Basil Twist in Paris: When Puppets Meet Baroque Opera
Before his directorial debut in France, with Mondonville’s “Titon et l’Aurore” at the Opéra Comique, the virtuoso puppeteer discussed the challenges of working in a pandemic.
Basil Twist at the Opéra Comique in Paris on Jan.16. “It’s just totally incredible that we’re putting on an opera here,” he said.Credit.Elliott Verdier for The New York Times
Jan. 19, 2021
PARIS Where can American artists direct opera at the moment? For the puppetry prodigy Basil Twist, the answer was France.
At the Opéra Comique in Paris, Twist has been busy readying a new staging of Jean-Joseph de Mondonville’s “Titon et l’Aurore,” an 18th-century Baroque opera. Although the French government’s current pandemic guidelines have forced all theaters to close to audiences, “Titon et l’Aurore” is set to have a virtual premiere on Tuesday on the streaming platform Medici TV, and will be free to watch for three months.
1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents
Giselle. Conductor: Valery Ovsyanikov, choreography: Elena Tschernischova after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. With Nina Poláková, Masayu Kimoto, Rebecca Horner, Andrey Kaydanovskiy, Alice Firenze, Leonardo Basílio, and Soloists and Corps de ballet des Wiener Staatsballetts. Production from September 2017. Register for free and view here.
2:30 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents Casadesus conducts Debussy, Ravel, Schumann & Beethoven. Jean-Claude Casadesus conducts the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris in a Franco-German program of Debussy’s
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Ravel’s
Pavane pour une infante défunte Schumann’s Piano Concerto with soloist David Kadouch, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. View here. LIVE