Mahagonny dels Baus on your TV, live from Madrid

I just learned that la prima of the first new production at Teatro Real since Gérard Mortier became its artistic director, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, will be live broadcast to many cinemas worldwide, and also on your Mezzo-TV (cable, ADSL) -- tomorrow, September 30 at 8 p.m. (CET).

This should be interesting because it's new, because La Fura dels Baus sign this show, the cast is good: Jane Henschel, Willard White, Measha Bruggergosman, Michael König, Donald Kaasch... and Pablo Heras-Casado (!) will conduct.

Trailer attached below.... [You're welcome! ;)]

Opéra français

While Opéra National de Paris scheduled ZERO operas in French for its entire 2010-2011 season (sic!), De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam opened its new season with a new production of Les Vêpres siciliennes, directed by Christof Loy [with lots of chairs and a theatrical language focused on gestures and interactions among characters - pics here]. Neither the FT reviewer nor Fomalhaut-blogger seem to have liked the show but both are quite complimentary about its musical quality. 

ENO opened its season by a new production of Faust, co-produced with The Met, and directed by Des McAnuff.  FT slashed it, The Independent disliked its Broadway style but loved the singers, and The Telegraph was pretty positive about everything. ENO proposes various discounts for the remaining shows (c.f. here).

OOOPS!  Roberto Alagna and Béatrice Uria Monzon as Don José and Carmen in Barcelona (©elpais.com)

Calixto Bieito's production of Carmen opened the season 2010-2011 in Barcelona a couple of days ago. The premiere was apparently electrifying with only a few boos for Calixto, however drowned in loads of Bravo's. Katharina Wagner was at the premiere and after the show said she loved it.  Roberto Alagna was très en voix. To see him taking part in a show like this is surprising but certainly props-worthy [more pics here].  Spanish reviewers are exulted, as well as our Mei.

Yours Truly will see this production, so more on that next week...
[I owe you my take on Bieito's smashing Aida that I saw in Basel last Sunday -- a few sentences hopefully tonight] 

Trailers for all three productions are appended below.

Così fan Freiburger Barockorchester

Così fan tutte (in concert), Salle Pleyel - Paris, September 27 2010

Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Marie-Claude Chappuis, and maestro Jacobs

     René Jacobs ..... conductor

     Alexandrina Pendatchanska ..... Fiordiligi

     Marie-Claude Chappuis ..... Dorabella

     Sunhae Im ..... Despina

     Johannes Weisser ..... Guglielmo

     Magnus Staveland ..... Ferrando

     Marcos Fink ..... Don Alfonso   

    

    

      Coro Gulbenkian

         Freiburger Barockorchester

Tout en douceur

Susan Graham, Orchestre de Paris & Bertrand de Billy, Salle Pleyel, September 23  2010

Susan Graham after Poème de l'amour et de la mer

Rolando who?

You remember when Joshua Bell played almost unnoticed in one of the Metro stops in Washington DC, and made only $32 for 45 minutes of play? (here is the link to YT)

Rolando Villazon made an extra step and sang a tune from his new CD on a Paris Métro train, in front of the numerous commuters. All that happened last Monday during rush hour... and despite his star-status in Paris, Rolando was completely ignored. Here is proof:



What do you conclude from this?

Ed: Above video contains only 45 sec of full material suppressed from both WAT and DailyMotion portals.

Diva/Divo at Théâtre des Champs Elysées: We love Joyce

Les grandes voix: Joyce DiDonato, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, September 22 - 2010 

It's a great pleasure to see Joyce DiDonato back in Paris, less than 3 months after her superb Elena in Rossini's La donna del lago at Opéra Garnier and her memorable recital at Théâtre des Champs Elysées (TCE).  Joyce and Paris -- that's a love story, so I wasn't at all surprised to see TCE full with people.

In one sentence, this was a wonderful concert and my pleasure was doubled by the fact that Kazushi Ono (who I also like very much!) came with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon to accompany Joyce. We learned...

Der Rap des Nibelungen

Another exciting theater in Switzerland is Theatre Freiburg. It's very Regie-oriented with a goal to resonate more explicitly with cultural needs of the people of Freiburg. In 2009-2010 they completed their Ring des Nibelungen which received rave reviews (especially Das Rheingold and Die Walküre). This season they will run the whole cycle twice...

In parallel they organized Der Rap des Nibelungen, to increase their interaction with younger audience and introduce them adiabatically to the Wagner's masterpiece. To that end they unified theater groups of youngsters from Freiburg and a rap-band from Berlin and produced a Ring that proved to be success. It was premiered last June and several shows were performed at the main theater in front of the packed house.  Here is a collage of the photos taken during the show:

Americanized story of Armide in Gennevilliers

Armide, Théâtre de Gennevilliers September 21 2010

Pascal Rambert, Antoine Plante, Zachary Wilder, Isabelle Cals,  Lauren Snouffer, Sarah Mesko and Sumner Thompson

Director ..... Pascal Rambert
Conductor ..... Antoine Plante

Armide ..... Isabelle Cals
Renaud ..... Zachary Wilder
Hidraut/Haine ..... Sumner Thompson

Phénice/Glorie ..... Lauren Snouffer
Sidonie/Sagesse ..... Sarah Mesko

Mercury Baroque - Houston, TX

Fidelio at the Komische Oper in Berlin: Is Benedikt von Peter next 'Stefan Herheim'?

Fidelio, Komische Oper Berlin, May 20 2010

 Conductor  Martin Hoff
 Director  Benedikt von Peter

 Don Fernando  Mirko Janiska
 Don Pizarro   Anton Keremidtchiev
 Florestan   Will Hartmann
 Leonore   Caroline Melzer
 Rocco  Tilmann Rönnebeck
 Marzelline  Karen Rettinghaus
 Jaquino  Thomas Ebenstein

Have 5 minutes?!

Portrait of Richard Wagner - Auguste Renoir, 1882  (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Listen to Bryn Terfel's unearthly 'O du, mein holder Abendstern' from Tannhäuser:

Onegin in Paris: Incredible Mr.Petrenko!

Eugene Onegin, Opéra Bastille, September 17 2010

Vasily Petrenko ..... Conductor
Willy Decker ..... Stage director

Nadine Denize ..... Larina
Olga Guryakova ..... Tatyana
Alisa Kolosova ..... Olga
Nona Javakhidze ..... Filippyevna
Ludovic Tézier ..... Eugene Onegin
Joseph Kaiser ..... Lensky
Gleb Nikolsky ..... Prince Gremin 
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt ..... Triquet
Ugo Rabec ..... Zaretsky

Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Bonne chance maestro Järvi!

Paavo Järvi is a very good conductor who these days officially became the new music director of Orchestre de Paris. The inaugural concert at Pleyel will take place tonight [Wednesday, Sept. 15 @ 8 p.m. (CET)]. I have a ticket and I'll go but you (all of you!) can come with me too --if you want-- thanks to Arte Live Web. You can either follow this link or see the concert tonight in a video embedded below [at the end of this entry].

The program is available here.
Järvi evidently opted to present himself with a Nordic sound of Jean Sibelius [close to his native Estonia], and combine it with a fitting French sound which appears to be La Péri by Paul Dukas.
Two Finnish soloists will be singing: Soile Isokoski and our fave Juha Uusitalo.

Paavo Järvi

Orchestre de Paris is a strange bunch: they are like a treasury of top class musicians, but together they rarely perform at the level you'd expect them to. Last time I listened them reaching the level of any Top-10 world orchestra was at Pleyel, in a performance of the Britten's War Requiem, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. That was a good illustration that they could be great and that a chemistry between them and their previous director, Christoph Eschenbach was lacking. Let's hope Järvi will be able to make the best of the orchestra's potential and help them regain the Top-10 level they deserve. 
Good luck maestro!

Bieito's Aida @ Theater Basel - trailer

Bieito's Aida opens tonight at Theater Basel

For all of us who unfortunately cannot go and see the new  Calixto Bieito's show in Basle, the pics taken during the final dress rehearsal come as a mini-consolation (see below).

Note that there will be 19 shows  running until the end of 2010, so if you can squeeze in a trip to Basle...

Michelle De Young --Amneris in this production-- on her website writes:

Working with Calixto is extreme, exhausting and exhilarating. I have definitely had my comfort zones pushed, and enjoy it! It's very violent and sexual. I have fallen in love with both the character and the sing of Amneris.

More pics below

October 1st: Aida at the Rhine

We know that Calixto Bieito will direct new Aida at Theater Basel. Although Aida is my least favorite opera by Verdi, I wish I could see it (1) because of Calixto, and (2) because that theater is one of the most exciting places (artistically) in Europe right now.

If you don't care much about Calixto or Theater Basel, you might still be interested to know that the same cast will participate in a live TV-event  Aida at the Rhine, organized by the Swiss SF1.

This is the third in the series of projects, following La Traviata at Zurich Main Station in 2008 and La Bohème in the Suburbs of Bern in 2009.  Aida at the Rhine will be live broadcast from Basle on October 1st 2010 at 8 p.m. , and the live video stream will be available on this link.

This peculiar show will be directed by Georges Delnon, Gabriel Feltz will conduct and the cast includes: Angeles Blancas - Aida, Michelle de Young - Amneris, Sergei Khomov - Radames,  Daniel Golossov - Ramfis. 

La meglio gioventù

In the last concert of this year's Festival in Lucerne, Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker  in a performance of works by Rossini, Orbón, Bernstein and Ravel. Detailed program can be found here, and you [and you, and you, and you, ... ;)] will be able to see it live, thanks to Medici.tv who will broadcast the concert on Saturday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. (CET)

It's free but you have to register at medici.tv...

Italiana at Garnier: Ridiculous ≠ Funny

L'italiana in Algeri, Opéra Garnier, September 11 2010

Oncioiu, Novaro, Azzaretti, Corbelli, DiStefano (chorus master), Benini, Genaux, Serban, Brownlee, Vinco

Maurizio Benini ..... Conductor
Andrei Serban ..... Stage director

Marco Vinco ..... Mustafà
Jaël Azzaretti ..... Elvira
Cornelia Oncioiu ..... Zulma
Riccardo Novaro ..... Haly
Lawrence Brownlee ..... Lindoro
Vivica Genaux ..... Isabella
Alessandro Corbelli ..... Taddeo

Orchestre et Choeur de l’Opéra national de Paris

The Dutchman took off at Opéra Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 9 2010

Angel on the top of the Bastille obelisk seen from Opéra Bastille 

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

New opera productions in Europe - September 2010

There is quite a number of new productions to be presented in Europe during September, of which I expect the most from the following four:

• Aida at Theater Basel [dir Calixto Bieito, cnd Maurizio Barbacini] - Sept 14
• Semele at Theater and der Wien [dir Robert Carsen, cnd William Christie] - Sept 15
• Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Komische Oper Berlin [dir Andreas Homoki, cnd Patrick Lange] - Sept 25
• Carmen at Liceu Barcelona [dir Calixto Bieito, cnd Marc Piolet] - Sept 27
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Teatro Real Madrid [dir La Fura dels Baus, cnd Pablo Heras-Casado] - Sept 30

Other potentially exciting new productions...

The time is up

Since we are in The Flying Dutchman mood, I think it is the right moment to draw your attention to  a brilliant young bass-baritone, Ryan McKinny, who won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at this year's Operalia for his performance of "Die Frist ist um"(The time is up)

YT video appended below. Enjoy!

Next Mammoth TV-Opera Project: Les contes de Hoffmann in 3D

And so the world saw Rigoletto from Mantua last weekend. To me it was yet another proof that opera cannot be adapted to look like a TV-show or a movie.  Opera belongs to theaters -- that's where the genuine magic happens, and the best approximation to that experience are the DVD recordings of the shows presented in theaters.

Photo taken at Stohrer (pastry shop in the Montorgueil street in Paris)

The attempts (futile?)  to convert opera and present it like a movie will continue. We learn that the next big TV-project is Les contes de Hoffmann. Good news is that the adaptation will not be directed by an opera newbie, but by Robert Carsen. Less good news is that Carsen has no experience in directing movies.

It will be filmed in HD and in 3D, in 4 cities: Paris, Venice, Prague, and Milan. The project is a collaboration of Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Prague Estates Theatre, and Teatro La Fenice, and the shooting will start in 2012, involving more than 1000 walk-ons, 50 dancers, large chorus and orchestra. The cast is not fixed yet.

Good luck with that!

Senta stuck at Bastille

Der fliegende Holländer/The Flying Dutchman/Le vaisseau fantôme, Opéra Bastille, September 6th 2010

Peter Schneider ..... Conductor

Willy Decker ..... Stage Director

Matti Salminen ..... Daland

Adrianne Pieczonka ..... Senta

Klaus Florian Vogt ..... Erik

Marie-Ange Todorovitch ..... Mary

Bernard Richter .....  Steuermann

James Morris ..... Holländer

Paris Opera to release Mireille on DVD and to live TV-broadcast 3 operas in 2010-2011

The Paris Opera magazine "En Scène!" informs that two productions presented last year are to be released on DVD this month, namely the appalling production of Mireille [Sept 23]*, and Jacquot's  Werther with Kaufmann, Koch et al. [Sept 17].

"En Scène!" also informs us that, during the current season, France Télévision will live broadcast the following three operas:

• Le Nozze di Figaro , dir Giorgio Strehler,  with Tézier, Frittoli, Syurina, Pisaroni, Deshayes [30 years old production]
• Giulio Cesare, dir Laurent Pelly, with Zazzo, Dessay, Leonard, Abrahamyan, Dumaux, Berg, Visse [new production!]
• Francesca da Rimini, dir Giancarlo Del Monaco, with Vassileva, Alagna, Smilek et al. [a year after his horrid Andrea Chénier in Paris, Del Monaco is back with this show premiered in Zurich in 2007]

Precise dates are not communicated. Will keep you posted.
__________________
* Incidentally,  I see that ROH too rushed to release its worst 2009-2010 production on DVD: The Tsarina's Slippers. :)

The best Wagnerian conductor of our time?

You may have already realized that I'm not into old recordings and stuff remastered beyond recognition. To me the audio recordings are there like old photos -- to bring back the memories of the most memorable shows I've seen.

With Wagner's operas the story is a little different.  Not that I indulge myself into listening to hundreds of hours of old recordings, but because it is interesting to figure out the evolution of styles and approaches to conducting this music over the past 5-6 decades. Once you do that exercise you soon realize the difficulties today's conductors conducting Wagner's music encounter in preparing their performance: they should make their sound 'right' yet refreshing, deliver a distinguishable sound with peculiar timings, and display a profound understanding of the score.

Of all the active conductors, Daniel Barenboim comes on the top. He was the only one able to make that special moment to happen to me, when music almost materializes and detaches from the orchestra. It happens with his Staatskapelle and only sometimes, but when it happens it's the sound that marks you for life.  All Wagner operas conducted by Barenboim are special to me, but his Tristan is likely to remain unbeatable for a long-long time.

Second best to me is Hartmut Haenchen. This year I listened to his Flying Dutchman in Amsterdam and it was magnificent. His Parsifal in Paris --a couple of years ago-- remains an unforgettable musical shock. His Ring, that you can find on DVD, is brilliant as well.

Then comes Christian Thielemann, whose Ring is really special. His Parsifal was interesting too but  not as brilliant as Haenchen's, or even Gatti's or Honeck's. 

Next weekend: Rigoletto a Mantova

After Tosca in Rome, La Traviata in Paris, RAI TV is preparing Rigoletto in Mantua (very close to Verona) that will be live broadcast to more than 100 countries next weekend. The show will be split in two days and the broadcast is scheduled for Saturday 4 [at 20:30 (cet)], and Sunday 5 September [at 14:15 and 23:30 (cet)]. Check your local listings...

It is supposed to be fully live and it will be directed by Marco Bellocchio. Even though Marco is a brilliant film director, I don't expect much from his operatic adventure as these mammoth-size projects are regularly in the claws of traditionalists.

Rigoletto is not my fave Verdi at all, but since this will be a global operatic event I wouldn't want to miss it either.

The RAI Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Zubin Mehta, and Placido Domingo will be  Rigoletto (!) for the whole weekend. Julia Novikova will be our Gilda, Vittorio Grigolo  The Duke of Mantua,  Ruggero Raimondi Sparafucile, and Nino Surguladze Maddalena.

The above pic is a collage of 4 photos taken during the rehearsals by C. Giglioli, and below is one with Placidone, plus a 'long' trailer.

Ed: Videos available on YouTube - click here

When can you tell CD is dead?

When you see exposed --at the central part of the Classical Music section of the FNAC in Paris [Les Halles]--  Katherine Jenkins' new CD and/or Carmen with Andrea Bocelli.

It was bound to happen with all kinds of digital supports developed over the past decade, with more and more of us interested in pure-unedited sound (instead of ironed, filtered, edited, equalized... recording that rarely reflects the sound we get in theater), and finally reconciling opera with what it should be: image with sound.

Celle qui aimait Wagner in cinemas in May 2011

Roberto Alagna is a cast member of the movie called "Celle qui aimait Wagner", directed by a French director Jean-Louis Guillermou. Shooting is underway. Besides Alagna (as Josef Tichatschek), the cast includes Jean-François Balmer, Julie Depardieu, Stéphane Bern, Arielle Dombasle.
The story is apparently about a woman who works at the supermarket, who's a passionate admirer of Wagner and his music, and she tells the story about Wagner... 



Je baille déjà...

Opera Festivals 2010: Aix does it better

And so the Summer of Opera Festivals 2010 is over. It's been good even if somewhat surprising that the most interesting things happened in July (and not in August).

General impression: There are far too many festivals. Many city mayors across Europe support the Opera Festivals financially because they are good for their (cities') image, it's a bonus for tourism, it helps creating some jobs...
I want to believe that quantity implies a few quality productions every year, although this year wasn't particularly good example (except perhaps in Aix).

I believe the (main) purpose of Opera Festivals should be to propose new stuff, to define new directions in performing and staging the well known operas, and to bring to our attention good contemporary operas as well. It's hard to counter-punch that argument without questioning the artistic purpose of Opera Festivals altogether: one may as well extend the standard operatic season and include a couple of more operas in your usual Opera Houses and pretend they were success!

I am perfectly aware that matching the artistic intentions with your financial capacities is very hard, but that's what distinguishes good from mediocre Festival directors, i.e. good from mediocre festivals.

With that in mind,  The Best Festival 2010 was undoubtedly the one in Aix-en-Province:

Bayreuth 2011, Bregenz 2011

It looks strange to see the Bayreuth Festival program without The Ring of the Nibelung on it. You may already consult the program of the Festival in Bayreuth 2011. We note:

• New production of Tannhäuser directed by Sebastien Baumgarten [Berlin native who developed his skills at a small theater in Kassel, recently produced Werther for Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Orest for Komische Oper], and with Thomas Hengelbrock [excellent in Mozart - hopefully good in Tannhäuser too]

• Tristan und Isolde directed by Christoph Marthaler will be back on in 2011. If you decide to see it on DVD, please do try and see it more than once -- it is necessary. I would also suggest a chapter written by Slavoj Zizek in "In Search of Wagner" because they both [Marthaler and Zizek] opened a new view on Tristan.  
• Stefan Herheim's historic production of Parsifal will be back, as well as the Neuenfels' Lohengrin - rats! Ah yes, Die Meistersinger will be getting more tired in their last run next year [Rise your hand if you liked this production! - What? Nobody?!]

In Bregenz, instead, they will present a new production of Andrea Chénier on their big stage [to replace Aida that was on for last two years] floating on the lake Konstanz. The show will be directed by Keith Wariner [who'll also replace Kasper Holten as artistic director of the Danish National Opera in July 2011]. Their indoor opera next year will be Miss Fortune (Achterbahn), a new opera composed by Judith Weir, co-produced with the Royal Opera, CG. The show will be directed by Shi-Zheng Chen, and Paul Daniel will conduct.

Belcanto fans...

Here is your treat 2010:  Olga Peretyatko electrified the Rossini Opera Festival by the finale of  "Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo" and the video is appended to this post. Enjoy!

Salzburg 2011: Easter and Summer Festival

As we all know the Salzburg Festival celebrated its 90th anniversary this year. But besides the Summer Festival, Salzburg also hosts the Easter Festival [initiated by Herbert von Karajan (not fave) in 1967], and so every year you may hop to Salzburg for your Easter holidays and enjoy a series of concerts and one new opera production. There is a snag however: the seats are prohibitively expensive, but since the shows are co-produced with regular opera houses you can opt for a more affordable solution and see the same production at co-producer's.

Last year the Paris Opera was a co-producer and so we could see a hideous production of Niccolo Giommelli's opera Demofoonte [dir. Cesare Lievi, cond. Riccardo Muti] at Palais Garnier.
This year the opera production was Die Götterdämmerung [dir. Stéphane Braunschweig, cond. Simon Rattle] which was premiered at the Festival in Aix-en-Provence 2009, and was pretty awful too.

To break the spell of awful productions the organizers decided to engage Stefan Herheim and Heike Scheele (who else?!) and propose in 2011 a new production of Salomé -- with Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, and the cast: Emily Magee, Iain Paterson, Pavol Breslik, Stig Andersen, Hanna Schwarz. Two shows are scheduled for April 16 and 25 2011.

I heard that two other opera houses co-produce the show, one of which is supposedly Semperoper Dresden. If anyone knows more about this, please do share it with us...

As for the Summer Festival 2011...

Operadar: Sigismondo Pesarese

One festival we didn't see [and maybe should have] is the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF), which every year takes place in Rossini's native town of Pesaro.

The main event of this year's festival was the rarely staged/performed opera Sigismondo. It was broadcast on the Rai Radio Tre, I listened to it and it's like your usual Rossini...

Salzburg 2010: Assorted pics (3) - austroduck mozart and...

OK, some more pics to fit with a title of this blog... But before, here is a pic of that `hideous' squeaky thing that I also found at the shop of the Modern Art Museum [always in Salzburg]. Its name is apparently austroduck mozart [and its price-tag says ~10€] :-)

Salzburg 2010: Assorted pics (2)

Now, what is wonderful about Salzburg is that you can have your relaxing, and yet active, holidays in the surrounding mountains. Since they are only 30-50 km (~30 miles) away from the city center, you can spend a few days like that: tracking and enjoying the countryside during the day and go to see an opera in Salzburg in the evening.

 

Salzburg 2010: Assorted pics (1)

Here is the first of two posts containing a selection of assorted pics I took in Salzburg 2010. Hope they give you a bit of Salzburg flavor and you decide to go and see it all yourself next year. If you book your hotel (and even better, various bed & breakfast deals!) in January or February, you may get some good deals and staying in Salzburg will not be expensive.

This is a central street of Salzburg downtown. It's always lively pedestrian-area, touristy, but pleasant anyway. When you cross the bridge you can find a street very similar to this one [that other street is called Linzer-Gasse]. Still this central street remains more attractive because in the middle of it you'll find the birth-house of Wolfgang A.