Four of the greatest singers of our time combine their talents and their artistry in an evening of beloved operatic numbers – rarely has a concert deserved the title “Opera Summit” as much as this one, recorded live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden on 3 August 2007. Heading the quartet is soprano Anna Netrebko with her inimitable blend of glamour and simplicity, her enticing appearance and seductive singing, a musical powerhouse who tops the pop charts and sells out operas houses within hours. Hardly less dazzling than her Russian colleague is Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca, whose crystal-clear voice and charismatic stage presence never fail to enthrall her audiences. She is a frequent guest of the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, where she made her sensational debut as Annio in Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” in 2003. Her international career has taken her to Covent Garden, the Met and other prestigious stages. She was awarded the European Cultural Prize in Dresden in 2006. Replacing the indisposed Rolando Villazón is his fellow Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, who began his career in Europe after winning the first prize in the Enrico Caruso Competition in Milan. His international breakthrough came in 1993 when he replaced Luciano Pavarotti as Edgardo in “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Today he sings at all the world’s major theaters. French baritone Ludovic Tézier is a frequent guest at La Scala, the Opéra Bastille and the Met. His interpretations of Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin have brought him ovations at the Glyndebourne Festival and the Bregenz Festival. Under experienced opera conductor Marco Armiliato, the orchestra of the SWR Baden-Baden lends its sensitive musical support to the singers. The first part of the program consists of Italian arias in which the stars dazzle above all in bel canto fireworks. The second half is devoted to the more lyrical outpourings of the romantic masters such as “O soave fanciulla” from “La Bohème” and the quartet “Bella figlia dell’amore” from “Rigoletto.” Five encores round off the concert, which concludes with a rousing rendition of the “Brindisi” from “La Traviata.” A toast indeed to an exquisitely entertaining evening captured in all of its immediacy and vibrancy by Unitel!
Salzburg Festival 2022: Christian Thielemann & Elina Garanca
“What a sound pleasure, what a playing culture! […] Bruckner’s ‘Ninth’ without burdens, without any heaviness. Symphony in Schubert’s sense, seductive, apollonian.” (Kronenzeitung) To mark the bicentenary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 2024, Christian Thielemann, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Unitel record the first Bruckner cycle with a single conductor in the orchestra’s history. After a truly magnificent performance of the Seventh Symphony in 2021, the stellar conductor returns to the Salzburg Festival with the Ninth to finish the cycle. In the first part of the concert, Christian Thielemann joins forces with Latvian star mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor for Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. PROGRAM: Brahms: Alto Rhapsody for voice, male chorus and orchestra, Op. 53; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Salzburg Festival 2021: Thielemann conducts Mahler & Bruckner
After a truly magnificent performance of the Fourth Symphony in 2020, the stellar conductor returns to the Salzburg Festival with the Seventh Symphony, one of Bruckner’s most popular works. In the first part of the concert, Christian Thielemann joins forces with Latvian star soprano Elina Garanca for Mahler’s Lieder. “Expressive but without false pathos, he shapes the Rückert Lieder – audibly inspired by the magnificent Elina Garanca, whose perfectly focused voice sounds wonderfully sensual. A haunting evening”, hailed br-klassik.de. PROGRAM Mahler: Rückert-Lieder; Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
Salzburg Festival 2020: Thielemann conducts Wagner & Bruckner
“Ignited monumental chamber music: Together with an orchestra that breathes with her, Garanca proved that she currently represents the non plus ultra in the mezzosoprano
category. Grandiose the fusion of intensity and noble sound” Der Standard. PROGRAM Wagner: Five Poems for female voice and piano “Wesendonck Lieder”; Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2010
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus, the 2010 Salzburg Festival put together a truly one-of-a-kind program for the Wiener Philharmoniker’s traditional opening concert. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the concert opens with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, whose solo part is also played by the conductor. This is followed by the scintillating “Notations” by Pierre Boulez, who celebrated his 85th birthday in 2010. Concluding the concert is Anton Bruckner’s mighty “Te Deum” featuring soloists Dorothea Röschmann, El?na Garan?a, Klaus Florian Vogt and René Pape.
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.
La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart 22)
Mozart was still working on “The Magic Flute” when he was commissioned to write a festive opera for the coronation of Leopold II in Prague as King of Bohemia on 6 September 1791. Though in poor health, he accepted, even though he had little more than four weeks to write it. He immediately had Metastasio’s text revised by the poet Mazzolà, who not only built in the duets, trios, quintet and sextet that Mozart needed to hone the work’s emotional veracity, but also brought the abstract political dimension down to a human, emotional level. From a lofty reflection on politics and justice, it became a conflict between friends and lovers. Emperor Titus plans to marry Berenice, thus arousing the rage of Vitellia. She urges Sesto, who loves her, to lead a revolt against Titus. After further complications, Titus resolves to marry Vitellia. Vitellia tries to stop Sesto, but in vain: he has burned down the Capitol and tried to kill his best friend Titus. The Emperor escapes, but, surrounded by manipulation and betrayal, the future seems bleak¿ This opera seria, Mozart’s very last opera, is both a distillate of late 18th-century opera as well as an anticipation of the 19th-century opera with its tormented heroes. Director Martin Ku¿ej tells the story straightforwardly, digging into the substrata of the work to bring out the complex psyches of the characters, their neurotic impulses, their sexual drives and the motives of their intrigues. Ku¿ej’s “Clemenza” is a mad whirl of love, murder, arson and rebellion. He is ably supported by the Vienna Philharmonic under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and a stellar cast that proves just how much flesh and blood pulses through this work. Michael Schade, one of the most exciting lyrical tenors of today, is a Titus who sings with fire and dignity. The dramatic soprano Dorothea Röschmann, who made her international breakthrough in Salzburg in 1995 as Susanna (“Figaro”) under Harnoncourt, portrays Vitellia as a power-hungry schemer with a broken soul. The incomparable mezzo Vesselina Kasarova paints her Sesto with all the passion and torment of a lover forced to betray his best friend. On a par with them are Aleksandra Kurzak (Servilia), Malena Ernman (Annio) and Luca Pisaroni (Publio). Premiered in 2003, this production of “Tito” was universally acclaimed as a musical and dramatic triumph in its 2006 reprise within the Mozart 22 cycle.
Arena di Verona Festival 2022: Carmen
After many worldwide successes as Carmen, Elina Garanca now makes her long-awaited debut on the world’s largest opera stage, the nearly 2,000-year-old Arena di Verona. “With perfect diction, [Elina Garanca’s] bohemian is a true stage beast who makes a mockery of life with panache, taunting her lover just out of prison with sarcastic ‘taratata’ and then daring to face an adverse fate with implausible aplomb.” (Crescendo-Magazine.be). Italian film and stage director Franco Zeffirelli also made his debut at the Arena back then with Carmen. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, his three versions were put together for the first time in a “best of” version. The side set painted for the first edition and the large number of people and wide movements that characterized the original production are set back on stage. Highlights of the 2003 and 2009 stagings are skillfully combined with this. The 2022 production is hence something never seen before, which even proposes scenography’s elements that haven’t been realized in the previous stagings, but were originally planned by Zeffirelli.
Mythos Carmen
What do the great characters in the history of opera have to do with our own lives? “Mythos Carmen”: modern re-enactments place the respective operatic character squarely in the middle of our present times. Individual chapters examine the key issues of the character, which are spread out in the form of a kaleidoscope. International stars of opera, singers, conductors and directors explain what continues to fascinate us about the characters to this day. They explain their own take on the various heroes and describe what makes the operatic characters mythological. In doing so, they provide a distinctive, new and fresh perspective on the great works of music. The film is augmented by footage shot behind the scenes, at the places where the operas were written, and with a répétiteur, allowing the film to move through our present times emotionally guided by the opera.
Lucerne Festival 2025: Chailly conducts Mahler
In his internationally acclaimed interpretations of Mahler’s symphonies, Riccardo Chailly focuses on the musical quality of the works, avoiding false pathos and sentimentality while retaining the music’s dramatic intensity. Together with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and Elina Garanca, he opened the 2025 festival summer festival with Mahler’s poignant, unfinished 10th Symphony and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. The concert opened with Pierre Boulez’s Mémoriale, in reverence of the inaugural director of the Lucerne Festival Academy, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2025. PROGRAM Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, Ssymphony No 10; Boulez: Mémoriale