ONF - Mahler 8

Symphony no.8 by Mahler, Théâtre du Châtelet, June 10 2011

Daniele Gatti

Daniele Gatti ..... conductor

Erin Wall ..... soprano
Melanie Diener ..... soprano
Kerstin Avemo ..... soprano
Christine Knorren ..... mezzo
Marie-Nicole Lemieux ..... alto
Nikolai Schukoff ..... tenor
Detlef Roth ..... baritone
James Morris ..... bass

Orchestre National de France (ONF)
Chorus of the Sächische Staatsoper Dresden (Pablo Assante)
Chorus of the Radio France (Matthias Brauer)
Maîtrise de Radio France (Sofi Jenin)

Dima Tcherniakov created the finest Don Giovanni in business

I posted the link and embedded the video from ArteLiveWeb here. If you're still interested in seeing this wonderful production --targeting the adults who prefer to see more shades of gray in an opera production, rather than simple black/white portrayal of the characters--  then please do!

I saw it twice, plus one more time in fractions, thinking I might have been a bit too biased, as I globally like the Tcherniakov's work, and maybe his Don Giovanni wasn't all that good as I thought it was after seeing it only once. Well, sorry to all of you guys who disliked it, but after seeing it more than once I definitely think this is one of the finest shows we've ever seen in opera. Never did I see the singers act as good as professional actors in this sort of drama requiring classical acting, in which simplicity and spontaneity are essential, and which is so hard for many professional actors to achieve. Dima Tcherniakov made his crew do exactly that! They seemed spontaneous and natural.

Don Giovanni, July 5  2010 (Festival in Aix-en-Provence, via Arte) 

Director Dmitrii Tcherniakov

Conductor Louis Langrée

The action takes place in the house of Commendatore

Il Commendatore..... Anatoli Kotscherga

Donna Anna, his daughter..... Marlis Petersen
Don Ottavio, her new fiancé..... Colin Balzer
Zerlina, Donna Anna's daughter.... Kerstin Avemo

Masetto, Zerlina's fiancé..... David Bizic

Donna Elvira, Donna Anna's cousin..... Kristine Opolais

Don Giovanni, Donna Elvira's husband..... Bo Skovhus 

Leporello, a relative who lives in the house..... Kyle Ketelsen

Julie by Boesmans and Bondy: an opera for posterity

So what about Julie? I saw this DVD a year ago or so. Since we have another production of this opera in Paris starting on January 8, I decided to see it again, to brush up on it.

3 general informations about this opera would be: (1) it is short - only 74 minutes long; (2) it is a chamber opera somehow following a Britten-like line of creation - I bet he would've loved it; (3) it is close to the Wagnerian vein too, as it combines an extraordinary libretto with the music that weaves through the text only to accelerate your dive into the psyche of each of three characters. This should be as close as you can get to the Wagnerian concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, and I'm pretty sure Wagner would have loved it too.