Rossini’s penultimate opera, premiered in 1828 at the Opéra National de Paris, is a musical comedy about a love triangle set during the Crusades. At the Opéra Comique its plot is transported to the time of the works’ creation with France’s military expeditions to Algeria. It is staged by a first-rate creative team: Stage director Denis Podalydès and costume designer Christian Lacroix provide stunning visuals, whilst conductor Louis Langrée leads the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Choeur Les éléments and a stellar cast of soloists in this delightful fool’s game. Mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez shines with her “superlative technique” (Le Monde) and Julie Fuchs’s Adèle performance elicits “more than just admiration, namely enthusiasm in the etymological sense of the word: inspired by the divine” (Le Monde). “A masterpiece!” (Télérama), “Pure pleasure!” (Les Échos). Le Comte Ory at the Opéra Comique is “a true musical and theatrical celebration where everything sparkles!” (Bachtrack)
Leonard Bernstein: Wagner – Tristan und Isolde
This is one of the most beautiful and brilliant recordings of Wagner´s Tristan und Isolde and it´s first time available on DVD and Bluray. Leonard Bernstein’s way of conducting this opera is unique and he makes orchestra and singers perform at their very best. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks was the only German orchestra with which Leonard Bernstein regularly collaborated for many years and it has numbered among the top ten orchestras in the world. A star cast of singers with Peter Hofmann and Hildegard Behrens in the title roles, completes this exceptional semi-staged production. Bernstein’s 1981 recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is still considered an outstanding interpretation and has set the bar until this day. When he heard this performance Karl Böhm said, “Bernstein has conducted Tristan und Isolde the way that Wagner intended it to be conducted”.
Bregenz Festival – Lake Stage Opera Box
“Stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure up an “open-air spectacle of superlatives” (Die Zeit about Aida) “A gigantic set with iconic qulities – a masterly achievment“ (Die Welt about Andrea Chénier) “David Pountney finds stunning answers to the everlasting questions surrounding ‘The Magic Flute’.” (Der Tagesspiegel about Die Zauberflöte) „A bit of Hollywood in Bregenz: Melodies for the millions, impressively staged grand opera.“(ZDF heute journal about Turandot) „… Kasper Holten’s production of Carmen on Es Devlin’s extraordinary set was a knockout. …“ (The Telegraph)
W.A. Mozart: Don Giovanni
The world-famous singer, conductor and the holder of 14 Grammy Awards Plácido Domingo came up, as conductor and artistic director, with a unique Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre Prague, where the opera had its premiere 230 years ago. The production boasts an original classic scene, traditional costumes, designed by Theodor Pištek, the Oscar winner “Best costume design” for the Amadeus movie and authentic stage direction matching the performance features from 1787. The production is conceived as a replica of the legendary staging by the National Theatre Opera from 1969. The opera shines under the direction of Jirí Nekvasil, which is further enhanced by stars of the Czech opera scene, handpicked by Maestro Domingo himself. Also adding vitality to the production are four winners of the renowned, international vocal competition, Operalia, which Domingo himself founded in 1993: Irina Lungu, Dmitry Korchak, Julia Novikova, and Simone Alberghini. “The palpable sense of history, enthusiasm of the cast and excitement of the star conductor all contributed to an atmosphere that made the performance seem larger than life.” (Bachtrack)
Giovanna d’Arco
With more than 50 years of experience as film director, Peter Greenaway (Nightwatching, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) combines the worlds of film and opera at the Festival Verdi in Parma with an all new approach to Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, staged and edited by himself and Saskia Boddeke. Turning the auditorium into part of the set, Greenaway includes the unique architecture of the Teatro Farnese into his staging. With the help of spectacular video and light installations, he creates a completely new opera experience, using a striking imagery that includes depictions of the Madonna, modern manga girls and the real faces of refugee children. “It is a thrilling moment when threads of light spread over the darkened arches during the overture, shaping the architecture and flooding the whole area with changing light patterns.” (Daily Express)
Arminio
Max Emanuel Cencic excels with his celebrated and award-winning production of George Frideric Handel’s masterpiece Arminio at the International Handel Festival Karlsruhe. The remarkable counter-tenor Cencic, who dedicates himself to the revival and performance of the music of the 18th century, demonstrates once more that Baroque singing can be both technically brilliant and at the same time modern and emotionally engaging. His enchanting staging of Arminio is the fulminant revival of the heroic story. When premiered in 1737 at London’s Covent Garden, Arminio strangely received only six performances, despite being praised as “a miracle” and “in every respect excellent and vastly pleasing” by contemporaries. Handel’s opera fell into oblivion – until Cencic put it into the limelight, resulting in the “rehabilitation of the piece” (FAZ). Cencic’s production of Arminio, which created a furore when performed at the Theater an der Wien, features the ensemble Armonia Atenea under the baton of George Petrou and stars the stage director in the leading role: “Cencic is not only as counter-tenor but also as stage director at the peak of his success” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Ägypten)
A rarely performed masterpiece, Gioachino Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto at the Bregenz Festival staged by Lotte de Beer, who retrieves this hidden gem of opera literature for a spectacular staging. De Beer, one of the most soughtafter stage directors of her generation (International Opera Newcomer Award 2015) teams up with the Dutch theatre collective Hotel Modern to tell the story of the Biblical Exodus. Their unique production concept for Mosè in Egitto revolves around the ingenuity of Hotel Modern. The theatre group conjures up its own reality by using live animations to portray the mass scenes and the parallel narratives of the people and the slaves. Miniature cameras, thousands of puppets, models of villages and cities and a spectacular aquarium installation present the biblical tale of plagues and the parting of the Red Sea on the Bregenz stage – “a stroke of genius” (Der Standard).
Pique Dame
Former Music Director Mariss Jansons returns to Amsterdam to conduct Pique Dame at the Dutch National Opera with “his” Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He encounters a noteworthy cast and under his baton the orchestra sounds “brilliant and splendid“ (Der Tagesspiegel). Renowned director Stefan Herheim staged Tchaikovsky’s much-loved opera about a young man who, for the prospect of earthly wealth, gambles away his chance for love and happiness. Herheim, whose stagings are famous for their multi layered levels of interpretation, attempts to reflect on the composer’s hidden love for men. “The Latvian maestro, the intriguingly performing orchestra, the smartly-chosen soloists, and director Stefan Herheim have succeeded in staging an extraordinary production” (Die Presse). “Stefan Herheim makes a great picture show out of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pique Dame’” (NMZ). “A masterpiece” (Der Standard).
Le nozze di Figaro
For the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, La Scala Theatre presents a new production of Le nozze di Figaro that had been entrusted to the extraordinary director Frederic Wake-Walker (author of a production of La finta giardiniera which was the revelation of the Glyndebourne Festival in 2014). He focusses the action of the piece on the instability of love: “Le nozze di Figaro presents us with an impossibility – a world where everyone is loving and forgiving.” The approach to his direction is “elaborate and very innovative” and “also musically, the new production of Figaro is worth a tour to Milan.” (NZZ) “the cast is magnificient.” (Kurier) “… when Diana Damrau enters as the Countess, we get a performance of special gravitas. Even the orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst’s baton, melts to such grace.” (Financial Times)
Lucio Silla
This dramatic opera is associated with one of Mozart’s sojourns in Milan. The Austrian genius was sixteen when he composed this jewel of bel canto dedicated to the general and dictator of Ancient Rome: Lucio Silla made its debut on 26 December 1772, when Mozart was almost seventeen. It was the third opera that he had staged in the Regio Ducal Theatre, Milano. The staging by Marshall Pynkoski, specialized in eighteenth-century operas with particular insights into Baroque dance, drama and gestures, pays „attention to detail, making use of scenes and eighteenth-century impeccably decorated costumes designed by a specialist of the genre in film, Antoine Fontaine“ (delteatro.it). „The female cast is remarkable“ (La Repubblica).