The most famous tragic love story in history, conducted by a legend of opera: superstar Plácido Domingo leads the stellar Juan Diego Flórez and Aida Garifullina as star-crossed lovers in Jürgen Flimm’s atmospheric staging of “Roméo et Juliette” by Charles Gounod at the Wiener Staatsoper. Domingo, Flórez and Garifullina tell a tale of “tragic love that has the air of Hollywood about it!” (Die Presse)
Idomeneo
Idomeneo is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart’s dramatic oeuvre and it is perhaps even the most revolutionary and forward-looking of his work. In “Kasper Holten’s coherent production” (Die Presse) Bernard Richter was “a cultivated bright tenor with beautiful expressive moments” (Kronen Zeitung). “Valentina Nafornit¸a performed the role of Ilia with passion and reached every height with ease and Irina Lungu portrayed Elettra as a great tragic figure and unfolded her soprano with verve in the final aria” (Kurier). Conductor Tomáš Netopil provided with the orchestra “gripping moments from the virtuoso overture onwards” (Kronen Zeitung)
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Bregenz’s Tales of Hoffmann is different from everything you saw before. The New York Times praised the “thoughtfulness and creativity” of Stefan Herheim’s new production, devised by the director as a search for one’s own self in a sparkling drag show. A “shining-toned” (NYT) Hoffmann is embodied by tenor Daniel Johansson in the title role. He is supported by a fantastic cast: “Rachel Frenkel is positively ideal as Muse and Niklausse” (Kurier), Kerstin Avemo as Olympia is “endowed with brilliant, cheekily extemporized coloraturas” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Michael Volle sings the parts of Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto, “the work’s four villains, with warmth and intensity” (NYT) and Mandy Fredrich is a “finelyphrased Antonia” (Kurier).
Idomeneo
Idomeneo is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart’s dramatic œuvre and it is perhaps even the most revolutionary and forward-looking of his work. In “Kasper Holten’s coherent production” (Die Presse) Bernard Richter was “a cultivated bright tenor with beautiful expressive moments” (Kronen Zeitung). “Valentina
Nafornita performed the role of Ilia with passion and reached every height with ease and Irina Lungu portrayed Elettra as a great tragic figure and unfolded her soprano with verve in the final aria” (Kurier). Conductor Tomáš Netopil provided with the orchestra “gripping moments from the virtuoso overture onwards” (Kronen Zeitung).
Bregenz Festival 2015: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
“The opera visit of the year – Bregenz is showing a Tales of Hoffmann that makes you forget everything you saw before.” (FAZ) Sparkling with creativity, Stefan Herheim’s new staging of Jacques Offenbach’s opera Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Bregenz Festival, starring Kerstin Avemo, Mandy Fredrich, Rachel Frenkel, Daniel Johansson and Michael Volle, was received by an enthusiastic audience with standing ovation and frenetic applause. The international press agreed wholeheartedly: The New York Times praised the “thoughtfulness and creativity” of the new production, devised by the director as a search for one’s own self in a sparkling drag show.