The Bolshoi Theatre re-opens: Gala for the people!

After 6 years of painful works and lots of scandals along the way, The Bolshoi Theater is finally set to open its gates to the public.

Tonight's opening will be accompanied by a big gala concert, and the first premiere is scheduled for next Wednesday: Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka, with Russia's best Dmitri Tcherniakov directing, and with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the show.

As for the Gala Concert, Arte Live Web will live broadcast it tonight [Friday, October 28] starting from 20:40 (cet) -- video is embedded below. What would be a gala concert without Angela Gheorgiu and/or Placido Domingo?! So yes, they will both be there, in addition to Dmitri Hvorostovski, Natalie Dessay, Violeta Urmana... Enjoy!

Embellish Your Winter Evenings

Here is what you can see/listen for free and heat up these last 10 days of December 2010:

And the winner is...

I already blogged about the Arte-Live-Web coverage of the final weeks of the ARMEL Intl Opera Competition in Szeged (Hungary). Results?

Cristina Baggio won for the role of Renata in what the jury decided was the best production - The Fiery Angel. Congrats to all the winners!  [full list with other distinctions is available on this link]

A scene from The Fiery Angel in Szeged

I saw the winning show [The Fiery Angel] --one of my 20 favorite operas-- and was impressed.

• It is extremely difficult to sing this opera and to see young performers putting their guts and hearts was touchy and thrilling at the same time. A bunch of compliments go to Renata and Ruprecht sung by Cristina Baggio and Zsolt Haja. Cristina should be extra-praised for her courage to attack this ultra-heavy role, in addition to her outstanding scenic performance.
• I was very surprised to see this opera listed for competition because it is so difficult to stage,  rehearse and play -- it would have been much easier to opt for L'Elisir d'Amore or Don Pasquale, and let a soprano simper around the stage to win the crowd over.  Direction and staging look similar to recent Lulu by Stefan Herheim and Heike Scheele in Copenhagen, although the lack of money and the overall level of execution remain well bellow the Copenhagen show. With that being said, a big bravo to Silviu Purcarete (director).

My only objection is that it is performed in French. With no French singers in the cast what's the point in not doing it in Russian?
For more production photos please see here.
Below is embedded the full video of the winning show (available for free viewing until February 2011.)

Ritorna vincitor

Like in 2008 and 2009, this year Szeged (Hungary) hosts an interesting International Opera Competition which has recently been baptized into Armel. The rules are explained well on their website.
In one sentence: After a series of selections, the competing singers who made it to the finals are asked to perform --as cast members-- in one of the 5 specific operas that are being presented these days at Szeged National Theater.

Good thing is that all 5 operas can be seen on the Internet thanks to the world's coolest TV, via its ARTE Live Web portal.

This year's program of the finals with links, looks as follows (all videos are free to see during 3 months following the live broadcast):

• Veslefrikk - opera by Knut Vaage (world creation) [click on the opera title to see the production details and synopsis];  singers competing: Iulia VACARU, Alexander POLKOVNIKOV; live broadcast - November 3, Arte link
• The Servant - opera by Marco Tuttino (also intendant of Teatro Comunale di Bologna); competing: Camille DEREUX, Peter FURLONG, Alexey BOGDANCHIKOV; live broadcast - November 6, Arte link
• La Traviata - competing: Maria PAKHAR, Péter BALCZÓ, Sergio FORESTI; live broadcast - November 9, Arte link
• The Seagull - opera by Thomas Pasatieri; competing: Molly MUSTONEN, Zsolt HAJA, Beverly O’REGAN THIELE; live broadcast - November 12, Arte link
• The Fiery Angel - opera by Sergei Prokofiev; competing: Christina BAGGIO, Antal Cseh; live broadcast - November 15, Arte link

All videos also embedded below...

La Prima of Metanoia in Berlin, tonight on Arte

The first new production at Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin is opening tonight: Metanoia is a world premiere, composed by Jens Joneleit.  Christoph Schlingensief [director of the (in)famous Parsifal in Bayreuth 2004] was supposed to direct the show but he unfortunately died of lung cancer in August this year (at the age of 49!)...

The show is therefore dedicated to the memory of Christoph Schlingensief. The production team decided not to name a new director, but decided to leave it nameless but they followed the Schlingensief's notes  about the way he envisaged the staging.

Annette Dasch in Metanoia at DSO Berlin (what about the hideous costumes?!) [Photo: © Lucie Jansch]

The underlying inspiration for this work is Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Metanoia is consisted of 5 scenes, each "exploring the interaction among individuals, society and art" [whatever that really means.]

Daniel Barenboim will conduct and the soloists will be Annette Dasch, Daniel Schmutzhard, Graham Clark, Alfred Reiter and Anna Prohaska.

Tonight [Sunday, October 3], right after the premiere at DSO Berlin, the world's coolest TV [Arte, of course] will broadcast the show. Set your DVR - Arte at 22:25 (cet) for 90 minutes of Metanoia!

More Verdi on TV

Are you watching Aida at the Rhine right now on this link?

FYI Arte TV will broadcast tomorrow, October 2, at 20:40 (cet), a new production of Rigoletto from  Teatro La Fenice. Directed by Daniele Abbado, the show will be conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and the cast includes Désirée Rancatore, Eric Cutler, Roberto Frontali, among others.

More pics and video excerpts can be found on Désirée Rancatore's blog.

Salomé from Verbier 2010: Jochaaaaanaan...

Today, August 1st 2010, at 19:00 (cet), there will be a live broadcast of Richard Strauss' Salomé from Salle des Combins in Verbier. The ensemble of artists is more than inviting... 

Deborah Voigt Salomé
Dame Gwyneth Jones Herodias
Siegfried Jerusalem Herodes
Evgeny Nikitin Jochanaan
John Tessier Narraboth   

For the rest of the cast see here.

Valery Gergiev will conduct the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and Arte (the World's coolest TV) provides the webcast to everyone via ARTE Live Web. Alternatively you can watch it on medici.tv.
Video is appended below. If you don't catch it live, you can see it during a month following the live broadcast.

Tessier, Nikitin, and Voigt

Debbie Voigt might be good in this role (?), Nikitin must be excellent as ever, and you cannot not to be curious to see Dame Gwen Jones and Siegfried Jerusalem (unsurpassed Tristan -- c.f. this DVD)

Since the Verbier Orchestra is so special, I guess Valya Gergiev was forced to practice the score for some time with them, and when he invests some of his precious time rehearsing the result is most often very good [although this rarely happens since he became a man who conducts "364 concerts a year" ;)]

Ed: Very good concert!
Gergiev evidently practiced with the youngsters who put their souls and hearts into this performance. The oldies were struggling a bit but who cares! ;) 

Debbie should forget Isolde and keep singing this. Brava!
The most impressive singer tonight was, however, Evgeny Nikitin. Enooormous!

Video embedded below.

Aix 2010 : Un Retour - El Regreso by Oscar Strasnoy

I know, I know -- who the heck is Oscar Strasnoy? 40 years old Argentine-French composer/conductor who lives both in Lyon and in Berlin; he's got excellent references, and out of three operas he composed and presented in big theaters so far, two were released this year.

Here we're talking about his third opera, premiered last week at the festival in Aix-en-Provence, and that we'll be able to see this evening, July 12 at 21:00 (Paris time), thanks to the coolest of all TV's, Arte, i.e. via its ArteLiveWeb portal.

 A pic from Un Retour - El Regreso © Elisabeth Carecchio

The opera is called Un Retour - El Regreso, based on the novel El regreso by Alberto Manguel, an Argentine-Canadian writer, who also adapted his work to shape it into libretto for this opera. Whatever indicator it may be for you, the French press was seduced by this 1 hour long chamber opera. A brief outline of the libretto can be found here.

If you like contemporary operas and if the excerpts from his previous works tickle your curiosity (c.f. here and here), then either go to ArteLiveWeb or see Un Retour - El Regreso here (embedded after the jump.)

Nightingale in Aix 2010: Une grosse tarte japonaise :)

Pretty music by Stravinsky --superbly played by the orchestra of the Lyon National Opera and conducted by always reliable maestro Kazushi Ono-- and the string of wonderful singers compensated a theatrical void staged in a Disney-World like fashion by Robert Lepage.

Nabil Suliman and Olga Peretyatko

You can see this ~50 minute long opera on Arte Live Web for free. Fast forward to about 100th minute when The Nightingale actually begins and enjoy.
In my humble opinion, what precedes this opera is far more interesting than The Nightingale itself. It's a selection of Russian songs that Stravinsky adapted for voice and orchestra, as well as the original songs he composed, all inspired by the Russian fairy tales. In that part Lepage too does a nice job by visualizing the stories by quickly mounting a shadow-theater. Only the last songs were spoiled by the excessive artistic gymnasts' performance in the same shadow theater...

Countdown to Черняков's Don Giovanni in Aix-en-Provence

You've certainly noticed that Dima Tcherniakov is one of my fave directors, so I obviously expect a lot from his new Don Giovanni which will be premiered in 4 days at Théâtre de l'Archevêché in Aix-en-Provence -- Thursday, July 1st

 Dmitri Tcherniakov during one of the rehearsals of his new production of Don Giovanni in Aix [photo by ArtComArt]

What do we know?

1. We know the cast and I think it's awesome: Bo Skovhus, Kyle Ketelsen, David Bizic, Colin Balzer, Marlis Petersen, Kristine Opolais, Kerstin Avemo, Anatoli Kotscherga, and an excellent conductor, Louis Langrée, will lead a very good Freiburger Barockorchester.
2. Here is a link to the gallery of more than 40 photos taken during the rehearsals [photos by ArtComArt] It looks promising... and I can tell the ultra-conservative French traditionalists will boo it [which is of course good! ;) ]
3.  I remind you that the third show will be live broadcast via Arte Live Web on Monday July 5. [embedded after the jump]
   
   
   
   
   

Thanks to ArteLiveWeb...

I skipped the recital of Felicity Lott & Ann Murray in Musée d'Orsay in Paris because there were so many opera to see. Arte Live Web comes into help. They recorded the evening and made it available to all of us on this link (including all of you outside France and Germany)

If you like the songs by Schumann, Brahms, Britten, Poulenc, Porter, Barber, Fauré, Hahn, Saint-Saëns, Lehrer, Rodgers,  Lehmann, or Cole Porter (!), you can enjoy 80 minutes of cool singing by 2 dive who have all the experience needed to sing this repertoire (second part of the concert is particularly good!):



Moreover...

Summer Opera Festivals on Arte

Summer is approaching fast and many good old summer Opera Festivals too.

Arte TV will live broadcast two interesting new productions [and France2 one more]:

Free stuff

• Franco-German TV Arte, via Arte Live Web, offers to all the viewers worldwide:
  
  
  
  1. Two concerts performed by Orchestre de Paris and Ensemble intercontemporain at Pleyel in Paris and conducted by Pierre Boulez, are available here and here. Always reliable --even if sometimes opinionated ;) -- fellow blogger Musica sola, who's a big fan of Boulez, wasn't happy about the Orchestre de Paris...
  2. Paavo Järvi who'll become the artistic director of Orchestre de Paris --and we're very looking forward to that change!-- made a great impression with (his) Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Symphony #6 by Bruckner, 2 weeks ago in Frankfurt. Arte filmed it and the full video recording is available here.
  3. Also recently in the Frauenkirche of Dresden took place a concert/Hommage to Schumann by Staatskapelle Dresden, with Daniel Harding conducting. Full video of that concert is avalable here
  4. If a funny-ish one-man-show in French about Carmen might interest you, then you may wish to see Olivier Martin-Salvan in his show O Carmen, recently recorded at the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris. If so, here is your link.
• Medici tv proposes --also for free-- the opening concert of Festival St.Denis: Mass by Schubert and Requiem by Cherubini, performed by the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Riccardo Muti and with classy soloists: Topi Lehtipuu, Luca Pisaroni and Elin Rombo. Check out here
• I updated the programs for 2010-2011 in European opera houses. 

GRATIS: Watch the new production of Don Quichotte from La Monnaie/De Munt

Last  Saturday, May 8, at 20:30 (cet), there was a live broadcast from Brussels of the new Laurent Pelly's production of Don Quichotte, on Arte-Live Web. For the next 60 days when you find some time you can watch it for free:

Marc Minkowski conducted the show which is most probably the last time we could see José van Dam singing in an opera. 

A good note about this opera can be found  on Wiki.

Barenboim hearts Netrebko: "Anna doesn't sing as if music needs her. She sings as if she needs music."

Terrific concert on Arte with Anna and Barenboim. The same material is released on CD called  "In the Still of Night".

Here is the trailer prepared by Deutsche Grammophon where the two artists have so much praise for each another [videos from Arte after jump too]:

European Opera Days on Arte: Don Quichotte from la Monnaie

Arte  will broadcast the new production of Don Quichotte --an opera by Jules Massenet and directed by Laurent Pelly-- live from La Monnaie/De Munt, one of the best opera houses in Europe [and very dear to my heart], on Saturday, May 8, at 20:30 (cet)
Maestro Marc Minkowski will be conducting the house's orchestra and the singers including José van Dam <--- his last role in Belgium before retirement.

Notice in particular that the weekend of May 8-9 will be celebrated all over Europe as European Opera days. Check out this map to get more details about the free events/visits... near you.

Arte alert

The world's coolest TV [Arte, of course!] will soon broadcast two shows that you might wish to check out:

• Sunday, April 18, at 19:15 (cet): Recital Anna Netrebko in company of Daniel Barenboim recorded in Berlin 3 weeks ago, during the Festtage.
• Monday, April 19, at 22:45 (cet): La grande-duchesse de Gérolstein, an opera by Offenbach recorded at  Theater Basel with Anne Sofie von Otter and Norman Reinhardt among the soloists and with Hervé Niquet conducting. This show was produced this season by one of our fave directors, Christoph Marthaler.  

 

I was sorry not to be able to go and see both of these events live, so here are my two double thanks to Arte!

Adams and Glass in Paris

In the country of Boulez you don't expect to hear too much music by the American minimalists, such as John Adams or Philip Glass.

Yet in March there was a whole lot of events honoring John Adams, including the French premiere of his opera "A Flowering Tree" at the Cité de la Musique [Cité was co founded by Pierre Boulez!].
The press apparently liked the idea and appreciated the music by Adams. Moreover, the world's coolest television [Arte, of course] --via ARTE Live Web--  offered a free video of the entire concert with John Adams conducting the Asko-Schönberg Ensemble. The concert took place 10 days ago in Paris; the video is free and can be found here.

As for Philip Glass, his chamber operas have been relatively often performed but in smaller parisian theaters. To wit, "In the Penal Colony", that he composed in 2000, will be premiered tonight at the Théâtre Athénée with Yours Truly in the front row  :)

TONIGHT @ 8pm (Paris time): Platée - live webcast

Don't forget: the new production of  Platée an opera by J.-P. Rameau, directed by Mariame Clément, will be broadcast  TODAY via Arte LIVE WEB

To easily follow the show read the synopsis here.

@ Palais Garnier

Platée arrive chez vous (2)

The previous entry will hopefully motivate you to see the new production of Platée, directed by Mariame Clément,  which will be premiered tomorrow at the Strasbourg Opera (Opera National du Rhin). A lineup of very good singers and the orchestra Les Talens Lyriques will be conducted by Christophe Rousset.

 Shrek-y pic from the Mariame Clément's production of Platée  

MORE IMPORTANTLY,  next  Thursday - March 18 at 8 pm (cet), the world's best TV will broadcast it live. To see it simply visit Arte LIVE WEB and enjoy. 

2-3 days after the live webcast the video will be available for 60 days. It's good, it's free, we like it!

 For more pics from this production see here.