In a few hours will begin the premiere of Idomeneo at the Frankfurt Oper, directed by our 'new' fave Jan Philipp Gloger. His production of Le Nozze di Figaro made big waves in German press despite the fact that it was staged at theater of a lesser prestige (in Augsburg and Heibronn), which proved once again that "prestigious" is most often misleading [if not even meaningless] as far as the quality of productions is concerned.
Then came that divine production of Alcina in Dresden that I still hold for one of the most wonderful productions I've seen. I unfortunately did not see his Flying Dutchman that opened the Festival in Bayreuth last year [it will be streamed next August, btw].
And so today is la prima of his fourth big show this time at the Frankfurt Oper -- the house twice voted the best opera house in Europe in the past 5 years; maybe less prestigious but definitely the top tier in terms of quality of productions AND of musical performances.
Too many favorable elements converged: one of my favorite operas, produced by one of my top-directors, performed in an auditorium of fantastic acoustic quality... and so the temptation was just too big for me to resist and I TGV-ed to this snowy and freezing city to see this new Idomeneo. Let's hope Julia Jones will be good conducting and the rest will be cool.
The production that buzzed my brain for almost a month after the show was the one at the Komische Oper in Berlin directed by Benedikt Von Peter, which must be one of the most profoundly staged opera shows ever. Benedikt is now the general director of Theater Bremen but we hope he will soon resume directing operas too...
OK, Mozart's Idomeneo -- version Gloger with elettrifying Elza van den Heever, in a few... .
Ah yes, there are several great renditions of "D'Oreste, d'Ajace ho in seno i tormenti" (Netrebko, Harteros, Roos, Bruggergosman,...), but probably the most surprising one is
which I found irresistible and for some reason I believe Wolfie would have loved it too ;)
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| Oper Frankfurt |
Then came that divine production of Alcina in Dresden that I still hold for one of the most wonderful productions I've seen. I unfortunately did not see his Flying Dutchman that opened the Festival in Bayreuth last year [it will be streamed next August, btw].
And so today is la prima of his fourth big show this time at the Frankfurt Oper -- the house twice voted the best opera house in Europe in the past 5 years; maybe less prestigious but definitely the top tier in terms of quality of productions AND of musical performances.
Too many favorable elements converged: one of my favorite operas, produced by one of my top-directors, performed in an auditorium of fantastic acoustic quality... and so the temptation was just too big for me to resist and I TGV-ed to this snowy and freezing city to see this new Idomeneo. Let's hope Julia Jones will be good conducting and the rest will be cool.
The production that buzzed my brain for almost a month after the show was the one at the Komische Oper in Berlin directed by Benedikt Von Peter, which must be one of the most profoundly staged opera shows ever. Benedikt is now the general director of Theater Bremen but we hope he will soon resume directing operas too...
OK, Mozart's Idomeneo -- version Gloger with elettrifying Elza van den Heever, in a few... .
Edit: Superb show - JPG is already a top-8 director; excellent cast (Elza & Roberto rocked, others were great too). More tomorrow...
Ah yes, there are several great renditions of "D'Oreste, d'Ajace ho in seno i tormenti" (Netrebko, Harteros, Roos, Bruggergosman,...), but probably the most surprising one is
which I found irresistible and for some reason I believe Wolfie would have loved it too ;)
Dear Opera Cake!
ReplyDeleteBenedikt von Peter just directed Mahagonny as well as Mahlers Third Symphony in Bremen. His Traviata cann still be seen in Hannover.
And this season he will do another Traviata and Boheme in Bremen as well as Don Giovanni in Hannover.
So he is still directing!