This was the year that opera houses got back to something approaching “normality” post-pandemic. It’s easy to forget that at the start of 2022, Covid restrictions were still very much in place: visiting Vienna in January, one needed proof of triple vaccination, a negative PCR test and an FFP2 mask to get into the Wiener Staatsoper, making it just about the safest place on the planet. Even in September, masks were compulsory on public transport in Italy. And although it’s now rare for entire shows to be pulled because of Covid, the dreaded double bar lines still cause plenty of last minute cast changes.
Audiences have been slow to return. Older or more vulnerable patrons are perhaps reluctant to head back to busy auditoriums, or don’t fancy jostling on public transport to get there. Tourists are returning, but slowly. Two recent visits to a sold out Royal Opera House have been encouraging, but there’s no doubt that people are leaving it much later to book tickets.
This was the year I finally dusted off the suitcase and got back to my European travels; five of my top ten performances took place abroad. Rather than attempt to order them, here they are in chronological sequence (cop out, I know).
Bajazet (Irish National Opera)
Gianluca Margheri (Bajazet) and Niamh O’Sullivan (Asteria)
© Kip Carroll
It’s rare to encounter Vivaldi operas staged. Adele Thomas’s production of Bajazet (also known as Il Tamerlano) was the first time a Vivaldi opera had ever played at Covent Garden, albeit down in the Linbury Theatre. A tense, claustrophobic staging worked effectively and there were some super vocal performances, but it was the knockout, abrasive playing of the Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan that made this such a thrill.
Pique Dame (Teatro alla Scala)
Asmik Grigorian (Liza)
© Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala
I reviewed this one for Bachtrack (click here). Asmik Grigorian was outstanding at full throttle as Liza and Najmiddin Mavlyanov was a convincingly psychotic Hermann. On the night, the big question was whether Valery Gergiev would turn up or not (his assistant had prepared the orchestra). In the event, he did – and conducted brilliantly – but this would turn out to be his final opera in the west for the foreseeable future. Russia invaded Ukraine that evening and the following day, Gergiev’s international engagements began toppling like a house of cards.
Il trittico (La Monnaie)
Il tabarro
© Matthias Baus
A day trip to Brussels brought rich rewards in the form of Tobias Kratzer’s ingenious production of Puccini’s triptych. I loved his use of visual media to subtly link the three operas: Il tabarro looked like a graphic novel, a copy of which is furtively shared in the pews of the convent in Suor Angelica. Gianni Schicchi was set as a sitcom – complete with on-stage “studio audience” – and opens with Buosa Donati slipping on an LP of Suor Angelica and rewriting his will before slumping to his death. Corinne Winters, Peter Kálmán and Adam Smith led a spirited cast… not forgetting Elena Zilio’s comic genius as Zita in Schicchi. And yet another superb bit of conducting by Alain Altinoglu, who deserves much wider recognition than he gets, be it in the pit or on a concert platform.
Rusalka (Garsington)
Natalya Romaniw (Rusalka) and Gerard Schneider (Prince)
© Clive Barda | Arena PAL
Postponed from 2020, Jack Furness’ production finally hit the stage and in an entirely convincing way. A weighty platform rose to reveal an on-stage lake and plenty of aquatic action, becoming an abattoir for the palace act, with carcasses hanging over the set (it was very much the Year of the Abattoir – see Simon Boccanegra in Parma). Natalya Romaniw was great in the title role and I liked Gerard Schneider’s Prince very much and Christine Rice’s vampish Ježibaba.
Otello (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro)
Enea Scala (Otello) and Dmitry Korchak (Rodrigo)
© ROF | Amati Bacciardi
Rossini’s Otello doesn’t get many outings, but my first trip to the delightful seaside town of Pesaro for the opera festival dedicated to its local hero was crowned by an excellent, provocative production by Rosetta Cucchi. The story is viewed via the maid Emilia’s flashbacks, with male violence against women providing a powerful central focus. Eleonora Buratto sang a gorgeous Desdemona and the three main tenor roles were strongly cast too. Full review here.
La Voix humaine/ Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Glyndebourne)
Les Mamelles de Tiresias
© Glyndebourne Festival | Bill Cooper
I caught Laurent Pelly’s Poulenc double bill on the last day of the Glyndebourne festival and it lived up to all the rave reviews. Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Poulenc’s great-niece, was compelling as the suicidal Elle in La Voix humaine. Les Mamelles de Tirésias is the polar opposite and Pelly’s belly laugh staging was packed with vibrant colour and surreal imagery, including exploding breasts and a vision of the 40,049 babies that still makes me chuckle.
Salome (Royal Opera)
Elena Stikhina (Salome)
© Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala
I wanted to catch Malin Byström’s Salome again at Covent Garden but she had to cancel the performance I had booked. In stepped Elena Stikhina, who was singing in Robert Carsen’s grey, totalitarian new Aida, as the classiest jump-in. I had watched her Salome streamed from La Scala during lockdown (pictured above), so expected something rather wonderful… and she was. Compellingly acted, her Salome was a sulky, petulant teen, astonishingly well sung. Plaudits too for Alexander Soddy’s excellent conducting.
Alcina (Royal Opera)
Lisette Oropesa (Alcina)
© ROH | Marc Brenner
I think it was the press photos that convinced me I needed to see Richard Jones’ new production. Well, those plus the classy cast, led by Lisette Oropesa, who could frankly sing anything from the telephone directory and I’d be there. What I loved about this was that Jones was having fun with an opera rather than poking fun at an opera (his Samson et Dalila was one of my operatic turkeys of the year). Seeing it up close from the Stalls Circle, Antony McDonald’s costume designs for the animal masks were exquisite. The singing was often superb, the playing – the ROH strings using Baroque bows for the first time – lively.
Dialogues des Carmélites (Opera di Roma)
Corinne Winters (Blanche) and Anna Caterina Antonacci (Mme de Croissy)
© Fabrizio Sansoni | Opera di Roma
My final trip abroad of the year was tremendous – there’s something surreal about eating pizza outside in Naples as people drag Christmas trees past your table. I started in Rome though, where I saw the season opener – and more Poulenc. Emma Dante’s production of Carmélites was simple but stylish, her solution to the mass execution of nuns at the end remarkably effective. Corinne Winters (a good friend, hence why I did not review the show) was a compelling Blanche, while having Anna Caterina Antonacci as Mme de Croissy was a casting masterstroke.
Don Carlo (Teatro di San Carlo, Naples)
Ludovic Tézier (Posa) and Elīna Garanča (Eboli)
© Luciano Romano
My favourite opera with the classiest of casts – Ludovic Tézier, Elīna Garanča, Ailyn Pérez, Matthew Polenzani – was not something I was ever going to miss. (Full review here). This was my first visit to Naples, a city a friend described to me as wearing its heart on its sleeve and she was not wrong. The San Carlo cast was superb, if challenged by Juraj Valčuha’s slow tempi, and Claus Guth’s production was austere, but classy. As one Italian critic told me: “Claus Guth, he is not stupid. He knows that if he is going to do Regietheater in Italy, it has to look beautiful.” I enjoyed it so much that I immediately booked a ticket for the next performance.
Kristine Opolais (Tosca)
© Monika Rittershaus
As a bonus, a note on the weirdest production of the year: Martin Kušej’s breathless Tosca (no interval!) was set in a dystopian freezer, several feet of snow smothering the stage of the Theater an der Wien. Why? I’ve no idea, but it did contain some compelling ideas – the Marchesa Attavanti is almost certainly having a relationship with Cavaradossi and is a pawn in Scarpia’s game to outmanoeuvre Tosca – and some provocative ones, such as “Vissi d’arte” performed as a lap dance. It was all extremely well acted, with Kristine Opolais, Jonathan Tetelman and Gábor Bretz in the principal roles. Of course, there was no death leap for Tosca at the end, but Kušej’s single bullet solution – Attavanti pulling the trigger – made me gasp.