A romantic poet, a gypsy girl, a spirited young wife and an Ottoman pasha: throw them together under the blue skies of Naples and the result is an opera buffa that’s precisely as fizzy and as farcical as you’d imagine from Rossini at the absolute top of his game. Il Turco in Italia is exuberant (and distinctly spicy) fun in the sun and Cesare Lievi’s delightful, candy-coloured 2002 staging from the Zurich Opera House has a cast to die for: with Cecilia Bartoli, no less, as the capricious Fiorilla and the veteran Ruggiero Raimondi exuding charisma and warmth as the Turk Selim.
Tristan & Isolde
There can be no half-measures with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: every performance demands supreme commitment, and that’s what it receives in this 1998 production from the Bavarian State Opera. No city has a longer Tristan pedigree than Munich, but Peter Konwitschny’s inventive updated staging is liberated rather than inhibited by that tradition. It’s a bold setting for a truly magnificent cast, and Gramophone described Waltraud Meier’s Isolde as “riveting”. Jon Frederic West, Kurt Moll and Marjana Lipvosek match her for intensity. With Zubin Mehta conducting and the Bavarian State Orchestra on radiant form, this is some of the finest Wagner singing – and playing – of its era.
Curlew River
A desolate landscape, a grieving mother and a ferryman who has seen the truth. When Benjamin Britten transported an ancient Japanese Noh play to the reedbeds and rivers of his native East Anglia, the local became universal. Part opera, part ritual, part haunting meditation on love and loss, Curlew River is a music drama like no other and in 1998, artist from both Japanese and western traditions came together at Aix-en-Provence to create it anew. Directed by Yoshi Oïda with a superb international cast, the result was simultaneously timeless and urgent. This live recording captures the moment with unforgettable immediacy and power.
El Nino
“Shake the heavens….” On the brink of the 21st century, John Adams and Peter Sellars reimagined the birth of Christ, weaving sacred texts around modern Hispanic poetry and charging them with the energy and directness of contemporary dance and film. The result was El Niño, a “Nativity Oratorio” that quickly established itself as one of most talked-about (and moving) artworks of the new Millennium. This film documents the actual moment of its creation: the historic world-premiere production in Paris, with the creators’ choice of performers (including the late, and unforgettable, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson). An unmissable record of the birth of a masterpiece.
Messiah
n the middle of the historic baroque garden in Ceský Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, Messiah comes alive in a magical atmosphere of light and dark. The production, which subtly links the biblical story of Jesus Christ with the life of Josef Adam, born in 1722, Duke of Krumlov and Prince of Schwarzenberg, is effec-tively staged as a baroque feast, with top-class early music soloists and one hundred and fifty choristers performing in replicas of baroque costumes. The performances take place at a unique spot: The theatre with revolving auditorium in Ceský Krumlov is one of only two theatres of this type in Europe. Located in front of the
rococo Bellarie Palace in the Baroque garden of the chateau, it was first put into operation in 1958 and, after several reconstructions, currently holds almost 650 spectators. With 56,000 tickets sold, the performances are the most attended summer cultural event in the entire Czech Republic and are thus the focus of interest among domestic and foreign spectators.
Doktor Faust
For Philippe Jordan, the conductor of this production from the Opernhaus Zürich, ‘Doktor Faust’ is one of the greatest operas of the 20th century, ranking alongside ‘Wozzeck’ and ‘Lulu,’ and resplendent with lush, lateromantic harmonies and motivically derived melodies reminiscent of Wagner, Verdi and even Mahler. Director Klaus Michael Grüber has produced a staging that ‘emphasizes the sensuality and operatic quality of the work’ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Adding the final touch to the sensuality
of Busoni’s music, Jordan’s expressive control of the complex score and Grüber’s stage magic is Thomas Hampson in the lead role.
Tiefland
One of the most successful European operas of the first half of the 20th century, D’Albert’s Tiefland has had a long history and this minimalist new staging by Matthias Hartmann and Franz Welser-Möst gives it a welcome revival. Matthias Goerne’s portrayal of Sebastiano’s brings out the essence of evilness. Peter Seifert and Petra Schnitzer – husband and wife in real life – as Pedro and Marta are simply splendid in their roles, both in their singing and their acting. László Polgár is excellent as Tommaso.
Orfeo ed Euridice
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ambitious “Festival Internacional de Música Castell de Peralada”, the Catalan theater collective La Fura dels Baus and its director Carlus Padrissa have staged Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” with three splendid soloists in a production that confirms the Fura’s creativity. The most striking aspect of the production is the participation of the orchestral ensemble in the action. Padrissa also makes abundant stage use of the chorus, who depict souls or demons. With its stunning effects, expert lighting and video projections, the production grabs the viewer from the very start.
Le Grand Macabre
Ligeti’s absurd-tragicomical masterpiece of the highest order ‘Le Grand Macabre’ blends popular theatre, comic, pop art, cabaret, apocalypse and caricature with a fascinating imaginativeness. The production by ‘La Fura dels Baus’ under the direction of Àlex Ollé already thrilled press and public alike in Brussels, London and Rome, and is considered as ‘one of the best staging’s’ (La Vanguardia) of the world-famous Catalan theatre group.
Puccini, La Bohème
For the first time in his career, Riccardo Chailly conducts an opera in Spain: “La Bohème” at the magnificent Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. The striking result is a lively, colorful symphonic reading of the opera that turns the orchestra into one of the stars of the performance, on a par with the vocal soloists. Stage director Davide Livermore interprets the work with the help of large video projections of Impressionist paintings that harmonize with the period in which the action takes place. This co-production with the Philadelphia Opera features a cast of up-and-coming young singers (cf. Documentary “Riccardo Chailly – A Portrait” Prog. No. 9858).