Fierrabras

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. Based on an old French 12th-century epic, the plot depicts the military conflict between Christians and Moors at the time of Charlemagne – as a backdrop to stories of love and friendship that prove to be stronger than war and hatred of otherness.

The strong cast includes the “marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann” (Die Zeit) and “Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras’s heroic arias” (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold “the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert’s highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds” (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.

Muti conducts Beethoven 9th Symphony – 200th anniversary

On 7 May 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was premiered at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. The audience of this epochal event greeted Beethoven with frenetic applause and the “Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung” wrote “the impression (was) indescribably great and glorious, the jubilation enthusiastic, which was paid to the exalted master at the top of his lungs, whose inexhaustible genius opened up a new world to us”. Beethoven had truly created music for eternity, which was to conquer the world from then on. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this great moment in music history, the Ninth will be performed on the day of the premiere with Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein. The concerto is also a tribute to the memorable premiere 200 years ago in terms of the instrumentation, as it was played by the orchestra of the Kärntnertortheater, the former court opera – the predecessors of today’s Vienna Philharmonic.

Salzburg Festival: Schubert, Fierrabras

“A revelation” wrote the NRC Handelsblad about Schubert’s rarely heard heroic-romantic opera Fierrabras, one of the highlights of Salzburg Festival 2014. The work, based on a libretto by Josef Kupelwieser after the old French epic Fierabras, is lead by director Peter Stein and conductor Ingo Metzmacher.

Salzburg Festival 2012: Die Zauberflöte

A Salzburg Festival performance of The Magic Flute in Mozart’s native city is always a special event, and when it is the first performance on period instruments, conducted by the Mozart specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt with “his” Concentus Musicus ensemble, then it is the sort of event which attracts a great degree of international attention and anticipation in advance. Anticipation which is then rewarded: “Harnoncourt conducts with precision and finesse”, wrote the Financial Times. According to the Kurier newspaper, there was “much that is new, most of it fascinating, some of it astounding in its musical interpretation”, while Concentus Musicus “produces a surprisingly powerful sound” (Financial Times).

Lucio Silla (Mozart 22)

Following the success of his “Mitridate,” Mozart received another commission to write an opera for Milan, a dramma per musica in three acts. He began working on “Lucio Silla” in late 1772, while on his third trip to Italy. Although the rehearsals were fraught with problems caused by recalcitrant singers, the work was nevertheless given 26 performances to full houses. Yet despite this success, “Lucio Silla” was the last opera Mozart wrote for Italy. “I see it as a kind of political thriller, the story of a plot against an inhuman regime. […] ‘Lucio Silla’ is, in my opinion, one of the few truly political pieces by Mozart.” Director Jürgen Flimm conceived his production accordingly, delivering a taut and often breathtakingly raw interpretation of the story of the dictator Lucio Silla. Although the action unfolds in ancient Rome, Flimm has transposed it to Mozart’s day, when absolutistic monarchs still held sway over Europe. Coveting the betrothed of the senator Cecilio, the dictator Silla exiles the senator and declares him dead. Giunia, however, wards off Silla’s advances and is happily reunited with Cecilio when he secretly returns. But Silla refuses to yield and tries to force Giunia to give herself to him. She refuses once, she refuses twice… Then Silla publicly announces their wedding. To prevent the wedding and end Silla’s tyranny, Cecilio reappears in public and tries to assassinate Silla. The plot fails but – as one would expect in an opera seria – the dictator has a sudden change of mind and brings the story to a happy end. Jürgen Flimm’s staging is a coproduction with Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, which also contributed its chorus and orchestra to the Salzburg adaptation. The stellar cast is dominated by Roberto Saccà as Silla, Annick Massis as Giunia and Monica Bacelli as Cecilio – all three at home on the world’s greatest stages such as the Vienna State Opera, Barcelona’s Liceu, London’s Covent Garden Opera, La Scala, Palais Garnier…

Betulia Liberata (Mozart 22)

Written in spring 1771, “Betulia Liberata” is an azione sacra, a sacred play in the style of the Italian oratorio. The libretto takes up the well-known biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. The Assyrian general and dictator is laying siege to the Jewish town of Betulia. He has the town surrounded and its water supplies cut off. While the Prince of Betulia, Ozias, and religious leaders discuss what to do, the widow Judith decides to act: she boldly strides into the enemy camp, where she wins Holofernes’ trust, arouses his senses and cuts off his head. The work was commissioned by Don Giuseppe Ximenes, Prince of Aragon, a member of a noble Spanish family living in Padua. Years later, in 1784, Mozart took a renewed interest in the work and planned to use some of its music for a new oratorio – proof of his satisfaction with music he had written at 15. The libretto is by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), the leading author of opera and oratorio texts of his day (who also penned the libretti to Mozart’s “Il re pastore,” “La clemenza di Tito” and “Il sogno di Scipione”). “Betulia Liberata” owes much to the composer’s early experiences with opera, especially “Mitridate,” and contains some strikingly prophetic features. One finds the conventional aria types of the opera seria such as the rage aria and the bravura aria; there are powerful choruses and a remarkable C minor aria with choral interjections. The work is preceded by a stormy D minor overture that foreshadows the Sturm und Drang atmosphere of the “little” G minor Symphony K. 183 of 1773. As befits an oratorio, the Salzburg production of “Betulia Liberata” is a semi-staged concert performance. The incisive playing of the Munich Chamber Orchestra under its early-music-inspired conductor Christoph Poppen provides the dynamic basis for the homogeneous cast headed by Jeremy Ovenden as Ozias, a demanding tenor part sung with nimble bravura, Marjana Mijanovic as a darkly hued and sensual Judith, Franz-Josef Selig as a profound Alchior and Julia Kleiter as a luminous Amital. Noteworthy is the rousing vitality of the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera.

Das Land des Lächelns

Franz Lehár’s “Das Land des Lächelns” is one of the best-known operettas of all time. For this new production Piotr Beczala, a world star who cultivates the tradition of the famous Tauber style like no other, returned to the Opernhaus Zürich as Sou-Chong. He has an equal partner in Julia Kleiter, who played the role of Lisa. Fabio Luisi and Andreas Homoki also know that the genre of operetta requires particular care – which is why they have assumed personal responsibility for this production. Homoki lets the plot take place in a Paris Variététheater from the 1920s, complete with show staircase and heavy curtains. To emphasize the operatic elements, he purged the piece, cutting several secondary roles and shortening dialogues. “Julia Kleiter as Lisa and Piotr Beczala as Sou-Chong – unhappy lovers, but vocally a dream couple!”  SRF

Jonas Kaufmann – You Mean The World To Me

“You are my Heart’s Delight”, “My Song Goes Round the World”, “My Happiness that Remained” – these evergreens are the musical expression of one of the most artistically rich and thrilling eras in European cultural history: Berlin during the last years of the Weimar Republic. Together with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the guidance of Jochen Rieder, Jonas Kaufmann, one of the most sought-after tenors of our time brings these hit numbers alive in the legendary recording studios of the Funkhaus Berlin, Nalepastraße. Also available: Documentary “You Mean The World To Me” (52′), Cat.No. 9160

Beethoven Celebration Berlin

In 2020, Ludwig van Beethoven is the focus of the Staatskapelle Berlin’s suberb open-air concert. With star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter playing Beethoven’s Violin Romances Nos. 1 & 2, the composer anticipated the romantic genre of the „song without words“. In capturing the expressive „singing on the instrument“, the virtuoso talent and remarkable art of Anne-Sophie Mutter are once again demonstrated. Daniel Barenboim has devoted his life to Beethoven‘s work and mentality. The musical director, pianist and cultural activist conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin and the State Opera Chorus in this concert. Giving justice to the 9th Symphony with its insistent appeal to humanity and its forward-looking utopian character, are the high calibre artists: Julia Kleiter, Waltraud Meier, Andreas Schager and René Pape.