“Magnetic pull: Soprano Asmik Grigorian shines” (Salzburger Nachrichten) “Madness in close-up” (BR Klassik): Director Benedict Andrews plunges Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame at the Bavarian State Opera into a cinematic film noir aesthetic, in which the characters regularly seem to vanish into shadow and mystery. Brandon Jovanovich “plays a credibly broken anti-hero as Hermann” (Münchner Merkur) and Asmik Grigorian as Lisa once again steals the show with her unerring dramatic and vocal skills. Conductor Aziz Shokhakimov gives a convincing debut at the podium of the state orchestra, managing a “dramatically stirring, propulsive interpretation” (FAZ).
Alceste
The Belgian dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui interprets Gluck’s late Baroque opera Alceste as an impressive symbiosis between dance and music. The opera “can be experienced here in all its existential power.“ (SZ) It is here performed in the revised Paris version from 1776 where Gluck has revalued especially the ballet music. Cherkaoui – director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders – has worked with top artists across disciplines like superstar Beyoncé. The superb dancers of the Belgian Compagnie Eastman, Antwerp perform Gluck’s score physically, creating a fine and stringent aesthetics of “beautiful images” (Opernwelt). Dorothea Röschmann with her “inimitable charisma” (Financial Times) and Charles Castronovo deliver a brilliant performance in the roles of the self-sacrificing royal couple. “Musically impressive.“ (NMZ)