Radio France, the state organization run by the dashing Mathieu Galet, owns seven public radios, and runs two orchestras and two choirs. To host their concerts, which are usually transmitted live on France Musique, a new fabulous auditorium has been built by AS architecture studio and reopened on November 14 of last year.
A very special birthday at Glyndebourne
Only someone as extravagant and talented as Yale graduate, Cambridge PHD, City star turned historian again, Theodora Zemek, could have pulled off a birthday party as brilliant and fun as it was. On the stage was « Die Entführung aus dem Serail » by Mozart directed by David Mc Vicar, and sung by a cast of International singers from Lithuania, … Read More
A Peruvian barytone becomes French
I have known Rudi Fernandez Cardenas for over ten years and met him while he was still studying at Conservatoire National de Musique, in La Villette. How he was born in Iquitos, Peru, in a city that can only be reached by boat or plane because it is in the middle of the Amazone… How he was a soprano at … Read More
A very special Infante at the opera
It was a grand evening of Association pour le Rayonnement de l’Opera de Paris (AROP) and Palais Garnier was looking glitzy with hundreds of guests for dinner ! The arrival of former President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing seated on the first row of the balcony, created a little stir and he seemed very concentrated on « Le Cid » the … Read More
Joan of Arc as “Jeanne au bûcher”
I was looking forward to this evening at the new Philharmonie de Paris for a long time. Theatre and opera director, Côme de Bellescize, 34, whom I have been following for four years now, was directing Arthur Honegger’s « Jeanne au Bûcher » which he created for Seiji Ozawa in Japan in 2013. The libretto written by Paul Claudel is … Read More
Fassbinder’s bitter tears 40 years later
I was very excited for weeks before, at the prospect of seeing this play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a German cult cinematographer of the 70’s. So I asked an old friend from those years, a film producer himself, to come with me.
Long live Robert Carsen
The double bill of William Christie and Robert Carsen was just too tempting to miss. But impossible to get tickets, even two months ahead. Thank God for a good friend, a culture vulture like me, who thought of inviting me for my birthday to « Les Fêtes Vénitiennes », a baroque opera composed by André Campra in 1710.
Are we shocked by “King Charles III”?
I was lucky enough to be attending this London long running play by Mike Bartlett between two British historians, Rebecca Fraser, who is completing her new History book on characters from the Mayflower and Munro Price, author of the recent « Napoleon, The end of Glory ». After a lovely Dover sole and white wine at J Sheekey’s around … Read More