Theatrical Giulio Cesare from Dmitri Tcherniakov

In 2025 the Salzburg Festival assembled a stellar cast and an exceptional orchestra for Dmitri Tcherniakov’s challenging but compelling production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto. It’s a contemporary setting with all the action taking place in the confines of a bunker, which appears to be sporadically under shell fire. Pretty much all of the issues raised by having all the characters in the small space all the time are cleverly resolved to create a very tightly wrought, tense piece of theatre.

Continue reading →

Straightforward Gambler from the Mariinsky

The 2010 recording of Prokofiev’s The Gambler from the Mariinsky Theatre is a bit of a mixed bag.  It’s a complicated opera about obsession and power and it needs a strong production and a director who can get coherent performances out of a large cast to fully succeed.  Temur Chkhiedze doesn’t really manage it.  The production is very straightforward, set in slightly abstracted versions of a hotel, a casino etc and at times it is brought to life by the clever lighting of Gleb Fishtinsky but it doesn’t do enough to establish any real purpose for the piece.  It’s not helped by some very broad acting, especially from Sergei Aleksaskin’s General which is further emphasized by video director Laurent Gentot’s heavy use of close ups.

1.hotel Continue reading →