"The Wedding People" by Alison Espach (2024)

 

Branching into other genres that I normally go for sounds like it could be fun - in theory. 

And than, there are mistakes, misconceptions and simply wrong choices.

Note to myself: remember not to follow blindly any random suggestions by "The Guardian" or even "Goodreads" whose audience gave this book a "Goodreads Choice Award" for the "Readers' Favorite Fiction of 2024". In short, do not pay any attention to what other people read and simply follow your own intuition, choose your own reading path and never mind awards. I don't remember when was the last time I disliked the book so much (maybe "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock that I threw away across the room in disgust back in 2016), I really suffered with this one. You see, I expected something fluffy, a light summer read and perhaps something entertaining or witty that would even make me smile. After all, it earned widespread acclaim as something refreshing, clever and very funny. It was not and I disliked it immensely, but found myself stuck with it and didn't want to admit defeat so I read the darn thing to the end (halfway trough I switched to audio book just to speed it up little bit). While I understand that the author invested her time and energy into this + there are obviously readers who love this type of book, it was not for me. 

For the sake of reminding myself of what I just suffered trough, I will write down just the frame of the story, just so it never ever cross my mind to read it or this author again. A middle aged literature professor Phoebe checks in a luxurious hotel (that she admired in some brochures a while ago) with intention to kill herself. You see, her life, her career and her marriage are all falling apart and she disappears without saying a word to anyone, with only one wish, to enjoy the last night on this earth in a luxury. What she does not know is that the rest of hotel is full of week-long wedding party and somehow she got sucked into it, mostly by efforts of incredibly selfish, egoistic and self-centred bride Lila who insist that her wedding must be perfect and nothing, absolutely nothing should spoil it. Phoebe not only ends up being invited as maid of honour but - being an outsider - has a different perspective and soon everybody starts confiding in her, like she is some wise woman full of knowledge and wisdom, not a depressed suicidal frump she was in previous chapter. The book is built on totally chick lit premise but nothing here worked for me, probably because I am not a target audience - most of the plot and characters were simply either unconvincing or annoying to me. It even baffles me how on earth anybody could find this "favourite fiction of 2024" but than again, as I said, my reading path is uniquely my own and perhaps I should just continue following my own guts.

"Destry Rides Again" by Max Brand (1930)

 

OK so 2026 is definitely a year I started exploring a genre I have never ever even approached before and that is western. In the past, I associated it with a pulp novels my stepfather used to read and I guess it fits with his generation (he was post WW2 child, raised on John Wayne movies) - honestly, before 2026 the only western novel I ever read was "Betty Zane" by zane Grey. Funny enough, as I started my reading in January 2026, it was exactly revisit to that same "Betty Zane" (a few decades later) that gave me lots of joy and inspired me to explore the genre a bit more. Being systematic Virgo as I am, I made a list of what are classic examples of the genre (in chronological order) and carefully started exploring some more. I suffered a bit trough now extremely dated writing style of both "The Virginian" (1902) and "Hopalong Cassidy 1: Bar-20" (1906) although I enjoyed them both once I disciplined myself into reading - I simply knew that I have to continue until I reach something published in more recent times. So I totally skipped 1920s (something to explore?) and jumped straight to 1930 when this novel was published.

Just as I expected, writing is much more to my liking and to be honest, this might be one of the most enjoyable westerns I have read so far in 2026. Even though Owen Wister and Clarence Edward Mulford are celebrated as classics of the genre, I doubt that anyone reads them for pleasure these days. Max Brand (the pseudonym used by writer Frederick Schiller Faust) on the other hand, is a full blown western pulp fiction told in a exciting, much more modern language (I didn't get a headache like previously with above mentioned novels) and therefore easier to follow. In fact, it was just a perfect escapism, with lots of posturing, shooting, horse riding and all. 

Not to be confused with 1939. Hollywood movie of the same name, "Destry Rides Again" is basically a revenge novel, kind of western Count Monte Christo. At the very beginning we are introduced to swaggering and hotheaded Harrison Destry who is jailed for a crime he did not commit and the local jury of twelve men (all of them holding a grudge against him) sentence him to ten years in prison. Its clear they simply hate him for who he is and to be honest he was a troublemaker who loved to get drunk and fight, but surely this is not deserving ten years in prison. The novel really gets going when Destry gets out the jail and how he searches each single person from that jury to punish them for what they did to him. There is also a intriguing fact that the man he considers his best friend is secretly the main antagonist, so this works out very well. For once, we have no Indians, though they are some black slaves mentioned (in a extremely derogatory way that today we consider offensive, but it was obviously accepted in 1930). I enjoyed this a lot and read the book in a short period of time. I am also glad that I left the historical ancestors behind and now arrived at the point where I can easily follow the language. It's not a high literature, but a very very pleasant pulp fiction and a pure escapism. 

"The Hollow Man" by John Dickson Carr (1935)

While browsing excellent crime fiction guide "Crime fiction: A Reader's Guide" by Barry Forshaw I noticed the name John Dickson Carr mentioned in the same breath as Agatha Christie and other authors of the golden age of detective fiction - to be honest, I don't really know much about anybody else except Christie from that period (I have read one single novel by Ngaio Marsh) so this name got stuck in my brain + he was unusual as being perhaps the only American celebrated amongst his British colleagues - enough for me to become really curious and to give his most famous novel a try.

"The Hollow Man" (titled The Three Coffins" in US) is today his best known work and often mentioned as example of who Dickson Carr was as an author. It is also an example of so called "locked-room mystery" where detectives are facing a seemingly unsolvable crime and what at the first glance appears impossible case (no traces, no fingerprints, etc). I guess both Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie used this form, though Dickson Carr is the one mentioned as a prime example today. At first, I was intrigued - there is a murder in a house full of witnesses (but no one really saw what happened) and the policemen helped by sharp investigator Dr Gideon Fell are trying to connect the dots. The writing was solid, mysteries piled on top of mysteries and Dr.Gideon is entertaining as someone who often pulls conclusions out of the thin air. 

However, at certain point I became a bit exhausted by Dr.Gideon - yes, he is sharp and yes he glances in the corners and suddenly realises how pieces of the puzzle fit in much bigger picture, but the plot is so ridiculously confusing that at certain point all these "red herrings" feel almost like a parody. Almost like Dickson Carr wanted to use every single locked room cliché there is. Tunnels! Chimneys! Masks! Ropes! In fact, at one point Dr.Gideon suddenly gives a lecture about locked room novels and usual possible solutions to mysteries. (Almost like turning to a reader and talking directly to us instead of his policemen friends) He notes that audience often gets upset when finding out how exactly they were cheated and I find this very interesting because it shows that Dickson Carr was very much aware of his public and what they expect. On one hand, they wanted to be entertained but they will get disappointed once they realise how it was done. And yes, correct, eventually I found myself thinking that the road to the mystery was actually more entertaining than the solution itself, which felt rushed up and clumsy. 

Another thing that bothered me was that (with exception of the victim and Dr.Gideon) I could simply not remember who is who. At first I found this embarrassing and blamed my own lack of attention, but later found out that many readers agree that characters and the names were simply there as props and there were absolutely no development that could help us remember or understand who is who and why are behaving the way they are. You know, servant comes in and out of the room, the end. Various characters are floating around without any real distinction between them and I had to even look up the list of characters online to check who is talking. 

"'I will now lecture,' said Dr Fell, inexorably, 'on the general mechanics and development of the situation which is known in detective fiction as the "hermetically sealed chamber. All those opposing can skip this chapter. To begin with, gentlemen! Having been improving my mind with sensational fiction for the last forty years, I can say -' 

'But, if you're going to analyse impossible situations,' interrupted Pettis, 'why discuss detective fiction?

'Because,' said the doctor, frankly, 'we're in a detective story, and we don't fool the reader by pretending we're not. Let's not invent elaborate excuses to drag in a discussion of detective stories. Let's candidly glory in the noblest pursuits possible to characters in a book."

"We Used to Live Here" by Marcus Kliewer (2024)

 

After satisfying but somewhat slow-burning double biography of Leonardo and Lisa Gherardini, I was ready for something lighter, shorter and more gripping. Something that would make me read passionately, with interest and excitement, not just enjoying historical trivia. Thanks to my ever-growing lists of "books to read" and the decision to focus on authors unknown to me, I picked up this debut novel by a Canadian writer Marcus Kliewer who was exactly what I needed.

"We Used to Live Here" is a spiritual descendant of Shirley Jackon's early 1960s horror novels (even its title refers to "We Have Always Lived in the Castle") - not by the story itself, as much as for the atmosphere of uneasiness and dread that slowly creeps into the pages and it grows stronger and stronger as we progress. It appears as a disturbing example of "house intruders" story with uninvited guests on one side and gay couple Eve and Charlie on the other. Eve is the paranoid one, always looking for (and expecting) troubles, while Charlie seems more solid and realistic. There are many things that go bump in the night, a horrifying basement that apparently goes on forever, spooky shed, weird neighbours, etc, etc, etc - one of those stories where couple who just moved in is totally unaware of what everybody in the neighbourhood knows. Even if the author decided to keep it all fairly unresolved and full of hints, I didn't mind - I don't need to have everything spelled to me and can easily appreciate psychological unraveling without neatly tied endings. It kept me very busy reading for a relatively short period of time and it was a joy to read during my lunch breaks at work & deep into the night. 

"Bugonia" by Yorgos Lanthimos (2025)

Now, this was something out of ordinary and a intriguing peace of film making that made my brain buzzing for several different reasons - not only that the story was interesting (updated revision of Korean black comedy "Save the Green Planet!"), but the acting and directing was excellent and I loved how the movie perfectly describes our current world with people getting lost in online conspiracy theories and internet echo chambers that feeds on their fears and paranoias. Considering that I didn't really care for Korean movies (too much clowning and mugging for my taste), I would say the director created his own, much darker twist on Korean original and it was one of the best movies I have seen this year so far.

"Bugonia"(and old folk ritual that has something to do with Bee keeping) has only three main characters, so you bet the acting is brilliant. Impoverished conspiracy theorist Teddy (Jesse Plemons) who is also a beekeeper, is convincing his autistic cousin Don (actual autistic actor Aidan Delbis) that they need to save the world from aliens who are secretly destroying our planet and the focus of their attention is CEO of a major pharmaceutical company Michelle (Emma Stone) whom they kidnap and keep chained in the basement, until she admits that she is actually alien from Andromeda Galaxy. What follows is a mind boggling duel between two strong personalities - no matter how hard Michelle tries to explain that she is in fact, not alien, Teddy has already made up his mind and nothing can convince him to the contrary. He has "done his research" you see, so God help you if you try to talk your way out of the chains and the basement. Michelle quickly realises that she is in hands of a dangerous psychopath but she can obviously not win by confronting him - subsequently we see match of two completely different personalities, one that holds a lifelong grudge (based on ignorance, poverty and childhood traumas) and another that uses her icy intelligence to find a way out of this. I won't say anything else about the plot but the movie is extremely gripping and I enjoyed everymoment of it. I wasn't really enjoying Emma Stone's Oscar winning role in 2023 "Poor Things" by the same director (I found it too vulgar for my taste) but this one was excellent - both Stone and Plemons are powerful and convincing, this is five stars from me.I was constantly on the edge, wondering what would I do if I found myself kidnapped by conspiracy theorist who is already convinced that I am alien from another galaxy.

Dog's Heaven II

 

Sadly, my dear friend who was the owner of Balder has passed away and his surviving partner is in no physical condition to walk him as much as needed, so we came to agreement that we will share the care of the dog. Not unlike the child of divorced parents, Balder now spends a week in my place and weekend with his old owner - I make sure he gets a lot of attention, plays, kisses and hugs. Thanks to Balder now I am forced to move my ass from the sofa and go for a walks - in fact, I have discovered that evening walks (when its a little bit cooler) might be my favourite part of the day: I take him for a hour-long walks around the neighbourhood and these walks are good for me. He is not always in the mood for long walks, in fact, very often right after he poops, he insist on walking back home but I insist and I want to make sure he walks properly and gets tired. 

My neighbour's little Zoe is also often here, since she lives literary next door and our doors are always open for her - whenever her owners need to go away for a weekend, we are delighted to have her here. She is tiny and very demanding, insist of being centre of attention all the time - she is not thrilled that Balder is here but must accept him, so its really funny how they eventually live side by side. The very first time, she was so upset that she turned to a wall and refused to look at him. Later they ended up sitting on the same sofa but not looking at each other. I still walk them separately, since they are both very difficult with pooping (it must be right temperature, right spot and I should not look at them) but I don't mind - one dog welcoming me home is already a joy but two dogs being thrilled with my return is wonderful. 

"Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered" by Dianne Hales (2014)

A slow-burning and quite beautiful double biography that discusses lives of both Leonardo da Vinci and Lisa Gherardini, along the way we are treated with a colourful tapestry of renaissance Florence with its cast of thousands and countless intriguing anecdotes of how life used to be back than. Reader must put aside any prejudices or opinions - its wrong to judge 16th century by modern standards and what nowadays we might consider wrong was totally accepted once. For example, like most of Florence ladies, Gherardini was constantly, perpetually pregnant and at the age of twenty four she was married eight years, with five children - high mortality of children meant that perhaps only half of them survived the childhood. Than there is this story about women often entering a covent if they didn't have a suitable dowry - without dowry, nobody would take them - two of her own sisters AND her oldest daughter entered a convent (at the age of twelve) and were basically buried alive for the rest of their lives, only because family could not get appropriate finances. (It seems dowry was only important for aristocrats who were carefully managing their lands and properties, a baker's daughter would marry for love.) Than there is Leonardo himself, who was never legitimately recognised by his father and as a "bastard" was not able to to attend university or to pursue professions such as medicine and law - he was forced to create himself and pursued a lifelong self education. 

At first, reader might wonder do we have any proper, documented informations about Gherardini but there are surprisingly many of them and Dianne Hales delightfully share her excitement in doing research in modern-day Italy, following the footsteps of both mysterious lady and her painter. We are introduced to the whole family clan and its many intricate branches, everything placed in its proper historical background, weddings, wars and all:

"Sometimes hours, sometimes days, weeks, or even months after the exchange of vows came the triumphal procession, the ductio ad domum or domumductio (leading [of a woman] home) from her parents’ to her husband’s residence, a bride’s moment of public glory. Since the marriage was not yet complete, Lisa did not have to wear a matron’s cloak (mantello) but could show off her wedding apparel to the entire town.

The festivities would have continued at the del Giocondo home, with a guest list extending beyond the immediate families to various kin groups. Everyone dressed as beautifully as possible as a way to “far onore” or contribute honor to the event. The wedding feast may have featured expensive treats, such as spiced veal, roast kid, peacocks’ tongues, and sweetmeats. Honeyed almonds were popular confections for the guests, with musicians, singers, and jugglers entertaining well into the evening.

The eating, dancing, toasting, and singing might have seemed to go on forever yet passed as quickly as a flash of summer lightning. As the bride, Lisa, imbued with the special authority of a queen for a day, could have invited young men and women to dance as couples. In the old Tuscan wedding ritual, her mother would have placed a baby boy in her arms as a harbinger of future sons and slipped a gold coin in her shoe for prosperity. Outside, a few young men may have lingered to shout and sing in a raucous mattinata, a tradition whenever an older man “stole” a young girl for his bride. Some coins tossed through the window for drinks would have persuaded them to leave." 

There is literary a cast of hundreds, including both notorious families of Borgia and Medici, Niccolò Machiavelli, various kings of France, young Raphael and Michelangelo who at thirty earned more money than Leonardo did in his lifetime. The rivalry between them was explained in a chapter dealing in their proposed (but never materialised) joined work, "The Battle of Anghiari" - in 2018 I have seen the exhibition about it in the Teylers Museum. 

Towards the end, I got a sudden epiphany about Leonardo's work - most of the things he created during his lifetime were celebrated but falling apart (for example, "The Last Supper" was peeling even during his lifetime). His motto was that art survives, where the real life beauty fades. It is very possible that the commissioned portrait of Gherardini (that he never ever even delivered) was something he kept on doing for years, out of his own pleasure and beautifying it with details and new ideas until it no longer resembled real life person. In the last chapters we learn about several copies around the world (none of them convinces me) and the fate of real painting that travelled far wider than either the artist or its subject ever did. 

"Kiss Kiss" by Roald Dahl (1960)

While listening a podcast about supposed spying activities of famous British writer Roald Dahl, I suddenly realised that I have actually never read anything by him - his children's books were often made into films and quite a few of them were my old favourites, hence why I never went to the originals. But it made a perfect sense to include him into my 2026 reading list which consist of my first-time authors - the decision is to focus this year on authors I have never read before. So I gave some attention to Dahl and it was a blast. 

First, I don't know why it took me so long to step out of my comfort zone and approach short story collection, because I have quite a few. Maybe I expected that the frame of short story will not have urgency of regular novel, where reader is compelled to continue. Wrong. Short stories were actually perfect because I could pick them up anytime (during work lunch break for example) and not miss a beat. But it did mean that I did not feel the urge to continue with a cliffhanger, so the book was simmering a while in the background while I waited another chance to continue. I mean, seriously, I could have just read it all at once, but it took me two weeks instead. 

However, when I disciplined myself into reading, I was enjoying it 100%. Dahl has a macabre sense of humour and brilliant imagination that fits me perfectly - I was hooked from a very first short story "The Landlady" (about young men falling victims to a supposedly harmless old lady) to the very last one ""The Champion of the World"  about pheasant poachers. Without exception, each single story was excellent and I loved them all - what I enjoyed the most was the way Dahl would abruptly finish the story, leading the readers to their own conclusions. It is too often now that people expect everything to be explained, but Dahl trusts his readers are adults and have intelligence to come to conclusion themselves. So when clueless locals decide to "help" antiques dealer, we don't get any detailed description what happened afterwards, only a tantalising sentence : "“We’re just in time!” Rummins called out. “Here he comes!”

There are stories about couples living in a long, loveless marriage, adultery, a mad beekeeper who is turning his baby into a queen bee, a neurotic and celibate vicar, parents fussing about sickly baby and praying to God that their little Adolf survives (!), mysterious cat who might be reincarnated Franz Liszt, and one about vegetarian boy who has never in his life tasted meat. Each of them is funny and bizarre in their own way and I absolutely loved the way Dahl weaves a tale - it fits with my own sense of humour, though I would never in a million years imagine this is the person who will find fame and success with children's novels. 

"Her husband closed the garden door behind him and walked across the room to get himself a cigarette. 

       “Edward, where is he?” 

       “Who?” 

       “You know who.” 

       “Ah, yes. Yes, that’s right. Well—I’ll tell you.” He was bending forward to light the cigarette, and his hands were cupped around the enormous patent lighter. He glanced up and saw Louisa looking at him—at his shoes and the bottoms of his khaki slacks, which were damp from walking in long grass. 

       “I just went out to see how the bonfire was going,” he said. 

       Her eyes travelled slowly upward and rested on his hands. 

       “It’s still burning fine,” he went on. “I think it’ll keep going all night.” 

       But the way she was staring made him uncomfortable. 

       “What is it?” he said, lowering the lighter. Then he looked down and noticed for the first time the long thin scratch that ran diagonally clear across the back of one hand, from the knuckle to the wrist. 

       “Edward!

“Yes,” he said, “I know. Those brambles are terrible. They tear you to pieces. Now, just a minute, Louisa. What’s the matter?” 

       “Edward!” 

       “Oh, for God’s sake, woman, sit down and keep calm. There’s nothing to get worked up about. Louisa! Louisa, sit down!”

"Willem and Frieda - A Story of Resistance" (2023) by John Hay

Despite the cornucopia of various streaming sites, what really makes me happy these days is a local Dutch channel npodoc  dedicated to documentaries and every time I am not in the mood for anything commercial or violent, I simply turn to these documentaries as my preffered comfort watch. I watched almost everything about the local history here and last night I saw something really interesting, this was a story about Amsterdam in WW2 and even though I have previously heard about the 1943 bombing of the civil registry office (where all the registered identity cards were stored) I was not aware of the identity of people involved in it.

The documentary is presented by Stephen Fry who walks trough the streets of Amsterdam, tracing the footsteps of Willem Arondeus and Frieda Belinfante who were both involved in the resistance - Aroundeus was impoverished, shy artist who joined resistance from the sheer conviction (not Jew himself), while Belifante was Jewish and one of the first female conductors in Europe. Both were involved in forging of identity cards for Jews and organisation of 1943 bombing of the civil registry office (I had to look it up, where it was - nowadays its a building next to entrance to Artis Zoo). The destruction of civil registry office was important in order to stop Nazi attempts to compare forged documents with documents in registry. Arondeus was arrested, tried and executed, while Belifante went into hiding and dressed up as a man, later emigrated to United States where she continued her music carer as a conductor.

It was an excellent documentary - Stephen Fry was a perfect choice for a presenter and the story itself was hugely interesting, pointing again how dangerous was to live trough WW2 (for example, it was not enough to be a Jew, simply being gay person could result into arrest and imprisonment in concentration camp). What is specially interesting is that after the war, the names of both Arondeus and Belifante were quietly erased from the history books, even though they were both clearly heroes of the resistance - something about them being gay, did not sit well with than current atmosphere and they were not often mentioned. This has now being corrected and I am so glad that people now more about them, I specially loved 1995 TV interview with elderly Belifante who comes across as the most wonderful, warm and likeable person.

"Remarkably Bright Creatures" by Olivia Newman (2026)

 

What a wonderful surprise and completely out of the blue! I was not aware of the best-selling novel that inspired this movie and it caught me completely by surprise, as a random suggestion by Netflix algorithm. I recognised Sally Field in a trailer and decided to give it a go, why not since Field was always lovely and dependable actress, even though Hollywood ageism means she was not given much opportunities recently. In fact, the last movie I saw her in was some silly comedy where she played frumpy office worker, infatuated with a new co-worker ("Hello, My Name Is Doris") and that was a decade ago. Guess what, this time she plays a frumpy, elderly widow who mops the floors of the local small town aquarium place. Poor Sally, she just can't get a break. Than again, it is refreshing to see someone playing their age and not going plastic surgery route.

As the movie started, me and my friend looked at each other - this feels good - in fact, he mentioned something like "this is like Christmas movie" - and that is exactly how it felt like. The story is set in a small town where Sally Field mops the floors of the local aquarium and in her solitude talks to a giant octopus, who actually listens to her (we hear his inner monologue and he is a very witty octopus, elderly just like her and perhaps at the end of his days). When a new person arrives in town, he ends up working along Sally Field and octopus notices they both have same pain in their eyes. This is enough to spur octopus in the action and he does some movie magic to connect these two, but along the way we are also introduced to other characters in this sleepy little town. Everything is super peaceful and comforting here, not to mention Sally Field's house that just looks like something out of the dream with a most beautiful view on a lake - honestly, it makes you want to move in there, right here and right now. 

What was so unexpected and lovely was the fact that this movie totally ignored everything current directors and producers force down our throats: there were no explosions, big fires, special effects, aliens, zombies, car crashes, eye pokings and violence of any kind. It was simply an good old fashioned family movie, a kind that we almost forgot, something everybody can watch together. It was a heart warming story about real people (and their octopus friend) that could perhaps in some other hands became maudlin but thanks to subtle direction and excellent Sally Field never crossed the line into too sentimental. In a way, it was lucky that I was watching this at home because if I was in cinema, I would probably crying my eyes out. Beautiful movie! 

Alma Cogan and Shirley Bassey

"The Marriage of Figaro" - direction, set and costumes: Kirill Serebrennikov (2026)

Last night I left the opera house a little bit perplexed and confused. (And relieved that is over) How is it possible that the magnificent and intoxicating music can at the same time be completely sabotaged by annoying staging and over-the-top direction? This is how both me and a friend felt as we left the building - and to be honest, the running time of three and a half hours was simply too much, the last 30 minutes was a pure agony. We had such a nice time not so long ago with "Semele" by Handel that this time we were absolutely sure that we will enjoy "The Marriage of Figaro". I mean, its Mozart, you can'y go wrong with him, its one lovely aria after another, right? Wrong. 

OK, let's mention some positive things first.

The music itself is beautiful and no one can take this away. No matter what ridiculous staging or costumes you throw at the audience, the magic of Mozart is indestructible and would work anytime, under any circumstances. I was actually surprised a few times when the voices of two female leads (Susanna and Countess) joined in the most beautiful harmony - and this happened just for a few seconds, just a few lines of lyrics - really dream-like and I would have never appreciated this on record, but hearing it live was thrilling. Most of the performers were excellent - specially earlier mentioned ladies, Björn Bürger as Count Almaviva and I loved the excellent bass singer Anthony Robin Schneider in a small supporting role. Strangely enough, I did not care much for the title role of Figaro (whom I found annoying) and much much more space was given to his girlfriend, a servant Susanna (Emily Pogorelc) so much in fact that the piece could easily be called "The Marriage of Susanna" instead. So, the performers and music were ok but ....

STAGING. 

I knew that Amsterdam's opera house loves to play around with a new modern productions and most of the time learned to accept it; even grew to enjoy it, since this is a classy stage and the magic of music is usually enough to convince me. This time the staging, direction and costumes were work by a certain Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov and I have to remember this name in order to avoid anything he does in the future. He sought some far stretched social criticism in the Mozart's delightful comedy - making it thrice pretentious, like this is some call for revolution and pseudo-philosophy. ("Capitalism kills love" was written on a wall at some point) He divided the stage in some sort of upstairs/downstairs Downtown Abbey world where upper floor is reserved for aristocrats and lower for the servants - but everything is happening upstairs, so what exactly was the point of downstairs, except for cramming it with washing machines and all sorts of ugly scenery (to explain this is servant's area) AND stage was constantly full of silent, non-singing actors moving around aimlessly and confusingly. We just had to assume they were servants. Costumes were modern day and ugly: instead of revealing social status of the characters, they were mostly ill-fitting and clumsy, particularly the annoying title character Figaro who was played by some overweight person running around in tight jeans and was irritating to look at. The director also decided to "refresh" Mozart's original libretto and divided the role of Cherubino into two different people for no apparent reason: so we had a deaf/mute Cherubino (male, mostly pantomime and more or less in a state of permanent nudity) and Cherubina (female singer interpreting his sign language). This Cherubino is here really just to show off his buttocks and at one point he even jumps out of the balcony - stripping naked first. Oh well. The worst of all was another mute character invented by this director, some sort of silent personal secretary of Count Almaviva - it was a completely irritating pantomime character constantly mugging, grinning, making faces and jumping around - if this was supposed to be funny, well it wasn't and I was even a bit angry with the way this particular director assumes the audience will lap it up, as everybody here is so infantile that we will laugh at this. Towards the end the whole concept of staging otherwise beautiful piece of music became so chaotic that I gave up trying to figure it out why are people suddenly walking around with peaces of mirrors, who is this person killing everybody with a knife and why the victims later all got up and sang again like nothing happened. Was it just imagination? Servant's revenge in a dream? 

I always suspected that for all its supposed free lifestyle, Amsterdam is actually a city of well-oiled bourgeoisie and not so progressive after all - it shows last night when at the end everybody gave standing ovation to this mess, I assume because audience is simply starving for operas by famous composers. There is no Mozart, Verdi or any popular composer on the repertoire, as opera house nowadays prefers either modern works or someone from inner Mongolia. But for me and my friend it was a very long performance indeed and we just couldn't wait to get out and shake off the bad taste. Apparently we are not the only ones feeling this way because this article explains everything I wrote much better: 

https://www.opusklassiek.nl/opera_operette/dno_mozart_figaro_corti.htm

We both agreed that previous opera we had witnessed ("Semele") was far more coherent and enjoyable than this chaotic mess.