On 6 February 2026, in the elegant surroundings of the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff in Paris, the past felt startlingly close. Le Temps retrouvé: Salon Volkonskaïa was not simply a concert, but a carefully crafted reanimation of an early nineteenth-century world: the salon of Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya — writer, composer, singer, intellectual and one of the most … Continue reading “Le Temps retrouvé: Reanimating Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya’s Salon in Paris”
Month: February 2026
Reflections on Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House
Attending Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House in February 2026 felt less like witnessing a revived production and more like undergoing a prolonged psychological examination. This staging presented Mussorgsky’s original 1869 version, performed without an interval or the later additions that softened or expanded the opera’s architecture. The result was an uncompromising, concentrated experience … Continue reading “Reflections on Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House”