Friday Photo

Castle Hohenzollern

Salzburg

July, 2026

 

Broadcasts This Week

Die Frau ohne Schatten

Courtesy of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

Photo by Monika Rittershaus, copyright 2026

Vida Miknevičiūtė (Empress), Ambur Braid (Dyer's Wife), Michael Spyres (Emperor), Brian Mulligan (Barak)

There are radio broadcasts and streaming available for some of the productions I saw in July and August.

The Salzburg Festival has an extensive program of radio and TV broadcasts on various stations. Radio broadcasts are available until about a month after the performances. 

medici.tv, which is available in the United States, will stream video of Ariadne auf Naxos on Thursday, August 20 at 11 a.m. and Il Viaggio a Reims on Friday, August 21 at 11:00 a.m.

For complete information on broadcasts, see the Salzburg Festival Broadcast web page.

 Arte has re-posted the Aix Frau video, which is well worth seeing. Frau and Viaggio were both directed by Barrie Kosky, and wow, they were both great.

I do not yet know whether the Ariadne and Viaggio broadcasts will stay on Medici.tv for a while or are one-shot deals. I am going to try to watch them both. Ariadne got booed (the director made a major plot intervention in the Opera!) and Viaggio was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I hope you get to see them.

Well, I'm Back.

What I did on my summer vacation.

The spine without print under Carmen is Werther.

(Click to enlarge.)

I've been back, actually, since August 8; it's just that it took me until the last couple of days to feel thoroughly re-oriented to my usual life. It's as though my five weeks in Europe happened in another realm, and maybe they did, although there are various witnesses to attest that I was really there, friends from different parts of my life, mostly musical connections of one kind or another.

I saw 16 performances in the five weeks I was away. Not readily visible in the photo above, because the programs were small rather than being the size of paperback novella, four performances in Aix: Les vêpres siciliennes, Bluebeard's Castle, Michael Spyres in recital, and Sonya Yoncheva in recital with Cappella Mediterranea.

Amazingly, of these 16, only Bluebeard was a bust, a big surprise considering how good Klaus Mäkelä was conducting Die Frau ohne Schatten. Well, I am sure that Frau got a lot more rehearsal time and took up a lot more of his attention than Bluebeard, but it was a shock anyway. Whatever; it was really a great run of operas and recitals. 

Here are the reviews that've been published so far, as well as some links to others' reviews (more to come). Comments on Mr. Brouček and reviews of the Salzburg operas will be published this week at SFCV.

• The Brilliant Opera Season at Aix-en-Provence, SFCV, August, 2026 (Accabadora, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Les vêpres siciliennes, Bluebeard's Castle, El Cimarron, recitals by Michael Spyres and Sonya Yoncheva)
• Hugh Canning reviews Frau, Operalogue
• Joshua Barone, NY Times, reviews Frau (gift link)
• David Karlin reviews Frau, Bachtrack
• Alessandro Zummo reviews Frau, Plays to See
• Mark Pullinger reviews Frau, Opera Now
• Kevin Ng inverviews Barrie Kosky about Frau, Parterre Box
• Heidi Waleson reviews Aix, WSJ (paywall)
• A.J. Goldman reviews several Aix productions, Parterre Box
• Shirley Apthorp reviews Accabadora, Financial Times
• General Aix conversation at Parterre Box
• Don't Go in the Basement: Rusalka at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Parterre Box, August, 2026
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Der Freischütz at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Parterre Box, August, 2026

Itinerary

Place de la Bastille, Paris

July, 2026

So I am out of town, on a European trip I'm thinking of as the follies of summer 2026, because of the length of the trip (five weeks) and what I am seeing. I'm currently baking in Aix-en-Provence, where temperatures have been in the 90s. Maybe it will actually rain today and cool things off a bit? That would be nice. Also, I should check out the public pool that is less than four blocks from where I'm staying.

Here's where I am, roughly, and what I am seeing or have seen. I'm at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence right now.

• Francesco Filidei, Accabadora, 7 July (world premiere run and very beautiful)

• R. Strauss, Die Frau ohne Schatten,  9 July

• Béla Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, 11 July (in concert)

• Michael Spyres (recital) 13 July

• Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes aka I vespri siciliani 16 July (in concert; I wish it were staged, but this is a one-off and it's the only middle or late Verdi opera that I have never seen.)

• Henze, El Cimmaron, 17 July

Amusingly, when I was on line for the security check for Accabadora, Barrie Kosky, the director of Frau, floated past me and chatted with some folks about a yard away; when I left Frau the other night, I had just cleared the Grand Theatre steps when Francesco Filidei, composer of Accabadora, crossed my path. I didn't recognize him fast enough to buttonhole him and tell him how much I'd love the opera; he'll just have to wait for my review. Or maybe he'll be at Bluebeard tonight.

The Frau run is ending in a couple of performance and was live streamed the other night when I saw it. It's a collaboration with a couple of European opera companies, so it'll be traveling. It is magnificent, I think the most psychologically compelling of the three productions I have seen since 2013. And there was a lot of great singing as well. (I do not remember much except the glorious orchestra and how loud one Gwyneth Jones was in 1989, with the late Christoph von Dohnyani conducting.)

After Aix, I am spending a few days on the coast in a beach town, hoping to go out on a boat where they give you lunch and you swim in interesting places. I've loved doing this in Hawaii, so.

Then it's on to Munich, where I'm spending eight days and seeing only three operas:

• Rusalka, Dvořák
• The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, Janáček (overnight runout to Bregenz, Austria)
• Der Freischuetz, von Weber

My last major stop is Salzburg (I'll be in Munich the night before I head home):

• Bizet, Carmen 30 July

• Massenet, Werther Aug 1

• R. Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, Aug

• Messiaen, Saint François d’Assise  4 Aug

• Rossini, Il viaggio a Reims 5 Aug. Also directed by Barrie Kosky, so I have high hopes for this comic rarity. And I will finally see Cecilia Bartoli, who has never sung staged opera in the Bay Area and hasn't given a recital there in decades.

• Mozart, Cosi fan tutte, 6 aug. This will be my fifth Cosi since 2021.

It's a big Strauss year for me, between Daphne (Seattle), Elektra (SFO), Frau (Aix), and Ariadne (Salzburg); also, I'm seeing a few rarities like Brouček and Freischuetz.

How this got started: well, last fall I was thinking back on my many years of opera going and found myself wondering whether I'd ever see the Messiaen again. It left me utterly baffled in 2002, when San Francisco Opera presented the U.S. premiere. (So far it's the only U.S. production of the work.) An idle web search showed me the Salzburg performances; then Aix announced their schedule, and I had to do something in between, right?

Note that there will be radio broadcasts (delayed) of the Aix productions; the schedule is at Parterre Box and note that those times are all Eastern. Add or subtract accordingly. You've missed the livestream of Frau, which was available in Europe unless you have a VPN.

I'm reviewing all of this for SFCV or Parterre Box, so watch for links, eventually.