The Belgian dancer, choreographer and multi-talent Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who has worked with top artists across disciplines like superstar Beyoncé, interprets Gluck’s late Baroque opera as an impressive symbiosis between dance and music. The singers cast, including Dorothea Röschmann, is compelling right up to the small roles. Conductor Antonello Manacorda and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester play phenomenally, the chorus of the Bayerische Staatsoper “sings magnificent” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Lucia di Lammermoor
In Laurent Pelly’s dream-like staging of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, one of the most important bel canto works of all time, a top vocal cast shines at the Wiener Staatsoper. When the phenomenal Olga Peretyatko shows the gripping downfall of Lucia, “music and theatre merge into an explosive mixture” (Wiener Zeitung). Juan Diego Flórez, the bel canto superstar, is “probably the world’s best Edgardo” (Kronenzeitung). George Petean joins them as Enrico in the emotional triangle of love, hate and passion. With Evelino Pidò on the rostrum, the orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper excels under this “ideal master of bel canto music” (Die Presse).
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.
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
The title role of “Les contes d’Hoffmann”, Jacques Offenbach’s most ambitious opera, requires an exceptional tenor. The Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam found him in John Osborn. He beautifully shows the sufferings of Hoffmann, the prototype of the German romantic period artist, in the “enormously clever production” (Concerti) by Tobias Kratzer. Among the top vocal cast are Nina Minasyan, Ermonela Jaho and Christine Rice as the three women in Hoffmann’s “tales”. Vocal powerhouse Erwin Schrott sparkles with devilish charisma and Carlo Rizzi excels on the rostrum of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. “Unanimous applause for all!” (NMZ)
Ermione
Ermione, the rare opera gemstone by Gioachino Rossini, like you have never seen it before: Filmmaker Felix Breisach captured the masterpiece, staged and conducted by Gustav Kuhn at the Tyrol Festival Erl in a shortened version especially made for this recording. The result is an opulent opera film, in which impressive exterior shots are combined with artistic shots of the dramatic action on stage. Maria Radoeva in the title role leads a cast of outstanding singers in a “festival” of “great voices” (Standard).
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. To win Agathe’s hand, the young assistant forester Max has to pass a test of skill in marksmanship. The desperate lover, in order to win the shooting contest, resorts to the use
of magic bullets. With his “magnificent Heldentenor”, Andreas Schager offers “a convincing portrait” and Camilla Nylund’s Agathe arias are “captivating poetry” (Kleine Zeitung Steiermark).
Tristan und Isolde
If there is one work that has been crucial to Barenboim’s conducting career, it has to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. From Bayreuth to Berlin through Milan and New-York, the Argentinian conductor has been working on piercing its secrets for more than 35 years, going as far as to author a book on the subject. In the pit of the newly renovated Staatsoper and at the head of the Staatskapelle Berlin, he once again makes magic happen. Dmitri Tcherniakov, no stranger to the work for having already staged it at the Mariinsky in 2005, delves into the psychological aspects of the drama and works to make the mythical lovers as relatable to as possible. He thus gives a new realistic depth to this opus, probably the most fascinating and odd among the wagnerian corpus. The Act III, which sees the tragic end of Tristan und Isolde’s doomed love affair, is striking by ist powerful simplicity, and the famous Liebestod, where Isolde bids farewell to her dead lover, reaches unparalleled levels of emotionality and intensity. Thanks to his demanding direction of the cast, but also to the precise light work by Gleb Filshtinsky, Tcherniakov once again manages to craft intense images which effectively resonate with the rapturous and voluptuous enchantments of the score. To complete this high-level artistic crew, the Staatsoper called upon some of the finest Wagner experts: Andreas Schager, already a superb Parsifal and a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival, is Tristan, Anja Kampe is an unforgettable Isolde, and Ekaterina Gubanova thrills as Brangäne.
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)
Tristan und Isolde
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is one of Bernstein’s finest opera recordings and still considered exemplary. Leonard Bernstein’s way of conducting this opera is unique and he makes orchestra and singers perform at their very best. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks was the only German orchestra with which Leonard Bernstein regularly collaborated for many years and it has numbered among the top ten orchestras in the world. A star cast of singers with Peter Hofmann and Hildegard Behrens in the title roles, completes this exceptional semi-staged production. Bernstein’s 1981 recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is still considered an outstanding interpretation and has set the bar until this day. When he heard this performance Karl Böhm said, “Bernstein has conducted Tristan und Isolde the way that Wagner intended it to be conducted”.