Sequentia perform the Rheingold from Edda

Edda - The Rheingold Curse, Cité de la Musique - Paris, September 24 2010

Benjamin Bagby ..... voice, lyre

Agnethe Christensen ..... voice (Brynhild), drum

Lena Susanne Norin ..... voice (Gudrun)

Elizabeth Gaver ..... fiddle

Norbert Rodenkirchen ..... flutes, lyre

Passion by Dusapin

Passion, Théâtre des Champs Elysées - Paris, Octobre 6 2010

Pascal Dusapin and Sacha Waltz

Franck Ollu ..... conductor

Sasha Waltz .... director & choreographer

Barbara Hannigan Lei

Georg Nigl Lui

Sasha Waltz & Guests

Vocalconsort Berlin

Ensemble Modern

October at Cité de la Musique

October, film-concert, Cité de la Musique, October 7 2010

 

October: Ten Days That Shook the World 

[Октябрь (Десять дней, которые потрясли мир)] by Sergei Eisenstein

Music by Dmitri Shostakovich

Orchestre National d'Île de France

Dmitry Yablonsky .... conductor

Photo Gallery from Warlikowski's Macbeth

To all the folks who made a trip to Brussels to see the most unforgettable production of Macbeth at La Monnaie/De Munt last June, produced by a duo Krzysztof Warlikowski and Małgorzata Szcześniak, with a stunning scenic and vocal performance of all the cast members, and with a particularly inspired orchestra and chorus under the baton of maestro Paul Daniel: Denis Guéguin has set a website with a bunch of photo galleries from this show

http://macbethopera.tumblr.com

You're welcome! I loved it too ;)

To all of you who didn't see the show, these photos might be interesting too.
In addition Andrew Richards writes on his blog about a somewhat painful but passionate process of creating this award winning show (see here, here, here, here
and especially here ).

Carmen in Barcelona

Carmen, Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona, September 30 2010

Director ..... Calixto Bieito

Conductor ..... Marc Piollet

Carmen ..... Jossie Pérez

Don José ..... Brandon Jovanovich

Micaela ..... Maria Bayo

Escamillo ..... Jean-François Lapointe

Frasquita ..... Eliana Bayón

Mercédès ..... Itxaro Mentxaka

Le Dancaire ..... Marc Canturri

Le Remendado ..... Francisco Vas

Moralès ..... Alex Sanmarti

Zuñiga ..... Josep Ribot

Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu

La Prima of Metanoia in Berlin, tonight on Arte

The first new production at Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin is opening tonight: Metanoia is a world premiere, composed by Jens Joneleit.  Christoph Schlingensief [director of the (in)famous Parsifal in Bayreuth 2004] was supposed to direct the show but he unfortunately died of lung cancer in August this year (at the age of 49!)...

The show is therefore dedicated to the memory of Christoph Schlingensief. The production team decided not to name a new director, but decided to leave it nameless but they followed the Schlingensief's notes  about the way he envisaged the staging.

Annette Dasch in Metanoia at DSO Berlin (what about the hideous costumes?!) [Photo: © Lucie Jansch]

The underlying inspiration for this work is Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Metanoia is consisted of 5 scenes, each "exploring the interaction among individuals, society and art" [whatever that really means.]

Daniel Barenboim will conduct and the soloists will be Annette Dasch, Daniel Schmutzhard, Graham Clark, Alfred Reiter and Anna Prohaska.

Tonight [Sunday, October 3], right after the premiere at DSO Berlin, the world's coolest TV [Arte, of course] will broadcast the show. Set your DVR - Arte at 22:25 (cet) for 90 minutes of Metanoia!

Best of 2009-2010: Macbeth in Brussels, Stefan Herheim, and Theater Basel -- says Opernwelt and we agree

Opernwelt magazine polled the critics from German speaking countries and published their Best of 2009-2010 list:

• Best opera production: Macbeth at La Monnaie in Bussels [dir Krzysztof Warlikowski, cond Paul Daniel] Sets & costumes: Małgorzata Szcześniak, Cast: Scott Hendricks, Iano Tamar, Carlo Colombara, Andrew Richards, Benjamin Bernheim
• Best director: Stefan Herheim for Der Rosenkavalier at Staatsoper Stuttgart
• Best Opera House: Theater Basel  and its director Dietmar Schwarz

and more...

Nuovi allestimenti in Europa - Ottobre 2010

Out of many new European opera productions to be premiered in October, I believe the most promising 5 should be:

• Oct 15: DKT Copenhagen - Lulu [dir Stefan Herheim, cond Michael Boder] Cast: Sine Bundgaard, Randi Stene, Peter Lodahl, Johan Reuter, Sten Byriel, Johnny van Hal
• Oct 23: BSO Munich - Rusalka [dir Martin Kusej, cond Tomas Hanus] Cast: Klaus Florian Vogt, Kristine Opolais, Nadia Krasteva, Günther Groissböck...
• Oct 31: Oper Frankfurt - Die Walküre [dir Vera Nemirova, cond Sebastian Weigle] Cast: Eva-Maria Westbroek, Susan Bullock, Terje Stensvold...
• Oct 17: Staatsoper Wien - Cardillac [dir Sven-Eric Bechtolf, cond Franz Welser-Möst] Cast: Juha Uusitalo, Juliane Banse, Herbert Lippert
• Oct 17: Hamburgische Staatsoper - Die Götterdämmerung [dir Claus Guth, cond Simone Young] Cast: Christian Franz,Deborah Polaski, John Tomlinson, Petra Lang etc
   

New Herheim project with Heike Scheele designing the sets will be premiered in Copenhagen, but you can also catch the same show in Oslo in February 2011. It will be interesting to see what will Martin Kusej do to Rusalka in Munich, although the focus will most probably be on Vera Nemirova who received great review for her Rheingold in Frankfurt, and is now to unveil her take on  Die Walküre. Claus Guth is finishing his Ring Cycle in Hamburg which should be interesting. I take the risk and predict that Cardilac in Vienna might be a great surprise of October.

Not to forget the superb Don Giovanni [dir Tcherniakov] and Die Passagierin [dir David Pountney] that will be premiered in Moscow and in Warsaw respectively, both unveiled in July at the Festivals in Aix and Bregenz resp, or Die Fledermaus in Stuttgart, Passion in Paris, Roméo in Amsterdam, Boris in Turin, Orlando in Lille... and many other highly promising shows listed below [in chro.order]...

October... and the trees are stripped bare

Classical October in Paris looks busy [I guess I should reiterate that the following is my selection of events (classical music and opera) to see in Paris.]

New Komischer Meistersinger

Before claiming that Bieito's Aida [currently running at Theater Basel] is one of the 5 best operatic events this year*, we should check at least 5-6 new productions still to be unveiled this year, one of them being new Meistersinger von Nürnberg which opened the 2010-2011 season at Komische Oper Berlin last Sunday.

Andreas Homoki directed the show, Patrick Lange conducts, while in the cast you find Marco Jentzsch (Walther),  Tómas Tómasson (Sachs), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Pogner), Tom Erik Lie (Beckmesser), Ina Kringelborn (Eva) etc.

From Act-3 of the new Meistersinger directed by Andreas Homoki [© Komische Oper Berlin]

You probably already understood that Komische is one of my 5 favorite theaters in Europe so I obviously wish I could encourage you to go and see one of the eight remaining shows. [I will of course see it, but in November or December.]

Trailer attached below.

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*I'm still to post a short review on that show. 
In addition to his Aida, I saw the "new" Bieito's Carmen at Liceu in Barcelona yesterday.  Both reviews - tomorrow.

More Verdi on TV

Are you watching Aida at the Rhine right now on this link?

FYI Arte TV will broadcast tomorrow, October 2, at 20:40 (cet), a new production of Rigoletto from  Teatro La Fenice. Directed by Daniele Abbado, the show will be conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and the cast includes Désirée Rancatore, Eric Cutler, Roberto Frontali, among others.

More pics and video excerpts can be found on Désirée Rancatore's blog.

Mahagonny dels Baus on your TV, live from Madrid

I just learned that la prima of the first new production at Teatro Real since Gérard Mortier became its artistic director, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, will be live broadcast to many cinemas worldwide, and also on your Mezzo-TV (cable, ADSL) -- tomorrow, September 30 at 8 p.m. (CET).

This should be interesting because it's new, because La Fura dels Baus sign this show, the cast is good: Jane Henschel, Willard White, Measha Bruggergosman, Michael König, Donald Kaasch... and Pablo Heras-Casado (!) will conduct.

Trailer attached below.... [You're welcome! ;)]

Opéra français

While Opéra National de Paris scheduled ZERO operas in French for its entire 2010-2011 season (sic!), De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam opened its new season with a new production of Les Vêpres siciliennes, directed by Christof Loy [with lots of chairs and a theatrical language focused on gestures and interactions among characters - pics here]. Neither the FT reviewer nor Fomalhaut-blogger seem to have liked the show but both are quite complimentary about its musical quality. 

ENO opened its season by a new production of Faust, co-produced with The Met, and directed by Des McAnuff.  FT slashed it, The Independent disliked its Broadway style but loved the singers, and The Telegraph was pretty positive about everything. ENO proposes various discounts for the remaining shows (c.f. here).

OOOPS!  Roberto Alagna and Béatrice Uria Monzon as Don José and Carmen in Barcelona (©elpais.com)

Calixto Bieito's production of Carmen opened the season 2010-2011 in Barcelona a couple of days ago. The premiere was apparently electrifying with only a few boos for Calixto, however drowned in loads of Bravo's. Katharina Wagner was at the premiere and after the show said she loved it.  Roberto Alagna was très en voix. To see him taking part in a show like this is surprising but certainly props-worthy [more pics here].  Spanish reviewers are exulted, as well as our Mei.

Yours Truly will see this production, so more on that next week...
[I owe you my take on Bieito's smashing Aida that I saw in Basel last Sunday -- a few sentences hopefully tonight] 

Trailers for all three productions are appended below.

Così fan Freiburger Barockorchester

Così fan tutte (in concert), Salle Pleyel - Paris, September 27 2010

Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Marie-Claude Chappuis, and maestro Jacobs

     René Jacobs ..... conductor

     Alexandrina Pendatchanska ..... Fiordiligi

     Marie-Claude Chappuis ..... Dorabella

     Sunhae Im ..... Despina

     Johannes Weisser ..... Guglielmo

     Magnus Staveland ..... Ferrando

     Marcos Fink ..... Don Alfonso   

    

    

      Coro Gulbenkian

         Freiburger Barockorchester

Tout en douceur

Susan Graham, Orchestre de Paris & Bertrand de Billy, Salle Pleyel, September 23  2010

Susan Graham after Poème de l'amour et de la mer

Rolando who?

You remember when Joshua Bell played almost unnoticed in one of the Metro stops in Washington DC, and made only $32 for 45 minutes of play? (here is the link to YT)

Rolando Villazon made an extra step and sang a tune from his new CD on a Paris Métro train, in front of the numerous commuters. All that happened last Monday during rush hour... and despite his star-status in Paris, Rolando was completely ignored. Here is proof:



What do you conclude from this?

Ed: Above video contains only 45 sec of full material suppressed from both WAT and DailyMotion portals.

Diva/Divo at Théâtre des Champs Elysées: We love Joyce

Les grandes voix: Joyce DiDonato, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, September 22 - 2010 

It's a great pleasure to see Joyce DiDonato back in Paris, less than 3 months after her superb Elena in Rossini's La donna del lago at Opéra Garnier and her memorable recital at Théâtre des Champs Elysées (TCE).  Joyce and Paris -- that's a love story, so I wasn't at all surprised to see TCE full with people.

In one sentence, this was a wonderful concert and my pleasure was doubled by the fact that Kazushi Ono (who I also like very much!) came with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon to accompany Joyce. We learned...

Der Rap des Nibelungen

Another exciting theater in Switzerland is Theatre Freiburg. It's very Regie-oriented with a goal to resonate more explicitly with cultural needs of the people of Freiburg. In 2009-2010 they completed their Ring des Nibelungen which received rave reviews (especially Das Rheingold and Die Walküre). This season they will run the whole cycle twice...

In parallel they organized Der Rap des Nibelungen, to increase their interaction with younger audience and introduce them adiabatically to the Wagner's masterpiece. To that end they unified theater groups of youngsters from Freiburg and a rap-band from Berlin and produced a Ring that proved to be success. It was premiered last June and several shows were performed at the main theater in front of the packed house.  Here is a collage of the photos taken during the show:

Americanized story of Armide in Gennevilliers

Armide, Théâtre de Gennevilliers September 21 2010

Pascal Rambert, Antoine Plante, Zachary Wilder, Isabelle Cals,  Lauren Snouffer, Sarah Mesko and Sumner Thompson

Director ..... Pascal Rambert
Conductor ..... Antoine Plante

Armide ..... Isabelle Cals
Renaud ..... Zachary Wilder
Hidraut/Haine ..... Sumner Thompson

Phénice/Glorie ..... Lauren Snouffer
Sidonie/Sagesse ..... Sarah Mesko

Mercury Baroque - Houston, TX

Fidelio at the Komische Oper in Berlin: Is Benedikt von Peter next 'Stefan Herheim'?

Fidelio, Komische Oper Berlin, May 20 2010

 Conductor  Martin Hoff
 Director  Benedikt von Peter

 Don Fernando  Mirko Janiska
 Don Pizarro   Anton Keremidtchiev
 Florestan   Will Hartmann
 Leonore   Caroline Melzer
 Rocco  Tilmann Rönnebeck
 Marzelline  Karen Rettinghaus
 Jaquino  Thomas Ebenstein

Have 5 minutes?!

Portrait of Richard Wagner - Auguste Renoir, 1882  (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Listen to Bryn Terfel's unearthly 'O du, mein holder Abendstern' from Tannhäuser:

Onegin in Paris: Incredible Mr.Petrenko!

Eugene Onegin, Opéra Bastille, September 17 2010

Vasily Petrenko ..... Conductor
Willy Decker ..... Stage director

Nadine Denize ..... Larina
Olga Guryakova ..... Tatyana
Alisa Kolosova ..... Olga
Nona Javakhidze ..... Filippyevna
Ludovic Tézier ..... Eugene Onegin
Joseph Kaiser ..... Lensky
Gleb Nikolsky ..... Prince Gremin 
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt ..... Triquet
Ugo Rabec ..... Zaretsky

Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Bonne chance maestro Järvi!

Paavo Järvi is a very good conductor who these days officially became the new music director of Orchestre de Paris. The inaugural concert at Pleyel will take place tonight [Wednesday, Sept. 15 @ 8 p.m. (CET)]. I have a ticket and I'll go but you (all of you!) can come with me too --if you want-- thanks to Arte Live Web. You can either follow this link or see the concert tonight in a video embedded below [at the end of this entry].

The program is available here.
Järvi evidently opted to present himself with a Nordic sound of Jean Sibelius [close to his native Estonia], and combine it with a fitting French sound which appears to be La Péri by Paul Dukas.
Two Finnish soloists will be singing: Soile Isokoski and our fave Juha Uusitalo.

Paavo Järvi

Orchestre de Paris is a strange bunch: they are like a treasury of top class musicians, but together they rarely perform at the level you'd expect them to. Last time I listened them reaching the level of any Top-10 world orchestra was at Pleyel, in a performance of the Britten's War Requiem, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. That was a good illustration that they could be great and that a chemistry between them and their previous director, Christoph Eschenbach was lacking. Let's hope Järvi will be able to make the best of the orchestra's potential and help them regain the Top-10 level they deserve. 
Good luck maestro!

Bieito's Aida @ Theater Basel - trailer

Bieito's Aida opens tonight at Theater Basel

For all of us who unfortunately cannot go and see the new  Calixto Bieito's show in Basle, the pics taken during the final dress rehearsal come as a mini-consolation (see below).

Note that there will be 19 shows  running until the end of 2010, so if you can squeeze in a trip to Basle...

Michelle De Young --Amneris in this production-- on her website writes:

Working with Calixto is extreme, exhausting and exhilarating. I have definitely had my comfort zones pushed, and enjoy it! It's very violent and sexual. I have fallen in love with both the character and the sing of Amneris.

More pics below

October 1st: Aida at the Rhine

We know that Calixto Bieito will direct new Aida at Theater Basel. Although Aida is my least favorite opera by Verdi, I wish I could see it (1) because of Calixto, and (2) because that theater is one of the most exciting places (artistically) in Europe right now.

If you don't care much about Calixto or Theater Basel, you might still be interested to know that the same cast will participate in a live TV-event  Aida at the Rhine, organized by the Swiss SF1.

This is the third in the series of projects, following La Traviata at Zurich Main Station in 2008 and La Bohème in the Suburbs of Bern in 2009.  Aida at the Rhine will be live broadcast from Basle on October 1st 2010 at 8 p.m. , and the live video stream will be available on this link.

This peculiar show will be directed by Georges Delnon, Gabriel Feltz will conduct and the cast includes: Angeles Blancas - Aida, Michelle de Young - Amneris, Sergei Khomov - Radames,  Daniel Golossov - Ramfis. 

La meglio gioventù

In the last concert of this year's Festival in Lucerne, Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker  in a performance of works by Rossini, Orbón, Bernstein and Ravel. Detailed program can be found here, and you [and you, and you, and you, ... ;)] will be able to see it live, thanks to Medici.tv who will broadcast the concert on Saturday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. (CET)

It's free but you have to register at medici.tv...

Italiana at Garnier: Ridiculous ≠ Funny

L'italiana in Algeri, Opéra Garnier, September 11 2010

Oncioiu, Novaro, Azzaretti, Corbelli, DiStefano (chorus master), Benini, Genaux, Serban, Brownlee, Vinco

Maurizio Benini ..... Conductor
Andrei Serban ..... Stage director

Marco Vinco ..... Mustafà
Jaël Azzaretti ..... Elvira
Cornelia Oncioiu ..... Zulma
Riccardo Novaro ..... Haly
Lawrence Brownlee ..... Lindoro
Vivica Genaux ..... Isabella
Alessandro Corbelli ..... Taddeo

Orchestre et Choeur de l’Opéra national de Paris

The Dutchman took off at Opéra Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 9 2010

Angel on the top of the Bastille obelisk seen from Opéra Bastille 

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

New opera productions in Europe - September 2010

There is quite a number of new productions to be presented in Europe during September, of which I expect the most from the following four:

• Aida at Theater Basel [dir Calixto Bieito, cnd Maurizio Barbacini] - Sept 14
• Semele at Theater and der Wien [dir Robert Carsen, cnd William Christie] - Sept 15
• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Komische Oper Berlin [dir Andreas Homoki, cnd Patrick Lange] - Sept 25
• Carmen at Liceu Barcelona [dir Calixto Bieito, cnd Marc Piolet] - Sept 27
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Teatro Real Madrid [dir La Fura dels Baus, cnd Pablo Heras-Casado] - Sept 30

Other potentially exciting new productions...

The time is up

Since we are in The Flying Dutchman mood, I think it is the right moment to draw your attention to  a brilliant young bass-baritone, Ryan McKinny, who won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at this year's Operalia for his performance of "Die Frist ist um"(The time is up)

YT video appended below. Enjoy!

Next Mammoth TV-Opera Project: Les contes de Hoffmann in 3D

And so the world saw Rigoletto from Mantua last weekend. To me it was yet another proof that opera cannot be adapted to look like a TV-show or a movie.  Opera belongs to theaters -- that's where the genuine magic happens, and the best approximation to that experience are the DVD recordings of the shows presented in theaters.

Photo taken at Stohrer (pastry shop in the Montorgueil street in Paris)

The attempts (futile?)  to convert opera and present it like a movie will continue. We learn that the next big TV-project is Les contes de Hoffmann. Good news is that the adaptation will not be directed by an opera newbie, but by Robert Carsen. Less good news is that Carsen has no experience in directing movies.

It will be filmed in HD and in 3D, in 4 cities: Paris, Venice, Prague, and Milan. The project is a collaboration of Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Prague Estates Theatre, and Teatro La Fenice, and the shooting will start in 2012, involving more than 1000 walk-ons, 50 dancers, large chorus and orchestra. The cast is not fixed yet.

Good luck with that!

Senta stuck at Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 6th 2010

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

Paris Opera to release Mireille on DVD and to live TV-broadcast 3 operas in 2010-2011

The Paris Opera magazine "En Scène!" informs that two productions presented last year are to be released on DVD this month, namely the appalling production of Mireille [Sept 23]*, and Jacquot's  Werther with Kaufmann, Koch et al. [Sept 17].

"En Scène!" also informs us that, during the current season, France Télévision will live broadcast the following three operas:

• Le Nozze di Figaro , dir Giorgio Strehler,  with Tézier, Frittoli, Syurina, Pisaroni, Deshayes [30 years old production]
• Giulio Cesare, dir Laurent Pelly, with Zazzo, Dessay, Leonard, Abrahamyan, Dumaux, Berg, Visse [new production!]
• Francesca da Rimini, dir Giancarlo Del Monaco, with Vassileva, Alagna, Smilek et al. [a year after his horrid Andrea Chénier in Paris, Del Monaco is back with this show premiered in Zurich in 2007]

Precise dates are not communicated. Will keep you posted.
__________________
* Incidentally,  I see that ROH too rushed to release its worst 2009-2010 production on DVD: The Tsarina's Slippers. :)

The best Wagnerian conductor of our time?

You may have already realized that I'm not into old recordings and stuff remastered beyond recognition. To me the audio recordings are there like old photos -- to bring back the memories of the most memorable shows I've seen.

With Wagner's operas the story is a little different.  Not that I indulge myself into listening to hundreds of hours of old recordings, but because it is interesting to figure out the evolution of styles and approaches to conducting this music over the past 5-6 decades. Once you do that exercise you soon realize the difficulties today's conductors conducting Wagner's music encounter in preparing their performance: they should make their sound 'right' yet refreshing, deliver a distinguishable sound with peculiar timings, and display a profound understanding of the score.

Of all the active conductors, Daniel Barenboim comes on the top. He was the only one able to make that special moment to happen to me, when music almost materializes and detaches from the orchestra. It happens with his Staatskapelle and only sometimes, but when it happens it's the sound that marks you for life.  All Wagner operas conducted by Barenboim are special to me, but his Tristan is likely to remain unbeatable for a long-long time.

Second best to me is Hartmut Haenchen. This year I listened to his Flying Dutchman in Amsterdam and it was magnificent. His Parsifal in Paris --a couple of years ago-- remains an unforgettable musical shock. His Ring, that you can find on DVD, is brilliant as well.

Then comes Christian Thielemann, whose Ring is really special. His Parsifal was interesting too but  not as brilliant as Haenchen's, or even Gatti's or Honeck's.