Puccini’s verismo masterpiece demands a trio of vocal soloists of stellar quality. This Munich Festival production of “Tosca” meets all expectations. The great Finnish soprano Karita Mattila infuses her Tosca with passion and controlled intensity. As her lover Cavaradossi, Jonas Kaufmann once again confirms his status as one of the leading tenors of our time, and Juha Uusitalo’s evil Scarpia brims with dark menace.
Lohengrin
With Jonas Kaufmann’s long-awaited role debut as Lohengrin and Anja Harteros as Elsa, Wagner’s epic of love and loss was not only the opening premiere of the Munich Opera Festival, but its uncontested highlight as well. Which is why the performance was followed not only by a longsold- out house, but also by tens of thousands of spectators at a live public viewing event in Munich and Vienna.
Idomeneo
Munich’s court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart’s ‘Idomeneo’ on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work, now to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart’s opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart’s dramatic oeuvre. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley tackles his demanding lines with impressive firmness. Idamante, a role usually sung by a contralto, is rivetingly portrayed by the tenor Pavol Breslik. As Ilia, Juliane Banse glows with tenderness, the opposite of Annette Dasch’s darkly simmering Elettra.
Lucrezia Borgia
The phenomenal Edita Gruberova, the world’s undisputed Queen of bel canto, proves once again why she deserves this title: following he tumultuously applauded concert debut as Lucrezia Borgia in Barcelona, her mesmerizing role debut in a staged version of this work took place at the Bavarian State Opera and was acclaimed just as frenetically, and rightly so. Her performance, noted ‘Opera Magazine’, ‘vindicated the Munich audience’s near-idolization of her’. With ‘Lucrezia Borgia’, Gruberova follows up her recent triumphs in ‘Roberto Devereux’ and ‘Norma’ with another bel canto masterwork.
Rusalka
This highly acclaimed production from the Bayerische Staatsoper was a veritable sensation and a double revelation. That of the powerful and fascinating re-interpretation of Antonín Dvo?ák’s fairy-tale opera “Rusalka” and that of the young, up-and-coming Latvian soprano, Kristine Opolais, whose performance was hailed by the press as “one of the most vivid and striking accomplishments seen on an opera stage in a long time” (Vienna’s daily “Der Standard”). With her velvety soprano, her captivating beauty and her tremendous stage presence, Opolais perfectly embodies the role of the water nymph who becomes a human in order to find love, but loses all hope when her prince is seduced by a sensual princess.