Giselle Allen

Que se passe-t-il quand un nez décide de quitter son propriétaire pour vivre sa vie ? Séduit par la dimension fantastique et « insensée » de la nouvelle Le Nez de Nikolaï Gogol (1836), Dimitri Chostakovitch choisit cette satire de la société russe et de son administration tsariste pour son premier opéra, qu’il compose à 22 ans, en 1928. En raison de sa critique sociale, de son thème surréaliste et de son plaisant mélange de styles musicaux, cette œuvre presque démente est bannie du répertoire soviétique pendant près d’un demi-siècle. En dépit d’effectifs démesurés (près de 80 personnages et une section percussion comptant 14 instruments), cette partition géniale et pétillante reçoit aujourd’hui à nouveau l’attention qu’elle mérite. Àlex Ollé et La Fura dels Baus en donneront une interprétation visuellement spectaculaire, tandis que Gergely Madaras fera ses débuts à la Monnaie à la tête d’un orchestre déchaîné.

An open-air staging by Aldeburgh Music of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, on the beach that inspired the opera. A small seaside community struggles to accept a fisherman.

A brilliant staging of Britten's opera.

A remote English country house, and old and faithful housekeeper, two young orphan children and an eager new governess sent down from London to look after them. But all is not quite as it seems in the sheltered world of Bly. Britten's brilliantly scored, insidiously compelling adaptation of Henry James's novella takes its themes of of childish innocence and adult corruption, then twists and turns them to disturbing and ultimately devastating effect.

Nothing is what it seems in an old English manor. When a new governess arrives, the children entrusted to her care seem to receive visits from the ghosts. What horrors occurred here before her arrival? Are the children innocent? Can we really trust what we see? Based on a ghost story by Henry James, Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw is a psychological thriller in chamber opera format.

Der Ring des Nibelungen in a production of the Zürich opera house, recorded 2024. "Dramatic music-making at its finest". In the hands of General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda and Stage Director Andreas Homoki, Wagner's myth is represented as "a dysfunctional family of gods" (The Independent) in a polished yet unpretentious production that underscores the humanity of the characters, who are performed by the same exceptional cast of singers across all four operas.