Schreker Opera in Amsterdam: Der Schatzgräber

Der Schatzgräber, De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, September 23 2012

Director ..... Ivo van Hove

Conductor ..... Marc Albrecht

Els ..... Manuela Uhl
Elis ..... Raymond Very
 Der Narr ..... Graham Clark
 Albi ..... Gordon Gietz
Der Junker ..... Mattijs van de Woerd
Der Wirt ..... Andrew Greenan
Der König ..... Tijl Faveyts
Die Königin ..... Basja Chanowski
Der Kanzler/Der Schreiber ..... Alasdair Elliott
Herold / Der Graf ..... André Morsch
Der Magister/Der Schultheiss ..... Kurt Gysen
er Vogt ...... Kay Stiefermann
Ein Landsknecht ..... Peter Arink
Erster Bürger ..... Cato Fordham
Zweiter Bürger ..... Richard Meijer
Mezzo Sopran Solo ..... Marieke Reuten
Alt Solo ..... Inez Hafkamp   
Alt Solo ..... Hiroko Mogaki
   
   
   
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Koor van De Nederlandse Opera [Alan Woodbridge]

Premiere of Die Liebe der Danae in Berlin

Die Liebe der Danae/The Love of Danae, Deutsche Oper Berlin, January 23 2011

Conductor ..... Andrew Litton
Director ..... Kirsten Harms
Chorus master ..... William Spaulding

Jupiter ..... Mark Delavan
Merkur ..... Thomas Blondelle
Pollux ..... Burkhard Ulrich
Danae ..... Manuela Uhl
Xanthe ..... Hulkar Sabirova
Midas ..... Matthias Klink
Four Kings ..... Paul Kaufmann, Clemens Bieber, 

" ..... Nathan De’Shon Myers, Hyung-Wook Lee
Semele ..... Hila Fahima
Europa ..... Martina Welschenbach
Alkmene ..... Julia Benzinger
Leda ..... Katarina Bradic


Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Brilliantly sung Elektra in Baden Baden: Jane Henschel rocks, Thielemann at his best

Elektra is one of my absolute favorite operas, and the Martin Kusej's production that you can find on DVD is to me the best production of this opera ever, and one of my most memorable operatic experiences. It's excellently sung, marvelously played, and the universal thread of this drama is perfectly projected to our time: a dysfunctional family background made Elektra to be the way she is -- a dysfunctional angry person-- living in a nasty suburb. Viewed through that prism the story of Elektra speaks to us on so many different levels, question our attitudes, our certainties and our points of view. In doing so Kusej never  made Elektra look like a monster, which is unfortunately the most often image projected by unintelligent directors... OK, I shouldn't go too far in praising Kusej, but if you get to see that DVD -- it's a gem.

Final scene from Wernicke's production of Elektra in Baden Baden