It is the concertante performance of Elektra in which the Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of its principal conductor Christian Thielemann does justice once again to its reputation as Richard Strauss’s favourite orchestra and leaves us in no doubt: this is where the Strauss sound is at home! Evelyn Herlitzius leads a brilliant cast including Waltraud Meier, René Pape and Anne Schwanewilms.
Tristan und Isolde
“It would be most wonderful if this Tristan never ended.” (Opernmagazin) “Brilliant performances that bring you to your knees” (Sächsische Zeitung) Every piece of the puzzle fell perfectly into place for this historic performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Semperoper Dresden. In front of a pared down, timeless staging by Marco Arturo Marelli, the vocal performances could truly shine. Klaus Florian Vogt is “fully present” (Opernmagazin) and Camilla Nylund as Isolde at his side “convinced with her still incredibly lyrical, light soprano” (Sächsische Zeitung). At the zenith of his career, Christian Thielemann manages to set a new standard with his permeation of this difficult score and leads the Staatskapelle Dresden to new heights of artistic expression.
Aida
Even though Christian Thielemann conducted a lot of Italian operas during his “journeyman years” in Italy, this production at the Semperoper is his very first Aida. He tells this stirring drama by Giuseppe Verdi at the Semperoper Dresden with a great symphonic arc and a sense of detail. No blaring, no crashing: Everything is carefully balanced and lovingly modelled. With small breakes when it’s important, and otherwise a high basic pulse, Thielemann and the luxurious Staatskapelle Dresden counter the oratorical, statuesque nature of the piece with a lot of dramatic tension. Katharina Thalbach, known for her innovative and thought-provoking productions, created a classical set for the Semperoper and hence laid all the focus on the portrayal of the characters and their relationships and on the music. The “outstanding ensemble of singers” (Deutschlandfunk). “The crowning glory of this feast of voices is provided by Francesco Meli … currently the best Radamès” (Der Merkur), Krassimira Stoyanova as Aida, who beguiles with her power as well as with piani, and Oksana Volkova as Amneris, who comes up with darkly blazing passion” (Neue Musikzeitung).
Capriccio
Capriccio by Richard Strauss is an opera about opera as an art form: it describes the creation of a musical drama with wise cheerfulness and full knowledge of this genre of theatre. The “conversation piece with music” is Strauss’s last complete stage work, his farewell as an opera composer, the cultivated conclusion of a well-considered life’s work. The composer worked closely with the Semperoper Dresden for six decades, and nine of his operas were premiered on the Elbe. To this day, the house and its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, celebrated worldwide as the “Strauss Orchestra”, cultivate his work with a unique intensity and quality. The celebrated Strauss interpreter and principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann, leads a top-class ensemble with star soprano Camilla Nylund as the Countess, Georg Zeppenfeld as La Roche, Daniel Behle as Flamand, Nikolay Borchev as Olivier, Christa Mayer as Clairon and Christoph Pohl as the Count. In Jens-Daniel Herzog’s new production, the plot unfolds in full poetic power and impressive imagery.
An American Night from the Semperoper Dresden
Karina Canellakis and the Staatskapelle Dresden whisk the audience away to the land of opportunity with melodies from Broadway to Hollywood. With energetic fervor, the conductor starts the evening with the overture to Bernstein’s Candide and the concert suite No. 1 from West Side Story. Soprano Fatma Said (“beautifully lyrical” – Der Merker) and tenor Jonah Hopkins sung Tony and Maria “with great feeling and intimacy” (Der Merker). Pianist Kirill Gerstein interprets Gershwin’s piano concerto in F major with great feeling for “rhythmic and jazzy peculiarities” (Der Merker). Arriving firmly on Hollywood turf with works by Steiner and Korngold, the concert ends with one last excursion to the musical stage with Cole Porter’s “Wunderbar” from Kiss Me, Kate.
Festive Gala from the Semperoper Dresden
In this edition of the Staatskapelle Dresden’s New Year’s Eve concert, every classical music fan is sure to get their money’s worth. Exceptional pianist Igor Levit performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, perhaps the most famous of Mozart’s piano concertos. “Transparent, without the slightest scratch, he mastered his part, attentive to the orchestra. At times it seemed as if Levit was stroking the keys, only to grow into brilliant virtuosity.” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten) South-African soprano Golda Schultz (“a voice with an almost immeasurable range of colours, effortlessly guided and golden in bloom”, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten), Czech mezzo-soprano Štepánka Pucálková and Ukrainian baritone Iurii Samoilov take the audience into the world of opera and operetta – from with love arias from Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro to Strauss, Offenbach, Franz Lehár and Strauss II. Conductor Tugan Sokhiev “proved himself to be a man of unerring precision and precisely differentiated orchestral work.” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten) “A splendid programme with splendid soloists” (Dresdner Morgenpost)
Festive Gala at the Semperoper Dresden: From Berlin to Broadway – The Golden Twenties
The Semperoper Dresden invites the public into the New Year with songs, hits and operetta classics from Berlin to Broadway: In the festive ambiance of the Semper Opera House, the audience of the New Year’s Eve concert, which have now become a tradition, can expect lively melodies from the “Golden Twenties”. Under the direction of Christian Thielemann, excerpts from “Metropolis” will be heard alongside well-known film hits from the heyday of cinema in the transition from silent to sound film. Berlin as the glorious center of a new, independent operetta era and New York with its Broadway musicals and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, played by Igor Levit, are the musical focal points of the program.
Festive Gala from the Semperoper Dresden – 100th Anniversary of UFA
The Festive Gala at the Semperoper Dresden brings back the splendour of UFA Film for one scintillating night full of famous melodies. Christian Thielemann and his Staatskapelle Dresden together with outstanding singers Angela Denoke, Elisabeth Kulman und Daniel Behle pay homage to the hit songs of the so-called dream factory, which dominated the German film industry from 1917 to 1945, and produced classics like “Metropolis”, “The Three from the Filling Station” and “The Blue Angel”. Created in the first half of the 20th century, the UFA productions are marked by the ambivalence of culture and politics that is characteristic for this part of German history. For ZDF and the artists, the concert offers the chance for a deliberate, critical review of the “film dreams” of the past and the undeniable “dissonances” of the nation’s history.
Thielemann conducts Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liszt
Lisa Batiashvili, Gautier Capuçon, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden present a sophisticated programme about love and death from the perspective of three 19th century composers: The stages of life can be viewed as preludes to the melody of death, as Liszt proposed in Les Préludes. It is only at the very end that the inadequacies of life are resolved – the tragedy behind the love of Romeo and Juliet in Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture. In the jaws of death, Eros enjoys his strongest impulse, one that transcends time. What results is the desire for the epic and heroic, which in Brahms’ final orchestral work, the Double Concerto, achieves a certain consummation. The Double Concerto forms part of Thielemann’s extensive Brahms cycle, containing symphonies and solo concertos performed to frenetic acclaim in Dresden and Tokyo.
Festive Gala at the Semperoper Dresden: Beethoven Symphony No. 9
“Everyone loves Beethoven’s ‘Ninth’,” says Christian Thielemann. Performing it with the Sächsische Staatskapelle was “one of the most beautiful things that has happened to me in my life”. For many it is the soundtrack for New Year’s Eve ever since Arthur Nikisch conducted this landmark in symphonic history over the turn of the year 1918/19 and established a tradition that has spread worldwide. New Year’s Eve was also the occasion for this concert performed in the festively lit Semperoper. Camilla Nylund, Christa Mayer, Klaus Florian Vogt and Georg Zeppenfeld form the vocal quartet of this performance, Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden. “Thielemann led the orchestra with composure […], made the music […] a sound speech, celebrated the melody in the slow movement. [The finale] culminated in a veritable thundering of joy.“ (Sächsiche Zeitung)