“Falstaff”, Verdi’s last opera, blends comedy and melancholy in a manner rarely found in an opera before or after it. With the complex interplay of many characters, it presents a challenge to every director. In this production from the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated film director Luca Guadagnino (“I am Love”) finds an ideal solution by bringing out the individuality of each figure through unmistakable traits. The performance features a strong cast of chiefly young Italian musicians, with the Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona under the spirited direction of Daniele Rustioni.
Salome
Her ‘voice and acting are utterly overwhelming’ wrote the FAZ in its glowing review of Angela Denoke’s performance in Baden-Baden as the enigmatic young woman with a morbid interest in a captured prophet. The stellar cast also includes Alan Held as the doomed prophet; Kim Begley as the lustful Herodes; and Doris Soffel as the imperious Herodias. In a monumental set dominated by the panther-like Salome, director Nikolaus Lehnhoff depicts the inner tragedy of this young woman, who is both strong and weak, victim and perpetrator.
La Traviata
Hugo De Ana’s larger-than-life production of La Traviata is “compelling…a triumph,” (Opera Critic) when it fills the stage at the Arena di Verona, Italy. Albanian lyric soprano Ermonela Jaho, hailed as a “revelation” in the role of Violetta, is paired with Sardinian tenor Francesco Demuro as her impassioned lover, Alfredo.
The Nutcracker
Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” is certainly one of the most popular “family” ballets in the world. This production from the Semperoper combines the work’s fairy-tale aspects with visual opulence. Based on the original libretto by Marius Petipa, the choreography by Aaron S. Watkin and Jason Beechey is modern yet traditional. The spirited dancing, charming sets inspired by Dresden landmarks, and extravagant costumes make the production a joy to behold. The production entrusts the roles of the children in the first act to actual children and youths from Dresden’s famous Palucca School of Dance.
Eugene Onegin
Young conductor Omer Meir Wellber, Musical Director of Valencia’s Palau de les Arts, scores a triumph with Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” in Mariusz Trelinski’s timeless production. Polish filmmaker and stage directo Trelinski has created a series of dream-like, surrealist tableaux of great suggestive beauty. The clear lines of the production (premiered at Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki) are finely echoed by the slender musical design of Omer Meir Wellber – “A miracle of poetry” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). The superb young cast is headed by Artur Ruzinski as Onegin and Kristine Opolais as Tatyana.
Falstaff
Topping the cast of this Zurich production is one of the world’s most acclaimed Falstaff performers of his time, Ambrogio Maestri. His powerful voice, acting skills, stage presence and nimble lightness blend together magnificently. At the head of the Zurich Opera Orchestra is its principal conductor Daniele Gatti. Under his baton, Verdi’s commedia lirica – based on Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” – is a fireworks of high spirits. Adding to the merriment is a cast of outstanding singers including Barbara Frittoli and Yvonne Naef, as well as Javier Camarena and Eva Liebau.
Andris Nelsons and Yefim Bronfman at the Lucerne Festival
For his tone poem ‘Scheherazade’ Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov chose four episodes from the famous 1001 nights tales collection to set, using glowing instrumental colors and exotically tinged ornaments. Andris Nelsons, the young and charismatic star conductor from Latvia, will be sure to inspire a veritable sonic intoxication with the wonderful
Concertgebouw Orchestra. In contrast, the first part of the concert will strike a heroic note when Yefim Bronfman, whose virtuosity knows no limits, plays Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.
Andris Nelsons at the Lucerne Festival
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony, which was written in the pivotal months after the Battle of Stalingrad, follows the principle of triumph through adversity – ‘per aspera ad astra’ – not just musically, but also conceptually: Everything that is dark and shameful will perish; everything that is beautiful will triumph.’ This ‘triumph,’ though, is restrained. The Eighth is a large-scale work that ends in something like a pastoral mood, played pianissimo; poses of jubilation were not in Shostakovich’s nature. The concert opens with the delightful, lively Overture to ‘Rienzi.’ And the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ from ‘Salome’ shows the fin-de-siècle’s enigmatic penchant for decadence.
Orfeo ed Euridice
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ambitious “Festival Internacional de Música Castell de Peralada”, the Catalan theater collective La Fura dels Baus and its director Carlus Padrissa have staged Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” with three splendid soloists in a production that confirms the Fura’s creativity. The most striking aspect of the production is the participation of the orchestral ensemble in the action. Padrissa also makes abundant stage use of the chorus, who depict souls or demons. With its stunning effects, expert lighting and video projections, the production grabs the viewer from the very start.
Le Grand Macabre
Ligeti’s absurd-tragicomical masterpiece of the highest order ‘Le Grand Macabre’ blends popular theatre, comic, pop art, cabaret, apocalypse and caricature with a fascinating imaginativeness. The production by ‘La Fura dels Baus’ under the direction of Àlex Ollé already thrilled press and public alike in Brussels, London and Rome, and is considered as ‘one of the best staging’s’ (La Vanguardia) of the world-famous Catalan theatre group.