Roméo et Juliette

While Charles Gounod’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’ is less well-known than his ‘Faust,’ it is blessed with four great show-stopping love duets that let its two title roles bask in lyrical luxury. In this Salzburg Festival production recorded at the Felsenreitschule, the titular heroes are the much acclaimed Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón and the young Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze – two singers and personalities with the makings of a new ‘dream couple.’ ‘Villazón is ‘an ideal Roméo … His vocal cords seem to be grafted directly onto his heart’ (Der Tagesspiegel). His Juliette, Nino Machaidze, unites captivating good looks with a bright, clear voice and an agile, youthful stage presence – a singer on her way to stardom! Broadway director Bartlett Sher and his team succeed in evoking Shakespeare’s Verona with a few evocative props, many fine

costumes and much plot-driven action.

Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)

At Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, maestro Fabio Luisi gives “a superb performance” (Operawire) of Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), the forerunner of grand Wagnerian dramas. His Italian Richard Wagner debut is infused with energy and drive, under his direction the orchestra and chorus of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, together with Coro Ars Lyrica, sparkle “in what was a five star performance” (Operawire). Thomas Gazheli stars as the Dutchman, who has been condemned to endlessly wander the seas until the day of Judgement. Marjorie Owens shines as his saviour Senta.

Otello

TUTTO VERDI – this edition to mark the Verdi bicentenary sets standards by which all similar projects will be judged. It includes all twenty-six operas by the greatest Italian stage composer, together with his immortal Requiem, all of them in definitive performances. “This is how Verdi should be played” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on TUTTO VERDI

Verdi was over seventy when he set about raising Italian opera to a whole new level, succeeding magnificently in combining two traditions in his penultimate masterpiece. Based on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Otello not only sums up the history of Italian opera since Rossini but at the same time looks far into the future.

Benvenuto Cellini

The absence of the work in the operatic repertoire is certainly due in part to its musical excesses: the work is so complex, richly detailed and prolifically imaginative that Berlioz’s contemporaries considered it unplayable and unsingable. This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stölzl, conductor Valery Gergiev and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stölzl, above all, has poured his experience as director

of music videos (for Madonna, Mick Jagger and others), commercials and films into this project, termed ‘science fiction for Grand Opera’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung), ‘breathtaking’ (Der Standard), and ‘spectacularly successful’ (F.A.Z.).