Sven-Eric Bechtolf, dramatic director of the Salzburg Festival, staged this new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, conducted by German conductor Christoph Eschenbach, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. Featuring Malin Hartelius as Fiordiligi, “who cuts an attractive figure, acting with charm and ease.” Luca Pisaroni’s Guglielmo is “generous in dimension and in possession of all the necessary criteria for the role”. (Moore Parker, The Opera Critic)
Salzburg Festival 2013: Nikolaus Harnoncourt & Wiener Philharmoniker, Joseph Haydn: “The Seasons”
The great conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt takes the podium to lead the Vienna Philharmonic and cast of high-class singers joined by the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus in Haydn’s oratorio Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons).
Salzburg Festival 2013: Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
One of the highlight opera productions of Salzburg Festival 2013: The new Stefan Herheim production of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted by Daniele Gatti, with Michael Volle, one of the foremost German baritones as Hans Sachs and highly acclaimed Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, who for over two decades he has been singing on the stages of the world’s major opera houses, as Walther von Stolzing.
Salzburg Festival: Verdi, Don Carlo
The Salzburg Festival hosts a new production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo”, directed by Peter Stein and embodied by Jonas Kaufmann. The production is based on the original version of the opera, which includes those passages that were cut shortly before the first performance in 1867. Verdi’s masterpiece demands world-class singers at the peak of their powers, such as Jonas Kaufmann, “who combines absolute technical stability with the highest musical intelligence”, and soprano Anja Harteros, who’s “Elisabetta is quite simply sublime: majestically phrased, rich in nuance, clear of diction and moving easily from immaculately floated pianissimo to sterling fortissimo”. (The Telegraph)