One more Christmas gift to traditionalists: La Forza del Destino from Paris

I said I would not blog about the sad-sad production of La Forza del Destino, recently premiered at the Paris Opera, but since the video-links of the show appeared and the run of this appalling production is over, I'll just put in my two sentences and let you enjoy or "enjoy" this thing.

Curtain calls after the show on November 17 2011 at Opéra Bastille: Vladimir Stoyanov, Philippe Jordan, Patrick Marie Aubert, Violeta Urmana, Zoran Todorovich, Kwangchul Youn, Nadia Krasteva [the best soloist, Nicola Alaimo, not in the photo]

In all honesty, I went to see this show hoping it would change my too strong opinion about this opera --one of the dumbest operas of all times-- and that I'd find a way to convince myself that, musically, this opera was indeed one of the greatest works done by Giuseppe, as the numerous Verdi aficionados often suggest.

While I knew nothing would change the incongruities of the libretto, and that this kind of staging would only emphasize them, I thought the performers would make this giant snoozer miraculously enjoyable.  Hélas, hélas!

Kwangchul Youn was obviously fantastic and Nicola Alaimo excellent, but all in all I spent 5 very long hours [2 intermissions] fighting the snooze-balloons, survived them all, only to hear "Pace, pace mio Dio!" and say -- Never Again!

Embellish Your Winter Evenings

Here is what you can see/listen for free and heat up these last 10 days of December 2010:

Quatuor Ebène, Natalie Dessay, Stacey Kent, Luz Casal

Quatuor Ebène usually end their concerts with something jazzy as an encore, and those improvisations became very popular with fans -- which is why they recently released a CD called Fiction with special appearances of Natalie Dessay [who sings in her normal voice], Stacey Kent, and Luz Casal.

Tomorrow, November 15 @ 20:00 (cet) at Folies Bergère in Paris all these artists will perform with Yours Truly in the audience. Good news is that all of you guys can see and listen to the same concert thanks to the medici.tv portal who will provide  live-webcast on this link. It's free but you have to register (if you didn't already).

Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne

Tonight, July 23 at 18:00 (Paris time) via Medici TV we can all see --live from Glyndebourne-- new Don Giovanni, directed by Jonathan Kent. I loved his production of The Fairy Queen and hope this Don Giovanni is fine too. It is unfortunate that this broadcast comes less than 3 weeks after we saw the finest Don Giovanni ever, i.e. the one by Dmitrii Tcherniakov presented at the festival in Aix-en-Province. We will try and stay unbiased as much as possible ;)

From Jonathan Kent's production of Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne 2010

Musically it should be very good as Vladimir Jurowski will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the cast includes: Anna Samuil (brilliant Donna Anna in Verbier last year!), Gerald Finley (always good!), Luca Pisaroni (is Luca the most talented singer of his generation?), Kate Royal, Anna Virovlansky, Guido Loconsolo, William Burden, and Alastair Miles.

Ed:  Tcherniakov's production is a century ahead from this half-baked bufoonery by Kent. I think the best is to pretend this actually never happened and move on (Anna, Luca, and Gerald were very good though)

Appended are two videos about the production...

Free stuff

• Franco-German TV Arte, via Arte Live Web, offers to all the viewers worldwide:
  
  
  
  1. Two concerts performed by Orchestre de Paris and Ensemble intercontemporain at Pleyel in Paris and conducted by Pierre Boulez, are available here and here. Always reliable --even if sometimes opinionated ;) -- fellow blogger Musica sola, who's a big fan of Boulez, wasn't happy about the Orchestre de Paris...
  2. Paavo Järvi who'll become the artistic director of Orchestre de Paris --and we're very looking forward to that change!-- made a great impression with (his) Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Symphony #6 by Bruckner, 2 weeks ago in Frankfurt. Arte filmed it and the full video recording is available here.
  3. Also recently in the Frauenkirche of Dresden took place a concert/Hommage to Schumann by Staatskapelle Dresden, with Daniel Harding conducting. Full video of that concert is avalable here
  4. If a funny-ish one-man-show in French about Carmen might interest you, then you may wish to see Olivier Martin-Salvan in his show O Carmen, recently recorded at the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris. If so, here is your link.
• Medici tv proposes --also for free-- the opening concert of Festival St.Denis: Mass by Schubert and Requiem by Cherubini, performed by the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Riccardo Muti and with classy soloists: Topi Lehtipuu, Luca Pisaroni and Elin Rombo. Check out here
• I updated the programs for 2010-2011 in European opera houses.