Do you think opera is mostly made up of overweight Italian singers in evening dress, belting out "Nessun dorma" in front of hundreds of wealthy, ageing conservatives, in huge, richly furnished theatres filled with golden statues? If you do think that, you obviously haven't been trawling the London bar scene very diligently over the last few years, because fringe opera has ballooned of late.
Yesterday, English National Opera revealed their 2012-3 season. Talking to a modest number of guests, Artistic Director John Berry announced the 15 productions - nine of which are new - to be taking the stage during the next season.
The Royal Opera announced its 2012/13 season today. As well as the Ring Cycle, there's plenty to excite: the Royal Opera are upping their ratio of new productions to revivals, with six new opera productions across a wide spectrum of operatic genres. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Covent Garden season packed with so much that's interesting.
The reviews of the Royal Opera’s Rusalka this week have been an interesting mix. Everyone agrees that Nézet-Séguin was spot on, but what splits people is the staging. There are two extremes here: the camp who think the staging was an innovative and exciting transformation of the original story, and the camp who think it was a ghastly aberration.
