German conductor Ingo Metzmacher was appointed General Music Director of the Hamburg Opera in 1997, where he conducted a series of internationally acclaimed productions, many of them in collaboration with Stage Director Peter Konwitschny, over eight seasons. “Der Freischütz” was one of the highlights of their collaboration. The German opera magazine “Opernwelt” voted the Hamburg Opera House “Opera House of the year 2005”.
Les Troyens
Monumental operas deserve epochal stagings. And ‘Les Troyens’ by Hector Berlioz is such a work. This grand opera, complete with ensembles and ballets, large choruses and orchestral set pieces, is given an appropriately grand treatment in this production by the renowned Catalan theater group ‘La Fura dels Baus’ recorded at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts. In this coproduction with St. Petersburg’s Mariinski Theater and Warsaw’s Wielki Theater, the Fura’s director, Carlus Padrissa, has gathered around him his faithful collaborators Franc Aleu (video), Roland Olbeter (sets), Chu Uroz (costumes) and Peter van Praet (lighting) who crafted Valencia’s sensational ‘Ring des Nibelungen’ (also available from UNITEL ). ‘That this is such a feast for the eyes, a veritable orgy of optical opulence, is due to the sheer inexhaustible fantasy and creativeness of the Catalan artist group’ (Das Opernglas).
Bregenz Festival 2009: Aida
Stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure up an ‘open-air spectacle of superlatives’ (Die Zeit) that throws a bridge between ancient Egypt and today’s U.S. Under Carlo Rizzi, the Wiener Symphoniker brilliantly support the chorus and soloists, among whom Iano Tamar (Amneris) and Tatiana Serjan (Aida) stand out.
Don Giovanni
When it comes to Mozartian perfection on the opera stage, one needn’t always seek it in Milan, Vienna, Salzburg or New York. At the Sferisterio Opera Festival in the central Italian city of Macerata, a rapt audience was treated to a production ‘that will enter the annals of opera’ (ForumOpera.com). This ‘splendid production’ (OperaClick) by Pier Luigi Pizzi sweeps the viewer into a libertine, 18thcentury society dominated by erotic impulses.
La Traviata
The keystone of any production of Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ is the choice of the soprano to play the tender-hearted courtesan and doomed heroine Violetta Valéry. At the Sferisterio Opera Festival in the central Italian city of Macerata, the choice fell upon Mariella Devia – and it couldn’t have been more ideal for Massimo Gasparon’s stately production. The press was unanimous in acclaiming the ‘exhilarating’ (L’Opinione), ‘incomparable’ (Liberonews. it) singer, who ‘towers over the cast’ and is a ‘worthy representative of the great school of Italian singing’ (ForumOpera.com). A frequent and much-acclaimed Violetta, Mariella Devia boasts ‘perfect projection and intact vocal freshness’ (Rinascita).
Madama Butterfly
The superior cast of this production is dominated by Raffaella Angeletti in the title role, ‘certainly one of the best Butterflies of our time’ (ForumOpera.com), who has performed this role in many Italian theaters, as well as in Madrid and at the Vienna Staatsoper. As Pinkerton, Massimo Pisapia is ‘brilliant, bold and trim’ (L’Opinione) and Annunziata Vestri’s Suzuki ‘outstanding’ (Rinascita). The performance took place in the magnificent open-air neo-classical Arena Sferisterio built in the 1820s. Though unjustly garnering less international attention than other outdoor summer festivals such as Verona and Aix, the Sferisterio Opera Festival has become a true gem whose performances are enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences of genuine opera lovers from far and wide.
Così fan Tutte
Director Claus Guth’s production of Mozart’s da Ponte trilogy for the Salzburg Festival reaches its sensational conclusion with his elegant, stylish production from the “Haus für Mozart.” Guth bolsters the unity of the cycle by making ingenious reference to his stagings of the first two works, “Le nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” (both available from UNITEL). His widely acclaimed production of the trilogy, which began in the Mozart Year 2006, consolidates Guth’s international reputation as one of the most sought-after stage directors of our time.
Lohengrin
With Jonas Kaufmann’s long-awaited role debut as Lohengrin and Anja Harteros as Elsa, Wagner’s epic of love and loss was not only the opening premiere of the Munich Opera Festival, but its uncontested highlight as well. Which is why the performance was followed not only by a longsold- out house, but also by tens of thousands of spectators at a live public viewing event in Munich and Vienna.
Palestrina
Requiring 38 soloists, chorus and large orchestra, “Palestrina”, Hans Pfitzner’s (1869-1949) “most important work” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), is a challenging opera to stage. In Munich, the city in which it was given its world premiere in 1917, the Bavarian State Opera succeeded – director Christian Stückl, best known for his staging of the Oberammergau Passion Play and the Salzburg Festival’s “Jedermann”, transformed the monumental work into an optical pop art event. Stückl’s production infuses such color and life into the serious work that even the German tabloid “Abendzeitung” delightedly wrote: “Who would have thought that Pfitzner could be such fun?”
Admeto
When one of Germany’s most famous filmmakers and stimulating operatic directors focuses her creativity on a rarely performed Handel opera, the result is a ‘mixture of dancers and singers, comedy and pathos’ (The Times). ‘Admeto’, one of Handel’s most popular operas in his lifetime, was premiered in London in January 1727. Doris Dörrie, whose Japan-inspired feature film ‘Cherry Blossoms – Hanami’ was a major German box-office hit and won several international awards, returns to her beloved Japan in this production. Flowing robes, translucent panels and the participation of Japan’s Mamu Dance Theater and its choreographer/dancer Tadashi Endo add an evocative dimension to the work whose lead roles were written for a popular castrato and two rivaling primadonnas.