"The merry widow" - Grahamless and joyless

Die lustige Witwe/La veuve joyeuse, Opéra Garnier in Paris, March 2 2012

Asher Fisch    ..... Conductor
Jorge Lavelli ..... Director

Harald Serafin  .....  Baron Mirko Zeta
Ana Maria Labin  ..... Valencienne
Bo Skovhus  ..... Graf Danilo

Susan Graham Noëmi Nadelmann ..... Hanna Glawari
Daniel Behle  ..... Camille de Rosillon
Edwin Crossley-Mercer  .....  Vicomte Cascada
François Piolino  ..... Raoul de Saint-Brioche
Francis Bouyer  ..... Bogdanowitsch
Claudia Galli  ..... Sylviane
Francis Dudziak  ..... Kromow
Andrea Hill  ..... Olga
Fabrice Dalis  ..... Pritschitsch
Michèle Lagrange  ..... Praskowia
Franz Mazura .....  Njegus

Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Gift to Bartók fans

The other day I blogged about the Bluebeard Castle, one of the most fascinating of all the operas.
I said that the Philharmonia was magnificent, even if Iván Fischer and  Budapest Festival Orchestra [BFO] remain unsurpassed as far as the music by Bartók is concerned.
Bartók is their home specialty, and they really bring it to a new level of skills and interpretation.

If you get a chance to listen to their live performance (Bartók or anything else), it's not to be missed.

I thought I'd share two `Bartóky' videos in this post that I found particularly interesting:

La Clemenza di Tito in Paris: Talented Mr. Decker

La Clemenza di Tito (La clémence de Titus), Opéra Garnier in Paris, September 12 2011

Willy Decker ..... Director
Adam Fischer ..... Conductor

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Tito
Hibla Gerzmava ..... Vitellia
Stéphanie d'Oustrac ..... Sesto
Allyson McHardy ..... Annio
Amel Brahim-Djelloul ..... Servilia
Balint Szabo ..... Publio


Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris

Fallen Masks on the Rhine: David McVicar completes his Ring in Strasbourg

Götterdämmerung, Opéra National du Rhin (ONR) in Strasbourg, February 25 2011

The Mask of Erda -- in front of the ONR in Strasbourg

Director ..... David McVicar

Conductor ..... Marko Letonja

Siegfried ..... Lance Ryan

Hagen ..... Daniel Sumegi

Gunther ..... Robert Bork

Alberich ..... Oleg Bryjak

Brünnhilde ..... Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet

Gutrune ..... Nancy Weissbach

Waltraute ..... Hanne Fischer

First Norn ..... Sara Fulgoni

Second Norn ..... Hanne Fischer

Third Norn ..... Nancy Weissbach

Woglinde ..... Anaïs Mahikian

Wellgunde ..... Kimy McLaren

Flosshilde ..... Carolina Bruck-Santos

Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg

Chorus of l'Opéra national du Rhin

Sensational Budapest Festival Orchestra at Pleyel

I listened to various orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer, but this was my first time listening to him conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Yes, it is a completely different experience and the memories from that Saturday, January 9 2010, will stay with me for quite some time.

You could feel a symbiosis of the conductor and his orchestra, a global technical prowess mixed with joy of all the musicians - the joy to play and share that moment in which the most sublime music is being produced. We shared that unique moment with them too, for which I am grateful to this  orchestra, its astounding conductor, and -of course- to Pleyel for making this all possible.

On the program: Richard Wagner - Siegfried Idyll, Wesendonck Lieder (with our fave Petra Lang), Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka.