Nearly 22,000 spectators fill the amphitheater to watch the spectacle unfold on the world’s largest opera stage. Director Alfonso Signorini’s production of Puccini’s beloved La Bohème transports the summery Arena to a snow-covered Paris of the 19th century. The tragic love story at the centre of the work is convincingly portrayed by audience favourite Vittorio Grigòlo and rising star Juliana Grigoryan, who is making her debut in the Arena. Grigòlo’s “‘full throttle’ Rodolfo shows energy and charisma, winning the audience over from the first notes” and Grigoryan moves the crowd as Mimì: “Her voice is rich, flowing with phrasing and precision, conveying emotions of love, hope and suffering without being victimized” (Artes News). The rest of the ensemble gives remarkable performances, toeing the line between light-heartedness and heartbreak perfectly. Especially outstanding: Eleonora Bellocci as Musetta “steals the show…her vocal agility and dynamism remain steadfast from her charming and flawless Waltz onwards” (Artes News). The orchestra, in the capable hands of Daniel Oren, “creates expressive and effective musical fabric” (Corriere dello Spettacolo).
Arena di Verona Festival 2023: Tosca
It is an event that attracts thousands of music lovers to Verona every summer: the opera season in the ancient Roman Arena. Nearly 22,000 spectators regularly fill the mphitheater for the performances. The dream couple of opera, Sonya Yoncheva and Vittorio Grigòlo, returns to the breathtaking open-air stage, to perform Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca. Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva is “one of the best Toscas currently singing” and Vittorio Grigòlo “the most Italian Cavaradossi we know. With lots of wonderful melting, elegant and nonchalant full of triumphant greatness a triumph all along the line” (Online Merker). The captivating staging by Argentine director Hugo de Ana, who masterfully exploits the amphitheatre’s vast space by placing huge elements on the stage that are reminiscent of or borrowed from the locations of the action, makes the opera a “spectacle of monumental opulence” (Online Merker). “A Tosca to relish!” Artesnews.it
Arena di Verona Festival 2022: Turandot
The Arena di Verona honours Italian stage director and filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli and his legendary production of Turandot. His imposing cinematographic production reproduces imperial China thanks to its impressive scenery and scenes, enriched by the sumptuous costumes of the Oscar-winning Japanese costume designer Emi Wada. Everything helps to highlight the atmosphere of the drama of enigma per excellence, where life itself is in danger and the answer lies in love, which melts the protagonist’s icy heart. “Netrebko does not merely sing it: she interprets it. What emerges is a character much more human and ultimately truer than usual” (La Stampa)
Turandot
Visionary stage director Stefano Poda continues his successful collaboration with conductor Gianandrea Noseda. He stages Puccini’s masterpiece about Princess Turandot, whose cold heart is won by her cunning suitor Prince Calaf, as “a stirring theatrical spectacle of great sensuality” (Operalounge). Grammy Award nominee Noseda at the helm of the “impeccable” orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino impressively conducts the Italian composer’s final opera “as modern as you have rarely experienced it. Chapeau!” (Operalounge)
La Bohème
120 years after its very first performance, which took place at Teatro Regio di Torino, La Bohème returns to the tradition-steeped Italian opera house. With director Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus and music director Gianandrea Noseda the Teatro Regio presents a spectacular, up-to-date anniversary production featuring a young, lively and high-quality cast. “A triumphant youthful Bohème”, in which the singers excel due to their naturalness. Giorgio Berrugi sings his Rodolfo “with a luminous timbre, in refined nuances” (La Stampa), perfectly matching “Irina Lungu’s full-bodied Mimì” (The London Times). All in all, “this is theatre, this is life, this is passion” (Corriere della sera).
La fanciulla del West
Like “Madama Butterfly,” Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La fanciulla del west” was based on a stage play by the American author David Belasco. At its triumphal world premiere in 1910 in New York, Enrico Caruso sang the part of Johnson.
Jonas Kaufmann: Dolce Vita – Live at Waldbühne Berlin
Italy! Like nowhere else on earth – the sunshine and sea salt, the smell of citrus and coffee, a flirtatious glance, an incomparable song drawn deep from… the heart. Italy and ist immortal music have a magical pull on people like no other culture – and Jonas Kaufmann feels this particularly keenly. In his “Dolce Vita” concert at Berlin’s Waldbühne he pays tribute to this culture, this way of life that has conceived one immortal melody after the other for the tenor voice and influenced him so much. This is a heartfelt tribute to Italian music including Caruso, Mattinata, Parla più piano (‘The Godfather’ theme), Core ‘ngrato, Volare and famous arias by Verdi, Puccini and more!
La Rondine
Internationally acclaimed tenor and stage director Rolando Villazon’s new production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine. Fabulous and emerging soprano Dinara Alieva (described by soprano Montserrat Caballe as “a singer who possessed the gift of heaven”) appears in the leadying-lady role of Magda. World-renowned Charles Castronovo – one of the leading lyric tenors of his generation – sings the hero’s role of Ruggero.
Il Volo – Notte Magica “A Tribute To The Three Tenors”
“Notte Magica – A Tribute To The Three Tenors” – on July 7, 1990, a magical night took place in Rome: José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti sang together for the very first time in one of the most evocative temples of opera, the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome giving life to the biggest classical music project of the century, The Three Tenors. Twenty-six years later, worldwide platinum selling artists, Il Volo, pay tribute to the event and to the Three Tenors with a live concert event, “Notte Magica – A Tribute to The Three Tenors”. The concert took place at the Piazza Santa Croce, one of the most beautiful plazas in Florence with the famous Teatro Massimo di Palermo Orchestra. Il Volo performed some of the most famous Neapolitan songs and arias from the Italian and international operatic repertoire all of which were sung by the original Three Tenors. As a special guest, Maestro Plácido Domingo conducted almost half of the program and joined Il Volo singing the classic “Non ti scordar di me”. Although Il Volo were not yet born when The Three Tenors first performed, they grew up listening to them, being fascinated and inspired by their voices and legendary achievements. Now, Il Volo deliver this music to a younger audience so they can experience the same emotions from that long ago magical night.
Madama Butterfly
An acclaimed cinematic adaptation of Puccini’s popular opera about the tragic love affair between a naive geisha and the American naval officer who deserts her and their young child. Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman’s disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn of the century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set; airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skillfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton. Featuring Chinese soprano Ying Huang and American tenor Richard Troxell.