Fin de cycle

La Traviata
G.Verdi
Opéra de Lyon

Photo Opéra de Lyon

July 7 review (last performance of the run).
For further details about the cast and the production, see here.

Amazing how 15 days of performances can make a difference on an orchestra.
Although I am still very much doubtful about the level of the flute and French horns, I must say the orchestra as a whole sounded decent this time around.
Even the conduction of Gérard Korsten was more inspired and focused - but I still think he has a consensual and panache-less reading of the score.
The chorus was also better last night, which cannot be said of the cast as a whole.

The three main roles, Alfredo, Giorgio and Violetta sounded tired and both Alfredo and Violetta had lost some clarity in the voice (the problem was obvious for Edgaras Montvidas as Alfredo).

Ermonela Jaho as Violetta also looked pretty tired, which obviously brought her closer to her never-dying character (by the way, in this production, she doesn't actually die on stage, but ends up as a static zombie while the curtain is closing - talk about originality).

Once again, I couldn't really relate to the emotions she showcased, as I found myself deaf to her vocal expressivity. Her stage presence improved on the other hand, especially at the end (from "Addio del passato" to the end).

This performance was the official end of the 2008-09 season in Lyon. It's very doubtful I will attend any performance here next season. I'm done with Serge Dorny's choices.

Another frustrating season: Lyon 2009-10

So, yesterday evening Serge Dorny, GM of the Opéra de Lyon, proudly introduced us to his next season, that he "humbly" described as a season of accomplishments centered around the theme of wandering.

As a matter of fact, the presence of Dorny in Lyon has been a strange kind of accomplishment: he successfully managed to ignore the monuments of opera, the French repertoire and the first-half of the XIXth century altogether and turned the House into a kind of experimental laboratory for XXth century (or even XXIth century) operas.

After quite a few seasons of that regime, you'd be crying for classicism as well. And once again, I'm left with this daunting and harrowing question: when will someone finally offer Dorny a new job so that he can get the hell out of Lyon?

I must admit however the new season has a clear highlight (for those who like the music involved, that is): the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho's latest piece, Emilie, an opera in 9 scenes composed for Karita Mattila, who will effectively sing the 4 performances schedules in early March (the opera will then inaugurate the exchange program Dorny finalized with Pierre Audi and the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam where it will be performed for 3 nights at the end of March ; Michel van der Aa's After life is the production Audi will send to Lyon in late March).

Karita Mattila is, desperately enough, the only attractive singer to come to Lyon next year. As usual, Dorny failed in securing attractive casts, and Puccini's Manon Lescaut (Jan/Feb) is even listed without a name for Manon (a very frustrating trick, if you ask me).
It's worse on the conductors front, as Dorny, ending his 3-opera cycle around Mozart and Da Ponte (Don Giovanni to open the season in October) couldn't convince William Christie, who led the first 2 pieces (Nozze and Tito), to come back and finish the job.

By the way, Dorny confirmed that all three operas will be performed again for the 2010-11 season. Seeing how unattractive the cast of Don Giovanni is, I'm guessing I'll wait til next year in hopes of an improvement there.

This 2009-10 season is basically a showcase of Russian operas.
For Christmas, Dorny chose to exhume Macha Makeïeff and Jérôme Deschamps's production of Chostakovitch's Moska, Cheremushki, and the three Tchaïkowski's productions of Peter Stein will be performed altogether in a pretentious "Pouchkine Festival" (April and May) that will feature Mazeppa, Oneguin and The Queen of Spade as well as two concerts. Dorny prided himself on being able to create an homogeneous company for the occasion, and assured us Peter Stein would make a lot of changes to his direction (which frankly is pretty blend and unimaginative, so that clearly can't hurt, can it?).

The season will then end with Humperding's Hänsel und Gretel in the production Laurent Pelly created for the Glyndebourne Festival last summer (June) and two performances of last year's success, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, directed by José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu (July 16 and 17). José Van Dam will come on Nov. 8 for a concert around Fauré, Duparc and Poulenc; Jérémie Rhorer and his ensemble will (attempt to) play Mozart on Jan.17 and principal conductor Kazushi Ono will conduct the remaining concerts scheduled.

Dorny chose the slogan "Entrez sans frapper" for the season. In my perspective, he should substitute it for "Leave without notice".

[The new season is online].  

Further reading: - "En avance la musique!", Libé Lyon

Dorny's version of a HD broadcast

So this is what Serge Dorny, the GM of the Opera de Lyon had in mind a few months ago about La Traviata: an outdoor broadcast in the esplanade of Fourvière (part of the Summer Festival "Les Nuits de Fourvière").

It will be free so I can't really criticize the effort, but a live broadcast would have added somehow a thrill to it. And I'm not sure a lot of people will attend a broadcast that starts at midnight...

La Traviata en différé de l'Opéra de Lyon July 3 2009, midnight

Hight-and-mighty Dorny

(c) Bertrand Stofleth

The GM of the Opéra de Lyon Serge Dorny was interviewed by Luc Hernandez for Libération, in a piece published today. Asked about the remarks Mortier made in a recent interview with Le Monde, he claims his work in Lyon has been innovative, creative and outstanding.

He defends his choices to favor stage directors over the singers, as his vision of opera is rather focused on vision impact than musical quality.

He also explains why the upcoming performances of Philip Glass' La colonie pénitentiaire, originally scheduled at the prison will be played elsewhere, confirms Mozart's Don Giovanni will open next season, directed by Christopher Moulds, and eludes the question about his big plans for La Traviata in June:
"Luc Hernandez - Mon petit doigt m’a dit que La Traviata que vous reprenez en juin sera l’occasion d’un dispositif de diffusion nouveau dans la ville…
Serge Dorny - Ça va se faire. Le spectacle sera diffusé en-dehors des murs de l’Opéra et décentralisé dans la région. Mais je ne peux pas en dire plus pour l’instant."

No news of him leaving soon elswhere though. [sigh]

Dorny seeking job at the Staatsoper in Berlin

So it seems that the GM of the Opéra de Lyon, Serge Dorny, is the lead contender for the Unter den Linden director job in Berlin. It's obvious he's trying to leave town after his failed attempt at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées director job last June. For once, it seems we agree on something: get him out of Lyon.
Thanks to the fellow Lyonnais who alerted me of this news. German sources here and there.

TCE new GM

As you know, I wish the Opéra de Lyon GM, Serge Dorny, was somewhere else experimenting with his "extraordinary" ideas. Turns out, he almost left. He was in the final two for the job of director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (the actual director Dominique Meyer will depart to head the Vienna State Opera in 2010), as reported by Le Figaro. Hélas, Michel Franck was chosen and we are stuck in Lyon with Serge Dorny.

Confluence of Glass and Lyon

Lyon has been, for some time now, a city in love with Philip Glass. Over the last decade, he played here with the Kronos Quartet in 2000 (Dracula) in the Auditorium and then became a regular at the big Music/Dance/Drama/Whatever summer festival of Lyon, Les Nuits de Fourvière (performances are held in the Roman amphitheater). When I say regular, I'm not just showing off. His most recent appearances were in 2004 (Orion), 2005 (Naqoyqatsi), 2006 (La Belle et la Bête) and 2007 (Piano Solo, video extract of the concert under heavy rain that he insisted on not cancelling). This summer, although he won't be here, his music will open the festival as it will be the soundtrack of the new show of Bartabas (a guy whose only interest in life seems to be to make horses dance), Partitions équestres (a show sold-out on the very first few hours the booking was opened). Because you know, Lyon Opera GM Serge Dorny is so... imaginative, he suddenly realized the success of Philip Glass in Lyon could also be exploited by his house, and therefore he scheduled In the Penal Colony, a chamber opera Glass composed in 2000. I like Philip Glass quite a lot actually, but this piece I probably won't attend, for several reasons. 1. I find the "hors les murs" performances a waste of ressources. We have a great house with pretty amazing acoustics, only Serge Dorny thinks it's a good idea to forget about that and stage performances elsewhere (I guess that's what he calls accessiblity). 2. A night at the opera is supposed to be fun, entertaining, kind of ethereal and magical. I don't see at all that happening in a real prison (where real criminals are living and all). I get the correlation with the opera (based on Franz Kafka's famous book) I'm not stupid but I still think this is another of Serge Dorny's horrific ideas. When any program emphasizes that the audience have to bring their IDs because they will be needed to enter the facility, I suddenly have this urge to flee... Well-done beloved GM. Even operas from composers I like I can't bring myself (literally) to attend.

Opéra de Lyon 2008-09

Nice cover for the new program, wouldn't you say?

One could give credit to Lyon Opera director Serge Dorny for his consistency. I won't.


The role of a GM should not be to ostensibly build a season exclusively based on his personal taste. Yet once again for the 2008-09 season, the schedule will be filled with Mozart (La Clemenza di Tito directed by Jérémie Röhrer in a new production by Georges Lavaudant, Oct.2008), Russian composers (Prokofiev's The Gambler, Jan/Feb.2009) and 20th century operas (a mere 5 out of 10 this time). I'll admit in that context, I was flabbergasted to see he did find some room to schedule La Traviata (as unoriginal and redundant as this choice may be).


The other problem with Dorny is how unbalanced the 2008-09 season will be.

On one hand, he chose operas that are either rarely performed anywhere (Franck Martin's oratorio Le vin herbé from 1940 in the 2007 production of Willy Decker already seen during the Ruhr Triennale -reviews in German here and there with many pictures -; In The Penal Colony by Philip Glass after F.Kafka, Jan/Feb.2009) or specifically in Lyon (Berg's Lulu in yet another Peter Stein production in April 2009, Britten's Death in Venice in May, Prokofiev's The Gambler); on the other hand alas, these previous selections seem to have exhausted all of his neurons, and he ends up filling the rest of the schedule with unimaginative choices that ultimately savage any chance of having a coherent season (although of course he claims otherwise and is presumptuous enough to entitle this season "Lost heros").
In this unattractive patchwork theme, Lyon will see again Chabrier's Le Roi Malgré Lui (revival of the 2005 production directed by Laurent Pelly, Feb/April 2009), Strauss' Die Fledermaus (that has been played with consistency once a decade for the past 30 years here: 1979-80, 87-88 and 95-96) and Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito (already played in 1982-83 and 94-95, another "once a decade" tradition Dorny perpetuates).

Le vin herbé, Willy Decker's production, 2007
Paul Leclaire

About Serge Dorny and the way he spoke tonight (can someone please take the time to teach him how to speak French properly? He has been living here for some time now, yet he still can't finish a sentence without something wrong in it - either grammar or vocabulary).

As usual, he managed to make me leave early (and to prevent me from attending the Giselle ballet, which just shows how talented he is on the accessibility part -see below-). When he started his speech by stating very demagogically that the Opéra de Lyon is internationally famous ("de renommée internationale"), I almost chocked there. Seriously? Can anyone please wake him up?

Also, I wanted to point out another quote so typical of him (don't you dare say I'm blinded by my feelings, Dorny is the one encouraging my dispair): "Il faut que l'opéra soit accessible à tout le monde. Dans le choix des répertoires, c'est aussi extrêmement important. Il faut quand même que je vous fasse plaisir, que JE me fasse plaisir" (strong emphasis on the "je"), which can be translated as "Opera has to be accessible to everyone. It's particularly important to keep that in mind when choosing the repertoire. I have to entertain you, I have to entertain myself". [I'm so not dreaming when I focus on his self-centered side].
He also added later on, that, to him, the score of Strauss's Die Fledermaus was one of the most beautiful ones in classical music (seriously?), showing, once again, his taste is the only one that matters when it comes to building the new seasons.
Excuse me while I go and vomit.



All in all, the highlights of the season will be:

• Anna Caterina Antonacci's concert (Jan.18 2009)
  
• the end of Donizetti's queens cycle with Anna Bolena (concert version) once again conducted by Evelino Pido (as always, coproduced with the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris), Nov.20 2008
• Ermonela Jaho in both Anna Bolena and La Traviata (she made quite an impression as Violetta a few months ago in Covent Garden), June/July 2009
  

Full brochure available for download here (pdf).

Virez moi Serge Dorny

Natalie Dessay superstar au MET

Alors que le MET a annoncé sa programmation pour la saison 2007-08, et que celle de l’Opéra de Paris ne devrait pas tarder à arriver, il est normal que je m’intéresse avant tout à ce qui se passe chez moi, à Lyon.


Depuis l’arrivée de Serge Dorny a la tête de l’opéra de Lyon, la programmation est telle que, si je peux assister à trois opéras dans l’année, cela constitue en soi un petit exploit.

Entre Mozart, que j’exècre (Idomédée et les Noces de Figaro, rien que pour la présente saison, Cosi van tutte l’an dernier, La flûte enchantée l’année d’avant), la musique russe (Mazeppa en 2005, Eugene Oneguine & The Rake’s Progress cette année), la musique slave (festival Janacek en 2005), les opérettes alllemandes (Ariane à Naxos de Strauss l’an dernier, La Veuve Joyeuse de Lehàr cette saison), le baroque et Britten (Le petit ramoneur cette année) ; je veux bien qu’il en faille pour tous les goûts, mais où sont les miens là dedans ?



Et pour la saison 2007-2008, rien de nouveau à l’horizon…



La fin du cycle Piotr Illitch Tchaïkovski verra la production de La dame de pique, mise en scène par Peter Stein et la reprise de Mazeppa et Eugene Onéguine (captation DVD de la trilogie) en début d’année 2008;


2 Britten sont annoncés ; A midsummer’s night dream (reprise de la production de 1992 de Carsen, déjà jouée à Lyon et disponible en DVD) et Curlew river (mise en scène Olivier Py reprise du spectacle donné en 2005 pour le festival d’Edimbourg);


fin mai 2008, l’opéra annonce Porgy & Bess de Gershwin, mise en scène de José Montalvo et Dominique Hervieu (encore un opéra contemporain que je n’aime pas) ;

Laurent Pelly

pour les fêtes de fin d’année 2007, La Vie Parisienne d’Offenbach (de toute façon, en fin d’année, c’est soit une opérette allemande, soit Offenbach, ça aussi ça commence à devenir vraiment lourd) mise en scène par Laurent Pelly et dirigée par Marc Minkowski (au moins, le choix metteur en scène/chef est excellent), avec Marie Devellereau dans le rôle de la Gantière


aussi au programme ;


ces deux soirées de septembre (24 et 26) pour le Maria Stuarda de Donizetti avec Ciofi, dont j’ai déjà parlé;

récital de la soprano Cécile De Boever avec les solistes de l’opéra de Lyon pour un concert Berg / Schönberg / Messian (que des compositeurs que je n’aime pas, comme d’hab);

Era la notte, Photo © Magalie Bouchet

Era la notte, opéra de chambre, spectacle de Juliette Deschamps avec Anna Caterina Antonacci (reprise du spectacle joué à Nîmes en 2006). Musique ? pot-pourri de baroque (géniaaal);

et, info à vérifier, parce qu’un Wagner cette année ne suffisait pas, un autre pour l’an prochain, Siegfried (re-géniaaal);





Bref, encore une année de merde.
Merci Serge Dorny.

Quand va-t-on enfin se débarrasser de lui et retrouver une programmation vraiment éclectique (avec de l'opéra français et italien par exemple)?

Non parce que là moi franchement, je n’en peux plus.






Elsewhere, au jeu des chaises musicales, le chef suisse Charles Dutoit a été nommé à la tête du Philadelphia Orchestra à partir de 2008/09, et Gérard Mortier, après sa dernière saison en 2008/09 à l’opéra de Paris, ira emmerder les Américains en prenant la tête du New York City Opera en septembre 2009.


Personne, du côté des States, ne veut récupérer Serge Dorny ?
Vraiment ?
Allez, un petit effort, c’est pour la bonne cause…