(Photo: © SF/Marco Borrelli) A Marionette Theatre for Monteverdi The Salzburg Whitsun Festival presents a production of Claudio Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno d’Ulisse” in patria by Franco Citterio and Giovanni Schiavolin as a marionette performance, in collaboration with Italy’s most renowned puppet company, the Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli of Milan. A small puppet theatre is constructed on the stage {…}
(Credit: Daniel Dittus) Leonardo García Alarcón has already established an impressive track record in early North Italian opera, with his acclaimed “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” at the 2024 Aix-en-Provence Festival and his masterful Cavalli’s “Pompeo Magno” at Bayreuth in 2025. His interpretation with Cappella Mediterranea and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur was imbued with the freshness and vitality {…}
(Photo: © Les Talens Lyriques) The Salle Cortot was built in 1929 by architect Auguste Perret and is adjacent to the École Normale de Musique de Paris, founded by Alfred Cortot in 1919. The performance hall is dedicated to teaching French music to local and international students. It hosts intimate concerts and recitals for approximately 400 audience members and is {…}
(Photo: Clemens Manser) One of the highlights of this year’s Bayreuth Baroque Festival was a concert entitled “Terra Mater,” directed and designed by Christina Pluhar, featuring the L’Arpeggiata ensemble and mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman. The concert was an exploration of 17th and 18th century musical representations of nature in its many forms, interpreted from a 21st century perspective by the performers. {…}
(Photo: Zani-Casadio) In his program notes, the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, writing about “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria,” stated that “the opera speaks for itself,” adding, “we must not induce or force its interpretation… It is up to the audience to confront it, to think about it, and to decide for themselves whether or not it is worthwhile.” Even {…}
(Photo: Francesca Faelutti) After hotfooting it across the city, the enthusiastic audience members from the festival’s first concert of the evening arrived at the Museo del Violino for concert number two, starring male soprano Samuel Mariño and the Concerto De’ Cavalieri, directed by Marcello di Lisa. Entitled “When Farinelli met Monteverdi,” the concert was described as an “imaginary but impossible {…}
(Photo: Laurent Guizard) Soprano Roberta Mameli has a voice that immediately makes an audience sit up and take notice. The fact that she is not even more well-known than she is currently, is no doubt down to the fact that she tends to specialize in baroque and, to a lesser extent, Mozart, with only occasional forays into other repertoire. Hers {…}
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: Zani-Casadio) In the space of three days, Ravenna’s Teatro Tradizione Dante Alighieri performed two operas, both of which involved trips into the afterlife. The first, “Il Viaggio di G.Mastorna” was a contemporary opera by Matteo D’Amico in which the hero Mastorna is killed in an airplane crash and condemned to journey through a modern-day purgatory in search of peace. {…}
(Credits: LA Opera official website / Jan Windszus Photography / Lena Kern / Mark Janssen / Georg Schlosser / In Art Management official website) The Komische Oper Berlin has announced its 2021-22 season. Here is a look at the operatic and vocal performances. Opera – Premieres Enescu’s rarely performed masterwork “Œdipe” opens the season. The opera features Jens Larsen, Joachim {…}
(Credits: © Aymeric Giraudel / Fabien Monthubert / © Simon Fowler) Opéra de Rouen Normandie, France has announced its 2021-22 season. For the purpose of this article, we will only focus on the operatic and vocal performances. Here is the full slate. Opera and Musicals Verdi‘s “Il Trovatore” opens the season with Lionel Lhote as Count di Luna, Brigitta Kele {…}