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Changes at the Opéra-Comique and Lyon’s Orchestra.

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

facade-ocBest Laid Plans Department: for the Opéra-Comique, closed for two years, the post-restoration opening remains a story to be continued. Nine performances of Offenbach’s Fantasio in February, with a starry cast, was originally the celebratory opening event of the newly refurbished hall, the iconic Salle Favart. Delays in the promised completion date pushed the Offenbach over to the Châtelet Theater, which had the dates free just before they are undergoing the restoration knife for more than two years.

When the 2017 season was announced (unusual in the business, a calendar year). the world premier of an opera for young people, La Princesse légère by Violeta Cruz, was to be the new opening night at Favart. A co-production with ICRAM and the operas in Lille and Compiegne, eight performances were scheduled from 16 to 22 March. Last week, when it was clear that work on Favart would not be finished, this premiere was pushed off to sometime in the next year. At present, Alcione by Marin Marais will open the season on the 26th of April with maestro Jordi Savall and the chorus and orchestra Le Concert des Nations and staged by Louise Moaty and Raphaëlle Boitel.

Several lectures, recitals, and cinema nights scheduled before April had to also be cancelled. There is no evidence that we are talking about years of delay as with Berlin or Cologne, but fingers are crossed that the new schedule will be definitive.

Women Power Department: the appointment of Ruth Mackenzie to head the Châtelet Theater when it returns from its facelift in September of 2019 was a rare example of a woman given a major management job in the arts in France. The MA story is here:
http://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?storyid=37520&categoryid=2&archived=0

Mackenzie, a noted feminist, has now been joined by another. On December 30, Aline Sam-Giao was announced as the new general manager of the Orchestre national de Lyon, currently with the popular Leonard Slatkin as music director. With that job is another responsibility, the managing of the Auditorium Maurice Ravel which the orchestra calls home. It is a 2120 seat auditorium from 1975 and the principal classical venue in Lyon, France’s second largest city. On days when the orchestra is not playing it is the venue for major recitals, chamber music, jazz, etc.

Slatkin, who is leaving his post in September, has certainly revitalized the orchestra and will have the new title Directeur musical honoraire. With that title, he will continue appearing with six weeks in the 2017-18 season and four weeks in the following season. Sam-Giao and the board of directors of the orchestra are certainly searching for his replacement.

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Rozhdestvensky in Large Letters, Please.

Thursday, December 8th, 2016

By:  Frank Cadenhead

Odd behavior marked the scheduled appearance of Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the helm of the Russian National Orchestra in Paris on Monday, November 28. The orchestra was at the Philharmonie for a short, two stop, tour. Two days before, at a concert in Baden-Baden, he conducted a program of Prokoviev’s Classical Symphony, the Scriabin Piano Concerto and the Shostakovich Ninth Symphony, the program to be repeated at the Philharmonie de Paris.

Apparently, the day of the performance, Rozhdestvensky saw that the printed entry ticket for the Philharmonie had only the name of the orchestra and not his and decided not to perform that evening. No notice appeared in the major French press but information on social media made the reason for the cancellation clear. Declaired “ill” by an announcement from the stage, it was announced that the pianist of that evening, Mikhail Pletnev, would conduct. Pletnev happens to have been the founder of the orchestra in 1990 and is the current artistic director and frequent conductor. It is an orchestra that is routinely considered one of Europe’s best. The program was maintained and, while Pletnev played the Scriabin concerto, concertmaster Alexie Bruni took up the baton.

Since he cancelled for the same reason in Boston in 2008, this would not be his first temper tantrum for the subject. His name was clearly emphasized on publicity, posters, and the program. In the Philharmonie’s announcement, it was noted that, “À 85 ans, Guennadi Rozhdestvensky est sans doute le dernier grand chef historique russe…” (At 85 years, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, is without doubt the last of the historic great Russian conductors…”) The tour of Germany, Belgium and Holland later this month will be, as scheduled, all conducted by Pletnev. Management at future venues featuring maestro Rozhdestvensky should make note of his particular needs.

 

 

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A Healthy Paris Opera

Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

The numbers for the Opéra national de Paris’ 2015-2016 season, recently released, gives a positive impression despite the effects of the murderous series of terrorist attacks on the 13th of November of last year. Attendance has remained steady and private donations are up. The attack on the Bataclan Theater, which lasted over three hours and killed 97 of the total 130 that evening, would have a major effect on the performing arts in most cities but Parisians continued to buy tickets. All venues were closed for a bit less than a week but, when they resumed, the public was there. The Bataclan opened again on the anniversary of the attack with a concert by Sting.

The government made an effort to compensate for the loss of sales for the week performances where shut down but it was only for the major venues and strictly related to lost revenue from the closure. It was not intended to cover the effect of the tourism slide. Tourism in Paris fell in the area of 15 to 20 percent and tourist often buy tickets to the opera. This was evident in the drop in income the Opéra collects from tours to the iconic Palais Garnier. Some 730,000 tickets were sold in the previous period compared with 556,000 for the 2015-2016 season.

Support from public sources, the national government and regional and city governments, has been steadily slipping noted Stéphane Lissner, the opera director. In 2010, for example, public support was 105.5 million Euros and is now 95.7 million. It still represents 47% of the budget, but makes increased private support all the more important. There is some hope that the announced 5.5% increase in the government budget for the arts for 2017 might begin to reverse this trend. Despite these problems, however, the ONP was in the red only 200,000 Euros for the 2015-2016 season compared with a 3.7 million Euro surplus the previous period.

Fortunately, Lissner’s effort to increase private sponsorship was successful and contributed income from corporations alone increased by 40%. Major names like Dior, Rolex, Total and BNP are among corporations on the donor list. As a total part of the budget receipts for the reporting period, 30% represents individual and corporate donations, a figure what was in the single digits only a few years ago.

While the opera managed a 92.65% occupancy for the past season, it was a slightly lower that the previous season and would also have been affected by the dip in tourism in France. Ticket income was down from 68.5 million euros to 64.1 million. The Opéra also had four performances cancelled because of strikes by opera unions in sympathy with national unions opposed to a government effort to contain social expenditures. The departure of Benjamin Millepied from the ONP’s ballet in early 2016 did not seem to hurt seat sales or private donations and, in general, two thirds of private donors increased their support level.

Some figures in the 2015-2016 report include a total budget of 200.2 million Euros, a payroll of 114 million (a 2.25% drop), 802,921 spectators for 362 performances (opera, ballet, concerts), tickets sold on the internet, 56.8% and the average audience age is an agreeably fresh 46 with the under 28s comprising 17.1% of that audience.

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The Return of the Opéra Comique

Saturday, October 8th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

The September 15 press conference was unusually packed for the season announcement of Opéra Comique. After being closed for 18 months and under new management, the interest in the future of this iconic Parisian institution was high. The new director, Olivier Mantei, was the only speaker and occupied the stage for about 50 minutes with details of the season and his approach to what will be on the stage at the Comique. Dramatic and innovative are two words to describe his vision.

Mantei describes a season, unusually a calendar year, with eight production, seven of which are new, from February to December of 2017. The only revival in the group will launch the season. From 12 to 27 February, Fantasio of Jacques Offenbach, staged by young director Thomas Jolly, will be hosted by the Théâtre du Châtelet, apparently while finishing touches of the Salle Favart are completed.

“When the Salle Favart burned for the second time, 150 years ago, the Opéra Comique company migrated to the Théâtre du Châtelet,” commented Mantei and that welcome mat was still around. Châtelet is itself closing for many months of interior restoration and their abbreviated season had space. The extra seats at Châtelet will allow Mantei to offer a thousand seats at 25 Euros for the under 25 set and additional thousand for 35 Euros to those under 35.

With the fully restored hall, the season will be 10 months instead of the recent 7 or 8 and the budget will be €20 million, up from 16. How this can be sustained is in the details. There will be 50% more performances in a season, producing a hoped-for increase in ticket sales. The other noticeable thing in the season brochure is the number of co-productions of each offering. Some will see their first performance in other houses but all will circulate. Mantei had the time to plan with other theaters in Europe and that sharing will ease the dizzy cost of presenting opera.

The second production of the season, La Princesse légère, a world premiere of an opera for young people by Violeta Cruz, will allow all to experience the “new” Salle Favart in March. The next month Alcione by Marin Marais is on the schedule with Jordi Savall and the chorus and orchestra of La Concert des Nations. While this composer’s name became famous with the French film Tout les matins de monde, his works are rare on stage.

Six June performances of Le timbre d’argent (The silver stamp), a forgotten opera of Camille Saint-Saëns, are much anticipated. One of his 13 operas, subsequent performances did not go well and it was shelved despite positive notice from Bizet and Massenet. The libretto is by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré who wrote librettos for Faust and Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

At the end of September, a lyric creation, Miranda, features music of Purcell woven into a story of memories and emotions inspired by the death of the title character. After their acclaimed collaboration with Bach cantatas, the expectations are high for Katie Mitchell and the young conductor Raphaël Pichon and his orchestra and chorus, Ensemble Pygmalion. In October, a new opera, Kein Licht, by the French composer Philippe Manoury, will see its French debut. A commission of the Opéra Comique, it will have first performances at the RuhrTriennale in August with subsequent performances in Luxembourg, Zagreb, Strasbourg and Munich. The Magic Flute in November originates from the Komische Oper Berlin with a production directed by Suzanne Andrade and Barrie Kosky (who also serves as intendant there). The season closes in December with Rossini’s Le Comte Ory with Louis Langrée conducting the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and a new staging by Denis Podalydès.

It is obvious that Olivier Mantei has no interest in spoon-feeding his audience the standard repertory. The season booklet is filled with new initiatives which points to a clear intent to be an incubator for creativity. He has transformed the “Academie” – a collection of resident and associated singers, some at the top of their careers, some at the beginning – into the Troupe Favart, a collection that replicates a group that principally work with one company. The icing on the cake for this new season is that the Opéra Comique will launch a new pastry, the “Favart,” a nod to its chief competition, Opéra.

The Opéra Comique season: http://www.opera-comique.com/en/seasons/2017-season

 

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The Opening Night “Train Wreck” This Weekend

Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

Where is Stephen Colbert when you need him? He certainly could do a comedy routine about the train wreck that is the opening of the musical season in Paris this year. The goofiness of multiple openings of world-class events on the same day would get lots of laughs. In his absence I will try to fill in.

The French go on holiday in August. On September 1 they all arrive home and start unpacking and restocking their refrigerators. For those who work in opera or orchestras, after some days they are off to rehearsals to prepare for opening night. This year, “opening night” is all on one night, September 16. That night is the remarkable opening of internationally important season at the Opéra National de Paris. Their daring risk is to open with an almost unknown opera, Eliogabalo of Francesco Cavalli (composed in 1667). This effort is part of a recent laudable effort to revive interest in lesser known opera composers and return their works to the stage. The audience at the Palais Garnier will hear a much anticipated local debut of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in the pit with Franco Fagioli in the title role. Young Thomas Jolly will stage this work and it is expected to raise the artistic bar for the whole season (which will include productions staged by Calixto Bieito and Dmitri Tcherniakov.)

But wait! On that very same night, the Orchestre de Paris is having a flashy opening in their glamorous new home at the Philharmonie de Paris with their exciting new music director, Daniel Harding. The opening program is the entirety of Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Schumann. This spotlight makes a statement about the work, a magnificent and little-played masterpiece with soloists and chorus and will feature the masterful baritone Christian Gerhaher as Faust. Harding has been particularly engaged by this opus and has featured it in broadcasts when he appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic and has recorded it with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. How could this singularly important event be scheduled on the same night as the opening Eliogabalo?

Easy… A complete lack of management. Here is Norman Lebrecht’s writing about the Orchestre de Paris on his website Slipped Disc on September 12:

“There was widespread discontent when the Orchestre de Paris sacked Didier de Cottignies ahead of the arrival of its new music director, Daniel Harding.
No-one in the music world has a bigger contacts book than Didier and few know more about music.
However, Didier went and Daniel was said to be considering an English mate for the job. Apparently, that was greeted by the French like a Brexit-burger with HP sauce.
So the French establishment chose one of its own.
The new Délégué Artistique at the OdP is Edouard Fouré Caul-Futy, a producer at France-Musique. His experience is entirely with baroque music. He has a lot to learn.
He also happens to be the son-in-law of Martine Aubry, former presidential candidate and still a power-broker in the Socialist Party.
Aubry’s daughter, Clémentine, is Administrator of the auditorium at the Musée du Louvre.”

Edouard Foure Caul-Futy

Edouard Foure Caul-Futy

Googling the name Edouard Foure Caul-Futy today, September 13, made it absolutely clear that there is no current information in the French language about any such appointment on any French site. Are all the culture reporters still unpacking? Scrolling down his personal Facebook page, we see that he is just 35 and entered a note that he has left Radio France at the end of August. “Délégué Artistique, Orchestre de Paris,” is now shown as his current title. The Facebook page of the Orchestre de Paris shows nothing. Neither does their website and the only press contact listed on that site is for the excellent Annick Boccon-Gibod, who let us all know, on June 27, that she had left the orchestra. The speculation of Mr. Lebrecht, that this was an insider favor, seems more and more believable when the slim career of the new artistic director is more visible. It would be hard to image a serious job search resulting in the selection of someone with such a light CV, concentrated almost entirely in the early music scene.

But wait again! That same evening’s vital openings are not finished. September 16 has yet another important opening night, that of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in the auditorium at Radio France. Conductor Mikko Franck, starting his second year as music director, has recharged this orchestra and every concert shows the new excitement. This opening night has Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Lapsimessu (Children’s Mass). Rautavaara died just seven weeks ago and Franck, a fellow countryman of the composer, will conduct this work with the Maîtrise de Radio France, the children’s chorus. The Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 is to be played by France’s most renowned violin virtuoso, Renaud Capuçon, and Franck, a well-appreciated interpreter of Richard Strauss, will finish with the Alpine Symphony. It would be hard to imagine a music lover willing to pass on that concert.

There is good news. With the new halls, the Philharmonie and the Radio France Auditorium, both with outstanding acoustics, the possibility of scheduling all opening nights on the same day is easier. Also, when you look at seat availability for all those events on the 16th, you will see that all will be full. The Parisian audience is ever-expanding and it is clear that the new halls, particularly the Philharmonie, have attracted new ticket buyers.

But the bad news is the failure of management to understand the need for more public notice about what the classical music community offers the public. Since newspapers everywhere have been giving more space and notice to more popular music-making, classical music has seen a sag in their amount of space in the media. While Parisian concert reviews are still a feature in major publications and newspapers, the fact that editors and journalists have to choose events to cover and exclude others would be totally unnecessary if there was a reasonable consideration, by managers, of how to space your major events to achieve the maximum notice.

Here is my concert and opera schedule for the next few days. Thursday is the opening concert of the new season for the Orchestre National de France. With Daniele Gatti taking over the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam this season, we are awaiting performances by the new Music Director, Emmanuel Krivine. Since any decision takes a great deal of time bouncing around the long halls of Radio France, his appointment was only announced in June, long after the schedule was fixed. Opening night will be conducted by the French conductor Stéphane Denève (who some imagine might have been a better choice than Maestro Krivine.) The all-French program features Ibert, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé. The next night, the famous “train-wreck” Friday, I will be again at the Radio France Auditorium for the opening concert of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, already noted. I was forced to make that choice because this concert, unlike the other events on the same night, will not be repeated. Saturday night was free and I will see the revival of Tosca as the first opera at Bastille (with Anja Harteros, Marcelo Alvarez and Bryn Terfel) because after the previous night’s multiple openings, nothing was repeated the next night. It is Sunday afternoon for the Harding debut with the Orchestre de Paris. The Monday night ticket is for the second performance of Eliogabalo at Palais Garnier. I might write again after the experience is over but the concentration of delights is even now a bit numbing. Music critics cannot write about every event and editors will not consider making space for such a concentration of events. In almost any other city, managers would work together to fashion a two to four week opening so that all events get the attention they deserve. This idea has yet to occur to the musical establishment in Paris.

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A Surprise Choice: Emmanuel Krivine as head of the Orchestre National de France.

Saturday, June 18th, 2016

by:  Frank Cadenhead

On Wednesday, during a morning interview on France Musique, Emmanuel Krivine was blunt. “I’m trying to go to the end by being a little less of an ass than at the beginning” His selection as the new music director of the Orchestre National de France, starting with the coming season, was much delayed and many see it as controversial. His statement is certainly a reference to his reputation as a difficult taskmaster. At 69, he also bucks the trend toward young music directors by Paris orchestras. Mikko Franck, 37, is the new head of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Daniel Harding, 40, is the incoming director of the Orchestre de Paris. Philippe Jordan, 41, is music director of perhaps the most talented orchestra of the four majors, the one at the Opera National de Paris.

Krivine replaces Daniele Gatti, who is going on to lead the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and is among top-ranked conductors, with regular appearances in Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg and Bayreuth. But Krivine’s career has not at that level and his leadership of the Barcelona Symphony and the Catalonia National Orchestra will come to end with this season. Since September, 2015, he has been the principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and he has recently ended a nine year stint as music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic. He continues his direction of La Chamber Philharmonique, a chamber orchestra he founded in 2004. Like Krivine himself often does, It focuses on the original instrument performance style but mostly for the Romantic repertory.

It was the end of his term as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1976-1983) that I first heard about him. I remember the orchestra being more than a little unhappy with Krivine who had an difficult reputation with the musicians and who even avoided engagements with the orchestra during his last years at the helm. He also lead the Orchestra National de Lyon from 1987 through 2000 and, some say, brought them greater unity and international recognition but with much of the same grumbling by orchestra members and relief at his departure.

Monday’s announcement, by the CEO of Radio France, Matthieu Gallet, and the Director of Music and Cultural Creation at Radio France, Michel Orier, presumably was made after consultations with musicians of both radio orchestras; the Philharmonque’s office is a few doors down the hall from the Orchestre National, and there should be musicians there who remember his rule. We hear nothing about the ONF interim artistic director, Steve Roger, who was appointed for a one year term in July of 2015. One can assume that M. Orier or perhaps Gallet himself are taking on the role of artistic director (to save money?). The same is apparently true for the Orchestre Philharmonique with the angry departure of Eric Montalbetti, after 18 year of service, in late 2014. One does note that both Mikko Franck and now Maestro Krivine are found to be discussing an overall artistic concept and ideas for guest conductors, etc. in the press and interviews. One could assume that both orchestras have made the post of artistic director redundant.

The threats of combining the two radio orchestras and the subsequent strikes and controversy of more than a year ago are now in the past. Krivine seems assured that the budget threats are behind the orchestra and Radio France will not shrink its musician numbers. Much has been made of the fact that Krivine will be the first French conductor of the National since Jean Martinon (1968-1973). Not known for his French repertory, Krivine will not be, in his words, a “jingoistic missionary” but comments that “French music, it must be delt with, it’s very interesting.” He admits his repertory in this area is “limited.” “Therefore, I will invite whoever does the best work that I do not know, the type that would be absolutely appropriate for that composition.”

Regarding his previous experiences with the Orchestre National, he was equally candid: He recalls a 2004 engagement: “It was messy. It is true that it was not at all messy with Kurt Masur and with some other conductors. I’m just saying that I, that time, I felt I had too much to take care of with discipline.” His more recent experiences, in September of last year, were more positive. He found the discipline “was by listening, and that’s very healthy.” We will certainly know more about his alleged mellowing in the coming months and years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Budget Tours Take a Hit in France

Tuesday, April 26th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

Touring performing arts groups, usually orchestras and ballet companies from Eastern Europe, are a common part of each season in cities and towns throughout France and Europe. They usually feature standard repertory appealing to mass audiences and often have names which seem impressive but, under closer inspection, are of questionable importance. Is this activity, already less often seen, coming to an end?

Last Friday, as reported by the French newspaper Ouest France, a touring group, the Bolshoi of Minsk, was awarded compensation for their wages and conditions of employment while touring France in 2014. The dancers were not involved in this action, only the musicians. The company is the principal dance company in Minsk and It was touring a production of Swan Lake.

In the city of Nantes, the Prud’hommes, the French labor court, awarded twenty orchestra members of the troop 14,000 euros each in compensation (they had asked for 25,000 euros) from Franceconcert, a corporation based in Nantes.

In this complaint they were supported by the CGT (Confédération générale du travail), the largest labor union in France. The complaint listed a monthly salary for the touring musicians of about 300 euros and pointed out that French musicians employed by the same company receive an average 2200 euros. The complaint alleged that they were housed in poor conditions and were obliged to share hotel beds with other musicians. The tour sometimes had 13 consecutive days of performance without a day of rest.

“This is a victory,” said Philippe Gautier of the CGT.  “This is the first time that foreign artists have individually pursued their employer and the amount of the penalty, completely new, will help deter others from this course of action.”  There is no word about any action to benefit the dancers.

At the hearing on January 21, the attorney for Franceconcert opposed the action: “We are not slave-drivers or an unscrupulous employer.” The French adjective used, négrier, has a root in the word negro to describe using slaves.  It is not necessarily related to the history of the port city of Nantes which was an important transit point for the slave trade from Africa to America. Nantes in the home of the major classical music festival, the La Folle Journée de Nantes, at the end of January each year and which is in no way implicated in this action.

One can speculate as to the intention of the CGT which represents a large number of professional musicians in France. This action might have been designed to diminish the number of low budget touring groups. This action dramatically increase the cost to the contractor of an event in 2014 and is now a precedent for future legal actions.

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Paris Protesters Seek a “New World”

Sunday, April 24th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

There is an ongoing protest movement called Nuit Debout in Paris and in other cities around France. Like “Occupy Wall Street” is is mainly frustrated young people. The name “Nuit debout” has been translated into English as “Up All Night”, “Standing Night”, or “Rise up at night.” Young people in the thousands gather in Paris at the Place de la République each night since the movement began on March 31.

It was an immediate response to a proposed modification to France’s labor laws which would make it easier for employers to fire employees, a difficult process and a problem for prospective new business in France. The government’s proposal immediately was opposed by labor unions and other left politicians and groups. Protesters with a variety of other social issues immediately joined the movement. The street protests, which have sometimes turned violent, has lead to this permanent nighttime occupation of one of the most important junctions in Paris.

A young oboist, Clément Lafargue, had an idea for musicians to gather to play Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” as an act of hope. The call went out on social media and on the designated night, April 21, some 350 musicians, both professional and amateur, showed up. After only a couple of hours of rehearsal, the symphony was played. A Youtube sample shows that enthusiasm can trump detail:

The 2011 “Occupy Wall Street” movement made a global impact and movements began in European countries. It did not have much impact in France because of the election of a new Socialist government under President François Hollande created the expectation that the economy and social justice would flourish. Since then, however, with the economy of France flatlined and disappointment with Hollande at the maximum, young people are again at the barricades.

With the disappearance of Occupy Wall Street, my own country’s establishment assumed that the protest and the dissatisfaction of young people was over. This understanding is only a hint of how seriously out of touch with the people “those in the know” were. This complete failure can be seen as alarming and is most clearly demonstrated in recent clueless party politics; clueless to the feelings of both Democrats and Republicans who vote with the resulting “outsider” candidates making the biggest impact so far.

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The Paris Philharmonie, 15 Months Later

Wednesday, March 30th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

The new Philharmonie de Paris, open now one year and three months, has had a remarkable success by any measure, particularly with winning new audiences and attracting old audiences to the new locale. It is now one of Europe’s principle venues and the whirl of talent on stage practically every night gives it a permanent festival atmosphere.

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A vote of the French Council of Ministers last Thursday modifying the age limit for the Philharmonie director is a strong clue that general director, Laurent Bayle, who guided the transformation of the Cité de la Musique complex during the construction of the new hall, will continue. Bayle was approaching the civil service retirement age of 65 in June.

The polemics over the cost overruns and its location in a rough neighborhood now seem a distant memory. The hall is routinely full for the Orchestre de Paris concerts and other resident groups, the Paris Chamber Orchestra, William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants and the Ensemble Intercontemporian. Visiting orchestras and ensembles are a weekly occurrence and the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, for example, had a high profile weekend on the 19th and 20th of March. Tonight, it is Schubert’s Winterreise with baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Markus Hinterhauser featuring William Kentridge’s scenography.

After the opening in January of 2015, the acclaim was instantaneous. While the warmth and vibrancy of the acoustics were there from the start, some did note that sometimes the soloists in a concert seemed vaguely underpowered. The hall was closed in July and August of that year to polish details of the hall, including minor improvements in the acoustics and finishing interior details in the hall. The new panoramic restaurant is now open and the myriad of activities for children and others of all ages in the three halls at the Cité de la Musique complex make it a constant beehive of activity.

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Added Note: 

Today, March 30, the Council of Ministers of the French government did appoint Laurent Bayle to lead the  Cité de la Musique for another five year term. He has been leader of the Cité de la Musique complex, with the new Philharmonie as a major part, situated across the plaza from Paris’ Conservatory, since 2001. He will work with a new president of the Administrative Council of the complex, Patricia Barbizet. She has lead companies like Artemis and Christie’s and will replace Mr. Bayle, who had also occupied that chair since 2006.

 

 

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A Triumphant Damnation.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

By:  Frank Cadenhead

There was a torrent of boos at the December 11 opening of Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust at the Paris Opéra and it started even before the intermission. Critical reaction to the production was of a similar nature. When I saw the production on December 29, there was only a single person booing and the general applause was clearly enthusiastic. For me, the evening was a major success with extraordinary musical values and a probing, thoughtful production that went to the core of the Faust legend. Is there a problem with opera as an intelligent media? Has the presentation of opera slid into a rut, expecting everyone in the audience to re-experience a familiar story. In the past few decades, some directors challenged that premise and had to endure the wrath of both the audience and critics. Should world opera’s directors play to the crowd or seek a higher artistic level of thought. I imagine that Stéphane Lissner, in his new role heading the Opéra National de Paris, is trying to move the bar up. Berlioz’ “légende dramatique“ is a retelling of Goethe’s Faust and opera can be as intellectually challenging at a classic novel or a new work of art

When I was a young man, one visit to Sea World in San Diego stayed with me. In the huge tank, two Killer Whales were having sex, something extraordinary to witness. They both turned in vast circles, finally bumping fronts for just a second or two. The male’s member was humanoid in size and barely noticeable. Sometimes they connected, and often didn’t, but they continued their slow dance over and over. This experience left me with two thoughts. One was the realization that arms are an important tool for love-making. The other was a reminder that the compulsion of sex and reproduction is central to understanding human behavior.

You can see this long, circular dance repeated over and over in literature, theater, art, film, poetry and opera. Yes, opera. Those chance meetings, those jealous rages, falling in love, etc., are all part, like our mammalian friends, the whales, of the great circle of compulsive sexual desire and reproduction, the very means to allow the human race to escape extinction. Those who compose poems, carve statues or make rockets which go to Mars are still, at the core, animals in the circular sexual dance. This desire is always, in conversation, dressed up and usually covered with the sauce of denial.

The sauce of denial was in full view on opening night. Alvis Hermanis’ production makes clear his scripted intent at the very start. We see, before the music starts, a large group assembled and 20 are selected to stand in little cubicles. We see names, ages, and a sentence about their life. These represent some actually chosen by NASA in February of last year from some 200,000 applicants. NASA selected 100 candidates to be transported to Mars in 2016 to establish a colony of humans on the Red Planet. With no “return ticket,” this will be a colony intended build homes, to grow and reproduce in the hostile environment. (Whether or not any budget will actually fully fund this project is another story but the planning is precise and clear.)

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These 20 dancers, almost immediately after their introduction, begin their coupling with sexual interactive ballet movements that continue throughout the opera with an ironic stricture which allows nothing sensual or erotic. The intertwining is clearly meant to be biology at work and, at one point, in case anyone misses the idea, a glass box is on stage with Adam and Eve represented. What does this have to do with the Faust legend? Bryn Terfel’s masterful Méphistophélès, hip flask at the ready, is always one to remind Faust of his interior libido and takes him around the world an into space. The lovely film images of Katrīna Neiburga with those jellyfish and, yes, even whales, continually evoke the continuity of life.

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The image of scientist Stephen Hawking is every present. Now motorized chair-bound and without even a voice, has not let his impairments affect his thinking. His constant effort to search the outer and inner limits of our tiny world makes him the world’s best known scientist. His mute character in this production, almost always on stage, is not by accident. He has said specifically that, in the next thousand years or so, the earth might be hit by a comet or experience some other catastrophe which could destroy all life. Another colony on another planet might continue the existence of the human race which is, so far as any of us know, the only advanced one in the universe. He repeated this urgent request, as was reported in newspapers, just two weeks ago. Hawking as the new century’s Faust is not a far reach.

The production is available on Culturebox and can be easily found on YouTube and is strongly recommended.Tenor Jonas Kaufmann as an existential Faust heads a dream cast with the Marguerite of Sophie Koch and the blazing Bryn Terfel as the devil incarnate. The remarkable and haunting production of Schoenberg’s Moses and Aaron which was the first new production of this season is also to be found on YouTube. With the engaging new production of Dukas’ Bluebeard’s Castle paired with Poulenc’s La voix humaine, with the astounding soprano, Barbara Hannigan, Lissner, in his second season as the Opéra director but presenting the first season he actually designed, has indeed moved the bar and is demanding a rethink of what opera finally represents. It is an interesting time for opera in Paris.

 

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