A psychological opera composed in the shadow of World War I, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's long-neglected "Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City, or Shi no Miyako)" has this year been brought to the stage three times: once in a revival of the New York City Opera's 1975 production and twice in new stagings.
The first of these was an avant-garde version in May that inaugurated the Theatre du Chatelet's regional opera festival in Paris. This relocated the action to Hollywood and loaded up the sexual overtones; even the best of voices would have found it hard to compete with the flashy peripheral (distr)action.
The second was this week's impressive "Concert Opera" staging by the New Japan Philharmonic under the baton of the seasoned yet spry Michiyoshi Inoue, performed at the Sumida Triphony Hall on Sept. 13 and 15.