The 2021 edition of the Macerata Opera Festival was inaugurated with the same opera chosen in 1921 by Count Pier Alberto Conti. At that time, the Sferisterio, formerly a stadium for an ancient ball game, was turned into a venue for opera performances. 2021 was actually a double celebration: Aida, one of the most loved operas, premiered in Cairo in 1871, so this marks its 150th anniversary. Teatro. “A completely singular reading of Verdi’s score, supported by an undisputed musicality.” Connessi all’opera
Simon Boccanegra
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra is regarded by connoisseurs as an insider tip of oppressive topicality: men make history and women are the victims. A gloomy atmosphere, political power struggles, family dramas – live from the Vienna State Opera in the production of grandmaster Peter Stein with an excellent cast, starring Thomas Hampson in the title role, Francesco Meli as Gabriele Adorno and Marina Rebeka as the all-outshining Amelia. In the orchestra pit: Evelino Pidò.
Falstaff
The love-crazed, fat, old Falstaff becomes the laughing stock of a women’s intrigue. In Giuseppe Verdi’s comic opera – opulently staged by director David McVicar – Carlos Álvarez shines in the role of a vocally grandiose and stunningly funny Sir John. Impressive also the rest of the ensemble – above all, Vienna’s favorite Simon Keenlyside as Ford.
Falstaff
Falstaff is Verdi’s masterpiece of comic opera, in which the behaviour of the ageing Sir John Falstaff, a devious freeloader and would-be ladykiller, causes uproar in the petty-bourgeois household of the Windsor’s. In Berlin, Mario Martone updates the action to the present day and shows Falstaff as ageing rebel in dodgy sideburns and leather jacket. Among the “exquisit vocal cast”, Michael Volle gives his debut in the title role “as if he had been preparing for this role for a lifetime” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Simon Boccanegra
When Simon Boccanegra is elected Doge of the City of Genoa, it seems to offer the opportunity of reconciliation between the Patricians and the Plebeians. But he becomes entangled in family tragedies and power plays. Simon Boccanegra is Verdi’s most sombre work, yet enthralling with its strong drive to love and freedom. To unveil the moving score, the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne is joined by Verdi specialist Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, who is known for an intimiate and precise knowledge of the Italian master’s style.
Macbeth
Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful opera “Macbeth” received a fulminant staging at the newly reopened Staatsoper Unter den Linden by legendary stage director Harry Kupfer. In this new production superstars Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko were singing the title roles. Maestro Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle Berlin portraying the many-layered motives of the opera’s characters “at their very best” (NZZ). This “magical moment of opera” (NZZ) was an “exhilarating success” (SZ). While Domingo “still fascinates the audience after decades” (rbb24), Netrebko performed “perhaps the best role of her life” yet (rbb24). Kwangchul Youn and Fabio Sartori shone as Banquo and Macduff. With monumental choral scenes, the Staatsopernchor did not only sing, but also play ist acting role brilliantly. With ist black marble halls and ist larger-than-life-projections, the stage design by Hans Schavernoch was striking. “A lot of cheering for this evening of legends.” (BR Klassik)
Rigoletto
France’s most tradition-steeped theatre festival, the Chorégies d’Orange, presents Verdi’s Rigoletto on the open air stage of the city’s ancient Roman theatre – Europe’s best preserved amphitheatre – in a staging by Charles Roubaud. Sung by Leo Nucci, the title role of the tragic hero Rigoletto, hunchbacked court jester of the Duke of Mantua, appears “more touching than ever”. He and Nadine Sierra as his daughter Gilda form a “perfect symbiosis which inevitably leaves you speechless – an exceptional evening full of adrenaline” (ForumOpéra).
Falstaff
The stout Sir John Falstaff has financial problems. To refill his empty pockets he strives for amorous affairs with Alice and Meg, the wives of the rich citizens Ford and Page. The two ladies might even have consented, had they not received identical love letters. So they decide to play a trick on him. At the same time Alice exposes her husband’s chronic jealousy. In the end, Nannetta, the Fords’ daughter, is allowed to marry for love against her father’s plans.
Finally, a nightly masquerade in Windsor park brings out the moral of the story: „Tutto nel mondo è burla – All the world’s a burlesque“.
Towards the end of his operatic work, Giuseppe Verdi succeeds in a brilliant comedy of characters with philosophical wisdom and sparkling musical wit. The libretto of Arrigo Boito is based upon William Shakespeare’s comedy „The Merry Wives of Windsor“ and scenes from „Henry IV“.
Bernd Weikl’s witty production shows the simultaneity of tragedy and comedy. The opera’s motto „All the world’s a burlesque“ is also reflected in the stage design of Thomas Doerfler and in the costumes of Julia Holewik. Both set and clothes are inspired by Shakespeare’s theatre, the Italian tradition of „Commedia dell’ arte“ and the world of circus.”
Don Carlos
In 1964 Deutsche Oper Berlin still had no General Music Director. But Artistic Director Gustav Rudolf Sellner made a virtue out a necessity and – in addition to the permanent conductor Heinrich Hollreiser and the regular guest conductor Karl Böhm – brought in further conductors from home and abroad for individual productions. For “Don Carlos” he invited Wolfgang Sawallisch, who since 1957 had been making a name for himself at the Bayreuth Festival, above all with “Tannhäuser” and the “Flying Dutchman” and since 1960 had been acting General Music Director in Hamburg. He had at his disposal an ensemble of outstanding soloists. In addition to Josef Greindl and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, they included James King in the title role, Pilar Lorengar, Martti Talvela, Patricia Johnson and Lisa Otto as the Voice from Heaven. Sung in German.
Otello
When Renata Tebaldi sang “Desdemona” in Verdi’s Otello at London’s Covent Garden in 1950, it was her first operatic performance outside Italy. It was also the role in which she made her last appearance on the opera stage, at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1973. Between these two performances she made close to a hundred stage appearances as Desdemona, not to mention two studio recordings with Alberto Erede and Herbert von Karajan. It was Arturo Toscanini who coined for her the moniker “voce d’angelo” (voice of an angel). She made her highly acclaimed debut as “Desdemona” at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955 and from that moment on made New York the focus of her life. From there she made regular and extended concert tours all over the world, but opera appearances in Europe – particularly northern Europe – were extremely rare. Tebaldi visited Berlin on just two occasions. She gave a rapturously received concert in the Deutschlandhalle in May 1961. On that occasion she promised her fans she would return, and the Berliner Morgenpost even heard it “rumoured” she would appear in her classic role as Desdemona at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, which was about to reopen. This Otello production was planned as a media event from the outset, with cameras in attendance even at the preliminary rehearsal stage. Whereas the first performance took place before an invited audience on 30 August 1962 and was given over entirely to a TV recording by Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), the second performance was open to the opera-going public and was broadcast by SFB-Hörfunkprogramm.