“The vocals are pure gold”, wrote the Berliner Zeitung. Emily Magee masters the challenge of her complex character’s richly nuanced vocal lines, while Elena Mosuc as Zerbinetta produced her coloratura cascades with breathtaking ease, and Jonas Kaufmann received accolades from the critics for his role debut as the “best Bacchus ever” (Berliner Zeitung). Daniel Harding and the Vienna Philharmonic provided the necessary musical foundations to this performance of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, in a special version for the Salzburg Festival created by Sven-Eric Bechtolf of the original version from 1912. Written immediately after the great success of Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos was a combination of mythological opera and Molière’s drama Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, though Strauss expunged all trace of the latter in his second version of 1916. To mark the centenary of the first version, a sensational project has created a daring production fulfilling the composer’s original dream of a “Gesamtkunstwerk”.
Salzburg Festival 2012: La Bohème
For the first time in its long history, the Salzburg Festival performs Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème in the Great Festival Hall, offering a unique and rare music highlight. Anna Netrebko wins acclaim yet again in the lead role, giving a “deeply melancholic reading of Mimi”, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Completing the dream couple she has Piotr Beczala at her side, whose rock-solid tenor voice keeps you with him at every turn.The protagonists are supported by a cheeky Nino Machaidze as Musetta and a strong male ensemble headed up by a resourceful Alessio Arduini. Daniele Gatti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic ensured “shimmering transparency of sound … And Italian style” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and “reveals the orchestral sound, bringing the tone colours to full glow” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
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. At the top of the list is soprano Nina Stemme, who gives a full blooded portrayal of Leonora. Passionate, forceful readings are also provided by Salvatore Licitra as Alvaro, Leonora’s lover, and by Carlos Alvarez as Don Carlo, Leonora’s vengeful brother. Zubin Mehta leads the Staatsoper Orchestra with agility, subtleness and relaxed mastery. Director David Pountney establishes the randomness of fate at the outset in a video depicting a butterfly flapping its wings and setting fortune’s wheel into motion.
Lulu
Alban Berg’s opera ‘Lulu’ is the story of a lower-class girl who sleeps her way to fame and fortune before losing everything she has and finding death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Conductor Marc Albrecht supports the two main protagonists, Patricia Petibon’s Lulu and Michael Volle’s Dr. Schön, with the rich sonorities of Berg’s music. Particularly impressive are the gigantic backdrops that dominate the stage and were painted by Daniel Richter, one of the leading German artists of our time.
Elektra
Richard Strauss’s “Elektra” is an Expressionist masterpiece that shakes the listener to the core with its powerfully expressive chords, spooky waltzes and mad dance of triumph. The orchestra is so rich that only the finest orchestras can do full justice to this work, such as the Münchner Philharmoniker here under Christian Thielemann, in a production by Herbert Wernicke recorded at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Topping the superb cast are Linda Watson in the title role, Jane Henschel, Manuela Uhl, Albert Dohmen and René Kollo.
Anna Bolena
Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca pair their glorious voices in an upcoming recording of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera “Anna Bolena” from the Wiener Staatsoper. It is Netrebko’s highly anticipated role debut as Anna Bolena. She and fellow soprano Garanca, who portrays her lady of honor Giovanna Seymour, form a fateful triangle with baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Enrico VIII. Intrigue, betrayal and passion keynote the action of this dramatic bel canto work that also stars Elisabet Kulman as Smeton and Francesco Meli as Lord Riccardo Percy. Conducting the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper is Evelino Pidò. Stage director is Eric Génovèse, whose recent production of Liebermann’s “Die Schule der Frauen” in Bordeaux earned him great acclaim.
Bregenz Festival 2011: Andrea Chénier
With his spectacular production of Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier”, director Keith Warner unites intellectual depth and exciting entertainment for the eyes and ears using every possible resource offered by Bregenz’s floating stage. The colossal set by David Fielding is inspired by Jacques- Louis David’s famous painting “Death of Marat”. The opera is both a moving love story and a historical thriller with a highly emotional score. Ulf Schirmer, the Wiener Symphoniker and the excellent soloists Hector Sandoval, Norma Fantini and Scott Henricks unleash the entire power of this Italian verismo work.
Die Frau ohne Schatten
“A shining hour”, trumpeted Vienna’s Kurier after the premiere of Richard Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten” at the Salzburg Festival, which was also the premiere of Christian Thielemann as opera conductor there. True to the Festival’s tradition, this production features a line-up of great Strauss singers, such as Anne Schwanewilms, Stephen Gould, Wolfgang Koch, Michaela Schuster and Evelyn Herlitzius. Christof Loy’s production is set in the mid 1950s in the Sofiensäle, a celebrated Viennese recording studio at the time. The singers portray singers from the Wiener Staatsoper recording “Die Frau ohne Schatten”.
Vec Makropulos
With the “breathtakingly grandiose” (Salzburger Nachrichten) Angela Denoke in the lead role, this emotionally powerful opera is given a superior treatment at the hands of the Wiener Philharmoniker under Esa- Pekka Salonen and in an ingenious staging by Christoph Marthaler. Denoke gives a winning account of the sensual, tormented leading role. While Salonen lets the Wiener Philharmoniker alternate between powerful accents, filigree textures and mighty outbursts of raw emotion, Marthaler charms the viewer with his typical witty, naturalistic details.
Benvenuto Cellini
The absence of the work in the operatic repertoire is certainly due in part to its musical excesses: the work is so complex, richly detailed and prolifically imaginative that Berlioz’s contemporaries considered it unplayable and unsingable. This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stölzl, conductor Valery Gergiev and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stölzl, above all, has poured his experience as director
of music videos (for Madonna, Mick Jagger and others), commercials and films into this project, termed ‘science fiction for Grand Opera’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung), ‘breathtaking’ (Der Standard), and ‘spectacularly successful’ (F.A.Z.).