In Petr Weigl’s production of Richard Strauss’s powerful and erotic one-act opera, Catherine Malfitano produces a spellbinding performance as Salome, a role which demands the utmost physical and emotional commitment throughout the complex vocal passages and choreographed scenes. During a banquet, Jochanaan (John the Baptist) proclaims, from his prison cell, the coming of the Messiah. He is brought for Salome to see and she, fascinated by him, makes an advance which he shuns, urging her not to follow the ways of her mother, Herodias. When Jochanaan is taken back to his cell, Herod asks Salome to dance, and she agrees on condition that she will be granted a wish. After her Dance of the Seven Veils, she demands the head of Jochanaan, which Herod is forced to have brought to her. She fondles and kisses it until the revolted Herod orders his soldiers to crush her with their shields.
Ermione
Recorded at Glyndebourne’s superb opera house, this lavishly praised production of Rossini’s forgotten and unusual tragic opera has proved to be an unequivocal success. Based on Racine’s Andromaque, this account of the Greek and Trojan love tangle has been set by Graham Vick in the classically-inspired auditorium of an Italian opera house, rather than in ancient Greece. The set designs, with their striking colours, forms and lighting are as if created especially for the small screen. “Ermione leapt into the house as a drama – engaging, fiery, tragic, profound” OPERA
I due Foscari
Acclaim for La Scala’s new Foscari: “Plácido Domingo is the definitive Francesco of recent times” (Financial Times).” Here is Plácido Domingo’s latest conquest: the leading baritone role of Francesco Foscari in Verdi’s darkly atmospheric, melodically generous early opera, based on Lord Byron’s play. Set in 15th-century Venice, I due Foscari is the forerunner of Simon Boccanegra, and Domingo’s triumph as the Doge set the seal on this critically lauded new production from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the ultimate Verdi shrine. Declaring the legendary singer “the definitive Francesco of recent times”, the Financial Times’s reviewer also had high praise for the rest of La Scala’s superb cast, from “Andrea Concetti’s solid Loredano, to the immaculate Francesco Meli in a perfect match for Jacopo. Anna Pirozzi makes a triumphant house debut as Lucrezia. She wins hearts and minds through fearsome dramatisation and thrilling vocal power. But the revelation of the night is [conductor] Michele Mariotti.”
Hänsel und Gretel
In bringing the work back to the Wiener Staatsoper for its first new production since World War II – inventively directed by Adrian Noble, former Artistic Director of Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company – it’s no surprise that, as one of today’s most admired interpreters of both Wagner and Strauss, German conductor Christian Thielemann should particularly relish the musical echoes of those composers’ works in Humperdinck’s score. In Opera magazine’s words, “He polished all these moments with refinement and subtlety, inspiring the Staatsopernorchester to play with energy, engagement and transparence.” Other reviews were equally ecstatic, praising both the orchestra’s “fabulously resplendent and silky playing” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and Thielemann’s “concern for an elegantly flowing musical line … and for a lightness and transparency that allow this noble music to sparkle in manifold ways” – in short, the whole performance was “musically exceptional … a miniature miracle in sound” (Wiener Zeitung).
Le Nozze di Figaro
The young conductor Dan Ettinger is fascinating for the great musical sensibility with which he directs an attractive young cast that is not only altogether convincing vocally but absolutely ready to grace the screen. And it is those very singers – “the sweet-voiced, appealing soprano Marina Janková”, “the alluring soprano Anett Fritsch” and “the charismatic bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni” (New York Times) – who capture our hearts. It all sounds so full of life and so finely judged as it is being played out on stage. At the end, Luca Pisaroni’s vocally impressive Count approaches his melancholy Countess (Anett Fritsch) with a glass of champagne and a plea for pardon. “The waves of applause have already begun, for Bechtolf extends Da Ponte’s ‘corriam tutti a festeggiar’ almost as an invitation to the audience, which indeed joins in the festivities with gusto.” (Die Presse) The concluding work of the Da Ponte trilogy succeeds as a great evening of opera in the hands of Sven-Erich Bechtolf with the Vienna Philharmonic. Simply marvellous Mozart music from Mozart’s birthplace.
Der Freischütz
Axel Köhler’s production of Der Freischütz at the Dresden State Opera was described by Die Presse as “a minor miracle in Dresden”. In the words of the Salzburger Nachrichten, Köhler “scored a bulleye” with his sombre and satanic interpretation of Weber’s Romantic opera about love, temptation, souls sold to the Devil, obsession andfaith. According to the Financial Times, Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle conjured up a sense of “mortal terror from the orchestra pit. […] Thielemann is in command of every detail. That makes for utterly gripping listening.”
La Traviata
Star tenor and director Rolando Villazón has staged probably Verdi’s best known masterpiece in colourful, lively and emotion-packed form at the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden, so he made for “an enthusiastic reception for the premiere” (Stuttgarter Zeitung)! Villazón’s signature, both as singer and director, is unmistakable. He made his international breakthrough as Alfredo Germont and now, 10 years later, the Mexican-born singer has produced a Traviata full of energy, attention to detail and even a hint of melancholy. Villazón chooses an unusual approach by relocating the action of the great and tragic love affair between Alfredo and the courtesan Violetta to the colourful and noisy world of the circus. Olga Peretyatko as Violetta delivers “a fantastic portrait of the title role wavering between adolescent joie de vivre, mature insight and anguish” (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Her partner is the young Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan as the jealous Alfredo, who delivers a “beguiling interpretation with a dark, warm timbre and rich top notes” (Stuttgarter Zeitung). Simone Piazzolla as Alfredo’s strict father Giorgio Germont adds fine vocal lines to provide a strong sense of “Italianità” on stage (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Directing the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble is the young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.
Elektra
The NorrlandsOperan’s Symphony Orchestra is lead by conductor and grammy award nominee Rumon Gamba, gives the music its powerful and expressive note. Strauss’ courage inspired Carlus Padrissa of La Fura Dels Baus in his staging of Elektra’s wrath and vindictiveness and for giving the atmosphere for that, West Bothnian twilight is the perfect background for the burning forest and the river of blood. Elektra is sung by Ingela Brimberg who’s “powerful voice filled soul, earth and sky” (Kulturkorren).
Tannhäuser
“A real feast of music! Where to begin, where to end with praise for this Tannhäuser at the Berlin Staatsoper in the Schillertheater? It sounds the way one has always dreamt of it
but all too rarely heard it”, reported the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung with considerable enthusiasm. This was due above all to Barenboim’s musical magic: “It is with nuance and fine balance that Richard Wagner’s music now rises from the orchestra pit” (FAZ), borne aloft by brilliant singers. Peter Seiffert in particular as Tannhäuser celebrates a true “triumph”, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Staged by choreographer Sasha Waltz on a fantastic stage by Pia Maier Schriever with a circular tunnel of light in the manner
of Hieronymus Bosch, the Berlin Tannhäuser deserves to be described as “world-class” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Fidelio
Since its complete recording of all Beethoven’s symphonies and their performance as a cycle in New York, Paris and at the Salzburg Festival, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and its principal conductor Paavo Järvi are established as truly ideal interpreters of the music of Beethoven. According to The New York Sun they are “the authoritative Beethoven orchestra of our day”.