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      Review: Unsuk Chin’s New Opera Gives Music to the Unsaid

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      Unsuk Chin’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” a reinterpretation of the Faust myth, reflects a restless mind with constant musical invention.Unsuk Chin’s new opera conveys, with uncanny precision, the restless energies inside a person’s head.Called “Die Dunkle Seite des Mondes” (“The Dark Side of the Moon”), the work premiered on Sunday at the Hamburg State Opera in Germany. It’s a reinterpretation of the Faust myth, drawing loose inspiration from a famous series of letters between the quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.This is Chin’s second opera, following “Alice in Wonderland,” which was first performed at the Bavarian State Opera in 2007. It was as kinetic as her new one, though sillier, more eclectic and ultimately more haunting.“Die Dunkle Seite des Mondes” centers on a character called Dr. Kieron, sung by the baritone Thomas Lehman. He is an irascible yet brilliant scientist whose harsh perfectionism masks a fragmenting mental state. Searching for human connection and trying to slow the pace of his thoughts, he falls prey to a cynical, Nietzsche-quoting faith healer, Master Astaroth, performed by the baritone Bo Skovhus.At the start of the opera, Dr. Kieron’s sung text shows a confident man with bristly charisma. He mocks his assistant, his students and his colleagues with laser wit; In response, they grudgingly praise his intellect. Later, in a seedy bar, he entertains the other patrons with ludicrous tall tales that they believe despite themselves. Dr. Kieron’s behavior recalls Pauli, who dismissed bad science by saying it was “not even wrong,” but also Chin’s teacher, the composer Gyorgy Ligeti. “Ligeti was the harshest critic you could ever imagine,” she has said, “not only toward his students, but to his colleagues and himself.”Chin’s music takes us into Dr. Kieron’s psyche, and it’s an exhausting place. Melodic fragments flare up and burst; orchestral registers and timbres shift constantly. The score shows a mind that can’t stay still. No wonder Dr. Kieron searches for solace with Master Astaroth, whose therapy-speak pronouncements seem profound when accompanied by blessedly static, ethereal music.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Review: A Game of Light and Shadow in Gounod’s ‘Faust’

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      Sara Holdren’s new production for Heartbeat Opera takes its lead from Bulgakov’s Faustian novel “The Master and Margarita.”The director Sara Holdren has made it pretty clear that she’s a fan of Mikhail Bulgakov.In the biography that accompanies her new production of Gounod’s “Faust” for Heartbeat Opera, Holdren ends with a bit of Cyrillic script that translates to “Manuscripts don’t burn,” the most famous line from Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.”A passage from that book, a Soviet spin on the Faust story, also appears in Holdren’s note about her staging. During her work she thought often, she wrote, about one of the devil’s lines: “What would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people.”This idea, that light and shadow, and all they represent, are intertwined and essential to life itself, guides Holdren’s take on “Faust,” which opened on Thursday at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, in a new adaptation by her and Jacob Ashworth, with a chamber arrangement by Francisco Ladrón de Guevara.Before “Faust” was a sprawling grand opera in the 1860s, sung through across five acts and including a ballet, it was a humbler opéra comique, with spoken dialogue between its flights of musical expression. Holdren blends the two versions, trimming the length and adapting the spoken lines to sound as if they were written today.The goal, as always with Heartbeat Opera, is to breathe urgency into a classic. And “Faust,” which isn’t performed often, was once the classic. Perhaps the most popular work of its day, it opened the Metropolitan Opera in 1883. (Martin Scorsese depicted one of those Gilded Age performances of “Faust” in his film adaptation of “The Age of Innocence.”) Now, however, it’s harder to come by. The Met hasn’t even presented it in over a decade.Holdren, who was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize this year, is also an excellent theater critic for New York Magazine; often, I’m convinced she’s the finest in town. You can sense a real, exciting theatrical instinct in her production of “Faust,” particularly in the inventive ways she plays with light and shadow (designed by Yichen Zhou).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Austria Wins Narrow Victory Over Israel in Eurovision Song Contest

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      Austria’s entrant, JJ, took the prize after a tense count that was neck-and-neck until the last votes were revealed.Austria narrowly edged out Israel to win the Eurovision Song Contest after a tense vote count on Saturday night in which the lead switched repeatedly and the victor became clear only at the last moment.Israel received the most points in the public vote, which accounts for half of the overall tally. Last year, the competition was overshadowed by protests over Israel’s involvement because of the country’s military campaign in Gaza.Austria was represented this year by JJ, a classically trained singer, who performed “Wasted Love,” a dramatic song about heartbreak. He received 436 points to Israel’s 357.Sweden, the pre-event favorite, came fourth.Austria last won the competition in 2014, when Conchita Wurst, a bearded drag queen, triumphed with “Rise Like a Phoenix.”JJ, a 24-year-old whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, is a countertenor, meaning that his vocal range most closely matches that of a female mezzo-soprano. He sings in the choir at the Opera School of the Vienna State Opera, and in recent months has appeared onstage in the company’s productions of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd.”Accepting the Eurovision winner’s trophy, a tearful JJ thanked the voters and called on them to “spread more love” in the world.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      JJ hits some high notes for Austria.

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      JJ rehearsing “Wasted Love,” which makes full use of his classical training as a singer.Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOperatic voices don’t usually feature at Eurovision, but JJ, taking the stage to represent Austria, is an exception.In “Wasted Love,” JJ, 24, gently coos about a recent heartbreak until he hits the chorus, and his voice soars in volume and pitch, making full use of his classical training.JJ, whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, is a countertenor, meaning his vocal range most closely matches a female mezzo-soprano. He is in the choir at the Opera School of the Vienna State Opera. In recent months, he has appeared in the company’s productions of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd.”JJ said that he hoped his performance would “awaken interest in classical music” among Eurovision’s viewers, but that he also wanted to make the case for greater use of operatic vocals in pop music. Putting them together could create fun “popera” songs, JJ said.After spending most of his childhood in Dubai, JJ started classical singing at 15 when he moved to Austria. His father, noting JJ’s high singing voice, asked him to try belting out the “Queen of the Night” aria from “The Magic Flute,” JJ recalled. Soon, JJ said, he was watching YouTube videos of Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé performances, then imitating those renowned sopranos.Key figures in Vienna’s opera scene have wished JJ luck at Eurovision, including Bogdan Roscic, the general director of the Vienna State Opera. “He’s excited and happy for me,” JJ said, “but he said he will not watch.” Eurovision is still too much of a silly spectacle for some, even with JJ in it. More

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      Luigi Alva, Elegant Tenor With a Lighthearted Touch, Dies at 98

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      A Peruvian-born international star, he made a specialty of roles in operas by Donizetti, Rossini and Mozart, becoming one of their pre-eminent interpreters.Luigi Alva, the Peruvian tenor who was a pre-eminent interpreter of Mozart and Rossini roles that highlighted his light-lyric voice, elegant phrasing and subtle acting during a three-decade career on the world’s opera stages, died on Thursday at his home in Barlassina, Italy, north of Milan. He was 98. His death was confirmed by the Peruvian tenor Ernesto Palacio, a close friend and the intendant of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy.Mr. Alva did not have the booming, resonant voice needed for dramatic tenor performances in the biggest opera houses. But he triumphed in opera buffa roles — such as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and the lovesick Ernesto in Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” — which demanded fine comedic timing and an appreciation for absurd situations without resorting to slapstick or mugging.In more serious roles, such as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” Mr. Alva displayed a warm timbre and gracious line that gained him an enthusiastic following. Few tenors could match his ability to deliver long coloratura passages with a single breath, as Mr. Alva did time and again in “Il mio tesoro,” the famous aria from “Don Giovanni.”“The real trick is not merely to sing the passage, but to make it sound easy,” the critic Alan Rich of The New York Times wrote on the occasion of Mr. Alva’s New York recital debut at Judson Hall in 1961. “And this was the way he sang throughout the evening — beautifully, and with an assurance that was literally breathtaking.”In more serious roles, such as Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni,” Mr. Alva displayed a warm timbre and gracious line that gained him an enthusiastic following. Here he performed the role in 1963 at La Scala.Erio Piccagliani/Teatro alla ScalaWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Seven Takes on the Lurid Dance of the Seven Veils in Strauss’s ‘Salome’

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      “I’m ready,” Salome sings. And then she dances.Her predatory stepfather has promised her anything she wants if she performs for him. She obliges with the alternately wild and delicate Dance of the Seven Veils, one of the most famous numbers in all opera.The Dance of the Seven VeilsChicago Symphony Orchestra; Fritz Reiner, conductor (Sony)A highlight of Strauss’s “Salome,” which the Metropolitan Opera will broadcast live to movie theaters on Saturday, it is also one of the art form’s greatest challenges. Few sopranos capable of singing the daunting role have much experience with dance, let alone with carrying a sensual nine-minute solo.Is it a seduction? A striptease? A cry for help? Performers have taken this intense, lurid scene in many different directions, bringing out undercurrents of sexual awakening and violence. The Met’s new production inverts the traditional portrayal, uncovering the wounded girl beneath the stereotypical femme fatale.Here are (yes) seven memorable versions from the long history of opera’s boldest dance.Silent SalomeAlla Nazimova.Nazimova ProductionsNot quite 20 years after the opera’s 1905 premiere, a silent film version of “Salome” — really an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play on which the opera is based — embraced the material’s perfumed, verging-on-surreal Orientalism. The actress Alla Nazimova’s Salome is a spoiled, petulant teenager.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      John Adams’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ Sags at the Metropolitan Opera

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      John Adams’s Shakespeare adaptation has been trimmed since its premiere, but still struggles with setting a flood of dense Elizabethan verse.“Antony and Cleopatra” played a crucial role in the history of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1966, Samuel Barber’s new adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy opened the company’s Lincoln Center home — back when the Met barely did anything from the 20th century, let alone world premieres.Things could hardly be more different now. John Adams’s version of “Antony and Cleopatra” arrived at the Met on Monday at a time when new and recent pieces are frequently on offer, a shock for an art form in which the standard repertory pretty much ended with Puccini. This is the fifth Adams title the company has presented, the kind of sustained commitment to a living composer that would have once been unthinkable.Barber’s “Antony” was a notorious fiasco. Even with Leontyne Price as Cleopatra, the opera was buried beneath a lavish staging, designed to give the theater’s new machinery a workout. Deeply wounded by the blowback, Barber eventually revised the work.Adams, too, has futzed with his “Antony” since its premiere in San Francisco in 2022 and a later production in Barcelona. By now, some 20 minutes have been trimmed from a score that ran nearly three hours at the premiere.But the opera still slumps and sags, for all of the music’s nervously chugging energy and despite an excellent cast led by the eloquently weary Gerald Finley and a bristling Julia Bullock.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      La Scala Taps South Korean Maestro Myung-whun Chung as Music Director

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      Myung-whun Chung will be the first Asian, and one of the first conductors born outside Italy, to serve as music director in the opera house’s 247-year history.The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, one of the world’s most revered opera houses, announced on Monday that its next music director would be the South Korean conductor Myung-whun Chung.Chung, 72, a veteran who has led renowned ensembles in Europe and Asia, will succeed the Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly, who started in 2015. Chung will be the first Asian — and one of the first conductors born outside Italy — to serve as music director in La Scala’s 247-year history. He will take the podium in late 2026 for an initial term of about three years.The selection of Chung is one of the most important decisions so far under Fortunato Ortombina, the Italian arts executive who took over as superintendent and artistic director of La Scala in February. Ortombina nominated Chung for music director, and La Scala’s board unanimously approved the choice on Monday, the opera house said in a statement.The statement called Chung, who has been a regular at La Scala since 1989, “one of the most beloved artists among the Milanese public.” Chung has conducted 84 performances of nine operas at La Scala, in addition to 141 concerts. Chung holds the record for the most appearances at the opera house, aside from music directors, according to La Scala. In 2023, he was named honorary conductor of the Filarmonica della Scala in Milano, an ensemble of La Scala musicians, the first maestro to receive that designation.The statement called Chung, who has appeared with La Scala singers and musicians on global tours, “the conductor who has most contributed to the international prestige of the Teatro alla Scala, excluding its music directors.”Representatives for La Scala and Chung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Chung, who lives in France and South Korea, was born in Seoul and moved at age 8 to the United States, where he studied music. He has led many prestigious ensembles, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He has visited North Korea to push for closer cultural ties between the North and South.At La Scala, Chung will serve under Ortombina, whose tenure is still taking shape. Ortombina was chosen to lead La Scala during a nationalistic time for the arts in Italy, with government leaders making clear they favor homegrown talent over foreigners for major cultural posts.But the cultural and political establishment did not stand in the way of La Scala’s selection of Chung.“La Scala has the total right and autonomy of choice; I do not intervene on this,” Alessandro Giuli, the Italian minister of culture, told reporters, according to a report in La Repubblica, one of the country’s major newspapers. More