March 31, 2025
Athens, GR 19 C
Expand search form
Blog

Idiot is Salzburg’s biggest hit

Idiot is Salzburg’s biggest hit

Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera on Dostoievsky novel The Idiot has received audience ovations and ecstatic reviews at the Salzburg Festival.

The director Krzysztof Warlikowski updates the story to Putin’s Russia, replete with characters selling their souls for a ruble. Aušrinė Stundytė stars as Natasha, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jan Brachmann writes in the FAZ: ‘When Bogdan Volkov, as Prince Myshkin, sits alone on the huge stage of the Felsenreitschule, staring into the darkness around him and singing in a half-voice, childishly bright: “What a breathless, strange day. Everything rushes and flickers before my eyes,” then you can feel what Weinberg’s music has captured about this character from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel: it gains clarity about the world by becoming quiet in the midst of the noise.’

The post Idiot is Salzburg’s biggest hit appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

German impresario holds fundraiser for Putin’s ‘new regions’

Next Article

King Charles finds his harpist behind the Wigmore Hall bar

You might be interested in …

Russian wins Mitropoulous

Russian wins Mitropoulous

The revived 16th International Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Salonika ended with the jury, chaired by Thomas Sanderling, withholding first prize. Second went to a Russian, Sergey Akimov. Third was shared between Oliver Cope (UK) and […]

LSO St Luke’s to shut for a year

LSO St Luke’s to shut for a year

I attended the former church last night for a concert by the ‘radical’ Manchester Collective, a string quartet playing works by contemporary British composers. Nothing to frighten the horses, though I was much taken with […]

Death of Minnesota conductor, 94

Death of Minnesota conductor, 94

Starting out as assistant conductor to Antal Dorati in Minneapolis, Dr Robert Berglund founded the Minnesota Chorale and was Director of Music (1969-1995) at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church, the largest Lutheran congregation in the United […]