The rarely performed opera “Die Liebe der Danae” is a feast for Strauss lovers, with arias, ensembles and orchestral interludes blazing with sumptuous colors and rich textures. Written under war clouds and completed in 1940, it is the swan song of an aged composer who is taking leave from the world on the eve of the catastrophe that will engulf it. This timeless production from the Deutsche Oper Berlin can be seen as the mirror of a changing world order, with a wonderfully suggestive symbol dominating the stage during all three acts: a grand piano suspended upside-down from the rafters.
Thielemann conducts Strauss
A magical evening at the Salzburg Festival: soprano Renée Fleming, conductor Christian Thielemann and the Wiener Philharmoniker perform works by Richard Strauss – ‘one of those musical events that prove that excellence truly is possible’ (El País). In her interpretation of four songs for voice and orchestra by Richard Strauss, along with a scene from ‘Arabella’, Fleming wanders along the summits of vocal artistry as a diva who dares to project the innermost emotions of the music she sings. Without a trace of bombast or heaviness, Thielemann and the Philharmoniker elaborate, as Der Standard writes, ‘a new vision of the Alpine Symphony’ that is characterized by a ‘chamber-musiclike transparency’.
Rossini, Stabat Mater
Four superb soloists – Anna Netrebko, Marianna Pizzolato, Matthew Polenzani and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo – transform Rossini’s ‘Stabat mater’ into a feast of ‘italianità’, uniting their voices in a warm, mellow whole. After several successful performances of this rarely played sacred work in various cities, the Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Rome wind up their Rossini project with a performance at the Salzburg Festival, their first-ever guest appearance there. Anna Netrebko, whose aria ‘Inflammatus’ was for many the concert’s ‘unspoken high point’ (Die Presse), succeeded in ‘blending her voice beautifully into the soloist ensemble – one voice among equals in an excellent, well-balanced quartet’ (Salzburger Nachrichten).
Christian Thielemann rehearses “Die Frau ohne Schatten”
A Portrait of Mariss Jansons – Music is the Language of the Heart and Soul
In his film on Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, Robert Neumüller takes us on a fascinating tour of a life devoted to music. We accompany Jansons as he prepares for his conductorship of the most famous concert in the world, the New Year’s Concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker from the Vienna Musikverein. While historical footage documents important stations of his early career, long-time companions and artists speak about their work with the conductor. We also watch him working with “his” two orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.
Hollywood in Vienna
‘Hollywood in Vienna’ is the world’s first and unique redcarped film music gala concert, celebrating the most renowned film composers of our time. The annual gala combines an orchestral concert of highest musical level with guests from the dream factory and a Hollywood-like staging in the historical setting of the Vienna Concert Hall. Classical symphonic music known from today’s movies reaches a young and new target audience. On the programme works by Bruce Broughton, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, John Powell, Max Steiner and Nicholas Hooper.
The Beethoven Piano Concertos
No other pianist plays Beethoven in such a supremely classic manner and at such a high level’, writes Vienna’s Kurier about Rudolf Buchbinder’s performance of all five Beethoven piano concertos with the Wiener Philharmoniker. Buchbinder, who has given many cyclical performances of these works all over the world, performs here both as soloist and conductor.
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2011
In the Mahler year 2011, the eminent Pierre Boulez conducted the traditional opening concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival. The concert begins with the “Lulu Suite” by Mahler’s pupil Alban Berg. The music for the tragic temptress is sung here by the “dazzling” (Der Standard) young soprano Anna Prohaska. In Berg’s concert aria “Der Wein”, Dorothea Röschmann delivers a “masterful interpretation” (Die Presse). The main work of the concert is Gustav Mahler’s large-scale cantata “Das klagende Lied” of 1898/99 – a “great spectral opera for the mind’s eye” (Wiener Zeitung). Scored for massive orchestral and choral forces, the work also calls for three soloists, who are sung here with power and intensity by Dorothea Röschmann, Elisabeth Kulman and Johan Botha.
Anna Bolena
Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanca pair their glorious voices in an upcoming recording of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera “Anna Bolena” from the Wiener Staatsoper. It is Netrebko’s highly anticipated role debut as Anna Bolena. She and fellow soprano Garanca, who portrays her lady of honor Giovanna Seymour, form a fateful triangle with baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Enrico VIII. Intrigue, betrayal and passion keynote the action of this dramatic bel canto work that also stars Elisabet Kulman as Smeton and Francesco Meli as Lord Riccardo Percy. Conducting the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper is Evelino Pidò. Stage director is Eric Génovèse, whose recent production of Liebermann’s “Die Schule der Frauen” in Bordeaux earned him great acclaim.
Bregenz Festival 2011: Andrea Chénier
With his spectacular production of Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier”, director Keith Warner unites intellectual depth and exciting entertainment for the eyes and ears using every possible resource offered by Bregenz’s floating stage. The colossal set by David Fielding is inspired by Jacques- Louis David’s famous painting “Death of Marat”. The opera is both a moving love story and a historical thriller with a highly emotional score. Ulf Schirmer, the Wiener Symphoniker and the excellent soloists Hector Sandoval, Norma Fantini and Scott Henricks unleash the entire power of this Italian verismo work.