Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The smart money said this revival of Giordano\u2019s Andrea Ch\u00e9nier would have little new to offer, but it was wrong. Although the Royal Opera production is nearly 10 years old and the two main singers and conductor have appeared in it before, this performance made news on two counts.The first is that Jonas Kaufmann sounds restored to something like his pre-pandemic self after several years of illnesses and cancellations. The burnished tone may have turned a little husky, but the musicianship is as fine as ever and, while he has never been the kind of tenor to throw caution to the wind, he roused his vocal resources to give the role of Andrea Ch\u00e9nier some impassioned, full-throttle singing.The second is that Antonio Pappano is making his final appearances after 22 years as the Royal Opera\u2019s music director. A verismo opera, Pappano\u2019s greatest strength, was a good choice to say goodbye and Giordano most likely never heard Andrea Ch\u00e9nier played with the near-symphonic scale and passion that Pappano gives it here.When David McVicar\u2019s production was new in 2015 it felt inert, conventional in a tired way, but nearly a decade later the world looks different. With financial cutbacks hurting on every side, one is grateful for its grandeur and opulence, which may soon be a thing of the past.Give it a cast that is committed and there is life in it after all. Sondra Radvanovsky is never a soprano to hold back and she sings Maddalena with no-holds-barred power, while also finding an inner intensity at her heart, charging the opera with electricity.Amartuvshin Enkhbat sings a strong G\u00e9rard, with rolling waves of ample tone. There are vivid cameos from Rosalind Plowright as Contessa di Coigny and Ashley Riches as Roucher. Katia Ledoux gives notice of an impressive voice as Bersi and where would this production be without the inimitable Elena Zilio as old, blind Madelon? You are unlikely to come across an Andrea Ch\u00e9nier better than this.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605To June 11, roh.org.ukNever mind the awful summer weather. As the country-house opera season in England gets under way, the big question is not whether to risk a picnic, but which of this year\u2019s festivals is offering the most adventurous operatic fare.The 2024 winner is Garsington Opera, founded in 1989, now resident at the Getty estate at Wormsley in Buckinghamshire. Its new productions include two real rarities \u2014 Rameau\u2019s Plat\u00e9e and Verdi\u2019s Un giorno di regno, both by composers not known for their comedies \u2014 alongside Britten\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream and a community opera, A Trip to the Moon, by American composer Andrew Norman.For a celebratory start to the season, the wildly odd Plat\u00e9e makes an intriguing choice. It was written for the wedding of Louis XV\u2019s son, the dauphin of France, in 1745. For reasons that seem bizarre to us today, Rameau chose the mark the occasion with a farcical tale of how Jupiter tricks his jealous wife Juno by setting up a bogus wedding to an ugly marsh nymph \u2014 cue gurgling frog noises and slimy scenes.Is there anything today as far from real life as reality TV? Director Louisa Muller has updated Rameau\u2019s mythological fable into a gods-meet-the-commoners episode of Love Island. When Jupiter and Juno fall out, Olympus TV\u2019s hit show\u2019s ratings plummet, so the creators cook up the idea of Jupiter being paired with Plat\u00e9e, a gawky girl who trips over her own feet and has a male voice (the role is sung by a tenor).Unfortunately, like the stars of reality TV, the production is not as funny as it thinks it is. Some scenes hit the spot, such as the lengthy divertissement when La Folie (Madness) appears as a glittering chanteuse hosting nightclub revels, but too much is reduced to generic hyperactivity, as if a lot of mad rushing about can hide a lack of specific comic ideas.As compensation, the period-instrument English Concert was on hand, stylishly conducted by Paul Agnew, a former Plat\u00e9e of distinction himself. Henry Waddington and Robert Murray, as Cith\u00e9ron and Mercury, are admired Garsington regulars, though both tended to ride roughshod over the French recitative, and Ossian Huskinson\u2019s Jupiter impressed with his strong bass-baritone voice.The evening\u2019s accolade goes to tenor Samuel Boden as poor, put-upon Plat\u00e9e, first for his elegant singing and second for his willingness to don a series of lurid green dresses. This production\u2019s final image of Plat\u00e9e, now abandoned and dejected, is a difficult one. So long as Plat\u00e9e is a marsh nymph, mocking her is not a problem, but what about rejecting a young woman simply because she is not very attractive? Do we really want to laugh at her?\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606To June 30, garsingtonopera.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The smart money said this revival of Giordano\u2019s Andrea Ch\u00e9nier would have little new to offer, but it was wrong. Although the Royal Opera production is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-96786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96787,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96786\/revisions\/96787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}