Barrie Kosky concludes his Da Ponte cycle at the Wiener Staatsoper with Mozart’s Così fan tutte, creating “a world sensation in the opera universe” (Klassik-Begeistert). Christopher Maltman’s Don Alfonso becomes a director rehearsing a play with two young couples – Federica Lombardi and Peter Kellner (Fiordiligi and Guglielmo), Emily D’Angelo and Filipe Manu (Dorabella and Ferrando) – and, with Kate Lindsey’s Despina, sets out to prove women’s infidelity. “The individual voices are outstanding, and the ensemble homogeneity even more so” (Frankfurter Rundschau). Philippe Jordan conducts from the fortepiano, balancing “classical beauty and vibrancy” (Kleine Zeitung).
Così fan tutte
“The execution is vibrant, the individual voices outstanding, and the ensemble homogeneity even more so.” (Frankfurter Rundschau) To conclude his Da Ponte cycle at the Vienna State Opera, Barrie Kosky turns Don Alfonso into a theatre director rehearsing a stage play with the two young couples at the center of the story: “He presents the Da Ponte opera as a coherent, sophisticated game within a game: a director uses method acting to release feelings that can no longer be controlled” (News). As is typical for a Kosky-lead production, there is constant action, which the ensemble executes with exuberance. Philippe Jordan leads the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera from the pianoforte, managing to “strike a balance between classical beauty and vibrancy, without resorting to tricks and mannerisms to make things exciting” (Kleine Zeitung).
Così fan tutte
With Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden continues its acclaimed Da Ponte Cycle, designed jointly by director Vincent Huguet and conductor Daniel Barenboim. “Huguet places the action in a French-style and coherent manner in an environment that could be set either in today’s world or in the flower child world of the late 60s and 70s. In doing so, he understands Cosi as what it probably was according to the intentions of Mozart and Da Ponte. And Cosi fan tutte, which has always been thought to have a tendency to be misogynistic, suddenly shimmers in a friendlier, modern light: Is it not free love that is the problem, but the strict, outdated, basically inhuman understanding of fidelity?” (Der Tagesspiegel). Federica Lombardi, Marina Viotti, Gyula Orendt, Paolo Fanale, Barbara Frittoli, and Lucio Gallo embody their roles vocally impressively and with pleasure in the play. “The work of the young French director Vincent Huguet showed well pointed humour” (Musik heute).
New Year‘s Concert – Teatro la Fenice 2023
The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. Since nearly 20 years it has celebrated the traditional New Year‘s concert every year, which became immediately vast popularity in Italy and abroad making it one of the best-known and desired New Year´s events. The orchestra of Teatro La Fenice, conducted by Daniel Harding, presents a colourful array of arias and orchestral pieces. As soloists soprano Federica Lombardi and tenor Freddie De Tommaso sing famous arias as Casta Diva and Nessun dorma among others from the operas Carmen, La traviata, La bohème, Turandot, William Tell and La clemenza di Tito. On top Jacopo Tissi, now principal of the Dutch National Ballet, is dancing a scene from Tchaikovsky´s ballet The Sleeping Beauty in this thrilling and exhilarating concert.
Salzburg Festival 2021: Don Giovanni
Vitality and destruction: Romeo Castellucci sees one of the fascinations of Don Giovanni in this essential ambivalence. In his interpretation of the opera, he penetrates deep into the myth of the character and creates an aestheticised world of fantasy with striking images, such as that of the 150 women, with which he underlines the horror of the title hero’s empty, heartless string of conquests. Musically, there is drama in spades from Currentzis and musicAeterna Orchestra in the pit. Their razor sharp, high-energy approach is clearly an inspiring environment for the largely young cast, too, and results in a terrific performance: “After four long hours of Mozart in Salzburg, one feels refreshed, even invigorated, floating out into the rainy night on clouds of sound and images. Rarely has a team taken Mozart’s genre designation dramma giocoso seriously in such a radically lavish, detailobsessed and conceptually strong way.” Die Zeit / “The most unusual Giovanni the world has ever seen”. Die Welt