Macbeth

Verdi revelled in the power and fantasy of Shakespeare, and when he recreated Macbeth as an Italian opera he practically redefined the genre – demanding a Lady Macbeth who was a sublime actor as well as an outstanding singer. He’d have been thrilled with this production from Zurich Opera House, with its boldly imaginative staging by David Pountney and urgent, nuanced conducting from Franz Welser-Möst. But above all, he’d have been gripped by the young Sardinian soprano Paoletta Marrocu as Lady Macbeth, and an interpretation that Gramophone magazine compared to Maria Callas: “from first to last, a truly stunning performance”.

Norma

The reigning queen of bel canto, Edita Gruberova has laid the cornerstone for a new ‘Norma’ legend in her first stage performance of this virtuoso role. The premiere of Vincenzo Bellini’s opera at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich marked a resounding new triumph in the singer’s career. Sharing the stage with Gruberova were Zoran Todorovich, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Sonia Ganassi and other renowned soloists, along with the chorus of the Bavarian State Opera. Friedrich Haider conducted the production directed by Jürgen Rose.

La forza del destino

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

For La forza del destino, Verdi created one of his most famous melodies, the “fate” motif that permeates the whole of the score. Music and action alternate in masterly fashion between large-scale crowd scenes and intimate interiority, in that way illustrating Verdi’s real theme: the manner in which fallible human beings are destroyed by a cruel fate.

Simon Boccanegra

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

None of Verdi’s other operas was subjected to as radical a series of revisions as Simon Boccanegra. The initial version of 1857 was not a success, so that in 1880/81 Verdi not only rewrote large sections of the score but together with his new librettist Arrigo Boito also reworked the libretto. The result was a sombre work full of overwhelming sound pictures. This second version proved a great and lasting success.

200 Years of Verdi – A Gala Concert

Gala Concert from the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on occation of the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi in 2013. On the program highlights from Verdi’s most famous works. —- PROGRAM: Messa da Requiem – Dies Irae / Macbeth – Ambizioso spirto; Patria oppressa; O figi miei / Rigoletto – Caro nome Cortigliani, vil razza / I vespri siciliani – O tu Palermo / Il trovatore – Tacea la notte placida; Il balen del suo sorriso; Di quella pira / La forza del destino – Pace, pace, mio dio; Il santo nome di Dio Signore; La vergine degli angeli / La traviata – Preludio I Atto; E strano; Di provenza il mare e il suol / Don Carlo – Ella giammai m‘amò; Tu che le vanità; O don fatale, o don crudel / Aida – O patria mia; Celeste Aida; Marcia trionfale / Falstaff – È sogno o realtà; Tutto nel mondo è burla