Così fan tutte at La Scala For so many reasons, especially today, it is certainly more than a curiosity to ask ourselves what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would have thought of this Robert Carsen staging of Così fan tutte for La Scala. It would be slightly hazardous to believe that we might sense the composer’s reasoning powers or even imagine the demands he had put upon himself while creating any of his great works.
Il Cappello di paglia di Firenze is a lyrical adaptation of Le Chapeau de paille d\’Italie, a five-act comedy by French playwright Eugène Labiche, which premiered in Paris in August 1851. The play is still regularly staged to great acclaim and is considered a classic example of a comedy full of misunderstandings and dramatic twists and turns, with a script brimming with witty repartee.
Hänsel und Gretel. Hänsel und Gretel is classed as a children’s opera is a truism. Yet the sight of what felt like half the audience being under ten years old was still surprising – and initially raised the fear that things might become lively and restless in the auditorium. The opposite occurred: with admirable concentration, the young audience followed the action.
Artistic directors think only in terms of ‘stars’ to hire, and audiences turn up enthusiastically to hear a successful performer, regardless of the piece being performed. In opera, the situation is even more peculiar, as the attraction is often the stage director themselves. They try (in my opinion, clumsily) to rekindle interest in productions that seek originality in staging through modernizations, abstractions, and reinterpretations.
Aida. Tijd voor -even tussen door, wij wilden u niet meteen al overbelasten- een uitbarsting van artistiek misgewas, dead on arrival. Het doek valt tussen de eerste twee scènes van de eerste akte en de zaal wordt verlicht (dat de verantwoordelijke de pestpleuris mag krijgen, pardon me (uit te spreken: mie) French, waarna er een gesluierde stoet spoken voor het gordijn tergend langzaam voortschrijdt, begeleid door een onverstaanbare Fernstimme met een Jane Birkin Je t’aime moi non plus timbre. Het Open Podium bij dorpshuis De Zwaan in Uitgeest heeft briljantere ideeën. Gelijksoortige waanzin tussen alle onderbrekingen? En zo kom je dan wel aan je drie uur en een kwartier.
Lohengrin. Then, too, we have Lohengrin and Telramund fight their duel in the air, hanging by ropes. This is not because the costumes of all the characters portray them as moths attracted to the electric power plant’s kinetic energy, but because Sharon somehow finds Lohengrin as a Peter Pan archetype, a boy who wishes to never grow up
Tosca. Amsterdam, klein Toscane, bracht een Tosca in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1985, 1998, 1999, 2022, 2025. In 2025 staat Tosca nog een keer op het programma, maar nu met “simulaties van geweld, seksueel misbruik, moord en suicide”. Jippie!
DNO “Toxic ideology on art”. “Her first major solo decision was to cancel an already booked new performance of Verdi’s Otello because of ‘the progressive understanding that an all-white team, including the performer of Otello, is problematic. This no longer felt right with the current changes in our society … Otello in a contemporary form can only be done in a team of color.’ (…) So a white tenor, in her opinion, cannot play the role of a general from North Africa who becomes jealous of his wife.”
Norma. This ‘theater-within-a-theater’ structure was pre-announced by the stage director in his article for the La Scala program ‘Norma Revolutionary’, in which the personage Medea is mentioned seven times, almost as much as Norma, nine times. True, the theme of infanticide is a major theme linking the two operas, but it goes no further than that.
Yes, Hurwitz can be provocative, but that is exactly what is needed at this moment in time. His criticism is always musicologically sound and demonstrates a keen musical ear.