Arte Live Web treated us royally this year and we could see live broadcast of three out of five operas created for the
Festival in Aix this year.
The fact that the fourth opera presented at this year's festival --Gluck's
Alceste, directed by
Christof Loy-- won't be TV broadcast or webcast come like comes like
"bad news".
Freiburger Barockorchester is conducted by maestro
Ivor Bolton, and always brilliant
Véronique Gens and an excellent Canadian tenor
Joseph Kaiser are in the cast. The reviews are quite OK.
You could tell the critique became more careful when reviewing Christof Loy's work, as if they wouldn't want to repeat the last year's half-embarrassment when they collectively thrashed his Tristan in London, andonly a couple of months later the very same production picked up the Best New Opera Production Award for 2009 in the UK. ;)
A scene from Christof Loy's Alceste presented in Aix: Véronique Gens and Joseph Kaiser
One thing is sure, everyone (critique, fans, colleagues...) is full of praise for Véronique Gens. The title role is apparently very hard on a soprano and it appears that the current state of her voice is perfectly suitable for Alceste. So, no TV broadcast, nor webcast planned -- I bet there will be a DVD out before the end of the year...
I found only one short video about Alceste on the site of France3, which is appended below.
