Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week audiences get to hear world premiere pieces, two complete operas, and a debut album by one of the most interesting ensembles today. Don Giovanni Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” recorded in November 2023 at the Royal Opera of Versailles features Robert Gleadow and {…}
The Ravenna Festival has announced its autumn festival, which will run from Nov. 15 to 19, 2024, and be performed at the Teatro Aligheri. The festival will journey back in time to the roots of bel canto and the origins of opera, through the sounds and atmospheres of 17th-century Baroque music. Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria” will be {…}
Programming for the 2024 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music has been announced. This article only features vocal performances. First up is a workshop for the upcoming performances of Giacomelli’s “Cesare in Egitto.” Soloists include Arianna Vendittelli, Emőke Barath, Filippo Mineccia, Margherita Maria Sala, Valerio Contaldo, and Federico Fiorio. Ottavio Dantone conducts the Accademia Bizantina. Performance Date: July 27, 2024 (Tyrolean {…}
Photo credit: Marco Caselli Nirmal Vivaldi’s “Orlando Furioso” is a work that represents baroque opera at its most exciting. Set on Alcina’s magical island, where the weird and wonderful are commonplace, it opens up the possibility for colorful and spectacular stagings with shipwrecks, fantastical beasts, monsters and statues that come to life. There are high mountains, wooded groves, steep cliffs {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) At the final curtain call of the Innsbruck Early Music Festival’s splendid production of Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, “Judtha Triumphans,” the loudest acclamation was reserved for its conductor, Alessandro De Marchi. After 13 years as its artistic director, he is stepping down from the position. The genuine warmth the festival audience showed towards De Marchi was clearly {…}
Modena’s Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni has announced its 2023-24 season. Opera The season opens with Giordano’s “Fedora” in a new production by Pier Luigi Pizzi. Aldo Sisillo conducts a cast that includes Teresa Romano, Yuliya Tkachenko, Luciano Ganci, and Simone Piazzola. Performance Dates: Oct. 13 & 15, 2023 Verdi’s “Don Carlo” will be performed in four acts in a production by {…}
The Teatri di Reggio Emilia has announced its 2023-24 season. Michele Pertusi, Piero Pretti, Ernesto Petti, Ramaz Chikviladze, Anna Pirozzi, Teresa Romano, Andrea Pellegrini, Michela Antenucci, and Andrea Galli star in Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” Jordi Bernàcer conducts the production by Joseph Franconi-Lee. Performance Dates: Nov. 17-19, 2023 Gregory Kunde, Luca Micheletti, and Francesca Dotto star in Verdi’s “Otello“ with Leonardo Sini {…}
The Teatro Municipale di Piacenza has announced its 2023-24 season. The season opens with Verdi’s “Otello” starring Gregory Kunde, Luca Micheletti, Antonio Mandrillo, and Francesca Dotto. Leonardo Sini conducts the production by Italo Nunziata. Performance Dates: Dec. 11-17, 2023 Carmela Remigio sings the title role of Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” alongside Arianna Vendittelli, Luigi De Donato, Ruzil Gatin, and Paola Gardina. Diego Fasolis conducts the {…}
Switzerland’s Opéra de Lausanne has announced its 2023-24 season featuring opera and concerts. Opera Luis Cansino and Salome Jicia headline Rossini’s “Il Turco in Italia.” The cast also includes Giulio Mastrototaro, Francisco Brito, Mikhail Timoshenko, Marion Jacquemet, and Pablo Julián Plaza Guijarro. Emilio Sagi directs and Michele Spotti conducts. Performance Dates: Oct. 6-15, 2023 Samy Camps, Marie Perbost, Julien Dran, {…}
Photo: Marco Caselli Nirmal Ferrara’s Teatro Comunale served up a rare treat with a production of Vivaldi’s 1737 opera “Catone in Utica” to a libretto by Metastasio. Well, it was not a complete presentation, as the music for the first act was lost. As a result, we were left with a truncated version comprising Acts two and three, which had {…}
The Teatro Comunale di Modena has announced its 2022-23 season. Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele” opens the season with a cast that includes Simon Lim, Antonio Poli, Marta Mari, and Eleonora Filipponi. Francesco Pasqualetti conducts the production by Enrico Stinchelli. Performance Dates: Oct. 7 & 9, 2022 Vittoria Yeo, Daniela Schillaci, Diego Cavazzini, Nozomi Kato, and Sergio Vitale star in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” with {…}