JUNE 2024
Welcome to our June issue, packed as ever with interviews, feature articles and reviews from around the world.
On our front cover this month is Jean-Kristof Bouton in the title role of Verdi’s Macbeth with Mid Wales Opera, a pioneering company that has had 100% of its grant cut by the Arts Council of Wales.
Also in this issue:
David Pountney, speaking to Opera Europa’s spring conference, responds to the latest Arts Council England report on opera and music theatre.
Antonio Pappano looks back at his 22 years as the music director of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, in conversation with Rupert Christiansen.
As Garsington Opera stages a rare production of Verdi’s early opera, Un giorno di regno, Roger Parker looks at its history.
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, Jan Smaczny looks at his enduring legacy.
The soprano Julie Fuchs, preparing to the sing the title role in Handel’s Partenope, talks to Louise T. Guinther.
Long Beach Opera’s James Darrah discusses boundaries and how to ignore them with James C. Taylor.
Our Disc of the Month is Parsifal, with Elīna Garanča as Kundry, Jonas Kaufmann as Parisfal, Ludovic Tézier as Amfortas and Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Vienna Staatsoper conducted by Philippe Jordan (Sony Classical).
Performance reviews from around the world include Carmen at Covent Garden, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at English National Opera, Rusalka in Berlin, Die Walküre in Athens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Atlanta, La Gioconda in Salzburg, The Exterminating Angel in Paris, John Cage’s Europeras 3 & 4 in Detroit, Lohengrin in Strasbourg, Dialogues des Carmélites in Tokyo
The tenor Adam Temple-Smith is our Stage Door artist, due to make his debut as Tom Rakewell in A Rake’s Progress at this year’s Grange Festival.
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