( Photo: © SF/Monika Rittershaus) All sinful things come wrapped in fascinating aesthetics. You know the feeling: something that is extremely beautiful and appealing, but disquieting—too pleasurable to be ethically good. That is Salzburg Festival’s “Don Giovanni”: a spectacular dramatic installation, a grandiose musical project, a lustful conception; yet sinfully wrong. First things first. This is a revival of Romeo {…}
The 41st season of Ibercamera has been announced. The Collegium Vocale gent, Orquesta, and Coro will be conducted by Philippe Herreweghe in Bach’s Cantata. Performance Date: Jan. 29, 2025 Musicaeterna and coro ibercamera perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. Teodor Currentzis conducts the performance. Performance Date: March 24, 2025 The season will also include concerts by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sir András Schiff, Daniil {…}
Teodor Currentzis will no longer conduct at the Wiener Festwochen. In a statement, Festival Director Milo Rau said, “We welcome the committed and critical questions following the announcement of two concerts that deal with war and genocide as well as understanding and reconciliation: Kaddish Requiem ‘Babyn Jar,’ under the musical direction of Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv together with the Kyiv {…}
Photo credit: © SF/Marco Borrell It might be unfair to name Purcell as the composer of “The Indian Queen.” The opera, left unfinished, has been restored from the composer’s fragments mostly through the efforts of Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars. They managed to give some theatrical shape to the arias and added music from elsewhere in Purcell’s corpus that made {…}
The Wiener Konzerthaus has announced that it has cut ties with Teodor Currentzis. In a recent interview with intendant Matthias Naske said, “You know about my good old relationship with Teodor Currentzis; however, you will no longer find the conductor in next season’s programme. This is no coincidence, but the result of an intense, painful process of reflection. Currentzis still {…}
The Elbphilharmonie has canceled Teodor Currentzis’s concert on April 6, 2023. The concert was set to showcase Bach’s B-minor Mass and starred Russian-sponsored MusicAeterna orchestra and chorus. In a statement, the Elbphilharmonie said, “As the organization of concerts with the St. Petersburg-based ensembles is currently fraught with too many uncertainties due to the effects of the Russian war on Ukraine, {…}
Teodor Currentzis will no longer perform “Tristan und Isolde” in Moscow, Dortmund, and Baden-Baden. In an official press release, it was announced that “the planned performance of Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde’ cannot take place as planned because the cast of singers is no longer fully available. In intensive discussions with Teodor Currentzis, given the current situation in Ukraine, we have {…}
The Kölner Philharmonie has canceled Russian-Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis’s concert on Jan. 27, 2023. The Philharmonie director Louwrens Langevoort said, “This does not mean that we do not appreciate his artistic achievements, but more than half a year after the outbreak of war, an attitude towards the political situation should be recognizable.” Langevoort added, “The activities and financing of his {…}
The Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis has announced a new project entitled “Utopia.” Vienna’s Der Standard is reporting that the controversial conductor is creating this project which is not an orchestra in the usual sense of the word, but “a unique creative community of like-minded people who have dedicated themselves to the search for the best sound and the true spirit {…}
The Philharmonie de Paris has canceled musicAeterna’s upcoming concert on May 4, 2022. In a statement, the orchestra said, “It is with regret that we inform you about the cancellation of the musicAeterna concert in Paris. A rich and elaborate program ‘The Sound of Light’ consisting of the extracts from the Baroque operas and ballets by Jean-Philippe Rameau requires the {…}
The Ukrainian ambassador to Austria, Wassyl Chymynez, is calling on Salzburg Festival to cancel the performances of conductor Teodor Currentzis and the MusicAeterna orchestra, which is funded by Putin-funded banks. The ambassador told the Kronen-Zeitung that a performance by the group would send “a very inhumane signal” and noted that Vladimir Putin knows how to “use art very cleverly.” He {…}