Moise et Pharon opened the 2021 Rossini Opera Festival. Stage director Pier Luigi Pizzi handling direction, sets and costumes worked his magic: The sparse sets and computer animations were reminiscents of American artist James Turrell’s lights and spaces in their simplicity and impact. The extensive ballet is a highly imaginative and irresistibly camp dance interlude and Eleonora Buratto’s (Anaï) sumptuous voice sparkles through the registers and displays extraordinarily beautiful moments witnessed in decades. Mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Sinaide) is a magnificent discovery: Possessing a true bel canto voice, her second act is spine-tingling. Among the highlights is also Roberto Tagliavini’s splendid final prayer “Des cieux ou tu resides” in the role of Moise. The RAI orchestra under the baton of Giacomo Sagripanti delivers an emotional and powerful interpretation of the score.
Rossini Opera Festival 2021: Elisabetta
Il crepuscolo dei sogni
Music from operas by Henry Purcell, Verdi, Monteverdi, by Richard Strauss and Rossini, by Boito and other composers from over 200 years of music history. A so-called pastiche opera. The conductor is Omer Meir Wellber and the director is Johannes Erath. Soprano Carmen Giannattasio, baritone Markus Werba and bass Alexandros Stavrakakis sing on stage and in the stalls. The new season of Palermo’s Teatro Massimo opens with a completely new form of musical theatre. An opera vision – without a plot that is concrete at first glance, explains director Johannes Erath: “But of course there is a common thread. Not in the narrative sense, in the storytelling sense, but it’s more of an emotional journey, like a rollercoaster of emotions.” PRESS “A hymn to the empathic magnificence of opera” (La Repubblica) / “An unprecedented opening” (La Repubblica Palermo)
Pushing Borders
The film Set in Motion accompanies choreographers Jefta van Dinther, Milla Koistinen, and Arno Schuitemaker, who react to new beginnings after a period of stillness in works specifically put together for this film. In their performances, they represent the changeable feelings that accompany the return from isolation to closeness: from fear to overcome, from curiosity to euphoria. Carefully, they unfold a return to mutual support and trust with the unifying expressive power of contemporary dance and show how dance can also be a celebration of life and joy. The three-part work was created in cooperation with euro-scene at Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig.
Der Freischütz
The Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus is acclaimed worldwide for its avant-garde opera productions. In their production of “Der Freischütz,” created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opera’s premiere at the Konzerthaus Berlin as well as the 200th anniversary of the concert hall itself, La Fura dels Baus created a virtual forest in which the cast of amazing soloists as well as the choir performed with the Konzerthausorchester under music director Christoph Eschenbach. Without any audience present, the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus was thus transformed into a myth-filled installation – a 360-degree experience for all the senses.
Fabio Luisi’s Farewell Concert from Zurich: Bruckner No. 7
In his nine years as the General Music Director of the Opernhaus Zürich, Fabio Luisi decisively shaped the musical tone of the house. His Verdi interpretations, his cycle of operas by Vincenzo Bellini and his forays into the symphonic-romantic repertoire are unforgettable. In June 2021, Luisi gave his farewell concert on the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zürich with an intense and memorable performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. Conducting without a baton, Fabio Luisi led the orchestra in his signature style combining precision with emotion, moulding out every heraldic and delicate passage from an orchestra in top form.
Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is by no means a private love tragedy, but rather an eminently political story that demonstrates how a system of power deforms and ultimately corrodes human relationships. Donizetti provided his most haunting music for the rebellion and extinction of betrayed love; the revenge is bloody, the madness deadly. In this new production of the Opernhaus Zürich, soprano Irina Lungu sings the title role of Lucia. Piotr Beczala appears as her lover and Massimo Cavalletti as her brother. Tatjana Gürbaca, renowned for her precise direction, staged the visually powerful production under the musical direction of Speranza Scappucci.
Paavo Järvi conducts Mahler 3 – Tonhalle Zürich Reopening
After four years of restoration work, the Tonhalle Zürich, one of the most impressive concert halls in Europe, reopened its doors on September 15, 2021. The Tonhalle-Orchester returned to its historic home with a captivating performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony under the direction of its Music Director Paavo Järvi, one of the great Mahler interpreters of our time. Hardly any work is as suitable for pushing the freshly renovated hall to its limits as Gustav Mahler’s longest symphony with an overwhelming orchestral cast, the alto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, the women of the Sing-Akademie Zürich and the Zurich Boys’ Choir.
Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos rank among the most popular works of Baroque music, just like Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. To mark their 300th anniversary in 2021, Accentus Music recorded six Brandenburg Concertos in Köthen Castle’s restored Hall of Mirrors with Collegium 1704 on historical instruments. Founded by Václav Luks in 2005, the orchestra is one of the most renowned ensembles of our time specializing in baroque music. Given the great stylistic and structural diversity of these concertos, Collegium 1704 was the perfect choice to record this UHD HDR production at this historic location.
Josquin des Préz – A Concert Hommage
Franco-Flemish vocal polyphony finds its culmination in the work of a man who was courted by princes and music publishers, esteemed by contemporaries such as Martin Luther and respected by fellow composers and singers like no other: Josquin des Préz, darling of the gods. In a way unmatched by others, he succeeded in merging contrapuntal arts and verbal expression, techné and ars, brain and heart. With a program of Josquin’s Masses and Motets, ensemble amarcord paid homage in the opening concert of the a cappella festival 2021 to the jubilarian whose work touched people – and aimed at eternity.