto that's up on OperaVision (available until October 4!).

First off, the music is SO not what I associate with Mozart?! Stylistically, it's basically Mozart writing a Handel opera (continuo for days!). Granted, Wolfi wrote this when he was all of 14 years old, so it's not too surprising that he hadn't figured out his own signature sound yet. But still, pretty fascinating to see that progression!

I've just finished the first act, meaning I'm about an hour into things and a third of the way through the total run time of the three-act opera. Guth is such a character-centered director that I've been totally riveted by the staging, even though in the first 40 minutes, 95% of the narrative action was provided by a few projected lines at the end of the overture, and most of the music was just 10-minute-long da capo arias about everyone's feelings. But! The vibes are so great! It's like HBO's Succession, only minus the plottiness and plus a bunch of catty countertenors!

Farnace (Franco Fagioli) and Aspasia (Sara Blanch) in the mid-century-style house that forms half of the totally *fabulous* set of this production.

The performers in this production are all fantastic, as one would expect from a director like Guth who demands singers with the ability to reach a certain emotional core dramatically. I was already a huge Sara Blanch fan from that fabulous Wiener Staatsoper Ariadne auf Naxos she did back in January, and she is equally amazing here as Aspasia (Mitridate's fiancée). Elsa Dreisig as Sifare (Mitridate's nicer son) also has been a huge show-stopper. But I think Franco Fagioli may be taking the cake so far, because he makes Farnace (Mitridate's awful son) SUCH a brat, and I kinda want to slap him at all times, which feels exactly correct:

The best part is that he's batting those papers off the edge of Mitridate's desk in between runs in his aria!

Also, this being Guth, of course the amazing house set rotates to reveal a world (inspired by graph paper, apparently) in which everyone's fantasies and paranoias can run amok, replete with the expected symbolic dancer body doubles:

Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus - Teatro Real (Madrid)

Anyway, definitely worth checking out, if Guth also speaks to you as a director and you have 3 hours to spare within the next week and a half!

[verdiprati]

Glynders livestreams this summer with Connolly, Coote, et al.

I’m pleased to see that Glyndebourne will be livestreaming the new Brett Dean adaptation of Hamlet on July 6 this summer (with Sarah Connolly as Gertrude and Barbara Hannigan as Ophelia, among others). Hat tip to Avis Melodia for sharing the news in the Facebook fan group for Sarah Connolly.

Oh yeah—and the Guth Clemenza is scheduled for livestreaming too, on August 3. That one’s got Alice Coote, Kate Lindsey, and Joélle Harvey as your Vitellia, Sesto, and Servilia, respectively.

[jeanpascalmattei]

https://lemiroirdesfantomes.blogspot.com/2026/07/dans-lespace-tout-le-monde-vous-entend.html

[arcimboldisworld]

Scylla et Glaucus - Oper Zürich 31.03.2026 #zürichbarockfestival #operzürich#jeanmarieleclair #clausguth #leconcertdastrée #emmanuellehaim

Scylla et Glaucus - Oper Zürich 31.03.2026