Set in Paris immediately before and during the French Revolution, Andrea Chénier is Giordano’s passionate and most successful opera. José Carreras stars in the title role as the idealistic poet of the French Revolution, and Maddalena, the object of Chénier’s adoration, is portrayed by Hungarian soprano Eva Marton. A servant-turned-revolutionary, Gérard, also loves Maddalena, and when he is elevated to the revolutionary court, he wreaks his revenge against Chénier who is condemned to death – Maddalena joins him in his cell and they go to the guillotine together. Gérard, torn between political and amorous loyalties, is the Italian baritone Piero Cappuccilli.
Don Carlos
Set in 16th-century France and Spain, Don Carlos tells of the political and amorous rivalry between King Philip II and his son, Don Carlos, over Elisabeth de Valois. Boasting an international cast in one of Verdi’s most popular operas, Luc Bondy’s moving production is the original French version restored to five acts.
Aida
Originally commissioned to celebrate the completion of the Suez Canal and the opening of Cairo’s new opera house, Verdi’s Egyptian epic Aida is here seen in a spectacular new staging specially mounted by the Teatro Regio Torino to celebrate the re-opening of Turin’s historic Museo Egizio, home to the world’s largest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of the Cairo Museum. Conducted by the Teatro Regio’s Music Director, Gianandrea Noseda – one of the world’s finest Verdians and Musical America’s Conductor of the Year 2015 – Turin’s authentically Egyptian staging is directed in true Hollywood style by the Oscar-winning American film director William Friedkin, creator of such famous movies as “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection”. Amongst the first-rate cast, critics singled out the American soprano Kristin Lewis, who exhibits “a remarkable voice, which she uses with powerful dramatic instinct” (La Stampa), and the Georgian mezzosoprano Anita Rachvelishvili, whose Amneris “dominates the stage with her dark, rounded, irrestistible voice and extraordinary stage presence” (La Gazzetta Musicale).
La Sonnambula
La Sonnambula at the Stuttgart Opera has proved a “great triumph. Not only for the directing duo but for the ensemble as a whole, for they have delivered a heart-warming miracle in their coordination of stage and orchestra, voice and roleplay” (Süddeutsche Zeitung): the production by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito was honoured at the International Opera Awards as “new production of the year” and ensemble member Ana Durlovski won the coveted theatre prize “Der Faust” for her portrayal of the somnambulist. Opernwelt magazine made her “newcomer of the year”, while the Stuttgart Opera chorus was named “opera chorus of the year” for the ninth time in 13 years.
Salome
Her ‘voice and acting are utterly overwhelming’ wrote the FAZ in its glowing review of Angela Denoke’s performance in Baden-Baden as the enigmatic young woman with a morbid interest in a captured prophet. The stellar cast also includes Alan Held as the doomed prophet; Kim Begley as the lustful Herodes; and Doris Soffel as the imperious Herodias. In a monumental set dominated by the panther-like Salome, director Nikolaus Lehnhoff depicts the inner tragedy of this young woman, who is both strong and weak, victim and perpetrator.
La Traviata
Hugo De Ana’s larger-than-life production of La Traviata is “compelling…a triumph,” (Opera Critic) when it fills the stage at the Arena di Verona, Italy. Albanian lyric soprano Ermonela Jaho, hailed as a “revelation” in the role of Violetta, is paired with Sardinian tenor Francesco Demuro as her impassioned lover, Alfredo.
Lulu
Following the acclaimed production of Wozzeck, the German director Andrea Breth returns to the Staatsoper with a new staging of Berg’s operatic masterpiece with sets by Erich Wonder and costumes by Moidele Bickel. Berg’s radical yet sumptuous score depicts the world of the iconic femme fatale Lulu, whose seemingly endless sexual charm takes her from love to love and finally to a murderous end. To realize the opera, Daniel Barenboim leads a stellar cast that includes Mojca Erdmann, Deborah Polaski, Anna Lapkovskaja and Michael Volle.
Aida
Probably no opera oeuvre and opera house has become more synonymous than Aida and the Arena di Verona: Verdi’s monumental most famous and most played opera established the Arena di Verona as an opera festival venue nearly 100 years ago. Since then, the Arena with its gigantic stage dimensions and its historic charm of a 2,000-year-old roman amphitheatre set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, has staged Verdi’s masterpiece more than 500 times. As a showpiece in the repertoire Aida is a challenge to the vocal, musical and dramatic means of every opera house. The tragic love story with a political background is ideal for a performance at the Arena. The vast space of the amphitheater provides a magnificent decoration, as would be typical for an epic film. At the center of the spectacle are the singers, the elaborate scenery and the unique atmosphere of the Arena with 20,000 seats. Responsible for the staging of this production is director Gianfranco de Bosio who revives the original production from 1913. Daniel Oren, the experienced and highly estimated Maestro of the Arena for almost 30 years, conducts the Orchestra…. Chinese soprano Hui He is in the lead role of Aida, Hungarian mezzo Andrea Ulbrich her rival Amneris, Italian tenor Marco Berti Aida’s beloved Ramadès and Italian baritone Ambrogio Maestri Aida’s father Amonasro. The Opera was produced in standard High Definition 1080 as well as in 3D.
La fanciulla del West
Exactly 101 years after the world premiere of Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Stockholm’s Royal Opera House now presents a brilliant, modern-day interpretation of this rarely played opera. While the lead role is sung by Nina Stemme, one of today’s best youthful-dramatic sopranos, the two male protagonists, John Lundgren and Aleksandrs Antonenko, can hardly be surpassed in vocal artistry and stage presence. Director Christof Loy stages the opera as an early Hollywood Western relating the impossible love of a young woman and the most wanted criminal in the West.
Ariadne auf Naxos
The proven Richard Strauss trio of Renée Fleming, Sophie Koch and Christian Thielemann gets together once again at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, which continues its series of triumphs after “Rosenkavalier”. In this colorful and humorous staging by Philippe Arlaud, Strauss specialist Thielemann leads his first opera at the head of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, which performed the world premieres of nine Strauss operas. While Renée Fleming dazzles in her role debut as the spurned Ariadne, Sophie Koch, Robert Dean Smith and Jane Archibald prove themselves worthy counterparts of the American soprano.