From Munich to Paris with love: Unforgettable ride of the Valkyries

Die Walküre in concert, Théâtre des Champs Élysées (TCE) in Paris, April 24 2012

Kent Nagano ..... Conductor 

Humans 

Lance Ryan ..... Siegmund 

Anja Kampe ..... Sieglinde 

Ain Anger ..... Hunding 

Gods 

Thomas J. Mayer ..... Wotan 

Michaela Schuster ..... Fricka 

9 Valkyries

Nina Stemme ..... Brünnhilde 

Danielle Halbwchs ..... Gerhilde 

Golda Schultz ..... Otlinde 

Heike Grötzinger ..... Waltraude 

Anaïk Morel ..... Schwertleite 

Erika Wueschner ..... Helmwige 

Roswitha C. Müller ..... Siegrune 

Okka von der Damereau ..... Grimgerde 

Alexandra Petersamer ..... Rossweisse 

Orchestra of the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich

Carsen's Tannhäuser paints Elisabeth in Paris

Tannhäuser, Opéra Bastille in Paris, October 6th 2011

Robert Carsen, Sophie Koch, Mark Elder, Christopher Ventris, Nina Stemme

Sir Mark Elder ..... Conductor
Robert Carsen ..... Director

Nina Stemme ..... Elisabeth
Sophie Koch ..... Venus
Christopher Ventris ..... Tannhäuser
Stéphane Degout ..... Wolfram von Eschenbach
Christof Fischesser ..... Hermann Landgrave 

Stanislas De Barbeyrac ..... Walther von der Vogelweide
Tomasz Konieczny ..... Biterolf
Eric Huchet ..... Heinrich der Schreiber
Wojtek Smilek ..... Reinmar von Zweter

Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Tea at Five with Wotan and friends

Season opener at La Scala season will be the first Ring opera Die Walküre (Rheingold is only a prologue).
This joint new production of La Scala and Staatsoper in Berlin will be directed by Guy Cassiers and conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and it will be premiered on Tuesday, December 7 starting at 5 p.m. (cet). The show will be live broadcast to many cinemas around the world, but also via ever more cool Mezzo-TV.

Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde) and Vitalij Kowaljow (Wotan)

While waiting to see this fantastic cast* in action (in an interesting production too!) you can follow the rehearsal vlog this link.


*Siegmund - Simon O’Neill, Hunding - John Tomlinson, Wotan - Vitalij Kowaljow, Sieglinde - Waltraud Meier, Brünnhilde - Nina Stemme, Fricka - Ekaterina Gubanova


UPDATES: 

(Dec 3) 

Simon O'Neill is apparently ill. Frank van Aken is covering for him. Alas,  during the stage rehearsal last Wednesday Frank fainted.  Wishing the best to Frank and to the whole production team!

(Dec 4)

1. Photos of the show taken during dress rehearsals added below [all photos ©AP]

2. Live radio broadcast will be provided by Rai-3 on this link, France Musique on this link...

Sunday: Fidelio from Lucerne with Nina Stemme, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei... and Claudio Abbado

To cheer up your cloudy/rainy Sunday, you may wish to listen to the radio broadcast from the Lucerne Festival where the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by a living legend, Claudio Abbado, will perform Beethoven's Fidelio (I don't know which version!) tonight [Sunday, August 15th] at 21:00 (cet).

A knockout cast includes: Nina Stemme, Jonas Kaufmann, Peter Mattei, Falk Struckmann, Christof Fischesser, Rachel Harnisch, and Christoph Strehl.

From the Lucerne Festival web-site: photo taken last Thursday during the first "Fidelio" concert

Even if you don't have bad weather today, I think this concert is worthy 2 hours of your time tonight. The press talks about the most unforgettable performance, so...

Here is the link to the Swiss radio DRS. Enjoy!

P.S. If you miss it tonight there will be a rerun on another radio station [link here] next September 4 at 20:05.