The Power of Music: oskimbangu.org

Classical music is in Central Africa too.

Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste has been created from scratch, on a huge enthusiasm and perseverance by Armand Diangienda, and with a touching devotion of the locals to keep their orchestra alive.

Recently a German documentary Kinshasa Symphony attracted the attention of the worldwide press to this phenomenon.  60 minutes dedicated a whole segment to this gem (enjoy video attached below).

Benjamin Schad - winner of the 2012 Götz Friedrich Award

In honor to Götz Friedrich --the man who was the most inventive opera director during an era stretching from the 1960 to well in the 90's--  the Prize carrying his name is been attributed every year since 2000 to a young, talented, inventive opera director for his/her recent work.

For example, Sebastian Baumgarten won it in 2001 for his production of Tosca presented in Kassel (2000-2001), Stefan Herheim got one for his staging of I Puritani  at the Aalto Theater in Essen (2002-2003). Benedikt von Peter was awarded for Chief Joseph presented at Theater Heidelberg (2006-2007). Last among the better known directors to have won this prize is Johannes Erath -- for his Cendrillon given at the Staadttheater Bern (2007-2008).

Not every winner had a brilliant career after the Götz Friedrich Prize, but many did, and I believe this is a good radar for detecting brilliant young talents. It will be interesting to see what the last two winners will do in the future, two girls (!), Eva-Maria Höckmayr and Tabea Kranefoed.

This year's winner is Benjamin Schad for his production of The Turn of the Screw premiered on  February 2011 at the Trinity Church in Cologne.

Opulent Operatic Spring on DVD

This Spring many new DVD's are released with several truly excellent productions deserving to be a part of your collection.  A partial list with trailers attached below:

Lohengrin in Karlsruhe SC

Lohengrin, Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, April 1st 2012

Renatus Meszar, Susan Anthony, Heidi Melton,"Duke Gottfried", Lance Ryan, Jaco Venter

Director ..... Reinhild Hoffmann

Conductor ..... Justin Brown

Heinrich der Vogler    ..... Renatus Meszar

Lohengrin ..... Lance Ryan

Elsa von Brabant ..... Heidi Melton

Friedrich von Telramund    ..... Jaco Venter

Ortrud .....     Susan Anthony

Der Heerrufer des Königs ..... Seung-Gi Jung

Erster Edelknabe ..... Masami Sato

Zweiter Edelknabe ..... Meike Etzold

Dritter Edelknabe ..... Ulrike Gruber

Vierter Edelknabe ..... Unzu Lee-Park

Erster Brabantischer Edler ..... Doru Cepreaga

Zweiter Brabantischer Edler ..... Peter Herrmann

Dritter Brabantischer Edler    ..... Marcelo Angulo

Vierter Brabantischer Edler    ..... Alexander Huck

100 years of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées

TCE will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, and the expectations for the season 2012-2013 were very high. They unveiled their program last night that you can browse on this link which in addition to numerous super-promising concerts, recitals and what not... contains  also a very good operatic program:

6 scenic operas

October 2012: Médée (by Charpentier) [dir- Pierre Audi, cnd- Emmanuelle Haïm, cast: Michèle Losier, Stéphane Degout, Anders Dahlin, Sophie Karthäuser, Laurent Naouri...]

November 2012: Medea (by Dusapin) [dir- Sasha Waltz, cnd- Marcus Creed, cast: Caroline Stein. Thomas Lehmann, Laura Erceg-Simon... Vocalconsort Berlin, Sasha Waltz & Guests]

December 2012: Médée (by Cherubini) [dir- Krzysztof Warlikowski, cnd- Christophe Rousset, cast: Nadja Michael, John Tessier, Vincent Le Texier, Varduhi Abrahamyan...]

February 2013: La Favoritae [dir- Rita de Letteriis, cnd- Paolo Arivabeni, cast: Alooce Coote. Ludovic Tézier, Celso Albelo. Giacomo Prestia, Loïc Felox, Judith Gauthier]

April 2013: Don Giovanni [dir- Stéphane Braunschweig, cnd- Jérémie Rhorer, cast: Markus Werba, Miah Persson, Daniel Behle, Myrto Papatanasiu, Robert Gleadow, Nahuel Di Pierro, Serena Malfi, Steven Humes]

and 14 operas in concert (with many rarities):

Norwegian Sensibility

Leif Ove Andsnes, Théâtre des Champs Élysées (TCE), March 26 2012

An Inconvenient Parsifal: From Opera de Lyon 2012 to The Metropolitan Opera in New York 2013

Parsifal, Opéra National de Lyon, March 25 2012

François Girard ..... Director
Kazushi Ono ..... Conductor

Nikolai Schukoff ..... Parsifal
Elena Zhidkova ..... Kundry
Gerd Grochowski ..... Amfortas
Georg Zeppenfeld ..... Gurnemanz
Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester ..... Klingsor
Kurt Gysen ..... Titurel
Tehmine Yeghiazaryan ..... Flowermaiden 1
Ivi Karnezi ..... Flowermaiden 2
Katharina von Bülow ..... Esquire 2 / Flowermaiden 3
Heather Newhouse ..... Esquires 1 / Flowermaiden 4
Sonja Volten ..... Flowermaiden 5
Ulrike Helzel ..... Une voix / Flowermaiden 6
Daniel Kluge ..... Grail Knight 1
Lukas Schmid ..... Grail Knight 2
Olesiy Palchykov ..... Esquires 4
Pascal Pittie ..... Esquires 3


Orchestre, Chœurs et Maîtrise de l'Opéra de Lyon

At least 5 superb shows to see for free on the Internet

This never replaces the experience of sparkling creativity that you might feel at La Monnaie opera in Brussels, for example, but it can be a good cultural complement to the (unsatisfactory?) offer at your local opera house.

Think to contribute, if you can, and subscribe to Medici TV for at least a month. They make many videos of the top quality shows available for us and for all the viewers worldwide and they need subscribers...


Below is the list of 6 brilliant shows with links (well the first on the list is not great but there are too many flashy names to ignore it)

Orlando Paladino-San: Too busy but fun

Orlando Paladino, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, March 19 2012

Jean-Christophe Spinosi ..... conductor

Kamel Ouali ..... director
Nicolas Buffe .... sets & costimes 

Kresimir Spicer ..... Orlando

Bruno Taddia ..... Pasquale

Anna Goryachova ..... Alcina

Ekaterina Bakanova ..... Angelica

Joan Martín-Royo ..... Rodomonte

Pascal Charbonneau .... Medoro

Raquel Camarinha ..... Eurilla

David Curry ..... Licone

Adam Palka ..... Caronte

Warlikowski News

We all love Krzysztof Warlikowski and his incomparably profound theater.

If you can get to the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris and see his Contes africains d'après Shakespeare then please do: it is really a special event.

Otherwise, you could connect to the BSO website  next Saturday, March 24 2012, at 7 p.m. (CET) and watch his --Brokeback Mountain inspired-- production of Eugene Onegin.

[dir- Krzysztof Warlikowski, cnd- Pietari Inkinen, cast: Simon Keenlyside, Pavol Breslik, Ekaterina Scherbachenko, Alisa Kolosova, Heike Grötzinger, Ain Anger, Ulrich Reß] 

Finally, the must see show 2012 should be his new production of Poppea e Nerone (based on L'incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi) that will be premiered on June 12 at the Teatro Real in Madrid. The ticket sales will open next Tuesday, June 27!

Don Giovanni in Paris: Peter Mattei, Bernard Richter, Philippe Jordan... and übertalented Michael Haneke

Don Giovanni, Opéra Bastille in Paris, March 15 2012

Bernard Richer, Véronique Gens, Peter Mattei, Philippe Jordan, Patricia Petibon, David Bizic

Michael Haneke ..... director
Philippe Jordan ..... conductor


Peter Mattei ..... Don Giovanni
Paata Burchuladze ..... Il Commendatore
Patricia Petibon ..... Donna Anna
Bernard Richter ..... Don Ottavio
Véronique Gens ..... Donna Elvira
David Bizic ..... Leporello
Nahuel Di Pierro ..... Masetto
Gaëlle Arquez ..... Zerlina

Orchestre et choeur de l'Opéra national de Paris

Ring Ring

I was planning to see two Rings this year, one of which would be one of four reruns of the London Ring next September-October. Since I always prefer a creation (or at least the productions I didn't see before) my main target was actually the Munich Ring.

Reasons (besides the obvious one -- new production)?
I liked the previous work of the director [Andreas Kriegenburg], the cast is great --similar to the one we saw recently performing in Paris, except that the whole thing most probably sounds better at the Bayerische Staatsoper because of its exceptionally good acoustics-- and  finally, because Kent Nagano handles Wagner operas in a peculiar & passionate way; his conducting is accurate and 'modern'...

From Die Walküre recently premiered at the BSO in Munich (Andreas Kriegenburg production)

And so, a year ago, when the program for the Festspiele 2012 was announced, I promptly sent out my application for the tickets hoping to benefit from their usual "first came, first served" rule... Alas, today I received a "sorry mail" and so no Munich this year!

My first spontaneous reaction obviously involved a few expletives, but on the second thought there is no need to be spoiled. This may even be a blessing in disguise. Other places in Germany propose full Ring cycles too.  Time to discover places, creative works of others... So what are the options? Frankfurt, Essen, Hannover, Freiburg and even Mannheim! See below the list with links to all operas.

Andris Nelsons and his Tristan in Paris

Tristan und Isolde in concert, Théâtre des Champs Élysées (TCE), March 11 2012

Addition to your fave list: Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons ..... Conductor

Lioba Braun ..... Isolde

Stephen Gould ..... Tristan

Matthew Best ..... King Marke

Brett Polegato ..... Kurwenal

Christianne Stotijn ..... Brangäne

Ben Johnson ..... Melot

Benedict Nelson ..... seaman

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO)

Accentus

Stefan Herheim and La Bohème

I still believe it's a shame that Stefan Herheim wasted his huge talent on this pile of obsolete cheese [no good if opera is ever to evolve away from cheese and triviality (but that's another story...)], but if there is anything that could make me endure Mimi(mimimi...) and Rodolfo for all four Acts, it's the Herheim's regie.

From the Herheim's production of La Bohème at Den Norske Opera, January-March 2012

Since the run of that new production at Den Norske Opera in Oslo is over, and the DVD is in preparation (to be released later this year), the Norwegian TV NRK2 will broadcast the show tonight [Sunday, March 11 2012] at 21:10. [Try this link or google to find another source of live stream]

Pics and more about this production can be found on wagneropera, and the trailer is given below.

A touch of Bayreuth in Paris: Gatti conducts Parsifal (2)

The concert performance of Parsifal that I blogged about a few days ago has been recorded and is now available on Arte Live Web for free (see below).

 Modulo Gurnemanz the cast is very good and somewhat peculiar [Detlef Roth, in particular, is on the lighter side of your usual Amfortas but he manages to absorb the role in his own way resulting in a refreshing interpretation], and Daniele Gatti again delivers a superb version of what I believe is the greatest opera of all times.

N.B. he conducts the entire Parsifal without the score.


Video embedded below. Enjoy!

Parsifal in Lyon (first photos)

Last night the best opera house in France --run by Serge Dorny-- premiered the long awaited production of Parsifal directed by François Girard. I did not see the show yet but will try and see it during this first run. It is a new production that was carefully prepared, rehearsed, and required lots of technical stage problems to be solved so that the premiere that was scheduled for March 6th had to be canceled (there is lots of blood and it was hard to contain it correctly and assure the safe replacement of the decor).
Now all is fine, first news say that the premiere was glitchless, Kazushi Ono [a meticulous man with a huge heart] his orchestra and the singers apparently great...
The cast indeed looks superb on the paper,

Nikolai Schukoff (Parsifal), Elena Zhidkova (Kundry), Gerd Grochowski (Amfortas),  Georg Zeppenfeld (Gurnemanz), Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester (Klingsor), Kurt Gysen (Titurel)...

 I'm especially pleased to see that our fave Georg Zeppenfeld sings one of the toughest bass roles in Lyon. I am quite confident his will be one of the history best interpretations of Gurnemanz.

This is the production that will travel to The Met next year and will be broadcast to the cinemas around the world. It will also be presented at the Canadian Opera Company.

More production photos below [©Philippe Merle] Production photos below look inviting:

Winds of change in Europe: Barrie Kosky, Dietmar Schwarz

Many things are about to change in good European opera houses. Hopefully Kasper Holten will manage to shake a little bit the temple of conservatism in London which would also leave the Paris Opera as the sole Bastion of stale conservatism among big opera houses in Europe (I know, I know... that's already the case!)

Real changes are about to happen in... in Berlin, of course! Starting from 2012-2013 Barrie Kosky will become the general director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, and Dietmar Schwarz will take the top spot of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB).

Barrie is a brilliant director who spent years in theaters and in opera producing business. Dietmar Schwarz, on the other hand, is a Mortier-kind of genius who is probably the most responsible for the fact that the Theater Basel was elected the best opera house in Europe two years in a row. His openness to the world of theater thrusted Bieto,  Hermann, Bosse, Goerden, von Peter... and many other extraordinarily talented directors to the world of opera. In doing so he never sacrificed the musical excellence of the opera house [one of the currently best singers in the world, Svetlana Ignatovich, forged her skills in Basel].
 
Kosky replaces Homoki who in turn becomes the general director of the Opernhaus in Zurich [Zurich will likely become one of the top operatic hot spots in Europe (see their new season here)]. Schwarz will replace Kirsten Harms --who rescued the Deutsche Oper after the unfortunate episode with  Thielemann-- and even though I am not fan of her productions, I admire her tenacity and ability to very cleverly adapt to the conditions in Berlin and run judiciously the Deutsche Oper. Ah yes, she's also the one to be thanked for insisting to bring Donald Runnicles to DOB. Runnicles nowadays fascinates everyone, and even the hard core conservatives --who religiously admire everything labeled Thielemann-- finally agree that Runnicles is "as good" - which is telling a lot. So kudos to Kirsten Harms and all the best in whatever she decides to do in the future.

I'd rather talk about the Komische and Barrie Kosky...

Seriously...

Gerard Mortier is a genius. He not only changed the operatic world, but he still keeps the level of creativity, musical and theatrical excellence that even those with multiple times higher budgets (such as the case with the Paris Opera for example) do not come even close to the level of homogeneity in quality, structural diversity of the operatic seasons in Madrid year after year.

Like in previous years, the program for 2012-2013 at Teatro Real in Madrid contains something for everyone. It's the top notch in every aspect, and there are no overrated stars to hide the misery of the productions... It's just great!

We notice that the two production that Mortier mounted while he was running the Paris Opera will find their way to Madrid: Wozzeck staged by Christoph Marthaler and Macbeth by Tcherniakov. In addition to the groundbreaking production of Don Giovanni by Tcherniakov, Teatro Real announces several new productions including Boris Godunov directed by Johan Simons (no less!) and Die Zauberflöte by Robert Carsen (and with Berliner Philharmoniker performing under Sir Simon Rattle), Cosi fan tutte by Michael Haneke... and more (see below)

Operas in concerts are terrific too with the outstanding cast for Parsifal in particular.

A touch of Bayreuth in Paris: Gatti conducts Parsifal

Parsifal (in concert), Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, March 6 2012

Daniele Gatti .....  Conductor

Christopher Ventris ..... Parsifal

Mihoko Fujimura ..... Kundry

Kurt Rydl ..... Gurnemanz

Lucio Gallo ..... Klingsor

Detlef Roth ..... Amfortas

Andreas Hörl ..... Titurel

Michael Laurenz, Robert Jezierski ..... chevaliers

Manuel Günther, Andreas Früch ..... écuyers

Julia Borchert, Katharina Peetz ..... écuyères et filles-fleurs de Klingsor

Martina Rüping, Carola Guber, Christiane Kohl,

Jutta Maria Böhnert ..... filles-fleurs de Klingsor

Orchestre National de France

Chœur de Radio France (Matthias Brauer)

Maîtrise de Radio France (Sofi Janin)

Dido and Aeneas for history

Dido and Aeneas, Opéra Comique in Paris, March 5 2012

Deborah Warner ..... Director

William Christie ..... Conductor

Malena Ernman ..... Dido

Nikolay Borchev ..... Aeneas

Judith Van Wanroij ..... Belinda

Hilary Summers ..... Sorceress

Lina Markeby ..... Second Woman

Céline Ricci ..... First Witch

Ana Quintans ..... Second Witch

Marc Mauillon ..... Spirit

Ben Davies ..... Sailor

Fiona Shaw ..... Prologue
Orchestre et chœur Les Arts Florissants

Le Nozze à l'ancienne

Le nozze di Figaro, Staatsoper UdL im Schiller Theater, February 26 2012

Thomas Langhoff ..... director

Daniel Barenboim ..... conductor

Artur Rucinski ..... Il conte di Almaviva

Dorothea Röschmann ..... La contessa di Almaviva

Anna Prohaska ..... Susanna

Vito Priante ..... Figaro

Christine Schäfer ..... Cherubino

Katharina Kammerloher ..... Marcellina

Abdellah Lasri ..... Basilio

Maurizio Muraro ..... Bartolo

Narine Yeghiyan ..... Barbarina

Olaf Bär ..... Antonio

Paul O’Neill ..... Don Curzio

Staatsopernchor

Staatskapelle Berlin

"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

Lucio

Lucio Dalla 1943-2012

One more true artist has just left us.

Leap Day: Buon Compleanno!

Leap day makes this year leap... or bissextile.

Being born on February 29th must be frustrating when you're a kid. It becomes cool when you are older though. Gioachino Rossini, for instance, despite his 76 years long life, legitimately celebrated only 19 birthdays. 

Google dedicated their opening page today to Gioachino's 220th birthday. Cool!

You must've already noticed that I am not into old divas, old recordings, I am against the idea that "all good in opera happened in the past", and I defend the idea that overall our singers today are better than those who sang in the past.
However, despite very many fantastic Rossini singers that we admire and enjoy listening today in live performances --Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato, Gregory Kunde, Daniela Barcellona, Lawrence Brownlee,  Jennifer Larmore, Antonino Siragusa, Cecilia Bartoli, John Osborn,  Vivica Genaux, Olga Peretyatko, Malena Ernman, Colin Lee ... -- I still get particularly thrilled when listening to Marilyn Horne's renditions of the Rossini's arias. An example of her glorious vocal palette is exhibited in the aria below [from La donna del lago]

Runnicles rocks on a Huge Tristan Night in Berlin

Tristan und Isolde, Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB), February 25 2012

Smashing performance by Petra Maria Schnitzer and Donald Runnicles

Graham Vick ..... director
Donald Runnicles ..... conductor

Peter Seiffert ..... Tristan
Liang Li ..... King Marke
Petra Maria Schnitzer ..... Isolde
Boaz Daniel ..... Kurwenal
Jörg Schörner ..... Melot
Jane Irwin ..... Brangäne
Peter Maus ..... Ein Hirt
Clemens Bieber ..... Seeman
Krzysztof Szumanski ..... Stauermann

Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Bel Canto 3: Is it possible to have an intelligent production of La Sonnambula?! Apparently...

I didn't go to Stuttgart to see their new production of La Sonnambula, but I realize almost everyone in the operatic circles in Germany is talking about the amazing qualities of that show.

Actually, rare are the opera that I think are as dumb as Sonnambula. Two arias have their fanbase, and there is nothing beyond that.
This is where you need an uncommonly clever, bright, talented director --essentially a magician-- who would find an opening and make the story out of non-story (libretto of La Sonnambula) and reach to the hearts of the public today.
It seems that Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito managed to do just that. All the shows are sold out, the reviewers are de facto competing in showing their appreciation of the show [not that I believe the reviews are a reliable gauge of goodness of the show, but that may be an indicator!]; traditionalists were apparently cringing at first but eventually surrendered to the poetry of the staging, while the rest of the public was totally enchanted, calling the directors geniuses, and everyone's performance terrific. 

Rodolfo: Liang Li*, Teresa: Helene Schneiderman, Amina: Ana Durlovski, Elvino: Luciano Botelho, Lisa: Catriona Smith, Alessio: Motti Kastón

 
What fascinates me more is that Jossi and Sergio are by now very famous theater and opera directors and at this stage --when Jossi is the general director of the Oper Stuttgart-- they could have picked any opera to direct, and they took on the most difficult one and turned it into a big success. How big is that!?

In the production photos below, many of you will recognize the style of the legendary Anna Viebrock, who was in charge of the sets and costume design.

Der Freischütz

Der Freischütz, Komische Oper in Berlin, February 23 2012

In the Wolf's Glen

Conductor ..... Patrick Lange

Director ..... Calixto Bieito

Set design ..... Rebecca Ringst

Max ... Dmitry Golovnin

Agathe ... Bettina Jensen

Kaspar ... Jens Larsen

Ännchen ... Ariana Strahl

Eremit ... Marko Spehar

Ottokar ... Ipca Ramanovic

Kilian ... Thomas Ebenstein

Kuno ... Hans-Peter Scheidegger

Le Freischütz

Le Freischutz, Opéra Comique in Paris, April 7 2011 

Sir John Eliot Gardiner ..... Conductor
Dan Jemmett ..... Director

Sophie Karthäuser ..... Agathe

Andrew Kennedy ..... Max
Virginie Pochon ..... Annette
Gidon Saks ..... Gaspard
Matthew Brook ..... Kouno

Luc Bertin-Hugault ..... L’Ermite

Samuel Evans ..... Kilian

Robert Davies ..... Ottokar
 Christian Pelissier ..... Samiel 


The Monteverdi Choir 
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Bel Canto 2: Italiana in Nancy; David Hermann brings breath of fresh air to France

L'italiana in Algeri /L'Italienne à Alger at Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, February 19 2012

Director ..... David Hermann

Conductor ..... Paolo Olmi

Isabella ..... Marie-Nicole Lemieux

Lindoro ..... Yijie Shi

Mustafà ..... Donato di Stefano

Taddeo ..... Nigel Smith

Elvira ..... Yuree Jang

Zulma ..... Olga Privalova

Haly ..... Igor Gnidii

Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy

La Scala Ring 2013 - Ticket Sale Opened

It's all in the title. Here is your link.

This is a very good & stylish production of the Ring and I'd like to encourage you to spend one week in Milan and enjoy the event live, in a beautiful auditorium of La Scala.
It's also very convenient for non-Milanese that they planed to stage the full Ring in one week only (there will be two runs -- both in June 2013)

I saw the first two operas of this Ring in Berlin -- I'm still to blog about them (too little time, too many operas...)

Alternatively you may wish to subscribe to the Paris Ring, which had some interesting moments although I believe it would fair to say that it didn't live up to expectations.

Jonas Kaufmann at TCE: Kaufmannmania continues after one more Jonasabend

 Liederabend at Théâtre des Champs Elysées, February 20 2012

Jonas Kaufmann is a perfect example of an opera star circa 2010. He doesn't take himself too seriously, looks and acts like "one of us", but constantly impresses us by the sheer amount of talent he radiates like no one else. It's his peculiar timbre and recognizable voice, his unmatched musicality, his amazing scenic presence, uncommon interpretative skills, his piani that regularly make his fans go crackers... I don't believe any opera singer in the past had it all like Jonas does today.

Helmut Deutsch and Jonas Kauffmann: TCE, February 20 2011

Bel Canto 2: Hello from Lorraine!

Freezing cold in Nancy... brrrr.... where I arrived a couple of hours ago to see  L'italiana in Algeri. The City Hall Square where you also find the Opéra National de Lorraine is beautiful.

This is the first opera David Hermann is producing in France, and it is not surprising that it happens outside of Paris (where only talentless or half-witted directors are invited to produce opera these days)
 

Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy

I LOVED The Queen of Spades David Hermann produced in Basel a year ago (with outstanding Lisa by Svetlana Ignatovich), worshiped his recent take on Les Troyens in Karlsruhe (with unbeatable Didon by Heidi Melton), which then explains my trip to this lovely (if a bit sleepy) city of Nancy. 

Will blog tonite after the show.

Stéphane Lissner and La Scala: Projects 2012-2015

It appears that the brilliant general director of La Scala, Stéphane Lissner, will stay in Milan until the end of 2015, and a list of their projects is more than impressive.

We can only hope his term in Italy will indeed end in 2015, so he could come to Paris to rescue whatever will remain of the Paris Opera by the autumn of 2015.

Below is a mighty list of what Lissner and La Scala prepare for the period before the end of October 2015.

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)...

Bel Canto 1: Don Pasquale in Parigi (o cara)

Don Pasquale, Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, February 15 2012

Viviani, Rancatore, Mazzola, Corbelli, Demuro

Enrique Mazzola ..... conductor

Denis Podalydès ..... director

Alessandro Corbelli ..... Don Pasquale

Désirée Rancatore ..... Norina

Gabriele Viviani ..... Dr Malatesta

Francesco Demuro ..... Ernesto

Richard Tronc ..... Carlino

Orchestre National de France

Choeur de Radio France