A celebrated new production of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West from the Vienna State opera featuring Jonas Kaufmann and Nina Stemme. Stage by Marco Arturo Marelli, who sets it in a modern-day mining village. ‘Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann are the opera’s must-see couple for a generation’ (Financal Times). ‘Excellent singing from top to bottom, tight orchestral playing, beautiful lighting, and a decisive lack of cowboys, saloons and other “Wild West” clichés.’ (Bachtrack.com)
Bregenz Festival 2013: André Tchaikowsky, The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespear’s play was turned into an opera by André Tchaikowsky, a Polish-born composer who emigrated to Great Britain. He wrote the opera in 1970s and 80s, but it has never been performed. The world premiere at Bregenz Festival received rave reviews for the staging and the artistic perfomance of the cast: “Keith Warner’s elegant, flowing production evokes the time of the Dreyfus Affair” … “Though Adrian Eröd’s poignantly powerful Shylock stood out, the rest of the excellent cast helped make this a restitution to remember.” (The Telegraph)
Salzburg Festival: Verdi, Don Carlo
The Salzburg Festival hosts a new production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo”, directed by Peter Stein and embodied by Jonas Kaufmann. The production is based on the original version of the opera, which includes those passages that were cut shortly before the first performance in 1867. Verdi’s masterpiece demands world-class singers at the peak of their powers, such as Jonas Kaufmann, “who combines absolute technical stability with the highest musical intelligence”, and soprano Anja Harteros, who’s “Elisabetta is quite simply sublime: majestically phrased, rich in nuance, clear of diction and moving easily from immaculately floated pianissimo to sterling fortissimo”. (The Telegraph)
Salzburg Festival 2013: Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
One of the highlight opera productions of Salzburg Festival 2013: The new Stefan Herheim production of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted by Daniele Gatti, with Michael Volle, one of the foremost German baritones as Hans Sachs and highly acclaimed Italian tenor Roberto Saccà, who for over two decades he has been singing on the stages of the world’s major opera houses, as Walther von Stolzing.
Bregenz Festival 2013: Mozart, Zauberflöte
One of the most often performed operas in the world, Mozart´s “Magic Flute”, in the spectacular new production from Bregenz Festival 2013, that takes the audience into a fantasy world. Stage director David Pountey ” finds stunning answers to the everlasting questions surrounding ‘The Magic Flute’.” (Tagesspiegel) “The singers do their courageous best. …, Ana Durlovski hits all her high notes as Queen of the Night, and Daniel Schmutzhard’s Papageno is robust and assured. (Financial Times)
R. Strauss, Capriccio
American soprano Renée Fleming, renowned for her commanding musicianship, intelligence and interpretive abilities, sings one of her signature roles, the elegant Countess in Richard Strauss’s Capriccio in this delightful production from the Vienna State Opera. Renée Fleming stars alongside the Danish baritone Bo Skovhus and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, who leads the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Also performing are Michael Schade, Markus Eiche, Kurt Rydl and Angelika Kirchschlager.
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).
Handel, Messiah
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, famous for innovative and unconventional opera productions, realized a unique and truly extraordinary project: the staging of one of Handel’s most popular oratorios. For this production, the theater signed up one of the most renowned stage directors of our time, Claus Guth. The result: ‘An emotionally and psychologically charged sequence of images’, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote about Guth’s portrayal of a family dynasty, complete with guilt, betrayal, suicide and reconciliation.
La Fille du Régiment
French soprano Natalie Dessay, not only a dazzling singer but also a gifted actress, effortlessly sweeps her castmates along in this turbulent buffo delight of an opera. ‘She laughed, mugged, cried and danced through her part … And she sang. Oh, how she sang,’ gushed George Jahn (Associated Press). Her partner is Juan Diego Flórez, one of the leading young tenors of our time. Clad in lederhosen, he cheerfully seduces Marie – and the audience – with his voice and his looks.