It‘s an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to Verona every summer: the opera season at the ancient Roman Arena. One of the highlights of the 2006 season was the riveting production of Puccini‘s “Tosca“ by Argentine director Hugo de Ana. Nearly 15,000 spectators regularly filled the amphitheater for the performances of the Puccini favorite with a stellar cast – Fiorenza Cedolins, Marcelo Álvarez and Ruggero Raimondi – under the baton of Daniel Oren. “An altogether perfect staging, with the director exploiting to the fullest the vast space of the amphitheater and designing grandiose scenes and magnificent costumes,“ wrote Italian daily Corriere della Sera
Tosca
“Especially notable: Sgura’s thrilling Scarpia, who made evil sound so perniciously quotidian, and the playing of an orchestra that lives and breathes this music.” (Operatraveller.com) In the unique atmosphere of the Sferisterio, a huge neoclassical arena erected in the 1820s, Argentinean director Valentina Carrasco stages her Tosca in a 1950s film set, thus corresponding to Puccini’s cinematographic compositional style. The cinematic realization of this recording underlines the cinematic character of the production. “Valentina Carrasco set up a real fictional machine, with all the bolts put in the right place, aided by an impeccable set design by Samal Blak, which would have been half as good without Peter van Praet’s essential lighting play” (Vivere fermo). Claudio Sgura’s Scarpia is “incredibly well sung” (Operatraveller.com). Long applause also for maestro Donato Renzetti, the festival’s new musical director.
Fidelio
None other than Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz has been engaged for the stage direction of the new production of Fidelio from the Theater an der Wien. There, at one of the oldest opera houses in Vienna, L.v. Beethoven was what one would call today a composer-in-residence. In his third opera production Waltz brilliantly stages the second version of the opera in the breathtaking set designed by the German-American architectural practice Barkow Leibinger. The abstract staircase landscape in the form of a double helix, symbolizing prison, extends space into the back theatre and is infinitely changeable in the cinematic lighting concept of Hollywood regular Henry Braham. Manfred Honeck at the rostrum of the dynamic Wiener Symphoniker leads a superb and versatile cast of “vocally oustanding“ (Der Standard) singers: Nicole Chevalier bewitches vocally and dramatically on her stage debut as Leonore, Eric Cutler gives Florestan a powerful voice. Christof Fischesser, Gábor Bretz, Mélissa Petit complete the strong ensemble. But the production, which was sold out months before, never saw its stage premiere, as the Theater an der Wien sadly had to shut down due to the Covid 19 pandemic a few days before. Thanks to an incredible effort by all participants, the opera house was converted into a film studio at short notice so that Christoph Waltz’s “convincing production” (Die Zeit) of Beethoven‘s flaming musical plea for freedom and humanity could be preserved for posterity. “An ingenious, enigmatic direction” (Münchner Merkur)
Falstaff
“The whole world is a jest, man was born a great jester…” So goes the brilliant conclusion to Verdi’s Falstaff, an opera inspired by Shakespeare’s beloved comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. The virtuosic score requires a particularly talented cast, not to mention a truly exceptional conductor. Herbert von Karajan perfectly fits the bill, and this performance featuring the Wiener Philharmoniker and an all-star group of singers is clearly worthy of Verdi’s powerful work, a masterpiece whose comic facade thinly veils the complex and sometimes even tragic characters’ struggles.
Tosca
Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca becomes a musical highlight with two much acclaimed role debuts of star singers Piotr Beczala and Carlos Álvarez at the Vienna State Opera in the revived, historic staging of Margarethe Wallmann. Beczala is undoubtely “one of the extraordinary singers of our time” (Der Standard), at his side is Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan as Primadonna Floria Tosca, making her house debut in Vienna. Marco Armiliato conducts the brilliantly playing Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper with love for detail and full of energy.
La Traviata
Pier Luigi Pizzi’s much acclaimed 1992 production of La Traviata was recorded at what was one of Venice’s most exquisite 18th-century opera houses, La Fenice, tragically destroyed by fire in 1996, and now rebuilt. This glorious house is where La Traviata was premiered in 1853. In this memorable performance, Slovak soprano Edita Gruberova takes the leading role of Violetta, the tragic heroine, persuaded by Alfredo’s father, Giorgio, to sacrifice her happiness with Alfredo for the sake of family honour.
Aida
Any performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at La Scala, Milan, is guaranteed to be an experience – but, when it’s a new production, it becomes a major event, especially given the theatre’s notoriously critical audience. Legendary stage director Peter Stein succeeds in delivering a lucid production acclaimed in equal measure by the press and public: “a perfect coup de théâtre” (Giornale della musica). A “stellar cast” (La Stampa) contributes to the production’s success under the musical direction of Verdi specialist Zubin Mehta, who leads the orchestra in a “gorgeously colourful performance”, while “the entire ensemble is brilliant in ist portrayal of the characters” (Die Presse).
Verdi, Otello
As highlight of the “The Spirit of Music in Venice” festival 2013, Venice’s venerated opera house, La Fenice, presents Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello performed against the backdrop of the Courtyard of the Doge’s Palace, as the perfect setting for its fifteenth-century plot. The Korean maestro Myung-Whun Chung conducts La Fenice Orchestra and Choir and a prestigious international cast, including American tenor Gregory Kunde as Otello. Also starring: Lucio Gallo, Carmela Remigio and Francesco Marsiglia.
Andrea Chenier
Set in Paris immediately before and during the French Revolution, Andrea Chénier is Umberto Giordano’s passionate and most successful opera. Placido Domingo stars in the title role as the idealistic poet of the French Revolution, and Maddalena, the object of Chénier’s adoration, is portrayed by the Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow. 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 Chénier in his cell and they go to the guillotine together. Gérard, torn between political and amorous loyalties, is the Italian baritone Giorgio Zancanaro. “Triumphantly successful” THE SUNDAY TIMES
Pelléas et Mélisande
Music of introverted tenderness and a libretto that hints at much and offers few answers – such is Pelléas et Mélisande, Claude Debussy’s only completed opera. Dubbed “Drama lyrique” by the composer himself, and written in 1902 at a time when the subconscious, the psyche, dreams and urges commanded the attention of science and art, this music searches the souls of its characters with ist subtle nuances. Pelléas and Golaud are half-brothers, each loving the girl-from-nowhere Mélisande. The elder, dominant Golaud makes her his wife; the younger Pelléas is the soul-mate of the taciturn, strangely vulnerable Mélisande and an equally mysterious bond of concealed love is formed between them. The consummately precise staging by Nikolaus Lehnhoff has a cast to match these wondrous sounds. This exceptional production “achieves […] what actually can only be understood as magic.” (Die Welt)