January 2021
This month’s cover features Asmik Grigorian in the title role of the new Rusalka at the Teatro Real, Madrid—the most ambitious and starrily cast operatic event of the late autumn. While many opera houses were closed under Covid-19 lockdown measures, the leading Spanish theatre found the vision and determination to stage Claus Guth’s new production of Dvořák’s masterpiece, and we review it in this issue. We look at all the latest developments in Newsdesk and Opera Europa’s Nicholas Payne takes stock of the changing situation after a lost year.
Our other features this month address the situation and delve deep into the operatic past:
—Profile of the trailblazing tenor Russell Thomas
—Great singers in great roles: Norman Bailey on Hans Sachs
—Giordano’s mystery operatic pianist: who was Boleslao Lazinski?
—Fritz Curzon talks about his mother, the great soprano Maria Cebotari
—Irish National Opera’s Fergus Sheil on latest initiatives
—Staging the sublime: volcanic spectacle in opera
—Strauss, Hofmannsthal and Reinhardt in Berlin
—Church scenes in opera
We review live performances wherever they have been happening and cover new recordings and books. Our Disc of the Month is ‘Amici e rivali’, featuring Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres in Rossini tenor duets (Erato).
Available online December 4, in-store December 15
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