À Vous de Jouer
Play It Again, Jane Doe
What could be more soothing than to hear Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” being played live amid the bustle and stress of a train station or airport? Once, I even came upon a highly professional troupe of musicians and singers performing … Read More
L’Uomo Femina
Women Rule!
I have long been an admirer of conductor Vincent Dumestre and his excellent period-instrument orchestra Le Poème Harmonique. Specializing in French music from the 17th and early 18th centuries, it has staged and recorded seldom-performed music for over 25 years. … Read More
Médée
Stage Magic
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera Médée (called a tragédie lyrique) has had a lot of waiting to do. The dramatist Pierre Corneille wrote his version of the Medea myth as early as 1634, at the beginning of his career. Thomas Corneille, 19 … Read More
Klaus Mäkelä, Véronique Gens, Philippe Jordan
Music Made in France
Still not yet 30, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä is the man of the moment in the classical music world. Not only has he been the music director of the Orchestre de Paris since 2021, but he is also chief conductor … Read More
Lohengrin
Wagner at War
The first night of Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s Paris Opera début at the Bastille was destined to be a sensational event. Serebrennikov, who has always been outspoken in his home country over such issues as LGBTQ rights (he is openly … Read More
Tristan und Isolde
Visual and Sonic Glories
The famous Paris Opera production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde by director Peter Sellars, in collaboration with video artist Bill Viola, makes another welcome return to the Bastille. There is a reason why this production has remained in the … Read More
MeanWeill: Berlin to Broadway (via Paris)
The Gritty, Bittersweet World of Weill
One of the joys of Paris is how often unexpected performances pop up in unlikely locations. I had been to La Cave Café in the 18th arrondissement before, but I imagined that the bar’s name (“cave” means “cellar”) hinted only at huge … Read More
Tosca
Safe Choice for New Music Director
Pierre Audi’s 2014 production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, revived in 2016 and again now at the Bastille, is fast becoming a stalwart of the Opéra de Paris’s repertoire, and it is easy to see why: with a set that is … Read More
‘My Paris’ & ‘Ravel: Concertos pour Piano-Mélodies’
Paris Is Flute. Flute Is Paris
When an album with the title My Paris appeared on the list of newly released classical recordings, I felt it would be rude not to review it for Paris Update. Australian flautist Ana de la Vega, who was inspired by … Read More
Parsifal
A Knightly Cult
I must admit to approaching British director Richard Jones’s production at the Opéra Bastille of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal with some trepidation. Jones’s previous productions of Wagner’s other works, especially the Ring Cycle, have had a tendency to trivialize the most … Read More