Premiere of Orpheus in der Unterwelt: Stölzl meets Offenbach backstage

Orphée aux enfers, Staatsoper Unter den Linden im Schiller Theater, Berlin, December 16 2011

Conductor ..... Julien Salemkour
Director ..... Philipp Stölzl


Eurydice ..... Evelin Novak
Public opinion ..... Cornelius Obonya
Orpheus ..... Stefan Kurt
Pluto ..... Ben Becker
Jupiter ..... Gustav Peter Wöhler
Styx ..... Hans-Michael Rehberg
Juno ..... Irene Rindje

Staatskapelle Berlin
Staatsopernchor (Frank Flade)

Gripping Wozzeck by Andrea Breth in Berlin

Wozzeck, April 24 2011, Staatsoper Berlin (Sch.Th)

Conductor ..... Daniel Barenboim
Director ..... Andrea Breth
Chorus Master ..... Eberhard Friedrich

Wozzeck ..... Roman Trekel
Tambourmajor ..... John Daszak
Andres ..... Florian Hoffmann
Hauptmann ..... Graham Clark
Doktor ..... Pavlo Hunka
Marie ..... Nadja Michael
Margret ..... Katharina Kammerloher
Erster Handwerksbursche ..... Jürgen Linn
Zweiter Handwerksbursche ..... James Homann
Narr ..... Heinz Zednik

Staatskapelle Berlin
Staatsopernchor
Kinderchor der Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Preparing for the premiere of Otello @ DOB

After a couple of really hellish weeks, I can find an hour or two a day to keep this blog rolling.

Before the long awaited Walkure in Paris -- which will be premiered tomorrow, May 31 2010-- I decided to spend a weekend in Berlin and to see the new gem prepared by Andreas Kriegenburgen. It's a new production of Otello for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, with sensational cast members including  Anja Harteros, José Cura, Željko Lučić. La prima is tonight and the daily newspapers are filled with infos about this event. Here is a pic from the Berliner Morgenpost of an interview with Kriegenburgen [whose Wozzeck in Munich I totally loved].

Another interesting news is...

New Star in Berlin - L’étoile by Chabrier

Next Sunday, May 16,  will open a new production of L'étoile, a fun opera by Emmanuel Chabrier, at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin. The show is produced by Dale larger-than-life Duesing, the cast includes Magdalena Kozena and looks very good, and the Staatskapelle will be conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Photos from one of the dress rehearsals are already available on their website.
I hope to be able to see one of the total of 5 shows in this run.

Magdalena Kozena as Lazuli

Recently there were several productions of this opera in Europe and in the US, of which the worst  must have been the one presented at Opéra Comique in Paris [this is very often the case with French operas, i.e. they are much better produced outside of France (Les Contes d'Hoffmann is a notable exception!)]. Thus my hope that the show in Berlin will be much better than the thing presented in Paris.

Neues Museum in Berlin

OK, I decided not to blog about the appalling production of Lucia di Lammermoor at Deutsche Oper last Saturday which went down the drain in spite of Eglise Gutierrez [a petite girl with too small a voice] and Roberto Alagna [who looked like a pedophile next to Eglise]. Plus, on the same night at Komische there was that new production of Don Pasquale that I so wanted to see, but since I had a ticket for Lucia, what could I do?! I guess I would've been be less pi*ed if Diana Damrau was singing.
All, all, but you should see those sets... Dear God!!!

Nor I'd talk about Peter Seiffert who screwed up my Tristan und Isolde on Sunday [Why, oh why does he keep singing something he cannot?] He already ruined the whole series of Tristan in Liceu last January, and now the series continues  in Berlin. René and Waltraud clearly saved the best for the Festtage, and just wanted to get it over with... Only Ekaterina Gubanova and Saint Barenboim made me not regret to have spent the operatic weekend in Berlin.  It happens...