Baden-Baden

Because I bought a ticket there, I am getting publications from the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden trying to sell me more tickets. The most tempting entry is for July of 2009 when Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko will present four performances of Rachmaninov's Aleko and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. You can get an idea of how wonderful this would be by listening to the Iolanta exerpt on the Russian Album.

John Relyea will perform the role of Aleko, and in three of the performances Rolando Villazon will sing in Iolanta. I have been wishing for some Russian music from Anna, especially Rachmaninov.

Valery will hang around Baden-Baden to conduct quite a bit of Shostakovitch on other concerts.