(Photo: Fabio Ceresa) One of the highlights of this summer’s Innsbruck Early Music Festival will undoubtedly be a fully staged production of Antonio Cesti’s opera from 1668, “Il pomo d’oro,” to a libretto by Francesco Sbarra. Written for the Austrian Empress, Margaret Theresa’s 17th birthday in a specially constructed outdoor theater in Vienna, it has been described as the empire’s {…}
(Credit: Vito Lorusso) On Oct. 5, 2024, the Teatro alla Scala will stream “Cesti’s “L’Orontea” on La Scala TV. The opera will showcase a staging by Robert Carsen conducted by Giovanni Antonini. Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Mirco Palazzi, Francesca Pia Vitale, Hugh Cutting, Luca Tittoto, Sara Blanch, Marianna Pizzolato, Carlo Vistoli, and Maria Nazarova star. The Teatro alla Scala production is part {…}
(Credit: Chris Singer) Only seven days before the COVID-19 pandemic fell on our heads, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was in New York portraying the role of Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera House. Taking on the role of the cunning queen, DiDonato already had been in the eye of the storm. At that moment very few people really understood well what {…}
(Photo: Innsbrucker Festwochen/Rupert Larl) To mark the 350th anniversary of the death of the Italian composer, Antonio Cesti, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival decided to mount a production of his opera “La Dori, overo Lo schiavo reggio,” written for Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Further Austria, and premiered at the city’s court theatre in 1657. Cesti had a close relationship with {…}
