This highly acclaimed production from the Bayerische Staatsoper, a powerful and fascinating re-interpretation of Dvorák’s fairy-tale opera Rusalka, was a revelation: the young, up-and-coming Latvian soprano, Kristine Opolais, whose performance was rightly hailed by the press as “one of the most vivid and striking accomplishments seen on an opera stage in a long time” (Vienna’s leading daily Der Standard). With her supple and velvety soprano voice, her captivating physical beauty and her hauntingly moving stage presence, Kristine Opolais perfectly embodies the role of the water nymph who becomes a human being in order to find love.
La forza del destino
“The cast is a dream team,” wrote the Financial Times after the premiere of this production of Verdi’s La forza del destino at the Wiener Staatsoper. Powerful performances by Nina Stemme, who gives a fullblooded portrayal of Leonora, Alastair Miles as her father, Salvatore Licitra as Alvaro, Carlos Álvarez as Don Carlo and Nadia Krasteva as Preziosilla resulted in one of the Viennese ensemble’s most celebrated achievements of recent years. Zubin Mehta leads the Staatsoper Orchestra with agility, subtleness and relaxed mastery, and right from the start David Pountney establishes an atmosphere of entrapment by fate. “A perfect utopia.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Turandot
Internationally acclaimed Chinese film-maker Chen Kaige (Palme d’Or 1993 for Farewell My Concubine) delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. With sumptuous costumes and palace sets designed in China, Kaige’s production adds a compellingly authentic accent to Puccini’s exotic orchestral palette. Zubin Mehta and his brilliant Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana offer “genuine fireworks of sound” (Wiener Zeitung), Maria Guleghina triumphs as Turandot.
Carmen
In this prestigious production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, world-famous and highly controversial stage director Calixto Bieito, admired for his raw and evocative stagings, sees in Carmen the embodiment of the mythical gypsy and touches upon sensitive issues such as racism, xenophobia and right-wing politics. Bieito conjures up a sensual and realistic atmosphere full of powerful symbolism. An outstanding quartet of vocal stars, led by a “splendid and sensual” (El Periódico) Béatrice Uria-Monzon in the title role, delivers one of the most exciting Carmens in recent years: Roberto Alagna as Don José, Erwin Schrott as Escamillo and Marina Poplavskya as Micaëla.
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
W.A. Mozart’s timeless masterpiece at the Salzburg Festival is always an event! Especially when Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) receives such a “spectacular and virtuosic staging” (Le Figaro) by director Lydia Steier. Steier introduces the role of the grandfather, a narrator reading the opera like a fairy tale to his three grandchildren, performed by the famous actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa, James Bond). This ‘trick’ in combination with the gigantic moveable sets by stage designer Katharina Schlipf, allows new views on Mozart’s magical opera, with its different worlds. Thanks to conductor Constantinos Carydis, who “seems to breath with the music” (Tagesspiegel), there is a new Mozart to be heard too: Carydis draws “precise phrasing and plenty and of crisp articulation” (Financial Times) from “the musicians of the great Vienna Philharmonic” (New York Times).
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 of Don Giovanni “that will enter the annals of opera” (ForumOpera.com). This magnificent reading of Mozart’s timeless masterpiece sweeps the viewer into a libertine, 18th- century society dominated by sensuality and erotic impulses. They are acted out on the stage’s main prop, a large, unmade bed, not only by Don Giovanni, but also by just about everyone else in the “nearly faultless cast” (ForumOpera.com). In his role debut as the title hero, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo is “incandescent” (Gazzetta die Parma) and “doesn’t do Don Giovanni; he is the Don. Unsurpassable”(24 Ore).
Turandot
Rebeka Lokar is a “commanding Turandot” (Bachtrack) and Jorge de León as the Princess’ suitor a “true giant” (Corriere della Sera) with his perfect rendition of “Nessun dorma”. Grammy Award nominee Gianandrea Noseda impressively conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio “as modern as you have rarely experienced it. Chapeau!” (Operalounge) Stage director Stefano Poda dedicates himself to bring Puccini’s Ancient Chinese setting to life. To achieve an aesthetic and conceptual unity, his work also encompasses set and costume design as well as lighting and choreography. “Extraordinary Turandot” (La Repubblica), “unanimous applause at the end!” (La Stampa). “The icy Turandot inflames the Teatro Regio!” (Corriere della Sera)
Tosca
Premiered in 1900 with huge success, Puccini’s “melodramma” Tosca is a political thriller with a heart-breaking love story. With his gripping opening scene, stage director Michael Sturminger sets the tone for a cinematic, richly detailed Tosca which is set in the Mafiosi world of modern day Rome and which is “the perfect thriller … reminiscent of Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’” (Kleine Zeitung), a “film noir” (FAZ). In this production soprano Anja Harteros is “a phenomenal Tosca!” (Kurier), “unparalleled in the world” (Der Standard) and Aleksandrs Antonenko is “a Cavaradossi of superlatives” (Kieler Nachrichten). The Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann „show again that he is not only a master of German repertoire but also strikes the right note in Italian repertoire.“ (Focus)
Attila
Verdi´s opera Attila takes as its starting point Attila’s plans to storm Rome with his army of Huns and the Romans’ attempts to prevent him. As with Nabucco and I Lombardi, Verdi spiced up the action with a number of patriotic choruses, guaranteeing that – against the background of the Italian movement for unification – the opera was a great success. “Michele Mariotti owes much to the fact that this evening became a celebration of voices“ (Opern-Kritik). Ildebrando D´Arcangelo is “perfect for the serious Verdi roles”, Fabio Sartori has a voice of immense brilliance” (Opern-Kritik), “Simone Piazzola was an impressive Ezio” (theoperacritic.com) and “the real warrior of this Attila is the soprano Maria Jose’ Siri … with her voice, touching each primordial sentiment in every note of the opera, she commanded ‘Attention’ from everybody.” (La Repubblica)
Xerxes (Serse)
Serse is one of Handel’s latest and most frequently performed operas, famous for its marvellous opening aria “Ombra mai fu”. At the centre of the confusing tragicomedy, very loosely based upon the life of Xerxes I of Persia, is a powerful and lovesick royal eccentric, King Serse. Rising opera star Gaëlle Arquez in the title role of Serse “scintillates with her nimble, luminous mezzo-soprano”, singing “irresistibly beautiful, impassioned, furious – but never mean” (Frankfurter Rundschau). Conducted by Constantinos Carydis, the performance is also musically excellent. “Over and over again, the orchestra, in an intelligent, often witty way, comments with improvised gestures on the stage proceedings, the fine dynamic differentiation, and the many eloquent timbres” (Stuttgarter Nachrichten). Frankfurt’s excellent Opern- and Museumsorchester contributes “all sorts of refinements” to this “musical smash hit” (Deutschlandfunk) and „In Frankfurt Tilman Köhler ensures a three-hour short abundant and furious banquett… a great evening of opera.“ (Deutschlandfunk).