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Carmen at Chorégie d’Orange was TV live broadcast less than two weeks ago. Contrary to the Puccini operas or the dreaded Verismo repertoire, Carmen is always enjoyable to listen to, so even when the visuals are less appealing you may always take pleasure in music and good singing — especially with the cast like the one chosen for this year’s Carmen in Orange.







Carmen is really a gem on its own. It was composed during the Wagner era but, unlike most of his contemporaries, Bizet avoided the trap of trying to be “more dramatic than Wagner” or to be sweet and sugary. Nietzsche actually, after his obsession with Wagner, suggested that “Carmen is the best opera there is”, that it provided the Mediterraneanization of music and that it brought back cheerfulness, youth. More significantly Nietzsche suggested that the music [of Carmen] liberates spirit. At the time of its creation that last sentence is definitely a key.

In Paris, the ultra-conservative pious bourgeoisie of the late 19th century was outraged by immorality in Carmen. They found the action crude and vulgar. Nationalistic critics thought the music was too dark and heavy, and even complained of too much “Wagnerism”  in it (sic!). Of course there were many who loved Carmen and today it is probably the most loved opera in the world.

Carmen on DVD: No good production is available unfortunately, except for the one directed by Calixto Bieito in Barcelona. HOWEVER, if you ever get a chance to see the production staged by Sebastian Baumgarten at the Komische Oper in Berlin you will definitely see something special. Another good example is the production directed by Emma Dante at La Scala — excellent show, viciously booed for the reasons similar to those for which the similar crowd booed the premiere at the Opera Comique in 1875…


Now back to the production presented at Choregie this month. You should know that the old Roman amphitheater at Orange is enormous and the show is not mounted to please only the TV viewers, but also the people in the crowd, so the chances were the action would look naive, vieux théâtre, big gestures… While the direction by Louis Désiré in the first two acts was  quite good, in the second part the show took a dive for the worse and soon it all started to look as expected — as one of the Eyre productions at The Met: old by construction, unimaginative, filled with clichés and with poor direction of extras.

Better part are the singers: Anna Caterina Antonacci is dethroned and the best Carmen around is Kate Aldrich.* I saw her several years ago in the same role but I guess her Carmen was work in progress back then and now she’s absolutely wonderful in the role. Nothing to add, nor subtract — simply impeccable: her stage charisma, her vocal dominance, her incarnation… 10/10. I am not an unconditional Jonas Kaufmann fan. Two things I love about him are his Lieder-Abend’s, and his singing of the French opera roles for which he arguably defined the standards that will be super-hard to beat in the decades to come. So his Don José was as expected: superbly sung and brilliantly acted. Jonas is really one of a kind. Bravissimo! It wouldn’t be fair to end this note without mentioning always excellent Kyle Ketelsen whose Escamillo was a great match in quality to Kate and Jonas.


I have to admit that this opera, when well sung and well conducted, is already 70% success. For that reason you might wish to spend a few quality hours listening to (or even watching) the show that is now available on YouTube: Act I-II  and Act III-IV.

* NB: Kate Aldrich will be singing Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust at Opéra de Lyon next October!





A few excerpts:

Kate rulz! (Seguedilla)



Jonas at his best (La fleur que tu m’avais jetée):



Kyle Ketelsen




Jonas and Kate responded to Natalie Dessay in French:

Despite atrocious conducting [can someone please tell Placido Domingo that he cannot conduct?!], Operalia remains a superb annual concert of amazing young operatic talents that are most likely to  become operatic stars tomorrow. This year finalists

• Edward Parks, baritone, USA, 31
• Andrea Carroll, soprano, USA, 25
• Julien Behr, tenor, France, 32
• Kiandra Howarth, soprano, Australia, 25
• Bongani Justice Kubheka, bass-baritone, South Africa, 24
• Hyesang Park, soprano, South Korea, 26
• Tobias Greenhalgh, baritone, USA, 26
• Darren Pene Pati, tenor, New Zealand, 27
• Noluvuyiso Mpofu, soprano, South Africa, 24
• Ioan Hotea, tenor, Romania, 25
• Lise Davidsen, soprano, Norway, 28

were truly excellent. Congratulations to each and every one of them for brilliant performance, and to Placido Domingo for organizing this event!

Lise Davidsen, however, still managed to steal the show with a sensationally high-octane singing of "Dich teure Halle!"



Ladies and Gents I believe we just got our next "Nina Stemme" — not to dig farther in the past and make comparison with other famous Scandinavian dramatic sopranos…

You can watch the whole concert on Medici.tv.
Winners: Ioan Hotea (a superb tenor!) and Lise Davidsen.
 

It is better just to listen to. The singers are excellent and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is terrific!

Belcanto operas are known to be super-difficult to stage because of the poor librettos. Most of the belcanto productions are truly dreadful and the common attitude is that the concert versions of operas operas are far better and more efficient than the staged attempts to make the lame-ass librettos look plausible on stage.




Christof Loy’s take at I Capuletti e I Montecchi at Zurich Opera — the house run by the unsurpassable Andreas Homoki — is an example of precisely the opposite. He turned this butchered text of Romeo and Juliet into a SUPERB theater piece — premiered las month at the 2015 Zurich Opera Festival. His outstanding staging is based on mafia rivalry and highly inspired by The Godfather and the direction that respected the timings of this opera to a precision that only can fills you with awe and respect for the director. It takes a village… so this show wouldn’t be as fantastic if it was without the sensational cast lead by Olga Kulchynska (what a superb singer!), always reliable and brilliant Joyce DiDonato, as well as Benjamin Bernheim (!) in one of his finest interpretations.



To me this is clearly the best Christof Loy production of a belcanto opera since his La Donna del Lago in Geneva — which was unfortunately never broadcast or recorded on DVD (I should emphasize that I loathed his Lucrezia Borgia despite the rave reviews it received at the time it was premiered in Munich).

As much as I thought Fabio Luisi was awkward in Wagner, I thought he was the master of the Universe while conducting this opera…

Major props are due to Christian Schmidt for sets and costumes.


This compelling show --which is a rarity today!-- can be seen on Arte on this link

After the years of appalling mediocrity and catastrophic productions presented at the Paris
Opera, the new artistic direction --lead by the formidable Stéphane Lissner-- is proposing
a fantastic program for their first season (2015-2016) which is likely to revive our passion
for opera in Paris that was sadly reduced to a few OKish productions presented at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées during the past several years.



What new productions?


Moses und Aron, directed by Romeo Castellucci, the same Romeo who produced several theater productions in Paris in the past several years  --including a festival dedicated to his vision
of theater-- all of which were met with a rare intellectual enthusiasm, a phenomenal artistic success, many opposed critics that spurred discussions, created a dialogue of opposing views that in our time evolve separately (with that terribly degrading maxime "All opinions are equally valid!"). If we were a little more audacious, we could defend a statement that his shows marked a revival of theater.

Moses und Aron will be premiered on October 20 2015 at Opéra Bastille. Philippe Jordan will conduct and Thomas Johannes Mayer (superb!) and John Graham-Hall will be in the roles of Moses and Aron respectively. We also note Christopher Purves among the cast members. Show not to be missed!


Bluebeard Castle/La Voix Humaine directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski (and his formidable team: Malgorzata Szczesniak, Felice Ross and Denis Guéguin). How to express all the praise for Warli and his theater, for his amazing productions, for his ability to create controversies without ever being trivial, vulgar or rude... without being carried to excess by sheer admiration and enthusiasm!?  It will be visually enchanting, conceptually inspiring... and that Warli impact will work on us -- images that keep running in our heads for days after the show, the concept that haunts us for weeks... To make it bigger, Esa-Pekka Salonen will be conducting and the cast is unbeatable: Johannes Martin Kränzle and Ekaterina Gubanova in the first part and Barbara Hannigan in the second. La prima is scheduled for November 23 2015 and the series of 9 shows will run until December 10.


Iolantha/Casse-Noisette, directed by Dima Tcherniakov -- the most courageous and the most
fascinating story-teller in opera today. A hard core humanist who recounts the stories of little people and their interaction with the violent social environment of their/our time. The cast of Iolantha includes Sonya Yoncheva, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Vito Priante, Gennady Bazzubenkov... Production will be premiered on March 9 2016 at Opéra Garnier - 12 shows are scheduled. Impossible to miss!




Lear by Aribert Reimann will be finally produced in Paris too. To me this is one of the best 3
operas composed after the WW2 and knowing that it will be directed by Calixto Bieito (and staged by Rebecca Ringst) I already feel elated with expectations. It will be gory, it will be tough, but it will be passionate, audacious and delightful! [Did I say, Calixto rules?!] Fabio Luisi will conduct (a curious choice!?) and among the cast members we note Erika Sunnegardh, Ricarda Merbeth, Annette Dasch, Gidon Saks, Andreas Conrad, Eda Moser (sic!)... Premiere - May 23 2016.


Rigoletto  is one of the most famous Verdi operas because of its sparkling arias, so appreciated  by the belcanto fans -- and our guilty pleasures too. Rigoletto unfortunately inherited from belcanto a poor quality of libretto, which is why this opera is very very difficult to produce. It is naive, borderline incoherent and stupid, and asking Klaus Guth to produce it was an
excellent choice. He is one of the rare directors capable to patch up the deficiencies of the Rigoletto libretto and make it exciting and fascinating... Cast: Olga Peretyatko/Irina Lungu, Vesselina Kasarova, Quinn Kelsey/Franco Vassallo, Rafal Siwek/Andrea Mastroni... The run of 17 shows will start on April 11 2016.



One production that I am much more reserved in my expectations is La Damnation de Faust,
because it was confided to Alvis Hermanis whose merits in opera directing I never really understood --  and I tried, I saw 4 of his productions which I found OKish at best (Die Soldaten and Così fan tutte were, honestly, bad). This Damnation is likely to be a success thanks to the palette of singers involved -- Sophie Koch, Jonas Kaufmann/Bryan Hymel, Bryn Terfel, Edwin Crossley-Mercer... Premiere, December 8 2015.


Another production that I am not really interested in is Il Trovatore. That opera is racist and as such not my cup of tea. Although Dima Tcherniakov showed how this opera could be produced --by stripping away its racist thread-- to be modern and delightful, I doubt Alex Olle will be able to shake and spin the libretto in a similar, humanistic, way. I can only hope he [Alex] will prove me wrong because the cast is definitely a delicatesse: Anna Netrebko/Hui He, Marcelo Alvarez/Fabio Sartori, Ekaterina Semenchuk/Ekaterina Gubanova, Ludovic Tezier/Vitaliy Bilyy, Roberto Tagliavono/Liang Li...   13 shows are scheduled between January 31 and March 6 2016.


Among the revivals we are happy to see Der Rosenkavalier back, with Anja Harteros, Peter Rose, Daniela Sindram..., or the Haneke view of Don Giovanni with Artur Rucinski, Maria Bengtsson, Matthew Polenzani, Gaële Arquez... To that add Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (dir- Stefan Herheim) that we saw in Salzburg 2 years ago -- its Paris premiere is scheduled for March 2016.
Lissner was unfortunately constrained to include two productions of Verdi operas, created
during the dreaded Nicolas Joël era: La Traviata directed by Benoît Jacquot -- a truly appalling show that will otherwise be attractive thanks to the cast members (Sonya Yoncheva, Bryan Hymel, Zeljko Lucic and even Placido Domingo), or a flat Aida, staged by Olivier Py, with Anita Rachelishvili/Daniela Barcellona, Sandra Radvanovsky/Liudmila Monastyrska, Aleksanders Antonenko/Fabio Sartori, Kwangchul Youn... A pretty Damiano Micheletto production of Il Barbiere will be back on stage with Pretty Yende, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicola Alaimo, Ildar Abdrazakov, Alessio Arduini, as well as one of the best Robert Carsen productions --
Capriccio, with Adrianne Pieczonka, Benjamin Bernheim, Wolfgang Koch, Daniela Sindram and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. Note also the revival of of Jacquot's Werther in January 2016 with Elina Garanca and Piotr Beczala, together with Stéphane Degout, Elina Tsallagova, Paul Gay...

For more details about the productions and subscription details  see the Paris Opera website.

Two weeks before la prima of the new production of Manon Lescaut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the house announced today that Anna Netrebko decided to pull out from the show. It is quite clear from the press release that the main reason for her withdrawal is that she does not like the Hans Neuenfels production. Details are obviously unclear:

During the premiere performances of Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (15th, 19th, 24th, 27th, 30th November as well as 4th and 7th December) Kristīne Opolais will replace Anna Netrebko in the title role. 

General Manager Nikolaus Bachler expressed his deep regret that Anna Netrebko would not be performing. “We would still like to thank Anna Netrebko for deciding at an early stage that, due to differing artistic perspectives on the work, she would prefer to pull out. The Bayerische Staatsoper is well known for combining first-class musical quality with exciting and innovative directorial approaches. In this field this can, of course, mean that in rare cases certain artistic constellations don’t work out. But, we’re looking forward to welcoming Kristīne Opolais back and working together again with Anna Netrebko in future seasons.”

Did she she withdraw earlier and they did not want to pass information to public until they made sure with Kristine Opolais would step in, or she abruptly decided not to sing because the whole production was not quickly redesigned and reorganized to meet her requirements?
I hope the latter is not true and Anna is not suffering from inflated diva-ego-itis... yet.

The fact that she showed off her Halloween outfit a few days ago (?) suggests that she's still that same down to earth person we love...

Now on this link.

• Very promising cast and hopefully Arpad Schilling structured the show cleverly. His take on Rigoletto at the BSO was good, but Makropulos libretto is infinitely better than that of Rigoletto, so... This is definitely one of my Top-10 favorite operas.
• This is definitely one of my Top-10 favorite operas... Why the blue subtitles?! To frustrate the viewers by obliging them to interpolate the text indistinguishable from the background? ;)
• Pavel Cernoch, brilliant as usual! I am not fan of Nadja Michael's voice but her stage presence is extraordinary. Her Medée and Poppea in the respective Warlkowski productions are unforgettable.
• Act-I, OK(ish)
• Unless I am too jaded when it comes to this opera,  this production is not good. Arpad could have watched the Marthaler production from Salzburg, or the extraordinary one by Warlikowski, and learned about how to approach this libretto. His show, instead, is very narrative -- nothing more nor less. Orchestra is doing a great job so far though...
• Let's hope Act-3 will be better!
• Nah... ZERO idea from the director in the opera that gives so much space to a clever director to explore. This is very disappointing for BSO to come up with something as tepid as this. On the positive side, I still love the orchestral part. 
• So the final 5 minutes were somewhat interesting but cannot compensate 100 minutes of uninspiring, flat show. Cast is excellent, orchestra superb -- but I expected a Makropulos show, not Mikropulos.

Clash of the two our most beloved divas, Sonya Yoncheva and Max Emanuel Cencic



from the superb Jean-François Sivadier production of l'Incoronazione di Poppea presented in Lille, 2012. 

Musically it was a lovely evening and a radio recording might make many Mozart aficionados happy for a few hours [Philippe Jordan deserved ovations, as well as Bernard Richter, Erin Morley and Anna Prohaska]. The show itself, however, is a total flop. There is literally nothing salvageable in this moronery...

Last Spring the pleasure of experiencing a very good Robert Carsen production of Die Zauberflöte was partly ruined by the fact that it was given at the immense auditorium of Opéra Bastille. That flaw was corrected for this time and the Entführung aus dem Serail is presented at Garnier. Hélas, the show is most of the time an insult to our intelligence. We are not that shallow or naive. We do not go to opera to be seen and hope to be perceived as cultivated. We are not at the opera for the first time...

I wonder if there is anyone serious elaborating a strategy on how to preserve opera in the 21st century. This is definitely not a way to go. Why would anyone pay 140€/seat and go to theater to see a parade of stupidity that we could see [zap through] a week later on-line anyway?




A good production of this opera is possible and it is given almost every year at the Komische in Berlin.
DVD offer of this opera is actually quite good  -- the Johan Simons production and the one by Stefan Herheim stand out though. I didn't find them on YouTube but I just realized that a delicately constructed Christof Loy production is available, as well as one creative Stuttgart show.



Sandrine Piau is not my most fave singer but I doubt anyone ever sang Ach, ich liebte, war so Glücklich with that much finesse as she did in this video:



or the young Richard Croft who killed Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke

Like every year,  two new opera productions were presented at Les Chorégies d'Orange 2014, Nabucco and Otello [2 shows each], and one of the shows was broadcast on national TV broadcast - Otello on France2, August 5 2014.




The response was more than disappointing -- only 3.5% viewers tuned in to see the show. Such a huge dive in ratings is a big surprise and one could be tempted to conclude that opera has never been so unpopular in France. I believe the reasons for this flop lie elsewhere: (1) More opera on TV these days made the annual TV opera evening from Orange much less compelling than it used to be in the past. (2) After so many truly dreadful productions broadcast from Orange people are just tired of stale, uninspiring, boring shows [even for a typical conservative opera aficionado, the Orange shows are unexciting].

Musically, however, the quality is often high. This year the main attraction was Roberto Alagna who was making his role debut as Otello, and since I like this opera (one of 4 Verdi opera that I really like) I counted myself among 3.5% of the total TV viewers who chose to see the show.

Alagna has no vocal roughness for the role but he has the lyric qualities that emphasize the emotional dimension of Otello. Contrary to the usual way the helden-tenors interpret this role, Roberto actually SINGS without barking any verse. I admired his courage to take this huge role, and to prove so many critics wrong --  critics who a priori judged this Otello as a bad career choice for Roberto.
As expected, Alagna used his magnificent interpretative skills and sculpted a lyric Otello, vocally much more convincing than scenically. Helped by Inva Mula (superbly sung Desdemona) and Seng-Hyoun Ko (terrific Iago) they actually made the evening a musical treat.

Staging was between bad and plain awful. The singers/actors were mostly left to "act on their own", the costumes and decor seemed like borrowed from a Zeffirelli show in Verona (Che orrore!), no concept, no idea... [two commendable productions of this opera can be seen at Deutsche in Berlin (Andreas Kriegenburg) and in Frankfurt (Johannes Erath)]. Myung Whun Chung was good as ever, and his Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France was at their excellent level.

So, if you like Otello opera, it is definitely worth your couple of hours [listen - you don't need to watch! ;)] Here is the YT video:

This is undoubtedly the best show I've seen since Parsifal staged by the very same Romeo Castellucci. Only 20min into the show I felt I was on the edge of tears and was holding back until the last 15min and then wept like a willow... almost felt embarrassed when the light came back on.

Warlikowski can sometime go deep and tackle your hidden emotion... but this is a whole another level yet. The concept is very simple, the message extremely poignant, and the impact on me/us was simply devastating... especially the moment of complete darkness when Orphée sings the celebrated aria was heartbreaking [Stéphanie D'Oustrac IS the most wonderful singer today! She's not the loudest, her voice is not the most beautiful, but no other singer can sing like her... It simply happens with her like with no other singer out there...]

You MUST be there to feel the show. This cannot work via webcast or a video recording. It simply drags you in and grabs your every emotion... Will write more when I come back to Paris.

Romeo Castellucci is a theatrical genius!

THANK YOU to Romeo and his team, and to Peter De Caluwe and this incomparable opera-theater! 





The best of Vesselina Kasarova...

The best run opera house in the world --with the most exciting and steadily good programs-- that at the same time shows the role opera should play in the 21st century --La Monnaie/De Munt-- is presenting these days their new production of Orphée et Eurydice directed by no one else but Romeo Grandioso Castellucci and with our huge fave Stéphanie D'Oustrac singing the role of Orphée [isn't she the most wonderful singer today?!]


Yours Truly obviously could not resist temptation and hopped on Thalys to spend a Sunday in Brussels and see this singular operatic event this year.

In Paris, the new production of La Traviata -- I won't blog about that. It is fair to say that it is only better than the dreadful Richard Eyre production that was contaminating London/ROH for years and --worse-- numerous DVD players worldwide...

Instead of reviving the extraordinary Christoph Marthaler production (that you can see on YouTube), or producing something astounding, along the lines of what Benedikt von Peter did in Hannover,  Peter Konwitschny in Graz & London/ENO, or even Hans Neuenfels in Berlin/Komische... the artistic leadership of the Paris Opera confided a job to a tired French film director who only demonstrated his artistic emptiness and an astonishing lack of opera producing skills... In the end, and despite our dear Diana Damrau singing phenomenally the role of Violetta Valéry, the result was truly pitiful... 

OK, let's get ready for Orphée: an interview with Romeo Castellucci about this opera and his production 

Excellent Trailer:






Orphée et Eurydice sont les protagonistes de l’une des histoires d’amour les plus émouvantes et saisissantes de la culture occidentale. Grâce au pouvoir de persuasion de sa musique, Orphée obtient d’accéder aux enfers et d’en sortir sa bien-aimée qui vient de trépasser. Après le succès de Parsifal, la Monnaie a confié au célèbre dramaturge Romeo Castellucci une nouvelle production lyrique. Sa mise en scène d’Orphée et Eurydice nécessitera derechef de grands moyens, mais grâce à la puissance poétique de sa vision, Romeo Castellucci instaurera un dialogue entre le chef-d’oeuvre de Gluck datant du XVIIIe siècle et des questions fondamentales de notre époque. Il nous en parle.


 Comment votre projet autour de l’Orfeo de Gluck a-t-il vu le jour ? 

 Le projet est né à Bruxelles à l’initiative de Peter de Caluwe qui m’a présenté cette oeuvre. J’ai aussitôt été fasciné par la musique et le thème de cette pièce, laquelle m’a semblé digne de faire suite à Parsifal sur la scène de la Monnaie. Les Wiener Festwochen voulaient me confier une production pendant cette même période. Ainsi Peter a-t-il eu l’idée de livrer deux versions différentes de cette fascinante partition : à Vienne, la version originale viennoise, chantée en italien ; et à Bruxelles, la version française revue par Berlioz. Avec deux équipes différentes, nous proposons ainsi deux versions du même chefd’oeuvre, suivant dans leurs grandes lignes un seul et unique concept.

Le mythe d’Orphée et Eurydice, tel qu’Ovide l’a développé dans ses Métamorphoses, raconte l’histoire d’un homme qui, par amour, décide de franchir le seuil de la mort pour aller chercher sa bien-aimée décédée. Comment voyez-vous cela ? 

 L’élément important est qu’Eurydice se trouve bel et bien dans le royaume des ombres, mais plus précisément dans une zone privilégiée de ce royaume, les Champs-Élysées. C’est dans cette zone étrange, hors du monde, que séjournent les bienheureux : la beauté de leur âme les a préservés de la déchéance et de la décrépitude. Cette zone mystérieuse, « stade intermédiaire » entre conscience et non-conscience, soulève de nombreuses questions et se présente comme une énigme depuis la nuit des temps. La proposition de la Monnaie m’a amené à me plonger dans la recherche fascinante menée de par le monde dans le domaine de la conscience et de la neurologie. Notre cerveau est un monde en soi, un continent à découvrir. Je suis entré en contact avec des médecins qui se consacrent à la recherche neurologique et j’ai pris connaissance de la technologie dont ils disposent pour explorer l’activité cérébrale. Les soins que le personnel médical prodigue aux survivants de graves traumatismes m’ont profondément touché. Un autre élément décisif a été que la musique, en tant que langue préverbale, permet d’entrer en contact avec ces patients. Car l’écoute de la musique stimule directement l’activité cérébrale. Le partage de la superbe musique de Gluck avec un(e) patient(e) est un pilier fondamental de mon projet et de toute cette aventure.


 Cette production d’Orphée et Eurydice permettra donc à la Monnaie de mettre en lumière une problématique souvent laissée dans l’ombre, peu connue du grand public…

Oui, nous pensons rarement aux nombreuses personnes qui se retrouvent dans l’un ou l’autre état de perte de conscience, souvent pendant de nombreuses années. Le concept très généralisé de « coma » est pour la plupart d’entre nous un terrain complètement inconnu, nous en avons une image confuse. « Sortir d’un coma » signifie rarement se lever et reprendre la vie d’antan. Certes, c’est principalement suite au progrès de la science et de la technologie médicale que se font jour de nombreuses questions sur ces « états intermédiaires » entre conscience et non-conscience. Cela nous oblige à redéfinir la vie – d’une manière qui, quarante ans plus tôt, n’était pas à l’ordre du jour. À l’aide de scanners, nous pouvons cartographier l’activité du cerveau avec beaucoup de précision, mais nous ne savons pas encore pour autant ce que signifie cette activité. Il existe de surcroît tout un éventail de « troubles de la conscience », allant de l’état végétatif à l’état minimal de conscience en passant par tous les degrés intermédiaires, et notamment le locked-in syndrome, un état de conscience à part, où la personne entend et voit, alors que son corps est complètement paralysé. Ce qui fait la particularité de ce syndrome, c’est que le patient peut apprendre à communiquer avec les yeux.  


Vous avez parlé du « partage » comme partie essentielle de votre concept ; l’objectif est-il donc qu’une patiente, dans un état de locked-in, entende la musique pendant les interprétations scéniques d’Orphée ? 

  Je veux que cette jeune femme devienne la protagoniste de notre histoire, aux côtés des chanteurs qui interpréteront les rôles d’Orphée et Eurydice. Tant à Vienne qu’à Bruxelles, nous travaillons avec une patiente qui séjourne dans le monde froid d’une chambre d’hôpital, dans des conditions semblables à celles d’Eurydice dans le mythe, enfermée dans un « état intermédiaire ». Dans les deux villes, pendant les représentations, le théâtre et la chambre d’hôpital seront reliés l’un à l’autre : tandis que pendant une partie de la représentation, nous pourrons voir la patiente en vidéo, elle entendra à l’aide d’écouteurs la musique qui sera jouée dans le théâtre. Tout cela se rapporte à la force de la musique qui est à même de pénétrer les couches profondes de la conscience. Cela se rapporte à Orphée qui représente la musique. Grâce à son chant, il parvient à bloquer le processus naturel, à conjurer les démons et à entrer dans l’au-delà.

Votre concept est radical, mais votre réputation en tant qu’artiste n’est pourtant pas du tout celle d’un voyeur…


 Le respect de la patiente est essentiel : nous n’entreprenons rien sans l’accord préalable de l’équipe médicale, de la famille et, dans la mesure du possible, de la patiente elle-même. Le monde extérieur peut avoir l’impression que nous voulons profiter de l’état d’une patiente pour raconter notre histoire. Mais selon moi, le problème n’est pas tant que cette personne soit montrée dans cet état. Ce qui est en jeu, c’est la conception même que l’on se fait du théâtre. Le théâtre n’est pas pour moi un spectacle ou une distraction. Il est plutôt la synecdoque de la communauté, une voie d’accès à la connaissance de la nature humaine, où les aspects les plus extrêmes de l’être humain sont rapportés et font l’objet de réflexions. L’état d’Eurydice figure parmi ces cas extrêmes. Je suis profondément convaincu que le théâtre « tragique » (au sens grec du terme) doit se pencher sur cette question, non par curiosité maladive, mais parce qu’une telle situation m’importe en tant qu’être humain, parce que tout simplement elle existe. Ceux et celles qui entourent ces patientes attestent du bien-fondé de notre approche. Ils souhaitent amorcer le dialogue avec la société. Ils veulent faire savoir qu’ils sont là eux aussi. Dans les deux hôpitaux avec lesquels nous collaborons, l’un en Autriche et l’autre ici en Belgique, nous avons reçu un accueil incroyable, non seulement des familles mais aussi des associations de patients, du personnel médical… Ces réactions m’ont encouragé à persévérer. En la matière, un problème fondamental est que les personnes dans le coma sont invisibles pour la société. D’un point de vue juridique, elles sont dans un vacuum, dans les limbes. Sontelles encore conscientes ou sont-elles déjà perdues ? Cela n’est pas toujours clair…

 Ce qui importe aussi, c’est la relation entre réalité et fiction. Nous savons que le théâtre est fiction. Mais ne cherchez-vous pas toujours une forme de réalisme exacerbé dans la réalisation théâtrale ?

Si tant est que le théâtre peut jouer un rôle dans le débat sociétal, je crois que cet aspect de la vie humaine doit pouvoir y être abordé. Je crois profondément au théâtre ; c’est un lieu où l’on peut débattre des choses les moins dicibles. Et, bien entendu, je vois bien à quel point tout cela est délicat. Nous entrons ici dans un domaine problématique. Mais c’est aussi à cela que sert le théâtre ! Le débat ne me fait pas peur, mais bien la question de savoir si moi, en tant que personne, je serai à même de mener ce « voyage » à son terme. Une telle expérience nous amène à une réflexion troublante sur la vie, troublante, et enrichissante. Dans les hôpitaux, j’ai vu le contact qui peut s’établir avec ces personnes : un contact non verbal, bien sûr, mais basé sur l’amour. L’amour du prochain est une des techniques appliquées pour essayer de réveiller les patients. Dans le mythe d’Orphée, c’est précisément cette force de l’amour qui est à l’oeuvre. Cette phrase peut sembler creuse, conventionnelle, mais il n’en est rien à partir du moment où l’amour l’emporte sur le caractère répétitif des choses, la laideur de l’hôpital, le silence de l’être aimé. Ceci dit, selon moi, cette réalité concorde non seulement avec le mythe, mais aussi et surtout avec la musique de Gluck. Lorsque la Monnaie m’a présenté cette oeuvre, et que pour la première fois, j’ai écouté cette musique, la toute première image qui m’est venue à l’esprit a été celle d’une chambre blanche dans un hôpital, avec une patiente entourée de ses proches. Un tableau très précis dont je n’ai pu me défaire – comme si la musique de Gluck se révélait à moi.

  Cette interprétation se centre-t-elle sur une discussion éthique ou esthétique ?

Notre proposition a été approuvée par les membres de la commission éthique de l’hôpital avec lequel nous collaborons. Ceux-ci ne nous ont pas seulement donné leur accord, ils ont aussi apprécié le fait que nous souhaitions assurer à leur travail une reconnaissance artistique, philosophique, et ce d’une manière moralement responsable. Le défi est de réunir l’éthique et l’esthétique : de faire coïncider un moment de beauté sublime avec un état de déréliction absolue. Non pas pour émouvoir le public face à la souffrance de ces personnes ! D’ailleurs le mot « souffrance » est-il bien de circonstance ? Nous ne savons pas ce que de tels patients ressentent. Des tests expérimentaux visant à analyser leur état d’esprit et leur sentiment de bonheur livrent des résultats très surprenants. Rien ne justifie donc la formulation d’un jugement de valeur sur la qualité de vie de ces personnes. Cette science m’a profondément touché. De façon générale, dans ces services hospitaliers, on est frappé par l’absence de désespoir. Quelle que soit la difficulté du combat quotidien, il existe souvent une relation poignante, profonde entre le patient et ses proches. Ce n’est certes pas la joie qui y règne, mais bien quelque chose que nous pouvons appeler l’amour.

Arte portal Arte Concert [ex Arte Live Web] will live broadcast the Glyndebourne production of Der Rosenkavalier (staged by Richard Jones -- the best British director). Mezzo TV is also broadcasting the show.


Interestingly, Robin Ticciati will be conducting. He's only 31 and starting from this year he is also the Glyndebourne festival music director. Among the cast member keep an ear on a superbissimo Andrey Dunaev (tenor)...


Judging only from the first 15mins, Tara Erraught is excellent as Octavian. Always good to see a new name --with that voice that can do everything-- 100% invested in a big role on a big stage. Go Tara!

It's funny that Glyndebourne decided to stage the same opera  the same year as in Salzburg. Since the Salzburg festival is free falling quality-wise it will be interesting to see their response this summer. In any case they cannot do worse than in Ariadne auf Naxos 2 years ago (Boy was that dreadful! Even Jonas Kaufmann looked and sounded vulgar, and our dear Elena Mosuc completely out of her comfort zone...)

Kate Royal is a very good singer but I'm not sure if this role is a little too big for her...




Lars Woldt sounds very good too, but I have to say that Peter Rose owns this role today... Apparently I listened to his Fasolt (Rheingold) at Opéra Bastille but I don't remember much... Oh that show was revisited by the director and all the revisions painfully trivialized the show...




Bravissimo Andrey!

This opera is really difficult to stage without a touch of Regie. It is so obsolete theatrically that it really takes a huge effort from a spectator to pretend to be naïve and buy into the plot. It's all beneath the plot that is actually interesting. Hopefully Jones will surprise us with something by the end of the show...

Stefan Herheim --in his pre-Puccini days-- did a superb production of this opera for the Stuttgart Oper.



I like the reference to Freud! Fine job Richard! Plus Kate shines in Da geht er hin.

Hopefully we'll get to listen to Tara singing live at a theater. She sounds brilliant!


Simple but lovely ending of Act One. Nice violin-sostenuto touch by Ticciati too.





Off we go: Act 2.

We meet with our Sophie du jour: Teodora Gheorghiu.


Everyone was waiting for this moment to happen...


One of the most beautifully composed songs... Everything is so delicately beautiful in this scene. Brava Teodora!


Why is there Faninal written on the wall? Would the crowd really be confused otherwise?




I like the presence of this creepy blond guy in the background, whose insolence indicates the inexorable end of aristocracy -- and also helps removing the smell of mothballs of this libretto ;)  Now the Faninal on the wall makes more sense... and this is why Richard Jones is what he is -- an excellent director!



Other than that, waiting for Hab mir's gelobt ;)
Meanwhile Annina brings to Ochs the letter from Mariandel...



Teodora Gheorghiu parle très bien le français... She liked working with Richard Jones and she liked the collaboration between Ticciati and Jones during the months of rehearsal to produce this show.
Very nice girl! Hope she will not suffer from cancelaitis angelis in her career...

Lars Woldt sang this role already 83 times!


Third Act:


Funny detail with the automatic bed :)


Excellent work by Richard Jones -- again Freud.



Terrific timings! Are the traditionalists outraged because of the reference to Freud (both implicit and very explicit)?!


Mme Marschallin is back...


Kate Royal is much better in this role than I thought she could be. Brava Kate!


Marie-Therese...


Beautiful singing... Brilliant Teodora!




Hab mir's gelobt



MAGNIFICENTLY SUNG!

And so Mohammed  is the next one obsessed by the Marschallin ;) 

 Final touch, signed Richard Jones.


TBH I thoroughly enjoyed the show: vocally, musically, theatrically -- everything was wonderful!

One of the best shows we've ever seen from Glyndebourne. Thank You to the Festival and the sponsor for letting us see this gem.
_

Andreas Kriegenburg is in charge of staging of this amazing opera and the choice to choose him for directing this opera is excellent, which makes me very optimistic for the tonight's show -- live from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, webcast following this link starting from 19:00 CET.

Visual resemblance with the characters of the Kriegenburg production of Wozzeck is obvious...

 


Andreas Kriegenburg is a very atypical opera producer. He learned his skills as a carpenter in the sets building crew. Being an East German during the times of GDR, the era of pre- and post-unification of Germany his life was uncertain and he could see first hand the hardship and the lives of many changing radically overnight, people struggling on many different level to adapt and to make the best of their lives... -- which necessarily made him a more sensitive soul, and more experienced man with respect to majority of the opera producers in business today.

His best known opera production to date must be Wozzeck, also presented at the Bayerische Staatsoper (BSO) in Munich and was already streamed via webcast. That production alone is a very good example that the broadcasting opera is a good idea per se, but certainly lacks in impact on the viewers when compared to what you feel when seated at the BSO auditorium [provided you can make abstraction of the fancy-dressed unbearably snooty crowd, which is arguably the only obstacle to your good feeling at the BSO]. Then, we could see his Otello in Berlin (Deutsche Oper -- it's still running there FYI) and finally he marveled the crowds by his take on The Ring a couple of years ago, which is as good as the best Ring production so far -- that by Kasper Holten for the Kopenhagen Opera. His Tosca at the Frankfurt opera was praised by many and nowadays Kriegenburg is one of the most sought after directors in the world.


Die Soldaten is maybe even more challenging than Götterämmerung (for example), and it will be interesting to see how Andreas avoided the traps that poor Alvis Hermanis did not manage to avoid when staging this opera at the Salzburg Summer Festival in 2012 [you can see that show on this link]. The main treat of that Salzburg production was actually the orchestra and the amazing Ingo Metzmacher conducting. Tonight, the superb BSO orchestra will be conducted by their chief conductor Kirill Petrenko  and it will be interesting to listen to the way he read this superbly written score. While he was expected to excel in Wagner --which he definitely did, although I personally prefer Kent Nagano's conducting-- I am not so sure dodecaphony suits his rather unique "rough-but-melodic" style (but I hope I'll be proven wrong tonight).

Apart from the complicated staging issues (handling the simultaneous actions without too distracting or dispersing the viewers), a huge problem that any opera house faces when putting this opera on the stage is its enormous cast. The BSO troupe is very good and they will certainly be up to this challenge. Among the soloists we will see Barbara Hannigan (anti-casta-diva whom we love), Nicola Beller Carbone, Daniel Brenna [excellent in Salzburg in the same role],  Michael Nagy and the larger than life Hanna astonishing Schwarz.




Reading Synopsis prior to the show is indispensable for this opera so here is your link.
Trailer:



and a longer film --introduction to this opera and this production-- prepared by the BSO staff:




While waiting for the show to begin, I must say that I did not see one [new] opera production in Paris this year that was worthy to blog about. Several of these productions were webcast and the copies can be found on the Internet. Arguably the worst of them was Aida staged by the hyper-productive Olivier Py who definitely lost his mojo [especially baffling was his production of Alceste that even I --a huge fan of Gluck's operas-- found insipid and boring]. Laurent Pelly did the best he could to make something out of the pitiful libretto of I Puritani, but the whole spectacle in the immense auditorium of Opéra Bastille looked misplaced and borderline laughable.
As usual, since the arrival to the throne of Nicolas Joel, there were some great revivals. The superb Willy Decker production of La Clemenza di Tito was back and always marvelous Stéphanie d'Oustrac in the role of Sesto too. A smashing Krzysztof Warlikowski production of The Makropulos case, sublimely conducted by Susanna Mälkki, was one of the highest points this 2013/2014 season, but the most important event was definitely the revival of Tristan und Isolde (that I went to see no less than four times!)...  More about that in some other post (hopefully).
 I would be unfair if I didn't mention also the phenomenal Sonya Yoncheva who was amazing in Lucia di Lammermoor that she sang fantastically alongside Michael Fabiano who is my biggest positive surprise this year [would you be surprised if I told you he's a yet another superb American tenor?!]. Finally Ekaterina Syurina and Charles Castronovo were fantastic in I Capuleti. Charles is definitely one of the world's top tenors right now: his interpretations of the belcanto roles are unbeatable (modern, refreshing and sung beautifully), his Tome Rakewell last years at the Garnier Opera was sublime and his Nerone in Poppea e Nerone in Madrid (2013) was the best I've seen him act and sing so far.

OK, back to Die Soldaten (the show begins in just a few minutes) -- cf. this link

• Barbara Hannigan and Okka von der Damerau are excellent, as expected... ;)

• This is a moment when I don't really like this libretto: while I abhor the argument by Captain Haudy, I so dislike the Father Eisenhardt's preaching... Is it really sermon a source of good humanistic behavior?! I say NO, absolutely not! So we're forced to side with Eisenhardt even if we don't buy into his BS either...

• Finale of Act 1 with always magnificent Barbara Hannigan [no other opera singer can  sing and act like that woman!]

• The soldiers look definitely scary and the whole image creepy... 

• but this music is OUTSTANDING -- wtg K.Petrenko! Is this opera simply emphasizing the fact that the sexually frustrated men behave irrationally but in such a way that it unavoidably leads to violence (and misanthropy)... Isn't that in fact a source of terrorism too?!

• The way Kriegenburg handled this tricky Scene 2 of Act 2  should be taught to every young and aspiring director. Amazing! He captured all elements without being messy at all! [A real mine-field  for an opera director is actually Act 4]It's all superbly acted and you could read Alban Berg all over this scene ;)

• Intermission: Loving the show so far but the tricky and big things are coming in teh second part.  This is VERY generous of the BSO and their sponsors to let us see their major new production for free. THANK YOU!
• Part Deux 

• And it goes on... It's theatrically impeccable so far (but I'll be patiently waiting for Act 4!)

• Daniel Brenna, where have you been 'hiding'?! A superbly talented opera singer/actor!

• Nicola Beller Carbone is on a roll too [The Countess de la Roche] -- and finally in a role that is not Salomé :) 

• Ach, ihr Wünsche junger Jahre  is definitely a dodecaphonic response to  Hab' mir's gelobt ...

• ... which can appear as strange after knowing all the trashing Richard Strauss received for Der Rosenkavalier from the progressive musicians and critics of his time. What was actually Zimmermann doing by this aria? 'Rectifying' Hab' mir's gelobt or it's simply a homage to Strauss?
• On to Act 4 -- probably the trickiest  Act of all operas...
• Kriegenburg on a roll: 

• Eisenhardt is back... 

• Superb last pictures: 

•  Why is Charlotte perforating her sister with the knitting needles? Is she that judgmental? Women are harsh... 

This was a much MUCH better production of this opera than the one we were able to see in Salzburg 2 years ago -- especially the final act. I liked the Petrenko's melodic reading of the score. Barbara Hannigan is born to sing and act in opera. She really understand the 20th century music like no one else (except for Christine Schaffer). She received huge ovations as well as Kirill Petrenko.

Loved the show and I feel almost sorry for not having seen the show live in Munich.
You might wish to see their next new production which will also be live webcast on June 26 -- I won't: Guillaume Tell has bits and pieces that are fun to listen to, but enduring the entire opera with that impossible libretto -- no, no, no! :)

Max sang one of the most beautiful arias in Artaserse that I saw in Nancy (in an almost electrifying atmosphere in which every person in the crowd seemed aware that we all were sharing a special moment of something very unique...) -- DVD available



stared in Farnace by Vivaldi in Strasbourg (then released on CD)

Parfois, le plus important dans ce qui se noue entre deux êtres est contenu dans la façon dont ils se rencontrent. Avec Gerard Mortier, j’ai eu le sentiment d’une approche d’une rare élégance, digne du XIXe siècle, dans la manière dont il m’a signalé qu’il voulait me faire travailler. Rentrant de vacances en Italie, je me vois faire une chose que je ne fais jamais : je regarde dans ma boîte aux lettres et j’y trouve une enveloppe de l’Opéra de Paris ! C’est une lettre de son nouveau directeur Gerard Mortier, dont je n’avais  jamais entendu parler. Je préparais alors Wozzeck d’Alban Berg pour l’opéra de Varsovie. Depuis, je n’arrête pas de me dire : et si je n’avais pas trouvé cette lettre… ?

C’est quand même la classe, quelqu’un qui vous écrit une lettre sans même vous connaître… Tout aussi classe fut notre rencontre à Paris. Nous  avons tout de suite su qu’on n’était pas là pour se parler d’opéra, alors on a évoqué Proust durant trois heures d’affilée. Au départ, Gerard Mortier vient vers moi parce qu’il cherche un metteur en scène polonais pour la future création du  Roi Roger de Karol Szymanowski, prévue pour la fin de son mandat.  Mais une semaine après cette rencontre, il m’appelle et me dit : “Krzysztof, j’ai encore un projet pour vous.” Et cinq mois plus tard : “J’ai un autre projet pour vous.” C’est comme ça que ça a commencé et de fil en aiguille, il m’a inscrit à l’affiche des quatre saisons à venir de l’Opéra de Paris avec  Iphigénie, de Gluck (2006), L’Affaire Makropoulos, de Leos Janacek (2007), Parsifal de Wagner (2008), et Le Roi Roger de Karol Szymanowski (2009). L’extraordinaire, c’est que cette rencontre autour de Proust nous avait révélé à quel point on se comprenait et qu’il fallait tout de suite se mettre à l’œuvre.

L’autre extraordinaire, c’est que, lorsqu’ il m’a rencontré, Gerard Mortier ne connaissait rien de mon travail et j’ai appris bien plus tard que c’était Patrice Chéreau qui lui avait parlé de moi à propos de ma mise en scène au théâtre de Kroum d’Hanokh Levin. C’était si généreux de la part de Patrice, qui était d’ailleurs le metteur en scène le plus généreux que j’aie connu.

Avec Gerard Mortier, on a commencé avec Gluck (Iphigénie) et on a fini avec Gluck (Alceste). D’emblée, j’ai senti qu’il me soutiendrait. Car, c’est impossible de travailler et de faire un bout de chemin avec un directeur qui vous a déniché par hasard sans savoir qui vous êtes, si l’on n’a pas la certitude qu’au moment le plus crucial de la création, il sera le premier à prendre votre défense. Et Gerard Mortier a été comme ça dès les premières répétitions d’Iphigénie  et jusqu’au bout de notre parcours commun.

Evidemment, ce type d’attitude vous donne envie de faire toujours mieux, de travailler encore, d’aller plus loin avec l’autre. Il était convaincu de l’importance de l’opéra, qu’il ne fallait surtout pas considérer comme un art mort, mais au contraire, qu’il fallait intégrer aux mouvements artistiques de la société dans laquelle nous vivons. Moi, je venais du théâtre et je ne pouvais pas penser autrement l’opéra. C’est sûrement pour ça qu’on s’est tout de suite entendus.
Après Gluck et Janacek, Gerard Mortier a pris un très grand risque, celui de me confier la mise en scène de Parsifal de Wagner, la Bible de tous les fans d’opéra, à moi, un Polonais ! Car c’était lui qui était à l’origine de chaque proposition d’opéra dont il souhaitait me confier la mise en scène. Là est le savoir d’un directeur. Tout son art consiste à faire se rencontrer un chef d’orchestre et un metteur en scène en sachant  sur quelle œuvre il pourra les faire dialoguer et ensuite, quels chanteurs et chanteuses peuvent s’accorder avec  ce chef et ce metteur en scène. Plus qu’un savoir, c’est principalement ce génie intuitif qui caractérisait la méthode Mortier.

Du reste, je pense que son dernier casting pour Alceste fut celui d’un “crépuscule des dieux”, avec en perspective  une évocation de la fin pour chacun de nous. Il se trouve que j’ai 52 ans, l’âge des questionnements sur ma carrière d’artiste. C’est aussi  très exactement l’âge de la chanteuse Angela Denoke qui interprète Alceste. Et surtout, cela devint évident lorsqu’on apprit durant les répétitions la maladie de Gerard, avec  la terrible certitude de sa fin prochaine. La descente aux enfers d’Alceste a pris tout à coup un tour métaphorique, comme un décalque du réel. On savait dès le début que l’Inferno de l’acte III se devait d’être quelque chose qu’on lui dédierait, qui parlerait de la situation qu’on était en train de vivre, transcendée par l’ultime désir de le voir continuer d’exister.



C’est cette partie qui a posé le plus de problèmes au public de Madrid qui a préféré baisser la tête plutôt que de la regarder et a été la cause principale des huées à la fin de la représentation. Je n’avais pas entendu l’expression d’une telle désapprobation depuis longtemps, depuis Iphigénie à Paris, peut-être… Pourtant,  j’avais l’impression d’avoir proposé une mise en scène apaisée, il y a une telle sagesse dans ce personnage d’Alceste qui va en enfer et fait le sacrifice de sa vie par amour.
La dernière image, c’était le corps d’Alceste sans vie, allongé sur le sol. Suite à la mort de Gerard qui n’avait pas  pu assister à la première, conserver cette fin m’est devenu impossible. Je ne pouvais pas me contenter de dédier à sa mémoire cette vision d’un corps sans vie abandonné au milieu du plateau. J’étais déjà rentré à Varsovie et c’est au téléphone que j’ai contacté Angela Denoke et les équipes restées sur place pour les convaincre de modifier l’image finale. Pour qu’Angela ne tombe plus, mais sorte du plateau, attirée par la lumière comme le signe de l’espérance d’un ailleurs que je souhaite pour Gerard après sa mort.

I did not know Gérard Mortier personally, but he was THE person who I truly admired in the world of Opera.
He was the one who made me love opera and who made me realize that opera is actually not dead art. 



This is a devastating news for opera. He was a person of importance, capable to resist the tsunamis of conservatism, who articulated his dislike of the pitiful opera productions, unambitious projects that reduce opera to singing on a kitchy stage [cf. 90% of new productions at the Paris Opera, the Met, or at the ROH /where Holten is trying to change the things/] 

He was a man who saw opera as a vector to further humanize our lives, to question our certainties, doubt our principles, and bring more nuances to our lives, more beauty and more tolerance... He was incessantly trying to democratize opera and pluck it from the claws of those rich who see in opera just an entertainment value...

Will Peter de Caluwe and a handful of other talented visionaries be able to fill his shoes, to resist and prevent opera from falling 100% back to the hands of aggressive ultra-conservatives?!
I certainly wish and hope they will...


I am very very very sad today :( 

In the sea of theatrical mediocrity that we are offered to see at the opera houses these days, some gems still get to shine through.
Tcherniakov hits the cord every time he stages a new opera (he managed to sculpt the life-loving story out of Les Carmélites, render Il Trovatore not-racist, return Onegin the Russain romanticism,...); Warlikowski manages to tickle our subconsciousness by his thrillingly complex (emotionally and intellectually) productions; Bieito with his razor-sharp theatrical language finds and conveys a deeper and emotionally or socially engaging content of any given opera to his public. There are a few others that probably match these standards but not to this extent or not as consistently at that level as the above mentioned guys...

Romeo Castellucci is the other kind of gem. He is not an opera producer. He is a hard core avant-garde of today's theater and his take on Parsifal was very peculiar, philosophical, intellectually stimulating, deeply human(izing) and also spectacular [despite its  somewhat unspectacular ending]. It was one of the very few opera productions that remains with your for a very-very long time after the show, haunting your brain and your heart. *




Now, good news is that you can order a copy of DVD of that sensational production of Parsifal that I was more than happy to be able to see at La Monnaie/De Munt in 2011, and then blogged about here.  DVD is never a substitute for the real show but it is the best approximation we might have. I saw the DVD last night and I absolutely loved it although I have trouble focusing at my work today ;)
[Did I say that Anna Larson was by far the best Kundry of all time?!]


Trailer below.

Note that in June/July 2014 La Monnaie will give a new production of Orphée et Eurydice staged by Romeo Castellucci and with an amazing Stéphanie d'Oustrac in the role of Orphée. Do plan your trip to Brussels.

*) This is to date the only opera production signed Romeo Castellucci. If you get to see his "Sul concetto di volto nel figlio di Dio", it is very engaging and deeply touching as well. Unfortunately, when it was given at Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, it was a trigger for the protests of ultra-conservatives who organized the demonstrations in front of the theater every night so that the police special forces had to ensure the minimal security conditions for the shows to happen. The protesters were mostly politically manipulated by those who did not want to understand a deeper meaning of the content of the story but preferred to see the imagery that they found outraging. And yet that was one of the best evenings at a theater I have ever experienced in my life...

To me Patrice Chéreau will be remembered as one of the great men of 20th century theater, a man who embraced opera and elevated it to the heights that assured its status of gesamtkunstwerk  to our days. He will also be [and should be] remembered as a great man who had courage and intellectual audacity to take Wagner away from the hands of fascists & right wingnuts and show the world that The Ring can be interpreted in a radically new way, as to resonate with our time and with us.



He was one of the precursors of the modern day theatrical language in which theater offers a quality that no TV or cinema can offer; in which a pure human emotion transcends the limits of mostly poor operatic librettos thanks to his ability to distinguish those emotions and shape them on the stage in a very peculiar way (cf. his stagings of the two operas by Berg).

Naturally, the late Chéreau did not have that same vigor to defy the crowds of those who believe that "art must be beautiful" or that "the opera staging is about the colored tableaux", but still remained true to his art that we dearly loved and deeply respected.

RIP

After many years I realized that a typical operagoer is conservative, self-absorbed and very superficial. Most of the critics are like that too, with a major difference that they go public with their opinions that are often unfounded or based on personal misunderstanding of what they could see.

Last night I was able to see the new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by Stefan Herheim, and once again I was amazed by his [Stefan's] wittiness, dexterity, and his musicality in presenting any opera he decides to put on stage. If I had more time in the days to come I'll write a few paragraphs about the show.


This morning I just googled to see if the people saw the show and if they saw the masterful quality of the direction of the opera that includes a very awkward and cringeworthy monolog at the end. The first thing popped up on my google list was this review and after having read it I could not force myself to read anything else. It's the stupidity of that review that annoys me the most. In the same text the author --who qualifies this Meistersinger as 'confusing'-- astonished us by confessing that he actually liked Herheim's production of Parsifal - sic! How is that possible?

 http://streaming.staatsoper.de/

Konwitschny alert: Starting now (20:05 cet)

"Every seven years the Dutchman is allowed back on land. There this tepest-tossed creature can only be redeemed by a woman, Otherwise his endless odyssey continues. Will Senta be that woman? After all, she longs to break free from the confining world of her father. All he ever thinks about is money. Isn't the wealthy Dutchman just what the doctor ordered? Wagner's gripping early work: a psycho-thriller of operatic literature. Peter Konwitschny has already provoked audiences to delight and disgust with his spectacular Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde productions. This Munich Holländer is something you just "have" to see. A sea and see journey on the waves of the orchestra."

• Peter Konwitschny is a genius: everyone knows that. His Holländer is maybe not as huge as the one by Bieito (worth a trip to Stuttgart!!!) but is definitely up there with Bieito's, ahead of the Martin Kusej production that you can find on DVD, and then there is like a void. I've seen quite a few productions of this opera but none could get close in quality to the abovementioned three. 
• Starting: Acher Fisch tends to push the orchestra and often drown the singers which can be frustrating in auditorium  but I guess that won't be a problem during the webcast tonight 
• Norbert Ernst sounded better a few years back (David in Die Meistersinger)
• I LOVE Johan Reuter's voice! What an amazing singer he is!
• Cast is truly brilliant. Interesting --if not surprising-- to see Peter Rose sing Daland.
• Cette étonnante production n'a pas pris une seule ride!
• These delays are actually good to appreciate ever more Kent Nagano (who we admire endlessly). BTW, Nagano will be the chief conductor at the Hamburg Opera after Munich.
• Konwitschny is a GENIUS! Props to Johannes Leiacker for the sets design.
• This is the role that made Anja Kampe famous and her Senta is really mighty impressive.
•  BRAVISSIMA ANJA!
• Now comes Erik -- the best Wagnerian tenor today Lohengrin/vStolzing/Erik/Siegmund/Parsifal -- Klaus Florian Vogt
• Can't you see the genius of Peter Konwitschny in this transition?! 
• KFV -- astonishing as ever! No one can sing like this. Plus Anja who shines 100 colors in this role. Love it!
• Dramatic transitions - dr. Konwitschny
• Superb Act 2; Somewhere in the middle of Act Two the orchestra started to sound the way the Munich Opera Orchestra usually sounds like. Bravi!
• First part of  Act 3 is what I like the least in this opera despite the fact thatthis is probably the most well known part, with a terrific choral pages... and yet it curbs the dramatic tension to me (Martin Kusej rescued it by exposing the racist/xenophobic character of the Daland's world).
• Here comes KFV --superb singing!-- and a formidable Anja Kampe. Johan joins them: LOVING IT!
•  In addition to being one of the very best Wagnerian singers today, Anja Kampe is also an excellent actress. Here she shows the whole palette of her talents. I'm in owe!
• Konwitschny concludes it with signature of a genius ;)
• Famazing show with terrific singing, fantastic acting and a very good orchestra. 
• THANK YOU BSO!

In a few hours will begin the premiere of Idomeneo at the Frankfurt Oper, directed by our 'new' fave Jan Philipp Gloger. His production of Le Nozze di Figaro made big waves in German press despite the fact that it was staged at theater of a lesser prestige (in Augsburg and Heibronn), which proved once again that "prestigious" is most often misleading [if not even meaningless] as far as the quality of  productions is concerned.

Oper Frankfurt

Then came that divine production of Alcina in Dresden that I still hold for one of the most wonderful productions I've seen. I unfortunately did not see his Flying Dutchman that opened the Festival in Bayreuth last year [it will be streamed next August, btw].

And so today is la prima of his fourth big show this time at the Frankfurt Oper -- the house twice voted the best opera house in Europe in the past 5 years; maybe less prestigious but definitely the top tier in terms of quality of productions AND of musical performances.

Too many favorable elements converged: one of my favorite operas, produced by one of my top-directors, performed in an auditorium of fantastic acoustic quality...  and so the temptation was just too big for me to resist and I TGV-ed to this snowy and freezing city to see this new Idomeneo. Let's hope Julia Jones will be good conducting and the rest will be cool.

The production that buzzed my brain for almost a month after the show was the one at the Komische Oper in Berlin directed by Benedikt Von Peter, which must be one of the most profoundly staged opera shows ever. Benedikt is now the general director of Theater Bremen but we hope he will soon resume directing operas too...

OK, Mozart's Idomeneo -- version Gloger with elettrifying Elza van den Heever, in a few... .

Edit: Superb show - JPG is already a top-8 director; excellent cast (Elza & Roberto rocked, others were great too). More tomorrow...

Ah yes, there are several great renditions of "D'Oreste, d'Ajace ho in seno i tormenti" (Netrebko, Harteros, Roos, Bruggergosman,...), but probably the most surprising one is 



which I found irresistible and for some reason I believe Wolfie would have loved it too ;)

 


(1) Die Zauberflöte from Baden Baden will be broadcast on Mezzo TV next April 1st at 19:15 (cet)
It is the production that will be premiered in a week time in Baden Baden, directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle [Berliner Philharmoniker !], and a wowza --yet intriguing-- cast will include

Simone Kermes (Königin der Nacht), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Sarastro), Pavol Breslik (Tamino), Kate Royal (Pamina), Michael Nagy (Papageno), Regula Mühlemann (Papagena), Annick Massis (Erste Dame), Magdalena Kožená (Zweite Dame), Nathalie Stutzmann (Dritte Dame), José van (Dam Sprecher), James Elliott (Monostatos)...

Note that this same production is on the 2013-2014 program of the Paris Opera, where it will be presented in a year from now.



(2) On April 30th starting from 19:30 (cet) Mezzo will live broadcast from Théâtre des Champs Élysées the new production of Don Giovanni directed by Stéphane Braunschweig and directed by Jérémie Rhorer [Le Cercle de l’Harmonie], and the cast looks excellent too:

Markus Werba (Don Giovanni), Miah Persson (Donna Elvira), Daniel Behle (Don Ottavio), Myrtò Papatanasiu (Donna Anna), Robert Gleadow (Leporello), Serena Malfi (Zerlina), Nahuel Di Pierro (Masetto), Steven Humes (Commandatore)

(3) A month later --May 30th at 18:00 (cet)-- Mezzo will broadcast the last opera of the classy Guy Cassiers production of the Ring des Nibelungen -- Götterdämmerung, live from La Scala. Daniel Barenboim will conduct the orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and a superb cast:

Ian Storey (Siegfried), Gerd Grochowski (Gunther), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Alberich), Mikhail Petrenko (Hagen), Iréne Theorin (Brünnhilde), Anna Samuil (Gutrune), Waltraud Meier (Waltraute)...

The same production has already been premiered in Berlin (UDL) less than 2 weeks ago -- see here

(4) The Festspielhaus in Baden Baden presented their 2013-2014 season, which should be musically delicious, but likely painful to watch:

• April 2014: Manon Lescaut [dir- Richard Eyre, cnd- Sir Simon Rattle, cast: Eva-Maria Westbroek, Thiago Arancam, Liang Li, Magdalena Kožená, Reinhard Dorn, James Elliott]
• June 2014: Faust [dir- Bartlett Sher, cnd- Thomas Hengelbrock, cast: Charles Castronovo, Anna Netrebko, Erwin Schrott, Jacques Imbrailo, Angela Brower, Jane Henschel]
• July 2014: Don Carlo [dir- Giorgio Barberio Corsetti , cnd- Valery Gergiev, cast: Mariinsky]
• July 2014: Die Entführung aus dem Serail in concert [cnd- Yannick Nézet-Séguin, cast: Diana Damrau, Rolando Villazón, Thomas Quasthoff, Anna Prohaska, Franz-Josef Selig]