Stage director - Krzysztof Warlikowski Conductor - Franz Welser-Möst
Elektra, Agamemnon's daughter - Aušrinė Stundytė (soprano) Chrysothemis, her sister - Asmik Grigorian (soprano) Klytämnestra, their mother - Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (mezzo) Aegisth, Klytämnestra's lover - Michael Laurenz (tenor) Orest, son of Agamemnon - Derek Welton (baritone)
Since it still is on medici.tv, I decided to give Elektra from Salzburg last summer a try. It was performed in the Felsenreitscchule and was one of only two operas presented at that time. The other was Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.
It starts with a speech by Klytämnestra before starting the opera. She says it was she who killed Agamemnon. Elektra is one of the daughters of Agamemnon and Klytämnestra. The women are left at home for ten years while Agamemnon leads the Greeks to Troy to fight for the return of his brother Menelaus's wife Helen who was kidnapped by Paris. While he is away, his wife takes a lover, Aegisth, and kills her husband when he returns from the war.
The opera begins with Elektra brooding over the murder of her father. This is a regie production with everyone dressed in modern clothes. Elektra smokes. The Felsenreitscchule provides a space for a long shallow swimming pool. Perhaps it's a feature of the building. When Elektra cries out to see her father, he appears. At least I assume that's who it is. She dances.
The production is interesting, but these people seem to have been cast for their looks. They look like the characters they portray, but there is a lot of shouting. To look like their characters the girls are vocally too immature for their roles. Theatrically it is stunning. Previously I have seen Christine Goerke and Nina Stemme sing Elektra, but this is more serious, more intense, more in the time of life when all becomes difficult.
The lushness of the orchestra is beautiful. The translation is very good. Many people love this opera. There seems to be an audience. Recommended for the intensity.
Anna Netrebko - Tosca Wolfgang Koch - Scarpia Yusif Eyvazov - Mario
I watched Tosca from the Wiener Staatsoper where they aired another live performance with no audience. My interest was to see how Anna is singing after her bout with COVID19. Vocally I found her in top form. Physically I thought she has not really fully recovered. No climbing on the furniture in this performance.
It was not my favorite Tosca. There are wonderful ones everywhere you look. The absence of an audience still seems weird to me.
Bertrand de Billy (conductor) Andrei Serban (stage director),
Piotr Beczała | Werther Clemens Unterreiner | Albert Gaëlle Arquez | Charlotte Daniela Fally | Sophie
The Wiener Staatsoper has live streamed Werther with Piotr Beczala. I have only really liked this opera with Jonas Kaufmann, but Piotr seems like the right type to carry it off. We have soccer balls and hula hoops, so it must be at least the 1950s. The stage is filled with a gigantic tree which stays through all the scenes. Do they live in a tree house? I am pleased to see a piano in Charlotte's bedroom.
Charlotte seems to be seriously leading him on while telling him she has to marry Albert. She blows him kisses. Hmmm. We are ambiguous about Charlotte. Werther loves her for her responsible, motherly qualities. She has married Albert because she promised her mother, but now she seems not to like him. This Albert is nasty. She is serious and sad. Werther has ruined her life. When one loves someone who cannot love you in the same way, one is obligated to pretend that all is well. Piotr is excellent in this role but one does not love his Werther. It is nevertheless a great role for him.
I have not pictured Charlotte as the mature woman that she is here. I prefer her as simply the older sister of her mother's many children. It's too sad. The emotional dynamic is very strong here. In life this is too hard. In opera it is perfect. They are messing up everything.
If you want a serious, intense Werther, this is for you.
Musical Direction - Antonello Manacorda Production - Hans Neuenfels
Bassa Selim - Christian Nickel (spoken)
Konstanze - Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Konstanze - Actress - Emanuela von Frankenberg
Blonde - Regula Mühlemann (soprano)
Blonde - Actress - Stella Roberts
Osmin - Goran Jurić (bass)
Osmin - Actor - Andreas Grötzinger
Belmonte - Daniel Behle (tenor)
Belmonte - Actor - Christian Natter
Pedrillo - Michael Laurenz (tenor)
Pedrillo - Actor - Ludwig Blochberger
Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), 2020, comes to us from the Wiener Staatsoper. It is directed by Hans Neuenfels, one of the more scandalous regie producers. One of his characteristics is to dress the chorus all in the same outfits. Here in spite of the fact that they are a mixed chorus, they are all dressed as men in black.
This is a Singspiel, which means it comes with spoken dialog in German. In the original version of the opera there is a character, Bassa Selim, who does not sing. Everyone else both sings and speaks. So Neuenfels has seized on this and doubled all the rest of the cast. So in addition to the singers, he has cast a whole other cast who play the rest of the roles and only speak. He has also added more words. This is hard to follow. Two people in the same outfits are the same person. You get a lot of easy to understand German from the actors and beautiful singing from the singers. The actress Blonde occasionally speaks English. "Me too."
Lisette is singing a very serious aria, and a young man in his underwear is holding a giant snake. Huh? What you would want to keep from this is Lisette and her arias. "Martern alle Arten" is especially great. She changes the opera completely. Suddenly it is enormous.
I can think of only one semi-legitimate reason for this double casting. Singers have careers that take them all over the world. This is why the performing of operas originally in other languages but sung in the local language of the opera house is a practice that has pretty much died out. We perform Hansel and Gretel and Magic Flute in English, but that is pretty much it. The singer learns the role with the original text and then sings it everywhere with only some brief rehearsal.
So Neuenfels wanted to add a lot of new German dialog, and in order to have extended rehearsals, he assigns these new words to local people he can rehearse for a long time. This is the only thing I can think of. We don't care about this added dialog. Maybe Neuenfels doesn't really like opera.
They love only Lisette. As do I. Serious booing for Neuenfels.
Conductor Peter Schneider
Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf
Ein Musiklehrer
Markus Eiche
Der Komponist Rachel Frenkel
Der Tenor (Bacchus) Stephen Gould
Zerbinetta Erin Morley
Die Primadonna (Ariadne) Lise Davidsen
This has popped into my awareness just at the right moment. It is Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos from the Wienerstaatsoper, 2017, and can be found on Opera on Video. My copy has no subtitles. We begin with this wonderful view of the rich man's garden and progress to the artists' dressing room. Everyone does their own makeup.
I'm here for Lise Davidsen, of course. In the opening scene Rachel Frenkel earns a mention. She is an excellent Komponist, who appears only at the beginning. Originally this opera consisted of only the second act which appeared after a play by Moliere. In our production she appears around the set in the second half. She accompanies Zerbinetta on the piano for her big aria and composes a cadenza for her while she sings. This is a logical addition to the staging.
Complaining. The voice/orchestra balance is terrible. In the second half the purported audience is shown at the rear of the stage. This would be the rich man and his guests. The singers all turn towards us, of course, which seems rude. The set for the second half is grand pianos thrown all around. One realizes that if everything was changed at the last minute, it would all be exactly as chaotic as this staging.
I have not come in vain. While Lise sings “Es gibt ein Reich,” Der Komponist walks slowly as though in a trance down from the onstage audience. He cannot believe what he hears. Such a glorious legato which moves effortlessly from low to high, from soft to loud we have never heard before. The upper register is gorgeous. The clowns come out before she finishes, so there is no opportunity to clap. This is a great lady. It's always wonderful to have someone new to love. Lise owns this role.
You might also want Erin Morley for your Zerbinetta. At the very end the Komponist kisses Zerbinetta.
This is one of Strauss's more significant tenor roles, and it very well suits the Heldentenor we have here.
I have fallen quite by accident into a film of the Wiener Philharmoniker directed by Christian Thielemann with mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča singing Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder at this year's Salzburg Festival. For many years these were my favorite Wagner.
This is something I sang myself. Which means my head is full of ideas of how it should go. Tempo, legato, etc. It can't be helped. Maybe it's just not Wagnerian enough. I think it wouldn't have occurred to me that it should be like Schumann. There's no evidence that she looks at him. She's not required to, you know. Now looking back at these songs I hear that they are not like a Wagner opera at all. Perhaps she's right. The orchestra claps and stands.
Elsa Dreisig: Fiordiligi, soprano
Marianne Crebassa: Dorabella, mezzo
Andrè Schuen: Guglielmo, bass
Bogdan Volkov: Ferrando, tenor
Lea Desandre: Despina, soprano
Johannes Martin Kränzle: Don Alfonso, bass
This year isn't just the Beethoven year, it is also 100 years of the Salzburg Festival. They were determined not to just skip the whole thing like almost all the other festivals, so they reduced it as far as possible. There are quite a few concerts but only two operas, down from 10. We are concerning ourselves with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.
This is a regie production which provides virtually no context. We are in white rooms with no furniture. The clothing is the usual modern black outfits, except for the guys. They start out in the usual black suits, but when it's time for them show up in disguises, they are in the above outfits. If you have no idea what goes on in this opera, you still won't. They are supposed to be in disguise, but they would know who they are. Obviously. Despina's first act aria is cut. In fact the whole performance is at least a half hour shorter than usual. I notice that Dorabella has a tattoo on her ankle. So these are modern children.
In their funny outfits after the poison gag the guys woo the same girls they did at the beginning. This is not how it's supposed to work. They switch back and forth. Hmmm. These guys are not in disguise. They are just messing with them. The girls get pissed and the boys split.
This production seems to have its own plot. The guys are back in their dark suits way before they usually are. I don't think I like any of these people.
But the music is gorgeous. The soprano ornaments her arias. Have I ever heard this kind of ornamentation in Mozart before? I don't think so. The tenor is also lovely.
No one is fooled at any point. They end up in the beginning arrangement, but it could have gone either way. I still want a trick ending.
From the Salzburg Festival in 2011: The Makropulos Affair by Leos Janácek (1854-1928) is streamed through a site called Never In New York. On the left is what can only be the smoking room. I recognize it from my travels in Europe where similar rooms appear. It took me a long time to make out the rest of the stage. It seems to have everything. The center of the stage represents a court room. On the right is a waiting area with a plant room behind. Most of the action takes place in the center, but people wander in and out of the other areas.
The heroine's real name is Elina Makropulos, and she was the test subject for a potion that would make the king live 300 years. The king never took it, but here she is at 337, and it appears she is finally dying. So people won't notice, she changes her name and gives herself a new life. Each new name has the initials EM. Over the course of the opera she meets her own great great grandson, an old boyfriend, etc.
It started very low key and almost got boring, but once Emilia starts revealing why she is here, it picks up. If you haven't seen this opera, try this one. Or even if you have.
I wanted to see Tosca, but the recent one from the Met is too soon for me. Besides it was just ok. I looked around and found this amazing one from the Wiener Staatsoper 2016.
Conductor: Jesus Lopez Cobos
Stage Designer: Nicola Benois
Tosca: Angela Gheorghiu,
Cavaradossi: Jonas Kaufmann,
Scarpia: Bryn Terfel
Bryn is astounding. I've seem him in a variety of roles--Falstaff, Méphistophélès, Figaro, Wotan, etc. --, but this is not the Bryn I know. He roars and terrifies. Perhaps Scarpia should always be like this. He's peeling fruit while he interviews Cavaradossi.
Jonas is the great romantic hero of our time, and is perfect in this role. He receives extended applause for his aria at the beginning of the third act. In fact he gets an encore here. This is the performance where Angela missed her cue. I'm very surprised they left it in. Maybe you could get an edited version. Because it's funny but spoils an otherwise fabulous performance.
I recommend this. All are on the same page, with great intensity and beautiful singing.
You could stare at this picture for hours and nothing about it would make you think of Beethoven's Fidelio. This performance takes place in the Theater an der Wien (Vienna, Austria) where the opera made its debut in 1805. This performance is of the 1806 version and was performed before cameras but no audience. It was intended as part of the 250 anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. It came to me via medici.tv.
Manfred Honeck | Conductor
Christoph Waltz | Stage director
Eric Cutler | Florestan
Nicole Chevalier | Leonore/Fidelio
Gábor Bretz | Don Pizarro
Christof Fischesser | Rocco
Mélissa Petit | Marzelline
Benjamin Hulett | Jaquino
Károly Szemerédy | Don Fernando
Throughout the performance people walk up and down the stairs without falling down. I am not able to forget the danger. Seated on the stairs in chains is Florestan. For some reason this picture which suggests nothing at all is never confusing.
The plot is not complex. Jaquino loves Marzelline. Marzelline, who smokes and wears pants, probably to reduce the possibility of falling, loves Fidelio. Fidelio isn't who he seems to be. This is the liveliest staging of the opening scene with Marzelline and Jaquino that I've seen. They are seriously fighting. It's fun. Except for the stairs. These two young people are quite enjoyable.
There seems to be some confusion about Rocco. He's Marzelline's father, I believe, but at the end when Florestan is rescued, they seem to blame him for everything. It's my understanding that he just works there.
I love this opera and always know what is going on. Someone with less experience would have to tell me if the staging worked. I enjoyed all the singing, especially Eric Cutler, Nicole Chevalier and Mélissa Petit.
Cecilia Bartoli's Whitsun Festival at Salzburg in 2020 will be an homage to Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821 – 1910), the sister of Maria Malibran. Viardot's voice did not precisely mesh with Cecilia's, which explains why she has not featured her before.
The Pfingstfest as curated by La Bartoli usually features a fully staged opera starring herself that is presented twice. Next year it will be Donizetti's Don Pasquale sung in a version ornamented for Viardot and directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. This should be fun.
Berlioz created an arrangement of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice for Pauline which she sang over 150 times. This will be the second opera and will not feature Cecilia. I once reviewed this arrangement from a DVD here.
The remainder of the festival generally involves concerts. One will feature the great choral works the Fauré Requiem and the Brahms Alto Rhapsody, both works which I love very much. There will be a staged song matinee with songs by Viardot and starring mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux.
The festival will end with a gala concert designed as an homage to the entire Garcia family: Cecilia Bartoli as Maria Malibran, Varduhi Abrahamyan as Pauline Viardot, and Javier Camarena as Manuel García. There is much to love. I haven't been traveling for health reasons, but perhaps I should at least consider this. The dates are May 29 - June 1.
P.S. Cecilia Bartoli has extended her Whitsun Festival contract to 2026.
Constant searching has led me to a film of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri from Whitsun at Salzburg in 2018. This is regie, of course. The subtitles seem to be in French. We are in Mustafa's bedroom where his wife makes advances while husband Mustafa is sleeping. He doesn't like it. Lindoro comes in with a vaccuum, smoking, wearing dreads and a tattoo. There is lots of nice music for Lindoro and Mustafa. The houses in the street all have satellite dishes.
After the guys leave, Cecilia comes in riding on a camel. Camel raises tail, Cecilia holds nose. This is an opera comedy that seems actually to be funny. Corbelli runs out of one of the stores to save Cecilia from bandits [cops?] waving guns? She says he is her uncle and shows her passport. Isabella is a contralto and is fairly easy for Cecilia. Everything is charming. I'm so glad she is singing this and that I am finally seeing it. My traveling days may be over.
In the next scene Isabella meets Mustafa and critiques his figure. In a row behind them are men smoking hookahs and blowing the smoke out onto the stage. Lindoro and Isabella see each other. Stuffed chairs roll around the stage. Isabella tells Mustafa he already has a wife.
This is fun. It is wonderful to see Isabella played by the essential Italian woman. Cecilia has long been my favorite Italian.
In the prelude to act 2 there are annoying banging sounds which turn out to be people slicing vegetables. The male chorus, clearly Mustafa's flunkies, carry boxes of electronics. Is Mustafa selling them, stealing them, what? Mustafa is arranging a meeting with Isabella. Cecilia enters smoking, but I don't see smoke. Sight gags. Smooching.
Taddeo takes off his trousers and is wearing Superman briefs. We have as many sight gags as you could possibly want. I am enjoying this very much. Suddenly male chorus all have guns and shoot them off. Perhaps Mustafa is an Algerian mafioso.
Back in Isabella's apartment she is taking a bubble bath with people all around, including us, of course. Mustafa enters in his night clothes and tries to get an eyeful. Isabella is waving bras around and singing. It is a fact that this is my first time seeing The Italian Girl in Algiers with a real Italian girl. So we know what has been missing. The aria ends and Lindoro wheels the bathtub off stage. Isabella soon reenters in her nightgown. Taddeo assumes the lotus position. Everything is getting out of control when Elvira enters. Mustafa passes out.
We see clips of La Dolce Vita where Anita Ekberg gets into the Trevi Fountain, the ultimate Italian woman film. I don't know what the general reception for this production was, but I am loving it. It is colossally silly with the spectacular Cecilia Bartoli in the middle. I find that I am shockingly unfamiliar with most of the music in this opera.
In the final scene the male chorus are all dressed as soccer players. Isabella feeds them from a giant pot of pasta. She sings "Pensa la patria" to Lindoro who is also Italian. This is at last familiar, probably from one of Cecilia's albums. She flirts with everyone. Mustafa is to be made a Pappataci. He goes back to his regular wife and the Italians all sail off for Italy. Bon voyage. Everyone lives happily ever after. Isabella and Lindoro are doing Titanic at the end, but let's assume their fates are different. How many icebergs can there be in the Mediterranean?
For me this production was perfect. Yes, it's modernized but I found the changes never to be a distortion of the story. After all, an Italian woman is an Italian woman in any era. I also thought the cast was as good as it gets, most of all our Italian woman, Cecilia Bartoli.
Franz Welser-Möst Conductor
John Daszak Herodes
Anna Maria Chiuri Herodias
Asmik Grigorian Salome
Gábor Bretz Jochanaan
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Idomeneo
Teodor Currentzis Conductor
Peter Sellars Director
Russell Thomas Idomeneo
Paula Murrihy Idamante
Ying Fang Ilia
Nicole Chevalier Elettra
Francesco Cilea (1866 - 1950) Adriana Lecouvreur
Marco Armiliato Conductor
Anna Netrebko Adriana Lecouvreur
Yusif Eyvazov Maurizio, conte di Sassonia
Anita Rachvelishvili La principessa di Bouillon
Luigi Cherubini (1760 - 1842)
Médée
Thomas Hengelbrock Conductor
Simon Stone Director
Sonya Yoncheva Médée
George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
Alcina
Gianluca Capuano Conductor
Cecilia Bartoli Alcina
Philippe Jaroussky Ruggiero
Sandrine Piau Morgana
Kristina Hammarström Bradamante
Christoph Strehl Oronte
George Enescu (1881 - 1955)
Œdipe
Ingo Metzmacher Conductor
Christopher Maltman Œdipe
John Tomlinson Tirésias
Brian Mulligan Créon
Jacques Offenbach
Orphée aux enfers
Enrique Mazzola Conductor
Barrie Kosky Director
Marcel Beekman Aristée / Pluton
Martin Winkler Jupiter
Joel Prieto Orphée
Kathryn Lewek Eurydice
Max Hopp John Styx
Anne Sofie von Otter L’Opinion publique
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Simon Boccanegra
Valery Gergiev Conductor
Luca Salsi Simon Boccanegra
Marina Rebeka Amelia Grimaldi
René Pape Jacopo Fiesco
Charles Castronovo Gabriele Adorno
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Luisa Miller
James Conlon Conductor
Roberto Tagliavini Il conte di Walter
Piotr Beczala Rodolfo
Teresa Iervolino Federica
Plácido Domingo Miller
Nino Machaidze Luisa
John Relyea Wurm
👍🏻 Conductor: William Christie, with his ensemble Les Arts Florissants Director: Jan Lauwers
Poppea: Sonya Yoncheva (Soprano) Nerone: Kate Lindsey (Mezzo-soprano) Ottavia: Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Mezzo-soprano) Ottone: Carlo Vistoli (Countertenor) Seneca: Renato Dolcini (Baritone)
Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1643) comes early in the era of Venetian opera, which included women, normal men and castrati in the cast. It was commercial theater, so the casts were kept small to save money. I guess 11 people were all, a much smaller bunch than our cast. They handled this by casting everyone in many roles. I am here to see the first three ladies: Sonya Yoncheva, Kate Lindsey and Stéphanie d'Oustrac, all people I like. Our girls sang pretty much in their standard operatic voices. I have only seen Yoncheva in Verdi and Puccini, so I was surprised this worked so well.
This opens with a prologue by the gods Virtue, Fortune and Love arguing who is more important. Part of the orchestra is on the stage in this scene. Then they move to in front, though the space could hardly be called a pit. Throughout the entire opera the stage is cluttered with dancers in unidentifiable costumes. They seem intended to represent something, but we are not told what.
There is partial nudity and foreplay, which I consider progress in the subject of sex in opera. Yoncheva can do anything, but by the end of the opera the music began to sound repetitive and uninteresting. 3 hours is too long. It did not lure me from the version with Alice Coote and Danielle de Niese. There are lots of DVDs to choose from, and I have not seen all of them.
👍🏻
Conductor: Mariss Jansons
Director: Hans Neuenfels
Brandon Jovanovich, Hermann
Vladislav Sulimsky, Count Tomski / Plutus
Igor Golovatenko, Prince Jelezki
Evgenia Muraveva, Liza
Oksana Volkova, Polina / Daphnis
Hanna Schwarz, Countess
Stanislav Trofimov, Surin
Gleb Peryazev, Narumov
Margarita Nekrasova, Gouverness
Julia Suleymanova, Chloe
We called it Pique Dame. This version of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades on Medici.tv from Salzburg was conducted by Mariss Jansons, the same man who brought us the version from the Netherlands here.
The period is set in the libretto because it says Catherine the Great makes an entrance in the party scene. Here she is a giant skeleton, so make up your own mind. For me this production is standard minimalism. It works like no minimalism I have seen before. The giant skeleton is the only thing that could be called an inexplicable nonsense, a feature of many modern productions, but it gets over quickly and goes back to the standard plot. There's no minor character dressed up like Tchaikovsky to distract you from the opera. There's just the opera. What a concept.
We watch with no translation and don't mind at all. Instead of the usual Hermann who stands around like a stick of wood, we have the brilliant physicality of Brandon Jovanovich in this role. His costume makes him stand out from the crowd and his passion dominates the action. I realized that I have been waiting for him.
It was lovely to see Hanna Schwarz as the old Countess. Hermann points a gun at her, and she dies of fright before she can tell him the three cards. Later she returns as a ghost and tells him the cards: three, seven, ace. He plays them and loses on the third card. Just now I realized for the first time that the ghost of the Countess lies. The third card was the Queen of Spades. Well. I guess I'm slow.
This played without any intermissions and for me without any warning. Musically it was very beautiful. Thank you. I can recommend this version with added translation. Without translation listen for "dri karti," three cards in Russian.
I have been subscribing to medici.tv without actually watching much of anything. I notice that there are films from San Francisco on here. All are highly recommended.
So I decided I should watch Handel's Alcina from the Vienna State Opera, 2011, with Harteros and Kasarova. This is a typical opera seria with a traditional staging. The best part is at the beginning where Alcina and Ruggiero are flirting.
You would want this for the singing which is very high class. Anja in giant fro gets the most applause. Why isn't Alcina played scarier? This is hard to understand about this opera. Here she seems genuinely in love and hugs everyone at the end.
Alois Mühlbacher is elsewhere called a countertenor who sounds like the boy soprano he is supposed to be according to Wikipedia. This is a significant role, and Minkowski makes a fuss over him at the end.
This is for the Handel lover. The camera makes a quick flash over to the audience, and I thought it might be Donna Leon, a known Handel lover. #ad
Vladimir Jurowski | Conductor
William Kentridge | Stage director
Matthias Goerne | Wozzeck
John Daszak | Drum Major
Mauro Peter | Andres
Gerhard Siegel | Captain
Jens Larsen | Doctor
Tobias Schabel | First Apprentice
Huw Montague Rendall | Second Apprentice
Heinz Göhrig | Madman
Asmik Grigorian | Marie
Frances Pappas | Margret
This is the live stream of Berg's Wozzeck from the Salzburg Festival. There are puppets. There is Matthias Goerne. This is a great role for him. Dark and weird is probably just the right production for this opera. I still don't like Wozzeck. The production overwhelms the action.
👍🏻
Teodor Currentzis | Conductor
Peter Sellars | Stage director
Russell Thomas | Tito Vespasiano (b) USA
Golda Schultz | Vitellia (b) South Africa
Christina Gansch | Servilia (w) Austria
Marianne Crebassa | Sesto (w) France
Jeanine De Bique | Annio (b) Trinidad
Willard White | Publio (b) Jamaica
This is Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito from the Salzburg Festival in a staging by the American Peter Sellars. I put letters next to the cast to show that most of the cast is black. They are from everywhere. I know what this would mean to Americans but am not sure how a European audience would react. It would be difficult to persuade me that the timing of this was a coincidence. All appear to be fine singers. This is on medici.tv until November, and I see no titles.
When the opera opens the crowd of mostly white people are herded into a corner by army. Some of the women wear head scarves. Tito picks Sesto and Servilia out of the crowd. This is such wonderful music. How have I not known this?
There are Roman arches across the stage as the only reminder of the Roman Empire, but the costumes are all modern. I read elsewhere that Tito is compared to Nelson Mandella. This is rather more profound than I normally expect from Peter Sellars. This is clearly a concept production, much more so than the Claus Guth from Glyndebourne. Mandella, the great reconciler is evoked. Clearly Sellars has changed it into a story of racial conflict and broadened the impact by placing it in modern South Africa and using black singers.
Sesto and Annio
Sesto shoots Tito who does not die. This is intensely serious. A miracle could happen -- I could become a fan. This is so brilliant I am truly amazed. The timing couldn't be more right. It goes to the top of my list of great Regietheater.
Annio sings a Kyrie for those who have died in the raid on the Campidoglio. Jeanine De Bique's Annio was for me the best singing. I liked Golda Schultz but thought she struggled with the low parts of her arias. The use of chorus is spectacular and may truly be his area of expertise. Russell Thomas raises Tito to new heights and then dies in the hospital. Tutto perdono. Are we ourselves so large?
This version has a sad ending which is achieved in part through the presence in this performance of music not originally in the score for this opera, music undoubtedly added by Peter Sellars. One may feel free to complain. The first clue came with the Kyrie sung by Annio. He liked the singer and wanted her to have more to sing. In part the tragic ending is created through the addition of serious music from Mozart's Great Mass in C minor.
I felt the brilliance of this interpretation long before the ending and therefore did not require this musical interpolation.
Aida: Anna Netrebko
Radamès: Francesco Meli
Amneris: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Amonasro: Luca Salsi
Ramfis: Dmitry Belosselskiy
The King: Roberto Tagliavini
A Messenger: Bror Magnus Tødenes
The High Priestess: Benedetta Torre
Verdi's Aida is this year's hit at the Salzburg Festival I am behind schedule but have managed to find a view of this great occasion: Aida, Netrebko and Muti collide.
The production by Iranian Sharin Neshat seems to ask the question "What if Ancient Egypt were a modern middle-eastern country?" I am loving the simple look after too many years of over-detailed productions. Aida's look for the first half, seen above, doesn't remind me of anything.
I am finding simplicity in the story, too. Radames is in love with Aida. Then he goes to the King to offer to lead an army against the Ethopians who are invading. Aida says wait, that's my father. This group dress in uniforms with head gear that looks like a fez, more popular in the past. The king in a gold fez approves, and then Radames goes to the priests for their blessings. King Farouk of Egypt wore something similar:
The priests all look the way priests look in Iran. They're called Imams, I know. Amneris tells Radames to return victorious. Aida sings yes, "return victorious over my father."
Then we go to the chamber of Amneris. Time has passed, and Radames has gone off to war. At this point guys come out in what look like bull skulls and do the dance normally done by Amneris' attendants. What is that about? They are on stage for only a couple of minutes. Amneris and her women return and they split. Curious.
There follows a scene between Amneris and Aida when Amneris tricks Aida into revealing she loves Radames. Amneris reminds Aida that she is only a slave. Aida prays for the gods to take pity.
So far I like very much the simple clarity of the scenes. The main characters are clearly delineated and never disappear into the crowd. I like the way Netrebko is dressed. Radames has returned and is enjoying a triumphal entrance such as he might have expected in Rome. I am enjoying the division of everyone into the priestly and military/ civilian classes. One does enjoy clarity.
Now if one only knew what the guys in bull skulls were for. They're back. The stage rotates and we see the African prisoners made up with white lines down their faces. Radames returns and is given the wreath of triumph, still very much like a Roman triumph, but then why not? Aida doesn't crack a smile until she sees her father and runs to him. He is the Ethiopian king but pretends that the king has died.
In the second half Aida has changed her appearance to look more like the other Ethiopians, even including the white line. On the banks of the Nile she sings of the loss of her country. Wonderful aria, wonderful rendition. Father comes in, then Radames. Aida and Radames plan how they will escape the powerful Amneris. Radames tells a military secret, Aida's father hears and declares that he is king Amonasro. Radames realizes he is now a traitor, they start to escape until Amneris enters with her priests. The plot is all here in these few minutes. This is a single set production that functions well for the various scenes. In this opera everyone messes up.
I like very much that the costumes clearly identify the status of each character. Priests look like priests. Soldiers look like soldiers. I have a vague idea of ancient Egyptian clothing, but would not know which people are which. Ethiopians all have white lines on their foreheads.
Radames says he will not be with Amneris if he can't have Aida. They are doomed. I am enjoying this opera a lot more than I usually do. Ekaterina Semenchuk is excellent. I sometimes think Amneris is the main character. She messes up everyone's lives, including her own. Meli does the best I've heard him.
But the fuss is for Netrebko. The best music is at the end. O terra addio. Love to all.
There's a film currently on YT of Tosca from the Wiener Staatsoper with Anja Harteros & Jorge de León. It doesn't tell who the Scarpia is. I wasn't particularly wild about the tenor but very much enjoyed Anja's idea of Tosca. She is the first Tosca I've seen that made you feel you were watching a famous opera singer. It's as though she herself murdered Scarpia. She behaves as though she expected people to be constantly watching her. She is ever self-consciously melodramatic. She moves like an actress. And in act III when she instructs Mario how to die, she demonstrates like a director with a very theatrical fall to the floor. This is the Tosca of imagination. #ad
