World Premiere recording on Video! Church corruption, human violence & a daughter who plots revenge on her abusive father – Goldschmidt’s Beatrice Cenci has every ingredient for a gripping opera & the story of its origins is equally fascinating albeit tragic: The Jewish composer, who fled Germany for London in 1935, was awarded a prize for his work, but the promised performance never took place. It was not until 1988 that it received its premiere as a concert performance. At Bregenz Festival, stage director Johannes Erath brought Beatrice Cenci on stage for the first time. Although written 70 years ago, “one musically quickly associates Puccini or other Romantics“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), underlined by Goldschmidt´s own words, saying it became a real “Belcanto-Opera”. “Johannes Debus conducts the Wiener Symphoniker with true feeling for the score“. ”In the title role, Gal James is moving“ and ”the baritone Christoph Pohl has all the vocal charisma.” (The Telegraph). A “brilliantly focused staging of a neglected work“ (The Telegraph), a “great, wonderful evening“ (Deutschlandfunk Kultur). “… it’s never too late to fall back in love with Goldschmidt’s music” The Telegraph
Puccini, La Bohème
For the first time in his career, Riccardo Chailly conducts an opera in Spain: “La Bohème” at the magnificent Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. The striking result is a lively, colorful symphonic reading of the opera that turns the orchestra into one of the stars of the performance, on a par with the vocal soloists. Stage director Davide Livermore interprets the work with the help of large video projections of Impressionist paintings that harmonize with the period in which the action takes place. This co-production with the Philadelphia Opera features a cast of up-and-coming young singers (cf. Documentary “Riccardo Chailly – A Portrait” Prog. No. 9858).
Bregenz Festival 2018: Beatrice Cenci
Church corruption, human violence & a daughter who plots revenge on her abusive father – Goldschmidt’s Beatrice Cenci has every ingredient for a gripping opera & the story of ist origins is equally fascinating albeit tragic: The Jewish composer, who fled Germany for London in 1935, was awarded a prize for his work, but the promised performance never took place. It was not until 1988 that it received ist premiere as a concert performance. At Bregenz, stage director Johannes Erath brought Beatrice Cenci on stage for the first time.