Monday, January 3, 2011

What's on in Europe this month?!

Many interesting revivals this month. In particular, Dima Tcherniakov's Boris Godunov will be premiered in CopenhagenKatarina Dalayman and Stephen Gould will sing their first Tristan und Isolde in Dresden. Diana Damrau will be back onstage this month, in a rather interesting production of I Puritani in Geneva [c.f. this trailer]. Furthermore, Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch will again sing together in Werther - this time in Vienna, and Christopher Ventris and Kwangchul Youn will do what they do the best - Parsifal in Turin.


But since I'm much more interested in creations, below you can find a list of upcoming premieres of new productions in Europe (ordered chronologically.)

Baroque folks will rush to Paris to see new Giulio Cesare - directed by Laurent Pelly, or to Berlin for a  lesser known Antigone.  Balcanto freaks will dash to Barcelona to adooore Gruberova and Devia in Anna Bolena, or to Zurich to see Cecilia Bartoli in Le comte Ory...

To me the most interesting new production will be Parsifal in Brussels, followed by Tannhäuser in Zurich and Tristan und Isolde in Weimar [The Rape of Lucretia in Oslo could be good too!], although  I believe the general operatic buzz this January will be about new Werther in Lyon, directed by Rolando Villazón.



  • Jan 9: Ernani at The Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv [dir-Michal Znaniecki, cnd-George Pehlivanian, Cast: Paata Burchuladze, Carlo Guelfi...] 
  • Jan 11: Betrothal in a Monastery at Théâtre de Capitole in Toulouse (~2 weeks later at Opéra Comique in Paris) [dir-Martin Duncan, cnd-Tugan Sokhiev, Cast: Garry Magee, Anastasia Kaligina, Brian Galliford, Larissa Diadkova...] 
  • Jan 12: L'Elisir d'Amore at Opéra de Lille [dir-Richard Brunel , cnd-Antonello Allemandi, Cast: Olga Peretyatko, Bülent Brzdüz] 
  • Jan 14: Robin Hood (creation of a new opera) [dir-Kari Heiskanen, cnd-Mikko Franck, Cast: Matti Salminen, Ville Rusanen, Mari Palo...] 
  • Jan 15: Aida at Oper Köln [dir-Johannes Erath, cnd-Will Humburg, Cast: Hui He, Laura Brioli, Scott MacAllister, Samuel Youn...]
  • Jan 16: Cav/Pag at La Scala in Milan [dir-Mario Mantone, cnd-Daniel Harding, Cast: Luciana D'Intino, Salvatore Licitra, Oksana Dyka, José Cura, Ambrogio Maestri] 
  • Jan 16: Tosca at Frankfurt Oper [dir-Andreas Kriegenburg, cnd-Kirill Petrenko, Cast: Erika Sunnegårdh, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Jason Howard...] 
  • Jan 17: Giulio Cesare [dir-Laurent Pelly, cnd-Emmanuelle Haïm, Cast: Natalie Dessay, Isabel Leonard, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Christophe Dumaux, Nathan Berg, Dominique Visse, Aimery Lefèvre] 
  • Jan 20: Castor et Pollux at Theater and der Wien [dir-Mariame Clément, cnd-Christophe Rousset, Cast: Maxim Mironov, Luca Pisaroni, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nicolas Testé] 
  • Jan 20: Senso (a new opera by Marco Tutino) at Teatro Massimo in Palermo [dir-Hugo de Ana, cnd-Pinchas Steinberg, Cast: Nicola Beller Carbone, Brandon Jovanovich, Dalibor Jenis...] 
  • Jan 20: Anna Bolena at GTL in Barcelona [dir- Rafel Duran, cnd- Stefan Anton Reck, Cast: Gruberova/Devia, Garanca/Ganassi, Bros/Zapata, Colombara/Orfila, Prina/Rodriguez] 
  • Jan 21: L'italiana in Algeri at Opéra National de Bordeaux [dir-Joan Font, cnd-Paolo Olmi, Cast: Daniela Mack, Alek Shrader, Luciano Di Pasquale] 
  • Jan 21: L'olimpiade by Pergolesi at Teatro San Carlo in Naples [dir-Roberto De Simone, cnd-Corrado Rovaris, cast: Maria Grazia Schiavo, Laura Polverelli...] 
  • Jan 22: Tristan und Isolde at Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar [dir-Karsten Wiegand, cnd-Stefan Solyom, Cast: Franco Farina, Catherine Foster...] 
  • Jan 23: Die Liebe der Danae at Deutsche Oper in Berlin [dir-Kirsten Harms, cnd-Andrew Litton, Cast: Manuela Uhl, Mark Delavan, Matthias Klink, Martina Welschenbach, Burkhard Ulrich...] 
  • Jan 23: Le comte Ory at Opernhaus in Zurich [dir-Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier, cnd-Muhai Tang, Cast: Javier Camarena, Cecilia Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu, ...] 
  • Jan 24: Werther at Opéra National de Lyon [dir-Rolando Villazón, cnd-Johannes Willig, Cast: Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Lionel Lhote, Karine Deshayes, Alain Vernhes, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Nabil Suliman, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt] 
  • Jan 27: Parsifal at La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels [dir-Romeo Catellucci, dir-Hartmut Haenchen, Cast: Andrew Richards, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Tomas Romasson, Anna Larson, Victor van Halem...] 
  • Jan 27: Così fan tutte in Baden Baden [dir- Philipp Himmelmann, cnd- Teodor Currentzis, Cast: Véronique Gens, Silvia Tro Santafé, Mojca Erdmann, Stephan Genz, Steve Davislim. Konstantin Wolff] 
  • Jan 27: The Rape of Lucrezia at DNO in Oslo [dir-Thaddeus Strassberger, cnd-Ward Stare, Cast: Katija Dragojevic, Espen Langvik etc] 
  • Jan 28: Platée at Deutsche Oper an Rhein in Dusseldorf [dir-Karoline Gruber, cnd-Konrad Junghänel, Cast: Anders Dahlin, Thomas Allen et al] 
  • Jan 28: Intolleranza 1960 (opera by Luigi Nono) at Teatro Fenice in Venice [dir-srudents of IUAV, cnd-Lothar Zagrosek, Cnd: Donald Kaasch, Cornelia Horak] 
  • Jan 28: Cav/Pag in Marseille [dir-Jean-Claude Auvray, cnd-Giuliano Carella, Cast: Vladimir Galouzine, Sergey Murzaev, Béatrice Uria-Monzon, Nataliya Tymchenko...] 
  • Jan 29: Manon at Theater St Gallen [dir-Jan Schmidt-Garre, cnd-David Stern] 
  • Jan 30: Tannhäuser at Opernhaus in Zurich [dir-Harry Kupfer, cnd-Ingo Metzmacher, Cast: Nina Stemme, Michael Volle, Peter Seiffertt, Veselina Kasarova, Christoph Strehl] 
  • Jan 30: Antigona (by Tommaso Traetta) in Berlin [dir-Vera Nemirova, cnd-René Jacobs, Cast: Veronica Cangemi, Jennifer Rivera, Bejun Mehta, Kurt Streit, Kenneth Tarver] 
  • Jan 30: Faust at Staatsoper in Hamburg [dir-Andreas Homoki, cnd-Cornelius Meister, Cast: Giuseppe Filianoti, George Petean, Alexia Voulgaridou, Alexander Tsymbalyuk] 
  • Jan 31: Lucrezia Borgia at ENO in London [dir-Mike Figgis, cnd-Paul Daniel, Cast: Claire Rutter et al]

14 comments:

  1. Nina Stemme Elisabeth and Kasarova Venus? May I switch the roles, pretty please...? No, all right.

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  2. Stephen Gould has been singing Tristan in Tokyo since December (I think it's his role debut).

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  3. Definitely, I disagree ;)
    Even if the idea sounds a priori weird, Kasarova's Venus might be interesting (more than her Carmen - if you ask me.)
    If you didn't listen to Nina's majestic Elisabeth, you really should.


    Ano, I know that Steve sang a few Tristan's in Tokyo before making his role debut in Europe. Katarina & Steve in T&I should be smashing!

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  4. Mariela Devia has canceled Anna Bolena.Her replacement is Maria Pia Piscitelli.
    Arabella

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  5. Aaah thanks Arabella! I see they changed it on their website too. Still there is Gruberova, which is more than enough for belcanto fans to rush to Barcelona. I'm not really sure how wise it was for Gruberova to take such a big risk at this stage of her career but no matter how she sings they will love it in Barcelona ;)

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  6. I know it, she is adored as a goddess there.
    I saw it last time when she sung Lucrezia Borgia.
    I will rush to Barcelona for the performance on January 30th.
    Arabella

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  7. wow wow wow - I wish I were you.

    Will you be sure and let us know of any web streams that will be available to us stateside? You're my source.

    and it is so nice to read about opera that doesn't include any discussions about Marina Poplaskaya or Willie Decker or La Traviata.

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  8. Hi Arabella! Do let us know how it went when you see it ;) Cheers and good luck!

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  9. Hi Laddie! Nah, I am not in that kind of game. I am a passionate opera-goer and am keeping this rolling when I can and often in crazy situations (composing the posts when commuting on a train.

    Plus, I like La Cieca and I like Poplavskaya too ;)

    As for the live stream, one show of Giulio Cesare (new production in Paris) should be live broadcast but we still don't know which one. Will keep you posted. Cheers

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  10. I hear that the new production of 'Rape of Lucretia' is going to be stunning. Word is that Strassberger is igniting this production with the same stroke of genius he had with the fantastic 'Nozze di Figaro' in Oslo last year, which is a constant sell out. I have booked my plane ticket!!!!

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  11. Thanks Maria. Would love to see that one but the plane tics are way too expensive for the dates when I could find some time off to make that trip. Too bad... but do let us know how it went! Thx :)

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  12. I heard Stephen Gould as Tristan in Tokyo and he won't disappoint in Dresden. If anything, he had too much stamina in Act III, sounding too healthy to be mortally wounded.

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  13. OT, OC, but do you know whether one should book for the Munich Festival online or with a written order? Thanks, Mario

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  14. Hi Mario. You can place your order online, and they will contact/call you sometimes in March/April. Cheers

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