In her production, the director and choreographer Gabriela Carrizo sets out to explore the identity and motives of Carmen, a quasi-mythical woman. As in her creations for her Peeping Tom dance theatre company, notable for their intense physicality, multilayered meanings and poetic power, she zooms in on the psyche and unconscious of the characters. The Utopia Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by Teodor Currentzis, who has led five previous opera productions in Salzburg. Asmik Grigorian, Jonathan Tetelman, Kristina Mkhitaryan and Davide Luciano take on the main roles.
Carmen
“A ‘Carmen’ dominated by emotionality”, wrote the press about this unforgettable interpretation of Georges Bizet’s masterpiece from Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu with an outstanding quartet of lead vocalists and a visually stimulating staging by Calixto Bieito. Conducted by Marc Piollet, the production features Béatrice Uria-Monzon as “a splendid and sensual” (elPeriódico) Carmen, Roberto Alagna as Don José, Marina Poplavskaya as Micaela and Erwin Schrott as Escamillo. Stage director Calixto Bieito conjures up a sensual, realistic atmosphere with sparse but powerfully symbolic props.
Hommage à Séville
Hommage à Séville
Carmen
Stealing the show of this “Carmen” production is Anna Netrebko as Micaela, who gives the role a strikingly authentic touch. The lead role is sung and acted with a panther-like grace by Bulgarian mezzo Nadia Krasteva. She and her equally dazzling fellow leads Massimo Giordano as Don José and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Escamillo infuse this revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1978 production with drama and irrepressible life. Imparting his own personal stamp on the music is the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons, who leads the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper with contagious passion and fresh, brisk tempi.
Carmen
From the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 1991 Bizet’s much-loved opera, a fateful story of jealousy and passion, was staged at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in a quintessentially Spanish production by the eminent director Nuria Espert, with designs by Gerardo Vera and costumes by Franca Squarciapino. Zubin Mehta conducts an outstanding cast, with Luis Lima as Don José, Gino Quilico as Escamillo, Leontina Vaduva as Micaela and starring the sensational Maria Ewing, aloof and magnetic, in the title role she has made her own. (Sung in French)
Carmen
If Herbert von Karajan continues to be a looming presence in today’s classical music world, then it is not only because of his more than 800 records and CDs, but also because of the many hours of video recordings which he produced over the course of many years. He began preserving his performances on film back in 1965 with ‘La Bohème’. His ‘Carmen’ is based on his 1966 production for the Salzburg Festival with Grace Bumbry – one of the greatest interpreters of the title role in our time –, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni and Justino Diaz in the lead roles.
Hommage à Séville
Love Duets – Sonya Yoncheva & Vittorio Grigolo at Arena di Verona
In the imposing Arena di Verona, soprano Sonya Yoncheva and tenor Vittorio Grigolo present with dramatic and passionate synergy an evening of the most beautiful operatic love arias and duets in opera history. Passion that burns, consumes and sometimes kills is the central theme of this concert including arias from Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod as well as from Puccini´s Tosca, La bohème, Madama Butterfly and Verdi´s La traviata, all conducted by Plácido Domingo. Sonya Yoncheva has the full and vibrant timbre of a true lyrical soprano while Vittorio Grigolo, like Cavaradossi and Rodolfo, plays the cards of ardor and passion, with sweet and affectionate colors. An overall successful evening.
Carmen
In this prestigious production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, world-famous and highly controversial stage director Calixto Bieito, admired for his raw and evocative stagings, sees in Carmen the embodiment of the mythical gypsy and touches upon sensitive issues such as racism, xenophobia and right-wing politics. Bieito conjures up a sensual and realistic atmosphere full of powerful symbolism. An outstanding quartet of vocal stars, led by a “splendid and sensual” (El Periódico) Béatrice Uria-Monzon in the title role, delivers one of the most exciting Carmens in recent years: Roberto Alagna as Don José, Erwin Schrott as Escamillo and Marina Poplavskya as Micaëla.