So good to spend this week with my score of Gluck's 1774 version of Orphee et Eurydice. This is the French version of the opera, for tenor instead of castrato, and containing some of the most beautiful ballet music ever written. I'm conducting and directing, and spending these two weeks designing the set while learning the score. I've always wanted to do it, and it's so moving to dive into Gluck's pure and honest genius. No where did he surpass this score and brining it to li

Just had a fantastic meeting with Takis, the designer for upcoming ETO production of Calisto that I'm directing and conducting. It's really an adventure since its a piece I've been doing over and over for the last 12 years, and know better than any other work. Thats a real challenge for a designer since I fear I might have a tendency to overbear based on the work I've done before. Takis however has come up with a truly exciting design that isn't at all what I expected, and at

We've just finished auditions for Iford's "Fairy Queen" of Purcell to be produced next summer. It was a thrill to finally meet the brilliant Christian Curnyn who will be our music director, and even more thrilling to have such a high level in the auditions. This "Fairy Queen" will include nearly 90% of Shakespeare's text from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", all spoken by the singers (something not part of the dramatick opera tradition), which means finding singers that can act,