‘L’Opera de Quat’Sous’ (original German ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’; in English ‘The Threepenny Opera’), first produced in August 1928, was adapted from a translation of John Gay’s eighteenth-century English ballad opera, ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. 

Although Brecht wrote the text prior to the political plays influenced by his reading of Marx, his interpretation was intended as a socialist critique of capitalist society. However, this approach was totally lost in this production, staged by Thomas Ostermeier and performed by members of the Comédie-Française, where French slapstick often took over. In theory, the ideas of a communist utopia, which swept across Europe at the time, should have been ideally set in the underworld of 1920s London; but the production was too slick, and sometimes too silly, to put across any political message.

Birane Ba as Macheath

Nevertheless, it was not an unenjoyable evening as it was saved by the quality of the musicians and much of the singing. The production’s shortcomings were unfortunately down to Ostermeier’s staging.

In the beautiful town of Aix-en-Provence for the 2023 Festival. Looking forward to some wonderful opera and classical music.

I will particularly enjoy seeing Alban Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’, with music by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, at Le Grand Théâtre de Provence. I had tickets for the same production at the 2020 Festival but it was unfortunately cancelled because of Covid. Rattle and the LSO will also be performing Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 and I will also be at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché for a new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘L’Opera de Quat’Sous’, performed by La Comédie-Française. Much to look forward to.

At the Issigeac International Music Academy in the Dordogne for a concert by the internationally-acclaimed Quatuor Dudok from Amsterdam. Quatuor Dudok are Marleen Wester and Judith Van Driel (violins), Marie-Louise de Jong (viola) and David Faber (cello). They treated us to an evening of quartets from the Classical (Mozart), Romantic (Tchaikovsky) and Modern (Shostakovich) periods.

Quatuor Dudok

The first half opened with Mozart’s ‘String Quartet no. 23 in F major (K590)’. Written in 1790, it is the third of the Prussian Quartets dedicated to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II. It is in four movements, the second of which is reminiscent of a siciliana, with a gentle pastoral feel. The last movement is more lively, with each instrument given the opportunity to play a solo part.

The Quartet really came alive with the second piece, Tchaikovsky’s ‘String Quartet no. 1 in D major’ (opus 11). The second movement, the Andante cantibile in B flat, is one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known themes and was exquisitely played. The Scherzo and Finale are much more lively and showed off the Dudok’s virtuosity at its very best.

The second half, Shostakovich’s ‘String Quartet no. 5 (opus 92), was much darker and more serious. Shostakovich wrote the piece in the autum of 1952, during the final paranoid years of Stalin’s reign, but it remained in manuscript until November 1953, when it was performed by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. The work develops from a motif containing the composer’s musical monogram, DSCH (D, E-flat, C, B natural), and was played by the Dudoks with great feeling.

The standing ovation which the Quartet received was well deserved and brought them back for an encore of a string quartet arrangement by cellist David Faber of a Shostakovich Piano Prelude.

Mozart ‘String Quartet no. 23 in F major (K590)’; Tchaikovsky ‘String Quartet no. 1 in D major’ (opus 11); Shostakovich ‘String Quartet no. 5 (opus 92).

At the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, for a fascinating exhibition entitled ‘Songlines. Tracking the Seven Sisters’. Aboriginal Australians’ understanding of the world and its creation is referred to as The Dreaming, which involves the passing on of beliefs via stories and songs known as Songlines. These Songlines enable trails through the country to be remembered by future generations.

This exhibition tells of a trail known as the Seven Sisters. In the story the seven sisters (Minyipuru) travel across the land in an effort to flee from their pursuer, known as Yurla. The works in the exhibition tell the story of their journey through Martu Country in central Western Australia. The vibrant acrylic paintings are representations of the creation stories linking places on the journey. The woven sculptures of the Seven Sisters Tree Women (Minyma Puna Kungkarangkalpa), made from grass, raffia and fencing wire, represent the sisters after they have learned to disguise themselves to preserve their safety.

Kumpaya Girgirba, Ngamaru Bidu, Thelma Judson, Reena Rogers, Yuwali Janice Nixon, Karnu Nancy Taylor and Ngalangka Nola Taylor ‘Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area’ (2014)

Betty Laidlaw and Nyumitja Laidlaw ‘Tjukurrpa Kungkarrangkalpa’ (1994)

Tjapartji Kanytjuri Bates ‘Tjukurrpa Kungkarrangkalpa’ (1995)

Carol Maanyatja Golding ‘Wanarn’ (2004)

Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken and associates ‘Seven Sisters Tree Women’ (2013)

It is particularly enjoyable to spend time looking around the Quai Branly permanent collection and I am always drawn towards the Oceanic collection which has some spectacular exhibits.

Funerary Mask (New Ireland, early 20th century)

Malagan mask (New Ireland, end 19th century)

‘Vungvung mask’ (New Britain, late 19th century)

Asmat mask costume (1990s)

‘Giovanni Bellini. Influences croisées’, at the Musée Jacquemart-André, is the first exhibition of the artist’s works to be held in France.

Giovanni Bellini, born c.1435, belonged to a family workshop of Venetian artists together with his father Jacopo and his older brother Gentile. His sister, Nicolosia, married Andrea Mantegna in 1453, so Giovanni’s young life was immersed in art and he had the opportunity to master all aspects of painting, sculptural forms and perspective. He also benefitted from the opportunity to study the works of the Florentine sculptor Donatello who spent a decade working in nearby Padova. After the arrival in 1475 of much-travelled Sicilian artist Antonella da Messina in Venice, Giovanni learned the techniques of oil painting, allowing him to move in a new direction.

Giovanni and his workshop became extremely influential both in Venice and further afield, so much so that when Albrecht Durer stayed in the city in 1506, he declared that Giovanni, although by then old, was the greatest painter of all time.

The exhibition presents his work in the context of these influences, with paintings by his family and contemporaries as well his students, in particular Giorgione.

Jan van Eyck and workshop ‘Crucufixion’ (c.1425)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Crucifixion’ (c.1459)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Dead Christ supported by two Angels’ (c.1479 – 75)

Antonella da Messina ‘Dead Christ supported by three Angels’ (1476)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Virgin and Child’ (1475 – 80)

Giorgione ‘Madonna and Child’ (c.1500)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and female saint’ (c.1500)

Andrea Mantegna ‘Ecce Home’ (c.1500)

Hans Memling ‘Christ Blessing’ (c.1480 – 90)

Giovanni Bellini ‘Christ Blessing’ (c.1505 – 10)

Giovanni Bellini ‘God the Father’ (c.1505 – 10)

In Paris for the exhibition ‘Manet/Degas’ at the Musée d’Orsay, which examines both the similarities and differences between the two artists who both played a pivotal role in the new painting styles of the 1860s – 1880s.

They had many similar experiences; both being involved in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 71 and both frequenting the same places in Paris with mutual friends. However, whilst Degas exhibited with the Impressionists, Manet refused to do so, despite similarities in their subject matter.

Despite their differences there was a mutual admiration and respect. After Manet died in 1883, one of his heirs cut up one of the versions of ‘The Execution of Maximilian’ to sell the parts separately; however, Degas bought the fragments in order to reassemble the painting and then went on to collect many more of Manet’s works.

Edgar Degas ‘Woman on a Terrace’ (1857)

Edouard Manet ‘Olympia’ (1863)

Edouard Manet ‘The Execution of Maximilian’ (1867 – 68)

Edouard Manet ‘Portrait of Emile Zola’ (1868)

Edouard Manet ‘The Balcony’ (1868 – 69)

Edouard Manet ‘Berthe Morisot with Bouquet of Violets’ (1872)

Edgar Degas ‘A Cotton Office in New Orleans’ (1873)

Edgar Degas ‘In a Café (L’Absinthe)’ (1875 – 76)

Edgar Degas ‘The Tub’ (1886)

Paul Gauguin ‘Olympia (after Manet)’

Both Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, particularly the latter, also feature in the Musée d’Orsay’s other current exhibition, ‘Pastels from Millet to Redon’.

Pastel is a technique that brings together both line and colour without being either drawing or painting. Pastels are versatile, enabling blended shading and hatching as well as textured finishes and bright colouring.

Pastel was first used in the sixteenth century, notably by Leonardo da Vinci, but underwent a resurgence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Jean-François Millet often used pastel in his depictions of rural life. Edgar Degas became particularly skilled in the use of pastels, placing complementary and contrasting hues side by side to produce rich tapestries of colour. Odilon Redon was another artist who used pastels to produce extremely colourful effects.

Jean-François Millet ‘The Woman at the Well’ (c.1866 – 68)

Édouard Manet ‘Portrait of Irma Brunner’ (1880 – 82)

Edgar Degas ‘Seated Dancer’ (1881 – 83)

Edgar Degas ‘Dancers’ (1884 – 85)

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer ‘Woman with a Medallion’ (1896)

Edgar Degas ‘At the Milliner’s’ (c.1905 – 10)

Odilon Redon ‘Buddha’ (c.1906 – 07)

At Musée Goya in Castres, south-west France, for the exhibition ‘Miró, hommage à Gaudí’, on the occasion of the reopening of the museum after a two-year refurbishment.

Miró’s admiration for the work of the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí began during his childhood in Barcelona, when he was particularly impressed by the enormous and extravagant church known as Sagrada Familia, as well as the original and colourful Parc Guëll. The two men met in 1910, when Gaudí was already a recognized architect and Miró was just beginning his career.

Between 1975 and 1979, when Miró was in his 80s, he produced a series of twenty-one engravings as a homage to Gaudi. Musée Goya has been collecting them over the past twenty years and is now able to present the complete series for the first time.

Miró was always attracted to one of Gaudí’s favorite techniques, the ‘Trencadís’, compositions made from broken tiles, and the colourful designs on the engravings evoke this technique.

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi III’ (1979)

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi IV’ (1979)

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi V’ (1979)

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi VIII’ (1979)

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi XVII’ (1979)

Joan Miró ‘Gaudi XIX’ (1979)

Musée Goya also has an excellent permanent collection of more than two hundred Spanish paintings from the middle ages to the twentieth century. The collection was originally built up around three Goya paintings bought by Marcel Briguiboul in Madrid and bequeathed to the city of Castres by his son Peter in 1894.

Diego Velasquez ‘Portrait de Philippe IV en chasseur’ (c.1634 – 36)

Bartolome Estaban Murillo ‘La vierge au Chapelet’ (c.1650)

Francisco de Zurbaran ‘Portrait d’Alvar Belasquez de Lara’ (c.1650)

José de Ribera ‘Martyr de Saint André’ (17th century)

Francisco Goya ‘Autoportrait aux lunettes’ (c.1800)

Francisco Goya ‘La Junte des Philippines’ (1815)

Francisco Goya ‘Portrait de Francisco del Mazo’ (c.1815 – 20)

Juan Gris ‘Au Soleil du plafond’ (c.1916 – 19)

Pablo Picasso ‘Homme au chapeau de paille et cornet de glace’ (1938)

Salvador Dali ‘L’Empereur Trajan’ (1973)

The medieval village of Lautrec, in the Tarn region of France, is designated one of the ‘Plus Beaux Villages de France’. The region was the home of the family of the artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. It is also famous for being the capital of pink garlic production in France.

Place Centrale, Lautrec

L’ail rose de Lautrec

Bilbao’s Gothic Cathedral, dedicated to Saint James, was originally built as the city’s parish church during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was only concecrated as a cathedral in 1950 after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bilbao had been officially created. 

It has a Latin cross plan with three naves, separated by cylindrical pillars, which lead to the main chapel, the Presbytery. This was remodelled in 2000 and has a simple layout, containing the bishop’s seat and the altar, which is presided over by a late Gothic figure of Christ dating from around 1515. The Presbytery is surrounded by an ambulatory which gives access to fifteen chapels, all originally financed by wealthy parishioners, many containing ornate baroque altarpieces. The Chapel of San Antón contains a magnificent polychrome carving of the saint from the fifteenth century, as well as the tomb of the Arbieto family of merchants from Bilbao.

Presbytery, Bilbao Cathedral

Chapel of San Antón

The cathedral also contains an impressive cloister, again in the Gothic style. It has a central garden surrounded by four vaulted bays, around which there are several tombstones from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Cloister, Bilbao Cathedral

Bilbao’s Museum of Fine Arts, now housed in an impressive Neo-Classical building, was formed in 1945 by combining the original Fine Arts museum with the Modern Art Museum, hence the comprehensive range of paintings from the twelfth century to the present day in its permanent collection.

Jan Gossaert ‘La Sagrada Familia’ (1525 – 30)

Lucas Cranach the Elder ‘Lucretia’ (1534)

El Greco ‘The Annunciation’ (c.1596 – 1600)

Francisco de Goya ‘Portrait of Martin Zapater’ (1797)

Paul Gauguin ‘Washerwomen in Arles’ (1888)

Mary Cassatt ‘Seated Woman with a Child in her Arms’ (c.1890)

Francis Bacon ‘Lying Figure in Mirror’ (1971)