Live stream from the Bavarian State Opera of I Capuleti e i Montecchi --the famous Bellini's take on Romeo and Juliet-- is about to start. The libretto of this opera is maybe not as bad as that of Norma, but it is awful anyway. However, there are some terrific tunes that will hopefully be well sung by Anna Netrebko and Vesselina Kasarova. Dimitri Pittas, Ante Jerkunica and Paul Gay complete the cast.
The production must be 'harmless' --Vincent Boussard is a specialist for what you can call "safe nice shows"-- so the traditionalists and conservatives won't be outraged. Here is your link
[libretto here]
Netrebko was terrific in this role a few years ago in a Robert Carsen production in Paris -- she and Joyce DiDonato rocked Bastille.
Trailer of this [Munich] production is attached below... Enjoy! Udachi Anna!
It will be interesting to see if this show will be any good. Staatsoper is a very conservative house where the surprises are rare but possible (La forza del destino, Macbeth, Lohengrin...) Eric Génovèse will certainly not rock the boat, but will most probably opt for something relatively subtle, even if totally conventional. It will however be interesting to see whether or not he'll manage to make any drama actually work [libretto is hopeless unless the director gives it some spin].
Intermezzo alerted us on her blog that CNN-I made a video portrait of Anna Netrebko. It's very good and you should see it [three videos are appended below.]
Part-3 is fun but my favorite line is actually the one at 3'44 of part-2 when she explains how she prepares her voice for a performance
"I'm not even drinking water, I'm drinking alcohol. That's it!"
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor Bartlett Sher, Stage Director
Anna Netrebko ..... Juliette Piotr Beczala ..... Roméo Mikhail Petrenko ..... Frère Laurent Darren Jeffery ..... Le Comte Capulet Russell Braun ..... Mercutio, friend to Roméo Cora Burggraaf ..... Stéphano, page to Roméo Michael Spyres ..... Tybalt, nephew of Capulet Susanne Resmark ..... Gertrude, nurse to Juliet David Soar ..... Le Duc de Vérone Mathias Hausmann ..... Le Comte Paris Andrei Bondarenko ..... Grégorio Adrian Strooper ..... Benvolio, nephew of Montaigu
Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus
After a couple of really hellish weeks, I can find an hour or two a day to keep this blog rolling.
Before the long awaited Walkure in Paris -- which will be premiered tomorrow, May 31 2010-- I decided to spend a weekend in Berlin and to see the new gem prepared by Andreas Kriegenburgen. It's a new production of Otello for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, with sensational cast members including Anja Harteros, José Cura, Željko Lučić. La prima is tonight and the daily newspapers are filled with infos about this event. Here is a pic from the Berliner Morgenpost of an interview with Kriegenburgen [whose Wozzeck in Munich I totally loved].
Lekutski posted on YouTube an extensive interview from NewYork with Anna Netrebko for a Russian Television, and which was broadcast before the end of 2009. In the video I add to this post she confirms that she's preparing the heaviest of the lyric soprano roles, Donizetti's Anna Bolena.
According to unofficial information she's expected to sing it in Saint-Petersburg by the end of 2010, and then in 2011: January/February in Liceu (Barcelona), in March/April in Staatsoper (Vienna), and then at the opening of the Met season 2011-2012 .
In the above video she also explains the prejudices she's had to fight against, i.e. nobody believed she'd ever sing a Mozart role in Salzburg because the Russian singers are known to have heavy voices which don't fit with the lightness of Mozart. Yeah right! :)
The interviewer is (very) annoying with all the questions probing/testing her Russian-ness, but that's what you get when you live abroad...
At the end, there is a little bit of crazy Anna too [ see this video , ffwd to 4min 35 ] ;)
