ONE FOR THE POT – REVIEW OF 2026 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

And now for the lighter side of entertainment at the Shaw Festival. How about a farce? Let’s go with One for the Pot by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton. Those of a certain age may recall that this farce was staged at the Festival in 1985 with the incomparable Heath Lamberts. Some can engage in wistful memories while others can be introduced to a fine example of the genre.

The current production is directed by one of the best directors around, Chris Abraham, and with some minor glitches, it achieves its goal of generating laughter and an enjoyable evening at the theatre.

One for the Pot premiered in London in 1961 and has all the hallmarks of a farce. A simple plot, fast pace, pratfalls, slamming doors and confusion to keep the laughter coming. There are fourteen actors playing as many characters with the star Hickory Wood (Peter Fernandes) playing more than one role and a couple of other cast members doubling in minor roles.  

The wealthy Jonathan Hardcastle (Patrick Galligan) has decided to give ten thousand pounds in his will (we are in England) to the ONLY son of his former partner. Good news travels fast and Billy Hickory Wood (Fernandes, of course), with a few loose screws in the brain department, shows up with his “lawyer” Charlie Barnet (a supercharged Martin Happer) to claim the prize. You will be surprised to learn that Billy’s twin brother Rupert also shows up to claim the money.

The show is stolen by Fernandes who changes roles with dizzying speed and is a laughter-producing machine. He can make us laugh by simply walking/dancing across the stage, switching accents and doing pratfalls in a masterful performance. Happer is the hyperkinetic, scheming Charlie.

There is a crooked, bribe-demanding and booze-quaffing aficionado named Jugg, the butler (Sanjay Talwar) who helps orchestrate and add confusion to the proceedings. There is liberal consumption of alcohol with obvious results.

Sanjay Talwar, Peter Fernandes, Patrick Galligan, 
Camille Eanga-Selenge, Neil Barclay and Martin Happer
in One for the Pot. Photo by Michael Cooper.

I pay tribute to the ensemble acting of the cast that includes Neil Barclay as Arnold Piper, Fiona Byrne as Amy, Camille Eanga-Selenge as Cynthia, Jade Repeta as Winnie and Cosette Derome as Jennifer.  

Michael Gianfrancesco has designed a posh, gorgeous wood-paneled set, it is the sitting room of a grand house with a walk-in bar, entrance to an entertainment room, an exit to the yards and an entrance to a library. There are doors that can be slammed as the pace of the farce speeds up like an expensive sports car. There are pieces of furniture over which people can fall over or hide behind doors and try to exit as other characters prevent them from doing so. Ming Wong has designed beautiful gowns for some of the ladies and mostly tuxedos for the mem. They are perfect for the wealthy household.

The non-English English accents of the cast are acceptable considering the speed with which the script is spoken but I must admit there were times when I could not catch everything that was being said.

A farce must contain all the features listed above including some very good lines and bad puns, but acceleration is a central characteristic. If a problem arises, instead of being solved, it multiplies into more troubles instead. The action, the complications and the confusing must continue in a crescendo keeping the audience in thrall. No one understands this better than Chris Abraham. He does not direct so much as orchestrate the action so that we laugh even more vigorously as we anticipate the next laugh. Brilliant work by a master of the theatre.

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One for the Pot by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton continues in repertory until October 11, 2026, as part of the Shaw Festival at the Festival Theatre, 10 Queen’s Parade, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com

James Karas is the Culture Editor of the Greek Press, Toronto

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR – REVIEW OF 2026 LA SCALA PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

Lucia di Lammermoor is by any measurement one of the greatest bel canto operas and a chance to see it and in Milan cannot be missed. Lucia is the 9^th out of 12 productions in 2026 at La Scala, a year that included Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle with L’Elisir d’Amore, La Traviata and Faust still to come. It is a long walk from Toronto to Milan but La Scala is wisely making videos of some productions available for streaming.

The current production directed by Yannis Kokkos was first seen in 2023. Kokkos, who also designed the costumes, has opted for a dark Lucia in modern attire. The men wear mostly three-piece suits and the women have black dresses but Lucia (Rosa Feola) wears a long, white gown.

The Kokkos’ sets are again conservative (that is a compliment, by the way) from the forest of the opening scene to the later interior and exterior scenes dominated by dark shades. We are absorbed in the ill-fated love between Lucia and Edgardo (Piero Pretti) and her brother, the merciless Lord Enrico Ashton (Boris Pinkhasovich) and the pressures and lies brought on her. Ashton considers Edgardo his mortal enemy and wants his destruction as revenge. He has found a suitable husband, Lord Arturo Bucklaw (Leonardo Cortellazzi) for Lucia, meaning a rich aristocrat who will save the Ashton estates. I do not need to tell you that Lucia will be forced to marry Arturo, be sent to her honeymoon bed and kill him. She will lose her mind and give us a Mad Scene that would test all the vocal and acting talents of the best singers.

Soprano Rosa Feola gave an impressive performance as Lucia. She has a gorgeous coloratura voice that she uses to draw us into the passion and pain of Lucia’s journey from love to madness. And she has a big voice when she needs it. With the orchestra playing and the chorus singing, she let out a powerful note that went over all of them. A beautiful moment. She was marvelous in the Mad Scene, accompanied by a glass harmonica, going from the quiet beginning to the realization and wrenching enactment of her collapse. A minor complaint: this woman stabbed  a man to death and is covered in blood which bespeaks a struggle and yet she managed to appear before the court with  her hair not messed up at all.

 Rosa Feola as Lucia. Photo Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala

Baritone Boris Pinkhasovich as Lord Enrico Asthon seethed with hatred and lusted for vengeance. This man will stop at nothing to save his fortune and is prepared to sacrifice everything humanly decent including his sister. I thought he had a somewhat choppy beginning but his voice settled down into a splendid performance right up to the end when he comes to grips with his evil acts.

We are on the side of Edgardo di Ravenswood as sung by tenor Piero Pretti. He is all conviction and passion with sparks of decency as he commits his love to Lucie and in fact marries her out in the open. We get a vocally rich and theatrically effective performance as we hear splendid singing and view a tormented human being. A splendid voice and a superb performance.

The chaplain Raimondo is in the hands of bass Michele Pertusi. Raimondo is the faithful servant of Ashton and the spiritual advisor of Lucia. He tries to be a decent cleric but is forced to act as a tool for the vengeful Ashton. He can’t be both and  remains conflicted but well-sung and acted by Pertusi

Lord Arturo Bucklaw (Leonardo Cortellazzi) is a small role as the aristocrat who is prepared to marry Lucia without any concern about her attitude. We give Cortellazzi credit for his performance but do not fret about Arturo’s fate.

Conductor Speranza Scappucci brought out the best in Donizetti’s score and rounded off and outstanding night at the opera.

Speaking of walking to Milan, I think you should try it and let us know when you make it. Once there, find the Galleria and look up. If you are from Toronto, it will remind you of the Eaton Centre. Be respectful and realize that Toronto borrowed the idea for the design of its centre from Milan and not the other way around. When you walk to the end of the Galleria you will find the Duomo (out of this world) and straight ahead you will see La Scala on the other end. You have reached the apogee of operatic civilization.
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Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti played at Teatro all Scala on various dates from June  26 to July 17, 2026. Its next production, L’Elisir d’Amore will run from September 5 to 16, 2026 For more information go to teatroallascala.org/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

ACCABADORA - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Every year, the Aix-en-Provence Festival produces a new opera to promote the work of a new composer and as an article of faith in the 400-year art form that sometimes feels like and is in fact criticized as something that is stuck in a limited, old repertoire. There may be some truth in that but major opera houses do try to produce new works.

This year the Festival premiered Accabadora, a one-act opera by Francesco Filidei to a libretto by  Manuelle Mureddu based on Michaela Murgia’s wonderful 2009 novel with the same title. The librettist encapsulates the plot in twelve scenes for the one-hour and twenty-minute opera.

The opera represents life in a presumably fictitious village in Sardinia in the 1950’s. There are two significant traditions that are combined for the plot of the opera. The first is the fill’e d’anima or soul-child and refers to a person (Maria in the opera) who is conceived twice from the poverty of one woman and the sterility of another. Maria Listru is the daughter of a poor woman who already has 3 daughters. When Maria is six her mother gives her to Bonaria Urrai, the village seamstress, who has no children of her own.

Bonaria Urrai does a lot more than sew dresses. She is an accabadora, a woman who is respected and feared in the village. She can best be described, if at all, as an angel of mercy. People in pain who are reaching the end of life, have Bonaria bring death quickly using a pillow. More politely, we may say that she euthanizes them.

The relationship between Maria and Bonaria is a gripping part of the plot with Maria knowing almost nothing of what her step-mother is doing and leading to a fascinating and mysterious conclusion that I will not disclose.

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2026 © Jean-Louis Fernandez

There is a dramatic story of a puppy enclosed in a wall by a neighbor who is stealing a one-meter strip along the border of a vineyard. Maria befriends the brothers Andria and Nicola. The latter tries to avenge the theft of their land and a bullet hits his leg. His condition worsens and he asks for Bonaria’s help. Maria becomes emotionally involved with one of the brothers.

There are happy moments in life in the village. I am being deliberately skimpy in giving details because much of the joy of the plot is its mystery.

The most mysterious character in the story is Bonaria Urrai. The role is sung by contralto Noah Frenkel in a stunning performance. Dressed in ominous black, she struts around the stage, looks down and we are not sure what she is up to. She treats Maria well without revealing what she does when she goes out at night. Frenkel delivers an amazing portrayal of a mysterious person right to the end.

The attractive Maria is sung by the young French soprano Rachel Masclet. She is at the core of the opera. As a soul-child she maintains a relationship with both of her “mothers”  but when she finds out about Nicola, she leaves Sardinia and works in another city. A wonderful performance by an up-and-coming singer. Does Maria find happiness?

Nicola is sung by Italian baritone Lodovico Filippo Ravizza who also sings in the chorus and British tenor Hugo Brady who plays Andria and he too joins the chorus. The following singers are part of the chorus in addition to handling other roles: Soprano Victoire Bunel: Maestra Luciana, Giannina, Bastiu, and A Voice. Bass Francesco Leone: Santino Littorra, Antonio Vargiu and Dottor Mastinu. This is a one-act opera with a large cast and the need to assign multiple roles is obvious and they do a fine job.     

Accabadora takes place in several locations and set designers Valentina Carrasco and Mariangela Mazzeo show imaginative and economic work. The jeu de Paume theatre has a small stage but the designers give us some idea of where we are. The most imaginative touch is the design of the vineyard where rows of rotating vines are shown beautifully. Carrasco also directs the production and she handles the mysterious and dramatic with the lighter side of the opere superbly.

The music, not always easy to absorb on a first hearing, varies from traditional to staccato to dissonant. It is played by the Orchestra of the Lyon Opera conducted by Lucie Leguay.

Accabadora is steeped in the life, the traditions, the mythology and psyche of a Sardinian village that may be strange to most of us. Will we get another chance to see a production?

I read somewhere that there have been some 6000 operas composed in the last 400 years. Are more than 600 of them produced again after their premiere?
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Accabadora by Francesco Filidei and Manuelle Mureddu opened on July 4, 2026 and was performed five times on various dates at the Théâtre du jeu de Paume, 17 - 21 rue de l'Opéra. Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com 

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Die Frau Ohne Schatten is a marvelous opera by Richard Strauss that receives a stupendous production at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. All the ingredients for superb opera are present – outstanding orchestra, remarkable cast and excellent production values – for a great night at the opera.

Die Frau is considered part of the standard opera repertoire but the opportunities for seeing it do not seem particularly generous. This Grand Théâtre de Provence makes up for lost time for some of us.

The plot by the master librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal involves an Emperor (Michael Spyres) and his Empress (Vida Mikneviciute) who have a problem. She cannot bear a child because she is not fully human and therefore does not have a shadow. If she does not find a shadow, the Emperor will be turned into stone.

The Empress’s crafty Nurse (Nina Stemme) thinks she can find someone to give up her shadow, and all their problems will be solved. She approaches Barak the Dyer (Brian Mulligan) and his Wife (Ambur Braid) with promises of a better life if the unhappy Wife will give up her desire for children and her shadow. Mr. and Mrs. Dyer are not happy.

In the second act, the plot thickens with the Nurse conjuring a handsome young man to seduce the Dyer’s Wife and a talking Falcon leads the Emperor to the forest. Morality becomes a serious consideration with the Empress dealing with decency and not wanting to deprive Dyer’s Wife of her shadow. The plot complications and ethical issues continue until a satisfactory resolution is achieved.

The Nurse and the two couples are the main drivers of the plot but there is a stageful of other characters. Barak has three brothers, The One-Eyed, The One-Armed and The Hunchback. There are voices from Above, a Hawk, a Falcon, City Guardians and children. There is a dancer (Prince Mihai), actors and actresses, the Choir of the Orchestra of Paris and the eminent Orchestre de Paris. They all add up to scenic and vocal splendor of the highest order. 

`DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN in new production by 
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2026. Photo © Monika Rittershaus

First the score. Strauss provides lush, complex music that would make a superb orchestral concert. This is post-Wagner music that demands a full orchestra playing at the top of their form. Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Orchestre de Paris in its epic performance of the music that lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes with two intermissions. 

The redoubtable Swedish soprano Nina Stemme sings the role of the Empress’s Nurse who has a diabolical side to her. Stemme has excelled in roles like Isolde and Brunhilde and tackles the role of the Nurse with vocal prowess and convincing acting ability. This is magnificently powerful singing that leaves one breathless.

American baritone Mulligan and Canadian soprano Braid as the quarrelsome couple Barak the Dyer and his Wife are put through a series of emotional turmoils and vocal demands as they face temptation and resolution. They meet the vocal and acting demands with supreme performances as they maneuver through Strauss’s treacherous demands.

Lithuanian soprano Mikneviciute sings a splendid Empress. She is not quite human and needs to find a shadow, in other words become human so she can save her husband and have a child. She has some soaring vocal flourishes that Mikneviciute handles with gorgeous ease and is the moral force of the opera, adding to the attractiveness of the role.

American baritenor Michael Spyres sings the role of the hapless Emperor who is about to turn into stone unless the Empress can find a shadow. He is left alone through some of the opera, but he sings superbly when called upon. The term baritenor is not exactly frequently seen or heard but as you may have guessed it means a singer with a range that can qualify as tenor and baritone and Spyres is one of the exceptional singers who qualifies.

There many other small roles as indicated above and there are singers taking on two, three or four of them. I will not comment on each performance because there is not enough room in my review for that.

Die Frau Ohne Schatten takes place in some mythical kingdom run by the mysterious and invisible spirit god Keikobad. It also takes place in the humble abode of Barak and his wife on earth as well as the forest and a grotto somewhere below. That sounds like a set designer’s nightmare, but Michael Levine is non-plussed by it. The abode on earth is represented by a square multi-floored scaffold made of glass. It is high but relatively small otherwise. It is unrealistic but brilliant. The rest of the scenes are constructed equally economically and take away nothing from the opera. As to the complex symbols of the libretto, a lengthy essay could begin to decode them but not here. 

A word about the moral issue. Hofmannsthal wrote that Die Frau Ohne Schatten is related to The Magic Flute. Both operas have two couples striving for something higher. In The Magic Flute, Tamino strives for virtue through difficult trials and is eventually admitted to the temple of Sarastro. In Die Frau, the Empress is about to take the shadow of a human being but decides not to do that on the grounds of human decency. It is an amazing stand and I will not give you more details.

What counts is the stupendous production of a difficult opera, directed by Barrie Kosky and we can only hope that a video of it will become available soon.
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Die Frau Ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal opened on July 3 and was performed a total of five times until July 12, 2026, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

James Karas is the Culture editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

REQUIEM - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The production of Mozart’s Requiem at the Aix-en-Provence Festival beside The Magic Flute and Die Frau Ohne Schatten may appear odd but it was produced there in 2019 so there is that precedent at least. I associate a requiem done by an orchestra with a chorus and soloists, but this production is a fully staged work. A glance at the program reveals that the following people are involved: a director, a dramaturge, a choreographer as well as a set, lighting and costume designer. The last three are handled by Director Romeo Castellucci.

I saw the 2019 production and admittedly forgot it and was curious about my reaction to a fully staged offering.  Mozart’s Requiem lasts less than an hour and is at times recorded in beautiful cathedrals. By definition, a requiem is a mass for the dead, a solemn chant for their souls and a prayer for our eternal souls.

Mozart’s Requiem falls squarely in that description. It was left unfinished at his death, and several composers had a hand in finishing it and experts are not sure who contributed what but that is not our concern.

The Festival’s production goes beyond the Requiem that we have inherited incorporating other Mozart compositions and using some Gregorian chants. The program does not give us details of these, but what can be played in less than an hour is stretched to about 100 minutes. It goes from the solemnity and vigorous parts of the Requiem to dance routines and some boisterous celebratory segments.

First let us praise the Pygmalion Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Raphael Pinchon. The soloists are Melissa Petit, soprano, Beth Taylor (alto), Duke Kim (Tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass).  The interplay among soloists, the chorus and the orchestra reach heights of supreme splendor. They go from the simple four-word chant Kyrie eleison to the bleak Dies irae, the Day of Wrath, the day that will dissolve the earth in ashes.

The Requiem implores the Lord for eternal rest and perpetual light for the souls of the departed, prays for mercy on us, warns about the day of judgment that awaits all of us, and glorifies the Lord and expresses our gratitude for his mercy. That is a spectrum that covers the breadth of Christian life and faith.

Scene from Requiem. Aix-en-Provence Festival 2026 © Monika Rittershaus

But Castelucci, Dramaturge Piersandra Di Matteo, and Choreographer Evelin Facchini have a lot more in mind. As Costume designer, Castellucci adds costume changes including a scene with traditional red and white dresses, with flowers at the back of the stage, has colourful hats on the dancers who perform some dance-around-the-rosy and a number with plenty of colourful streamers around a Maypole. The stage décor changes and at one point the rear wall of the stage is sprayed and painted in green and red.

The back of the stage has titles preceded by the word Extinction and it calls for the disappearance of just about everything from music to literature to a couple of dozen things that may be considered as civilization and some others less crucial items that I cannot remember. They appeared on the dimly lit rear panel, and I stopped paying attention to them.

Near the end of the performance, the entire floor of the stage was raised from the back up so that it ended up standing almost vertically. Water ran down cleaning the dirt or whatever was supposed to be on the boards. I assume it was rather crude cleansing of our sins but after everything had become extinct, I am not sure.

The following two verses embrace the Catholic faith on which the Requiem is based. They encompass the extremes of heaven and hell and affirm the love and generosity of God and Jesus. I am not sure that the additional forty minutes inserted by Romeo Castellucci and his artistic so-workers added much to the Requiem.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

deliver the souls of all the faithful

departed from the pains of hell and from the bottomless pit.

King of awful majesty,

Who freely savest the redeemed,

Save me, O fount of goodness.

The end of the performance was greeted by a few loud boos followed by bravos from some members of the audience. The orchestra, the chorus, the soloists and the dancers received only positive responses. The artistic backstage people were booed again when they appeared for a bow.
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Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opened on July 4th and will be performed a total of five times until July 12, 2026, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE MAGIC FLUTE - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is up and running for its 2026 season. It opened with Mozart’s Magic Flute and will run frum July 2 to July 21, 2026. The Magic Flute was produced at the Festival in 2014 by Simon McBurney and that production was revived in 2018. This year we get a new production conducted by Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon and directed by Clement Cogitore.

Cogitore has some definite views about his treatment of this opera. His Magic Flute is an opera about war and its grim consequences, and he wastes no time displaying his views. As soon as conductor Garcia-Alarcon begins the overture, we see projected videos and still photographs of a world at war. Destroyed buildings, hungry children rummaging for food, refugees and a world consumed by devastation are shown in frightful detail. It is so overwhelming, I found myself watching the horrors of war and not listening to the music. That is no fault of Garcia-Alarcon who does a splendid job conducting the Millenium Orchestra

The theme of war and its devastation is seen throughout the performance but there is progress towards peace, and we see construction or reconstruction as the damage is rebuilt and we see people enjoying life on the beach or by a pool as normality of sorts is restored.

The opening scene shows a little boy pulling a small cart. He stops and spreads a white sheet and lies down. We hear Prince Tamino (Mauro Peter), the hero of the opera, yell for help as he is pursued by a monster. The little boy is the adolescent Tamino, I guess, Peter is the adult Prince and there is an infant Tamino. The heroine Pamina is sung by Ying Fang but we also have an infant and adolescent Pamina played by two different actors on different nights.

There are numerous children on stage and Cogitore, I guess, wants to emphasize the fact that this is an opera about children’s innocence being destroyed by war and innocence and civilization perhaps being regained by the masonic faith which is the underlying message or strength of the opera for those who can get it.

 I repeat that the backdrop of war persists throughout the performance. The emphasis is on darkness, and we see many scenes through a scrim. Cogitore is responsible for the rich collection of videos. The sets designed by Alban Ho Van aid and abet the principal aim of the opera. The opera is seriously dramaturged by Simon Hatab.

Scene from The Magic Flue, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2026 
© Jean-Louis Fernandez 

Costumes by Wojciech Dziedzic are a potpourri of styles and far from royal or formal attire. The grim lighting by Sylvain Verdet added to the grim view of the production.

Chinese soprano Ying Fang and Swiss tenor Mauro Peter sing well amid the paraphernalia of children and sets that rob the opera of its humour and magic. French soprano Sabine Devieilhe as Queen of the Night is momentarily surrounded by children during her first aria and they sing or say something as she is singing that I did not get. During her second aria with those tortuous high notes, she did a decent job but the atmosphere in which she was singing did not prove propitious to a superb performance.

British bass Brindley Sherratt has a marvelous rolling low register that one needs for Sarastro, the High Priest of Isis. He has two major arias, and he sings one standing at a lectern on a raised platform. He sings his second aria seated at a desk, wearing a suit. What are we supposed to make of that for a character who is the voice of Masonic love and peace? 

We have the high-minded Tamino striving to prove himself worthy of becoming a Mason. But we also have the bird catcher Papageno (Sean Michel Plumb) and his future wife Papagena (Emma Fekete). They are comic characters in an opera produced in a popular theatre for the purpose of making money. It was the idea of Emanuel Schikaneder who wrote the libretto and financed it.

Papageno gets a laugh minutes after the curtain rises when he pretends to have slain the monster that was chasing Tamino. There was no monster and no laugh. If there was a twitter of a laugh during the entire production, I must have missed it.

This a production that is so overwhelmingly quirky, Mozart’s wonderful Magic Flute almost disappears. Too bad.

It may be worthwhile noting that this is a coproduction with Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

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The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder opened on July 2 and is being performed a total of ten times until July 21, 2026, at the  Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

JAMES KARAS IS THE CULTURE EDITOR OF THE GREEK PRESS, TORONO

EL ULTIMO SUENO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO – REVIEW OF 2026 LIVE FROM THE MET IN HD TRANSMISSION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Met has wound up its 2025-2026 season of transmissions Live in HD with El Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego composed by Gabriella Lena Frank with a libretto by Nilo Cruz. It was first produced in 2022 and now gets a grand production by the Met. The title refers to artists Frida Khalo and her husband Diego Rivera but the opera has little to do with their lives. But we do see some of her paintings and Rivera’s famous scaffold and  we are made aware of some of their tempestuous lives together and apart.

The opera has more to do with the Orpheus and Euridice myth turned on its head. This opera takes place in 1957, three years after the death of Frida. Diego goes to the cemetery on The Day the Dead in 1957 to seek a connection with her. The mythology is neither Greek nor Christian. It is Aztec.

Diego wants to see Frida so she can help him on his journey to the underworld. He is dying or is already dead and he wants to see her on earth and then make his way to the underworld with her.

We all know that Orpheus went down to Hades to implore the gods to give Euridice back to him using his lyre to convince them. It works but in the end, he loses her because she disobeys the order of the god not to look at him until they reached the earth. She looks at him.

Carlos Álvarez as Diego and Isabel Leonard as Frida in a scene from 
"El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

The Orpheus myth has mesmerized composers for more than four hundred years. The very first opera (now lost) was Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (1600). Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607) was the first great opera and that was just the beginning. More than 80 operas have been written based on the myth and there have been six operas based on it in the 21^st  century.

Aside from the large Met chorus and dancers, El Ultimo Sueno has only four characters. Mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard sings Frida with an exceptionally beautiful voice. She is dressed as Frida in some of her self-portraits. Leonard bears amazing resemblance to Frida and it is one of the pleasures of the production.

Tenor Carlos Alvarez looks like a portly Diego thanks to padding and he is a passionate third husband to Frida. The marriage was tempestuous and, in many ways, unpleasant as they were both serially unfaithful but three years after her death and on the death of Diego we want them to find peace in the underworld. 

El Ultimo Sueno has huge production values that only an opera company like the Met can dream of providing. The first act in the cemetery and the underworld features a large cast of villagers in the cemetery who want to see their loved ones. It switches to the underworld, and we see skeletons, ghosts and dancers that are dazzling. There is a huge skeleton of a red tree with branches above and roots below. The tree of life and death?

The peasants recognize Diego in the cemetery and tell him that he needs faith in his heart to be allowed to see Frida. We meet the Warden of the Dead, Catrina with the hideous deathly face and body. She is the frightful guardian of the souls. She lays the rules for allowing someone to visit the earth. Only 24 hours and no touching. Frida had a horrible life on earth and is reluctant to go back but she eventually relents. 

Not much happens in the Orpheus myth and in El Ultimo. The librettist has added a character called Leonardo sung by countertenor Nils Wanderer. He is a fan of Greta Garbo and emulates her appearance and comically her manners. He wants to go to the earth to see her. Wanderer does a fine job vocally and is entertaining as a would-be Greta Garbo.

El Ultimo Sueno has some lush music and some grand flourishes but I would like to see and hear the opera more times to appreciate its contents and context. But the Met Opera Orchestra performs brilliantly under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Seguin. On first viewing, it proved impressive, enjoyable and a work that demands to be seen again and again.
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El Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego by Gabriella Lena Frank (music) and Nilo Cruz (libretto) was transmitted Live in HD from New York’s Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 30, 2026. There was an encore showing on June 19, 2026, that I saw. For more information go 

to: www.cineplex.com/events.

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto