New Productions in Europe - February 2010

2 major European operatic events in February will take place in Amsterdam and (again) in Berlin.

Martin Kusej directs the new production of Der Fliegende Hollander which opens tonight (February 1) at De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam. His Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is to me still the best Amsterdam production ever & I hope this Hollander will live up to expectations. The orchestra will be lead by Hartmut Haenchen (always good in Wagner) and the top notch cast includes Juha Uusitalo (WOW!), Catherine Naglestad, and Marina Prudenskaja (sensational Octavian in the Herheim's production of the Rosenkavalier last December in Stuttgart!)

At Unter den Linden in Berlin, the long awaited Vincent Boussart's production of Agrippina will finally open next Thursday (February 4); lead by maestro René Jacobs the superb cast includes Alexandrina Pendatchanska (our fav), a super-promising soprano Anna Prohaska, Bejun Mehta and the new American mezzo -whom we already like! - in her first big role, Jennifer Rivera.   Some sneak-pics are available on the Kulturradio website [they will broadcast it live next Sunday, February 7 at 7:30 pm (CET)].
A selection of other potentially good/great(?) productions

• Feb 4: Olivier Py saucy (?) production of Luly at Grand Théâtre de Genève, with Patricia Petibon, Gerhard Siegel and maestro Marc Albrecht
• Feb 7: Francisco Negrin is back with the Mozartean sound channeled by Martin y Soler  and the new production of  Una cosa rara in Valencia (somebody please tell Palau de les Arts that their website sucks!)
• Feb 7:  New production of Ariadne auf Naxos (A.Engel) with two brilliant singers: Christiane Libor and Julia Novikova will open in Strasbourg
  
• Feb 11: The Royal Opera House will premiere Richard Jones' new production of The Gambler with maestro A.Pappano and with a non-Russian cast -- b/c it will be sung in English ;)
• Feb 19: In Las Palmas, new Tristan und Isolde with Jon Fredric West, Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet and (our fav) Petra Lang
• Feb 20: La prima of the Zurich's new Idomeneo (Pirgu, Kleiter, Mei...) produced and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt ;)
• Feb 21:Teatro di Bologna presents Davide Livermore's  Idomeneo, with Francesco Meli in the title role. N.B. the same production is currently running in Turin, but with Matthew Polenzani singing Idomeneo
• Feb 22: Die Tragödie des Teufels, new opera by Peter Eötvös will premiere in Munich (BSO). The one to watch...
• Feb 24: Dan Jemmett's new production of Béatrice et Bénédict at l'Opéra Comique in Paris with a wonderful cast including Allan Clayton, Christine Rice, Edwin Crossley-Mercer... 
• Feb 26: Alexander Mørk-Eidem will unveil new face of Orlando at the Komische Oper Berlin
• Feb 28: Marco Arturo Marelli's production of Medea by Aribert Reimann at the Staats Oper in Vienna. Among the soloists Marlis Petersen, Max Emanuel Cencic...