To mark the 125th anniversary of its premiere in Turin on February 1, 1896, the Teatro Regio celebrated Puccini’s most popular opera with an extraordinary staging in the historic costumes and sets designed by Adolf Hohenstein. The incredibly opulent, eternally valid staging of Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi was exclusively presented for the recording. “The show appears to be alive, palpitating even in the unravelling of the direction, just enough to capture the most genuine atmosphere of the work with an abandon full of poetry.” (Connessi all’opera)
Falstaff
Topping the cast of this Zurich production is one of the world’s most acclaimed Falstaff performers of his time, Ambrogio Maestri. His powerful voice, acting skills, stage presence and nimble lightness blend together magnificently. At the head of the Zurich Opera Orchestra is its principal conductor Daniele Gatti. Under his baton, Verdi’s commedia lirica – based on Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” – is a fireworks of high spirits. Adding to the merriment is a cast of outstanding singers including Barbara Frittoli and Yvonne Naef, as well as Javier Camarena and Eva Liebau.
La Bohème
20 years after its very first performance, which took place at Teatro Regio di Torino, La Bohème returns to the tradition-steeped Italian opera house. With director Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus and music director Gianandrea Noseda the Teatro Regio presents a spectacular, up-to-date anniversary production. For Àlex Ollé, directing the opera for the first time, “La Bohème allows the young generation to get rid of everything that prevents them from flying, feeding only on their own vitality; the real hunger of the protagonists is the hunger for life. My production is set in a modern city outskirt. It is there where, in my opinion, the intellectual matrix of the future happens; in ugly, disreputable and poor places which are authentic. In this kind of environment, where life and art – as they did in Romanticism – belong to the survivors.” “A triumphant youthful Bohème”, in which the singers excel due to their naturalness. Giorgio Berrugi sings his Rodolfo “with a luminous timbre, in refined nuances” (La Stampa), perfectly matching “Irina Lungu’s full-bodied Mimì” (The London Times). All in all, “this is theatre, this is life, this is passion” (Corriere della sera).
Falstaff
“Everything in this world is a joke,” says Falstaff, and these words are truly given weight by Ambrogio Maestri, one of the finest Falstaffs of our time. The Italian baritone brings a powerful, versatile voice to his role, but also brings to his character a hilarious buffo quality. Daniele Gatti, one of the most acclaimed opera conductors working today, leads a stunning cast of singers, including Barbara Frittoli as Alice Ford. Genuinely warm italianità in all of the music-making, combined with a boisterous production by stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, turns Verdi’s commedia lirica into a fireworks display of high spirits as well as what the Neue Zürcher Zeitung called “musically and dramaturgically a feast of life and of love of life”.
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).
Salzburg Festival 2013: Verdi, Falstaff
Italian director Damiano Michieletto put on his Falstaff for the Salzburg Festival in the present-day “Casa Verdi”, a retirement home for elderly musicians Verdi founded at the time of the composition of this opera. As Falstaff Amborgio Maestri, who has played the role in 19 new productions so far. “His physique is just right for the part, as are his powerful voice, flair for drama and feeling for the Verdi style.” (New York Times) He is joined by soprano Fiorenza Cedolins as Alice Ford, the mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel as Meg Page and mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman as Mrs. Quickly. Zubin Mehta leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Salzburg Festival 2012: La Bohème
For the first time in its long history, the Salzburg Festival performs Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème in the Great Festival Hall, offering a unique and rare music highlight. Anna Netrebko wins acclaim yet again in the lead role, giving a “deeply melancholic reading of Mimi”, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Completing the dream couple she has Piotr Beczala at her side, whose rock-solid tenor voice keeps you with him at every turn.The protagonists are supported by a cheeky Nino Machaidze as Musetta and a strong male ensemble headed up by a resourceful Alessio Arduini. Daniele Gatti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic ensured “shimmering transparency of sound … And Italian style” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and “reveals the orchestral sound, bringing the tone colours to full glow” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
La Bohème
120 years after its very first performance, which took place at Teatro Regio di Torino, La Bohème returns to the tradition-steeped Italian opera house. With director Àlex Ollé from La Fura dels Baus and music director Gianandrea Noseda the Teatro Regio presents a spectacular, up-to-date anniversary production featuring a young, lively and high-quality cast. “A triumphant youthful Bohème”, in which the singers excel due to their naturalness. Giorgio Berrugi sings his Rodolfo “with a luminous timbre, in refined nuances” (La Stampa), perfectly matching “Irina Lungu’s full-bodied Mimì” (The London Times). All in all, “this is theatre, this is life, this is passion” (Corriere della sera).
Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is by no means a private love tragedy, but rather an eminently political story that demonstrates how a system of power deforms and ultimately corrodes human relationships. Donizetti provided his most haunting music for the rebellion and extinction of betrayed love; the revenge is bloody, the madness deadly. In this new production of the Opernhaus Zürich, soprano Irina Lungu sings the title role of Lucia. Piotr Beczala appears as her lover and Massimo Cavalletti as her brother. Tatjana Gürbaca, renowned for her precise direction, staged the visually powerful production under the musical direction of Speranza Scappucci.