Il Trovatore premiered in Brussels: Tcherniakov hits a big show again, Scott Hendricks too

Il Trovatore, La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels, June 10 2012

Director ..... Dmitri Tcherniakov

Music direction ..... Marc Minkowski

Il Conte di Luna ..... Scott Hendricks

Manrico ..... Misha Didyk

Azucena ..... Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo

Leonora ..... Marina Poplavskaya

Ferrando ..... Giovanni Furlanetto

La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

From La Monnaie/De Munt with love: Excellent Guy Joosten production of Salomé

Guy Joosten, together with Ivo van Hove and Guy Cassiers, is one of those Flemish miracles of the 90's-00's who possess talent and audacity, style and intelligence to elevate opera shows to the level of significant theatrical events. His Elektra at La Monnaie/De Munt was highly appreciated, but I particularly liked his Salomé, that I was able to see a few years back, when it was premiered at Liceu in Barcelona.

Dir- Guy Joosten, cnd- Carlo Rizzi; cast Chris Merritt (Herodes), Doris Soffel (Herodias), Amanda Echalaz (Salomé), Scott Hendricks (Jochanaan), Gordon Gietz(Narraboth)...

Warlikowski moment from La Monnaie

I already mentioned the Krzysztof Warlikowski's production of Macbeth as the best show I've seen this year.
(a) Because it was the best any theater can offer you today (opera or non-opera).
(b) Because the orchestra was perfect and Paul Daniel was extrafreakingordinary.
(c) Because of the dream-cast in which, thanks to Warlikowski, each and every member surpassed him/herself and delivered more than just his/her best singing. Especially Scott Hendricks' singing and acting skills were out of this world!
The show took place at La Monnaie in Brussels, the impeccable acoustics of which made the whole experience unforgettable. I discussed it already here and here...

A reader (many thanks to AN!) pointed out to me that two videos from this production appeared on YT. First video is in fact a photo-gallery that will please all of you who saw the show, because it brings back a glimpse of that rare moment in opera in which everything seems to be so perfect, so deeply human(izing)... Enjoy!




Second video is Come dal ciel precipita, superbly sung by Carlo Colombara. Andrew Richards is the author of this video (which explains the angle of shooting ;) ). Too bad there is no video of his [Richards'] aria O figli miei. 

Macbeth in Brussels: The best Warlikowski so far?

Macbeth, La Monnaie/De Munt, June 13 2010

Krzysztof Warlikowski

music direction  Paul Daniel 
direction  Krzysztof Warlikowski 
set design and costumes  Małgorzata Szcześniak 

Macbeth         Scott Hendricks 
Lady Macbeth    Iano Tamar
 Banco        Carlo Colombara
 Macduff     Andrew Richards 
Malcolm        Benjamin Bernheim 
Dama di Lady Macbeth     Janny Zomer 
Servo / Medico / Araldo     Justin Hopkins 
Sicario      Gerard Lavalle 
Apparizione     Jacques Does

La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra & Chorus