366 curtain raisers, this is what the director of the Paris Opera, Alexander Neef, promised, against 226 this season, the Covid having been there. And, suddenly, a deficit that the Ministry of Culture has partially refloated but not yet enough. So 18 opera productions against 21 this season and one novelty less (seven against eight). The savings will continue in the years to come…
But obviously it was about honoring women. If we except thesilk scale by Rossini, presented by the Academy in a staging by Pascal Neyron, a regular at the Frivolités Parisiennes, parity is well respected. As is also that between Anglo-Saxon opera and… the rest of the world. Were there any delays to catch up on?
This is how Deborah Warner will direct a Peter Grimes by Britten (Opera, she declares, very uncomfortable) directed by Joana Mallwitz and the American Lydia Steier a new Salome of Richard Strauss entrusted to the baton of Simone Young. Absolute entry also to the Paris Opera for John Adams with his famous Nixon in China (on Richard Nixon’s official visit to China) -Adams of which no work has yet been staged in the noble house, directed by Valentina Carrasco, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, with a legendary couple, Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson.
The Baroque (and still Anglo-Saxon) touch will be given with the Ariodante by Handel, directed by Robert Carsen (there will still be a few men…) and, in the pits, the famous English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket.
Finally two new productions of French opera, the Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas and the Romeo and Juliet by Gounod. To those (many) who noticed that there were perhaps other works from our heritage to defend than these two which have just been performed at the Opéra-Comique, Neef replied that these would be proposals very different. We suspect it: Warlikowski for HamletThomas Jolly for Romeo and Juliet, a Jolly that reminds us that Shakespeare’s work takes place during a plague epidemic! And remaining mysterious about the conclusions he will draw…
For the occasions, outside of our eternal Carmen and two Germanic works, The Magic Flute and Tristan and Isolda, overwhelming place in Italian opera: the 5 giants are there. Rossini (Cenerentola), Bellini (Capulets and Montague), Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor), Verdi (The Trouvère and The force of fate) and Puccini (Tosca and Bohemian) in stagings (we include The Magic Flute) which, for some, are beginning to date. Ah! yes: finally resumption of the very recent ones Marriage of Figaro. It’s Mozart and it’s in Italian.
We note in any case the absence of the rest of the world and in particular of Russian opera. And it’s not related to recent events, the programs being prepared so far in advance. Artists from this country are still welcome on condition that they have not made thunderous declarations in support of the current regime. As for the presence of Ana Netrebko in The force of fateit will be in December and we will see by then…
At the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the proposals are undoubtedly more varied and the women will be… on stage. A Marianne Crebassa who will embody -what a great idea!- La Perrichole thanks to the duo Laurent Pelly-Marc Minkowski, so comfortable in Offenbach. The Bohemia by Puccini (directed by Eric Ruf) where the young (to be discovered) Selene Zanetti will be the Mimi of the Samoan Pene Pati (Rodolfo) who we discovered recently, precisely in Romeo and Juliet at the Opéra-Comique. An intriguing duet imagined by Olivier Py with Stravinsky’s Le rossignol and the delirious Udders of Tiresias by Poulenc… and Sabine Devieilhe. The opera for the youngest will be Cenerentola according, therefore, to Rossini. Finally a gentleman (but countertenor), Jakub Josef Orlinski, who will make his debut as a “director” (after so many recitals) in theOrpheus and Eurydice of Gluck; and it will be directed (as an actor) by Robert Carsen.
Finally, let us remember that the TCE, apart from staged productions, presents each season around twenty operas in concert version which will be spread out chronologically from Monteverdi to Massenet. And, as Neef’s answer to a question posed about women opera composers was that we were working there (apart from the emblematic Saariaho, who is used to the place), we note that the TCE will take the Paris Opera of speed (even if in concert version) with the Faust by Louise Bertin, from the 1830s: it will be June 20, 2023, proposed by the discoverers Bru Zane, with Christophe Rousset directing and Karine Deshayes in the title role (in drag?)