Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, one of the most played operas today, is performed on the Seebühne for the first time. “Enrique Mazzola leads the Wiener Symphoniker to a beguiling string sound and a flexibility that is so important for Puccini” (Der Tagesspiegel). “Barno Ismatullaeva manages the great aria of Cio-Cio-San touchingly beautifully” (SZ). Stage Director is Andreas Homoki, who together with Michael Levine’s magical stage set with ist subtle landscape paintings brings Japanese flair to Lake Constance, supported not at least by Antony McDonald’s colourful costumes. “These are beautiful filigree images that director Andreas Homoki and his team […] have created” (Der Standard).
Il turco in Italia
The performance of Il turco in Italia at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro is presented as a totally renewed production. With references to films of the iconic film director Federico Fellini “Davide Livermore brought it all together adding the perfect physical comic schtick that matched up perfectly with the musical pace of Rossini’s masterpiece – it was spectacular” (Opera Today). “Obviously the brilliant outcome of the performance is also due to Speranza Scapucci’s conducting, well prepared and highly talented, …” (Il Resto del Carlino Pesaro). The cast featuring Erwin Schrott, “who manages the most intricate colloratura effortlessly with his agile, beautiful bass- baritone…” (General-Anzeiger) and Olga Peretyatko being “the ideal cast” (Das Opernglas) made it a marvellous performance.
Arena di Verona Box
Three great performances from Arena di Verona! Il Trovatore: „Zeffirelli gives to the arena what it merits: a colourful, multifaceted staging in which impressive mass scenes alternate with intimate moments […]“ (Der Neue Merker) Don Giovanni: Carlos Álvarez is “of beautiful voice” (GP Opera) and “presumably todays best Don Giovanni”. (L’ape musicale) Plácido Domingo Opera Gala: 12 times Grammy winner Plácido Domingo in the title roles as Nabucco, Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra with “top phrasing and articulation, his baritone with full and sonorous intonation and a unique timbre.” (Das Opernglas).
We are Musical – Musical Highlights from Vienna
As part of the big musical concert, musical stars Carin Filipcic, Maya Hakvoort, Vanessa Heinz, Wietske van Tongeren, Gino Emnes, Oedo Kuipers, Lukas Perman and Mark Seibert perform the most beautiful melodies from the famous musicals Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), Mozart!, I am from Austria, Don Camillo & Peppone, Rebecca, Elisabeth, Der Besuch der alten Dame (The Visit) and Schikaneder in the amazing atmosphere of the Vienna Ronacher. The Gala is hosted by VBW’s Artistic Director Christian Struppeck.
Nerone
Arrigo Boito’s libretti, including those for Giuseppe Verdis’s Otello and Falstaff, are some of the most outstanding achievements in operatic history and his own completed opera Mefistofele is present on the opera stages. On his opera Nerone Boito started working in 1862, but struggeled to complete it immediately, leaving it unfinished for several decades. It became his life’s work and it was only after his death that the conductor Arturo Toscanini created a performable version. The world premiere was held at La Scala Milan in 1924. Boito´s opera Nerone is here available for the first time on DVD/Blu-ray “Musically it´s brilliant.“ (Wiener Zeitung) and “Rafael Rojas triumphs in the murderous role of Nero, Lucio Gallo (Mago) is a great prince of darkness“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Jenufa
Jenufa is still Janácek’s most successful and most often performed opera, and the Berlin premiere at the Staatsoper in 1924 brought the work its final breakthrough on German stages. This performance from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden is “artistically unsurpassable. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, the cast […], secondly: the direction […], thirdly: Simon Rattle, the Staatskapelle and the chorus of the Staatsoper” (BR Klassik). “Simon Rattle revs up the Staatskapelle Berlin with a passion as if he had to fill a melodrama by Giacomo Puccini with bursting sound life” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). “A beguiling mixture of speaking articulation and tonal roundness.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Orlando
“A vivid Orlando makes history in Vienna” (New York Times International): Olga Neuwirth’s opera Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name, is the first full-length opera work by a woman celebrating its premiere at the Vienna State Opera. Olga Neuwirth, for a long time one of the great composers of the present, succeeds with this opera in creating a captivating arc across many musical genres. It’s an exciting, socially critical production by Polly Graham who puts a fantastically singing and playing Kate Lindsey in the center of the action. For Orlando Olga Neuwirth won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, it became “world premiere of the year” by Opernwelt magazine and for Die Zeit it was “the premiere of the season”. BONUS: Interviews with Kate Lindsey, Will Duke (Video Designer), Lucas Niggli (drummer)
Three Tenors – Voices for Eternity
The documentary Three Tenors – Voices for Eternity, tells the story of the most successful concert in the history of classical music, featuring recent interviews with José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Pavarotti‘s widow Nicoletta Mantovani, Lalo Schifrin, Brian Large, Mario Dradi, Paul Potts, Sir Bryn Terfel, Norman Lebrecht, Didier de Cottignies and many more. Behind-the-scenes-footage, showing the emotional highlights of the first concert and the sequel in Los Angeles offers a fascinating insight into what takes place beyond the spotlight and it includes excerpts from the legendary concert of the Original Three Tenors – José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, conducted by Zubin Mehta at the Terme di Caracalla, Rome 1990 on the eve of the Football World Cup..
David Garrett: Unlimited
Star violinist David Garrett celebrates his ten-year spectacular crossover programme with thousands of fans in the extraordinary atmosphere of the Arena di Verona, Italy. Performing his Greatest Hits of brilliant interpretations of rock classics like “We Are The Champions” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and world-famous pop songs like “Viva La Vida” or “Hey Jude” and his arrangements of classical melodies like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, David Garrett left a thrilled audience in the Arena.
Der Freischütz
Christian Räth’s inspired staging of Der Freischütz, Weber’s seminal Romantic opera, at the Haus am Ring stands out due to the bold set and costume design by Gary McCann. It was “a festival of singers, that the young conductor Tomas Netopil underscored with the State Opera Orchestra with warmth. Andreas Schager, the immense Heldentenor, as Max, Camilla Nylund as the touching Agathe – a magnificent pair. The other roles were also well cast … “ (Salzburger Nachrichten)