/January 8 – 23 2018: Riots of L.A., interviews with conductors and singers, Salome at the Covent Garden, Christian Slater, Theatre News & other Social Media bits
Gerald Finley as Scarpia and the ROH Chorus, Tosca 2018, (C) Catherine Ashmore
BlogJanuary 23, 2018

January 8 – 23 2018: Riots of L.A., interviews with conductors and singers, Salome at the Covent Garden, Christian Slater, Theatre News & other Social Media bits

Welcome! Here’s a roundup of news, posts, bits and pieces I’ve been sharing on Social Media from the second week of January.  That includes Bridge Theatre’s PR email blunders, Devoted and Disgruntled’s 13th event, and lots of interviews and reviews.

TrendFem – My blog posts

I shared some of my thoughts of the opening night of #ROHTosca with Joseph Calleja, Gerald Finley and Adrianne Pieczonka. It’s the ninth revival of Jonathan Kent’s production. (Click here.)

Come and get a history lesson at the ‪@gatetheatre with ‪@NinaB0wers ‘s captivating performance ‪#Twilight1992 (here) focusing on the riots of Los Angeles in 1992.

It was National Popcorn Day on Friday 19th, so I sent out a post I wrote in 2016 discussing the effects that cinema live screen events have had on converting new audiences to opera (here).

It was the opening night of David McVicar’s revival production of Salome with Malin Bystrom and Michael Volle. I wrote about their tremendous performance here.

Malin Bystrom as Salome, 2018 Royal Opera House / Clive Barda
Malin Bystrom as Salome, 2018 Royal Opera House / Clive Barda

It was the cinema live event of Verdi’s Rigoletto this week. Here are my thoughts of the opening night in December 2017 with singers Dimitri Platanias, Sofia Fomina and Michael Fabiano (here.)

I got the opportunity to interview Alexander Joel, the conductor at the Royal Opera House for Rigoletto, before the cinema live event. Such a lovely chap! Here’s my write up. (here)

I got the chance to see Christian Slater in David Memet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross at the Playhouse Theatre. It’s not a perfect production, but still worth seeing for Slater’s rip-roaring performance ‪(here).

One of those moments when you and your friend have to take selfie with Christian Slater.

When Trump cancelled his trip to the UK, this happened.

Opera

New York Times Critic Anthony Tommasini tells us what a hologram of Maria Callas can teach us about opera. Not enough, apparently. (Click here.)

An interesting piece by NPR on 35 years of surtitles used at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York (here.)

Controversy at the Hungarian State Opera House performing Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with an all-white cast.

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann and accompanist Helmut Deutsch’s performed Schubert – Müller cycle, Die schöne Müllerin at Carnegie Hall this week. Joel Rozen wrote, ‘Daddy’s home!’ in this witty review of the event (here).

Here’s an interview with The London Philharmonic’s conductor Vladimir Jurowski and The Times’ critic Richard Morrison discussing Wagner, Stravinsky and his love for the South Bank. This is in the wake of his performance with the LPO of Wagner’s Das Rheingold on January 27th and his Stravinsky series beginning on February 3rd (here).

If you missed out on INew’s Nicola Christie’s interview with Romanian Soprano Angela Gheorghiu, then you missed her saying, ‘Actually, I’m an opera singer, not a diva. I need an audience’s applause like other people need water.’ Read it here.

Angela Gheorghiu. photo by Orive-Martin, Victor

Fancy dress anyone?

If you’re like me and unable to keep up with the dates the major opera houses release their season announcements, fear not. Sam Van Dam kindly sent us his list of last year’s release dates, so we know roughly when to prepare.

Theatre

Dates in the Diary:
Sunday 8th April: The 2018 Olivier Awards sponsored by MasterCard
Tickets available now (here).

A piece by The Guardian’s art Correspondent Mark Brown looking at the Theatre Trust’s annual risk register which lists 35 buildings in the England, Scotland and Wales, which are at risk of being lost. (Read more here.)

For those who weren’t aware, it was Devoted and Disgruntled’s 13th event on the weekend. From Saturday 20th -22nd, there were debates and conversations with everyone interested and concerned about the performing arts and theatre industries. Have a look at the reports published covering some of the sizzling discussions we missed out on. (Click here.)

Shanine Salmon reports from her blog View from the Cheap Seat. Drama at the hands of The Bridge Theatre’s PR agent getting it wrong and emailing a list of theatre critics who were invited and weren’t invited to the new production Julius Caesar. The email was sent to the theatre’s founder and director of the show Nicholas Hytner. Moreover, the email was also sent to some of the journalists who weren’t invited. (Read more here.)

A stumbled across this article from ‘We Are Resonate’ on the improvement of diversity on Broadway, just not for Asian Americans. “Latinos and Asians are very removed out of the diversity conversation still.” (Click here.)

Les Misérables without the music – I dreamed a dream and it came true.
A controversial opinion piece written by Stuart Heritage. I don’t agree, obviously. I’m not sure if he is being sarcastic or being brutally honest. (Read his piece here.)

Lyn Gardner was banned from reviewing Cirque’s Ovo at the Royal Albert Hall as she previously gave their show a one-star review. So The Guardian bought her a £73 ticket. This is what she thought, and her co-reviewer Sanjoy Roy.
(Read their reviews here.)

Whatsonstage.com has released their WOS Awards. Vote your best shows of the year before January 31st. (Vote here.)

And that’s all for now. See you in a fortnight.

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