Nick Hammond
Tristan und Isolde
The Joys of Tragedy
Some might think that foregoing one of the final days of late-summer sunshine to spend over five hours cooped up in a theater watching Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde demonstrates either an admirable sense of duty or complete madness. When … Read More
France Wins the World Cup
Allez les Bleus!
A few weeks ago, when I realized that I would be in Paris on the day of the World Cup soccer final, as an England fan I began to harbor totally unrealistic dreams of being there for a France-England final. … Read More
L’Heure Espagnole & Gianni Schicchi
Belly Laughs at the Opera
In the opera world, it has now become the rule rather than the exception to pair Maurice Ravel’s 1911 one-act opera L’Heure Espagnole with Giacomo Puccini’s 1918 single-act Gianni Schicchi. It is easy to see why: although each piece … Read More
Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris 1940-50
Intellectual Paris during the Occupation and Beyond
Agnès Poirier’s scintillating new book, Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris 1940-50, focuses on an extraordinary decade in Paris’s cultural and intellectual history. Poirier, who will be familiar to readers who follow her regular articles for the … Read More
Living in Paris
Au Revoir, Monsieur José
In the 20 years that I have owned a little studio apartment in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, the district has changed considerably. Almost every restaurant has been replaced at successive intervals by other restaurants; fancy gift shops have been transformed into Italian … Read More
La Bohème
Tragic Love in a Frosty Setting
Imagine the scene. German director Claus Guth has been asked to create a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème for the Bastille Opera House in Paris. “I need to shake up this old chestnut.” he says to himself. “Let … Read More
Visages Villages
Seeing the Power of the Imagination
What a surprising pleasure to see the new documentary Visages, Villages, by 89-year-old Agnès Varda, made with 34-year-old artist JR and first shown out of competition at this year’s Cannes Film festival. Throughout the course of the film, both Varda … Read More
Tartuffe or the Hypocrite
Blasphemous Molière Play Reconstructed
Molière’s comedy Tartuffe is probably the most famous – and infamous – play in the French repertoire. First staged as a three-act piece at Versailles in 1664 in front of Louis XIV, with the title Tartuffe or the Hypocrite, its … Read More
Anja Harteros
Soprano's Sterling Recital Sparks Extra Enthusiasm
Even though opera and ballet inevitably dominate the schedule at Paris Opera’s two locations, the occasional one-off event is worth signaling, especially when it is a recital at the Palais Garnier by the German soprano Anja Harteros, who will be … Read More
The Snow Maiden & Wozzeck
Exceptional Singing Distinguishes Two Operas
Two very different operas, written less than half a century apart, were staged on successive evenings at the Opéra Bastille last week. The operas of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) are all too rarely performed outside of Eastern Europe, so … Read More