Photo: Bjorn Hickmann Stage Picture For the first time, Germany’s Oper! Awards were hosted outside Berlin, in a ceremony held at Theater Dortmund, to mark its award for Gemany’s best opera house. Clearly proud of its achievement, the theatre pulled out all the stops. Lasting over four hours, the ceremony consisted of 19 awards, taking in achievements from all aspects {…}
(Photo: Ruth Walz) It never ceases to surprise how Monteverdi’s operas prove themselves time and again to be not just supreme examples of how the art form succeeds as a dramatic medium, able to communicate directly with present day audiences, with characters who resonate so clearly with the modern mind, even over a distance of 400 years, but also the {…}
(Photo: Monika Ritttershaus) The initial impressions of the Aix-en-Provence festival’s production of Rossini’s “Moïse et Pharaon” did not bode well. Hearsay reports spoke of a modern day reinterpretation in which the focus was on refugees, and their life in the camps and the perils they face when crossing the Mediterranean. Productions which seek to politicize an opera, beyond that which {…}
(Photo: Monika Rittershaus) To mark the 700th anniversary of Dante Aligheri’s death in September 1321, the Aix-en-Provence festival staged the world premier of French composer Pascal Dusapin’s opera “Il Viaggio, Dante,” based upon the poet’s iconic narrative poem “The Divine Comedy.” To say that this is an ambitious undertaking is an understatement, especially as the work has been compressed into {…}
Photo: Bernd Uhlig Ingo Metzmacher, the conductor for this year’s Aix-en-Provence festival’s production of Strauss’ “Salome” stressed time and again throughout his program notes the need for a cool head, for orchestral restraint and calm, for sobriety and balance. His stated aim was to ensure the orchestra does not predominate, does not get carried away, is not too loud, but {…}
(Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez) As a rule of thumb, you know that if you have to rely on the director’s program notes to make sense of what is happening on stage, then the production is likely to disappoint. Of course, even in such circumstances it is sometimes possible to develop an intuitive understanding, even where the explicit meaning remains elusive, which {…}
The Festival D’Aix-En-Provence has announced its 2022 slate featuring a varied repertoire and international stars. The festival will begin on July 4 and is set to run through July 23, 2022. Here is a look at the upcoming season: Mahler’s “Resurrection” will be conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in a production by Romeo Castellucci. Golda Schultz and Marianne Crebassa star. Performance {…}
(Photo: Mary Em) Kaija Saariaho’s new opera “Innocence” premiered at this summer’s Festival d’Aix-En-Provence to widespread acclaim. “Innocence” is about a school shooting in an International school. In the role of Markéta, one of the shooter’s victims was the young Finnish singer Vilma Jää, who found herself receiving enthusiastic applause for her extraordinary performances. Jää is a marvelous singer with {…}
(Photo: Monika Ritterhaus) “Combattimento, La Théorie du Cygne Noir” is a staged work for eight singers, consisting of madrigals, arias, lamentations, and instrumental pieces from the baroque period taken from the years 1630 to 1650. Put together by musical director Sébastien Daucé and stage director Silvia Costa for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, it includes works by Monteverdi, Cavalli, Messaino, Carissimi, Merula, {…}
(Credits: © Julien Benhamou / Kamil Szkopik) The Festival de Pâques will present a night of baroque music to be live-streamed on March 31, 2021 at 8:30 p.m. The performance will star mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orliński. The two singers will perform works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Giulio Caccini, Henry Purcell, Georg Friedrich Händel, Thomas Dunford, Reynaldo Hahn, {…}
(Credit: Kevin Yatarola) Celebrated conductor Sir Simon Rattle has been appointed the new Chief Conductor of the Chor and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Rattle will begin his five-year tenure in 2023. The famed conductor served as the Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker until 2018, and currently holds the position of Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra. “Bayerischer Rundfunk {…}