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EDITORIAL Phone +44 (0)20 7333 1701 Email opera.now@markallengroup.com Editor-in-Chief Ashutosh Khandekar Associate Editor Helena Matheopoulos Consultant Editor Keith Clarke Contributing Editors Francis Muzzu, Tom Sutcliffe Robert Thicknesse (UK), Francis Carlin (France), James Imam (Italy), Karyl Charna Lynn (USA), Andrew Mellor (Scandinavia), Ken Smith (Far East) Design Louise Wood, Rosalind Howard ADVERTISING Phone +44 (0)20 7333 1716 Title Manager Liam-Rhys Jones, liam.jones@markallengroup.com Advertising Production Daniela DiPadova, +44 (0)20 7333 1727, daniela.dipadova@markallengroup.com SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES Phone UK 0800 137201 Overseas +44(0)1722 716997 Email subscriptions@markallengroup.com Subscriptions Manager Bethany Foy UK Subscription Rate £80 PUBLISHING Phone +44(0)20 7738 5454 Publishing Director Owen Mortimer Marketing & Events Director Tony Hill Head of Marketing John Barnett Group Institutional Sales Manager Jas Atwal Production Director Richard Hamshere Circulation Director Sally Boettcher Managing Director Paul Geoghegan Chief Executive O cer Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen
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France takes centre stage
One of the questions I get asked quite often as editor of an opera magazine is,‘What are the most exciting things happening in opera at the moment?’
I tend to direct the questioner to Paris, and especially to the extraordinary Royal Theatre in Versailles, where the revival of French opera from the Baroque to the early 19th century is throwing up constantly thrilling, theatrically delightful and vocally sumptuous performances.
Operas by Rameau, Lully, Grétry and, recently added to the list, Jean-Joseph Cassanéa Mondonville are being given a new lease of life in France, spearheaded by a generation of conductors led by Christophe Rousset, William Christie and Marc Minkowski. These artists are deeply invested in researching and successfully reviving a repertoire that was once all but forgotten or dismissed as frivolous, irrelevant and impossible to perform in a modern context.
Though France tends to be overshadowed in the minds of opera goers by Italy and the German-speaking world, the importance and influence of Paris as a dynamic centre of operatic activity shouldn’t be underestimated. From the extravagant entertainments of the Sun King in Versailles to the Grand Operas of the early part of the 19th century, France played a vital role in providing opportunities for many operatic greats, from Rossini to Verdi and even Wagner (who completed his first successful opera Rienzi in the French capital). The liberal environment of 19th-century Paris gave Verdi the latitude to explore stories that attracted the critical eye of the censor in Italy. French writers inspired Rigoletto (Victor Hugo) and La traviata (Alexandre Dumas). And it was the Paris Opera that, in 1866, commissioned and premiered one of Verdi’s greatest operas, Don Carlos.
Add to this the succour and encouragement that France provided to Jewish composers such as Offenbach, Meyerbeer and Halévy, and the picture of an open, creative society that had a profound influence on the development of opera emerges.
In this issue of Opera Now, we guide you through some of the highlights of French opera in the season ahead, from the revival of forgotten works such as Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde in London (with a recording due for release by Opera Rara), and Halévy’s La tempesta, based on Shakespeare, in Wexford. We also have a focus on the rich, rare and wonderful operatic life of Versailles. If you want to whet your appetite, then I would recommend the video of Mondonville’s Titon et L’Aurore (1753), directed for the Opéra-Comique and Versailles by Basil Twist, recorded last year and released by Naxos. It’s a revelation, and a sure indication of what we’ve been missing.
Ashutosh Khandekar
@operanow fb.com/operanow Opera Now captures the drama, colour and vitality of one of the most powerful of all the performing arts. In our print and digital issues, we showcase the creative spirit of opera, both on stage and behind the scenes, with profiles of opera companies, singers, directors and designers. Our in-depth features reflect how diverse cultural elements have influenced opera, including travel, history, literature, art, architecture, politics and philosophy. Our lively reviews and opinion pages are a platform for writers and critics drawn from all over the world. Our aim is to inspire our opera-loving readers to broaden their knowledge and deepen their passion for this fascinating and stimulating artform.
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