Tannhäuser from Bayreuth 👍🏻

Conductor: Valery Gergiev 
Director: Tobias Kratzer

Tannhäuser: Stephen Gould
Landgraf Hermann: Stephen Milleing
Elisabeth: Lise Davidsen
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Markus Eiche
Walther von der Vogelweide: Daniel Behle
Venus:  Elena Zhidkova
Shepard:  Katharina Konradi

Tannhäuser from Bayreuth from 2019, which can be found in Opera on Video, is a confusing mix of images.  The first scene suggests that we add it to the caravan series, since we see Tannhäuser, Venus and her troop wandering around in an RV in the guise of a carnival.  Venus drives.  They live outside the law.  When the vehicle runs out of gas, they siphon some from a nearby vehicle.  They go through the Burger King drive through and steal their food.  This is not realistic since you always have to pay before they give you anything.  A policeman tries to stop them and Venus runs him down, making Tannhäuser uninterested in going on with her.

In the second scene the curtain opens on an exterior shot of the Bayreuther Festspielhaus.  He is met by a bunch of guys in black outfits drinking beer out of the bottle.  They recognize him in his clown outfit and welcome him back.  At the end of the scene Venus arrives in her RV.

Lise Davidsen is utterly magnificent.  I adore her "Dich teure Halle."  Our boy is back in normal clothes.  Or at least the clothes suitable for the singing contest that is to come.  People begin to enter.  Outside Venus and her gang are trying to get inside.  This must play like a film inside the hall.  Venus steals a suitable outfit from one of the dressing rooms and participates in the ceremony.  This whole thing is like a movie with cameras behind the scenes.  Is that the trend of the future?

The contestants sing about love back and forth until Tannhäuser tells the crowd that he has been in Venusberg.  The women in the crowd all escape except for Elisabeth, Venus removes her disguise, and her group all appear together with Tannhäuser.  Elisabeth prevents the men from killing him, and he thanks her.  The scene is strange.  While Tannhäuser thanks Elisabeth, he is also happy to see Venus.  Someone calls the police.  The Landgraf curses Tannhäuser for admitting he was with Venus.

I am enjoying the idea that the teure Halle is the Festspieshaus itself.  A song contest with pieces that are more like songs would have been nice.  The story is concerned with salvation, and the music is a bit droning.   Tannhäuser chooses to go to Rome with the pilgrims and the giant black man in drag drapes a rainbow flag over the harp that accompanied the singers.

This is almost the Tannhäuser as comedy version. Frei im Wollen! Frei im Thun! Frei im Geniessen!  R.W. [Free in the wanting! Free in the doing! Free to enjoy!]  This seems to be the opposing of two life views that make up the struggle of modern life:  The path of individual freedom represented by Venus and the path of adhering to social norms represented by Elisabeth.  The sign outside the Festspielhaus seems to place Wagner on the side of freedom.  Our hero vacillates back and forth between them.  One gives him a life of earthly pleasure and the other brings salvation to his soul.  He seems to want both.

It ends horribly.  In the libretto first Elisabeth dies, and then he sees her body borne past him, and Tannhäuser dies.  In this version Tannhäuser goes off with Venus, Wolfram sees his opportunity and dresses up in Tannhäuser's clown outfit so Elisabeth will think he is the man she loves.  He seduces her in this disguise, and later we see her covered in blood.  She seems to have killed herself.  This is truly hideous.  

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 P.S

I watched the film of Tannhäuser from Bayreuth in 2019 again because it is now playing again in Bayreuth in 2021 and I cannot go. Ekaterina Gubanova is Venus in the current version, and this may be an improvement.  I had already seen all the shocking parts, and was content to watch the whole opera.

I noticed the part where it is indeed Katarina Wagner who calls the cops, as a joke, I assume.  I saw that Wolfram puts on Heinrich's clown outfit, but isn't actually trying to fool Elisabeth.  She laughs and draws him into the van.  That puts a completely different spin on it.  It's too bad she doesn't love Wolfram who is quite charming.

The more I see and hear of Lise Davidsen, the more I admire, enjoy, respect and indeed love her.  She is very well suited to this role.  I am a long distance from having too much of her.  Es lebe die Lise.

 

Eugene Onegin Rerun

👍🏻
Conductor...............Valery Gergiev
Production..............Robert Carsen

Eugene Onegin..Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Tatiana...............Renée Fleming
Lensky................Ramón Vargas
Olga....................Elena Zaremba
Prince Gremin....Sergei Aleksashkin

Yesterday I attended the rerun of  Eugene Onegin from the Metropolitan Opera.  This opera has been broadcast live into theaters from the Met on three different occasions with three different men in the title role:  Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Mariusz Kwiecien and Peter Mattei.  Because he recently died, the version with Dmitri Hvorostovsky was chosen for re broadcast.  Apparently some theaters decided to show whatever version they had on hand instead of the advertised version.  I'm glad that didn't happen to me because I was there for Dima.  When he steps out onto the stage, he is so beautiful you might want to consider falling in love, too.  This may be his greatest recorded performance.

The production by Robert Carsen is also very easy to love.  Locales are merely suggested rather than depicted.

And another thing to consider is that it is conducted by the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.  It was a joy.   If they played something else in your town, complain to Fathom Events.

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Bluebeard's Castle in HD

Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko

I have finally seen the Bartok Bluebeard's Castle that was paired with Iolanta simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera on Valentine's Day.  I didn't feel they made a good pairing and felt I might enjoy Bluebeard by itself.  This seems to have been wise.  This is my fourth time with this opera since I started blogging (see here, here and here).

Iolanta in HD

CONDUCTOR:  Valery Gergiev
PRODUCTION:  Mariusz Treliński
DRAMATURG: Piotr Gruszczyński

IOLANTA: Anna Netrebko (soprano)
COUNT VAUDÉMONT, friend of the Duke:  Piotr Beczala (tenor)
DUKE ROBERT, Iolanta's Fiance: Aleksei Markov (baritone)
KING RENÉ, Iolanta's father: Ilya Bannik (bass)
IBN-HAKIA, Moorish Doctor: Elchin Azizov (baritone)

Tchaikovsky's Iolanta is based on a Danish play which is in turn based on the real life of Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine. For the simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera the story is moved in time to the twentieth century.

People around me expressed confusion about the production, but I didn't experience this.  There is a naturalistic looking set with a single room representing Iolanta's imprisonment that is turned to various positions throughout the opera, surrounded by a few trees and a stack of wood.  Between the stage and the audience is a scrim on which various things are projected, probably the source of the confusion.  The projections begin with a deer running through the woods.  It was immediately clear to me that this was to create the idea that we are in the middle of the woods, far from human civilization.  The projections changed to ominous looking branches when the desired atmosphere was dark and mysterious.  Why is this confusing?

Because the women who surround Iolanta are dressed in uniforms, we assume that she is being kept in some kind of institution.  She talks to Marta, the head nurse, and tells her she is sad.  She then asks Marta why Marta is sad, and though Marta does not tell her, Iolanta concludes that this is due to the tears flowing from her own eyes.  She tells us that eyes must be for tears.  This is the plot, you see.  She does not know what they are truly for because she is blind and has not been told.

A doctor arrives to treat her, and he insists that Iolanta must be told everything.  Father refuses.  Young men arrive with skiing equipment, one of whom is her fiance.  This is the most farfetched piece of the story.  No, not the skiing part--the fiance part.  He has never met Iolanta and talks about how much he is in love with someone else.  He rejects Iolanta without ever having seen her.  He leaves.

Piotr Beczala is left behind to meet and fall in love with Iolanta.  She can't tell the difference between the white and the red roses, giving away the fact that she is blind.  He tells her this and explains about light and seeing.  This is the most beautiful part of the opera.  Light was the first act of creation, he explains.  There is a poetical beauty that is rare in opera.

All live happily ever after.  Iolanta is cured, the fiance and father agree that Iolanta will not marry him, God is thanked, and joy abounds.  A large chorus appears and Iolanta asks what this is.  People, father explains.  Netrebko then comes backstage to tell us it's Valentine's Day, and we should go home and enjoy ourselves.  These are not appropriate Valentine's Day operas.  We knew that.

This was very beautifully done, very emotionally done, with beautiful playing from the orchestra which is exactly perfect for this music.  (You know I don't always think this.)  Gergiev knows his repertoire.  The singers were all gorgeous with wonderful solos for all 5 of the listed characters.  Anna Netrebko sings Russian music like she was born for this. For me she successfully suggested blindness.

I couldn't help thinking about Queen of Spades, an opera that is very familiar to me, and how I have never heard the perfect one.  Anna.  Please.

P.S.  The New York Times has informed me that this opera has been very popular in Russia, that to make it acceptable in the Soviet Union the libretto was altered to omit all references to the deity.  The communists praised nature and not God.  That Netrebko and others of the Russian artists insisted on singing the version they had learned, that is the religiously cleansed version.  The motivation was undoubtedly the lack of desire to learn a different Russian text.  The surtitles translated the original libretto and not the one the singers were actually singing.  Curious.

Others have pointed out that this version of Bluebeard is actually interesting.  I left early on, but perhaps I will go on Wednesday.

Concert from Verbier

I'm listening to a concert on medici.tv from the Verbier Festival, a Wagner, Verdi celebration concert with Valery Gergiev.  First Netrebko did the first act of Otello, and then Bryn T. Jones sang the third act of Die Walküre.

This may be your only chance to hear Anna Netrebko sing anything from Otello.  She has gone on notice that she doesn't want to play the role.  Act I is only the love duet.

Die Walküre is the only Wagner that I can say I truly love.

Eugene Onegin in HD

Onegin and Tatiana in the city

I have long been an admirer of Chekhov, the Russian writer of plays and short stories, so when Peter Gelb compared his new Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin to a play by Chekhov, I was prepared to enjoy it.

Conductor:  Valery Gergiev
Production:  Deborah Warner

Tatiana: Anna Netrebko
Olga: Oksana Volkova
Madame Larina, their mother:  Elena Zaremba
Tatiana's Nurse:  Larissa Diadkova
Lenski: Piotr Beczala
Onegin: Mariusz Kwiecien
Gremin: Alexei Tanovitski

I liked enormously the sets for the house in the country.  It created an atmosphere of reality and strengthened the sense of the relationships between the characters.  There was too much contrast in the last act with the bare stage and huge columns.  There was no sense of artistic unity for the opera as a whole.

Lensky and Olga in the country

The beginning and ending had a new symmetry.  As Onegin rejects and coldly dismisses Tatiana, he looks at her face and kisses her before walking away.  Netrebko's Tatiana rises to equal Onegin's coldness and arrogance in the final act.  She tells him she loves him but will not sacrifice her life for him.  She stares him down coldly and then kisses him before she walks away in the snow.  There was a kind of perfection to this.  Perhaps Mariusz is the right singer for this conception after all.

Netrebko sang extremely well, giving the letter scene a special intensity.  Alright.  I'll say it.  She looked terrible in the girl's dress.  But the mature Tatiana's outfits made her look beautiful.  Few singing actresses could bring so much strength to a character. 

I couldn't help wondering how this would all play in the house.  Chekhov is not for the huge theater.  Could the softness of the singing be heard in the house?  Could such an intimate and interior conception be seen, heard and indeed felt in the huge expanse of the Met?  Chekhov's sense of humor seemed to be missing.

Beczala was the best Lensky ever.  My favorite was the Nurse, a wonderful actress.  The sense of it all being truly Russian was very powerful.  I would like very much to see this kind of treatment of Pique Dame which somehow just misses for me.

P.S.  Netrebko seemed to be in the mood to argue with Debbie in her interview.  I wonder what that was about?

PPS.   The plot of Onegin is from Pushkin (1799-1837). I know that. What was being discussed was the PRODUCTION which was moved to the time of Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) which it just so happens overlaps with the time of Chekhov (1860-1904). My remarks referred to the production and not to the opera.   Gelb is the one who brought up Chekhov.  I liked this and went with it.  The production comes from British theater people who are undoubtedly far more familiar with Chekhov than with either Pushkin or Tchaikovsky.

A truly Chekhovian ending would require much more ambiguity.  Instead of perfect symmetry we would need to be left wondering if perhaps they might get together on occasion, just as we are left wondering in the story "The Lady with the Little Dog."  If she is not required to sacrifice her life and her husband, would Tatiana occasionally meet with Onegin in secret?
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Benvenuto Cellini

I know three things about Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71):  that there is a bust of him on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence honoring him as the preeminent goldsmith of Florence;  that his autobiography is considered one of the great books;  and that Hector Berlioz wrote an opera (1838) with his name as the title.  That would be it.

The plot of the opera derives loosely from the autobiography and concerns itself with the casting of the above statue.  I read in my sources that the original production of this opera set off a riot in Paris.

While walking through the opera house before Attila, I saw that there was a DVD of this opera in the opera shop.  I'd been looking for this. The people involved are:

Conductor:  Valery Gergiev
Wiener Philharmniker
Designer:  Philipp Stölzl

Benvenuto Cellini:  Burkhard Fritz (originally sung by Gilbert Louis Duprez)
Teresa:  Maija Kovalevska
Fieramosca (the other suitor):  Laurent Naouri (Natalie Dessay's husband)
Giacomo Balducci (Teresa's father):  Brindley Sherratt
Pope Clemens VII:  Mikhail Petrenko
Ascanio:  Kate Aldrich

The overture is absolutely gorgeous, especially with Gergiev conducting.

We are doing Lost in Space, an ancient television series.  This is supposed to be Rome during carnival, but that's only if you think there are ugly highrise buildings all over Rome.  Teresa and her father live in a penthouse atop one of these ugly buildings, and they have two robots for servants.  The robots reflect gender stereotyping--one boy, one girl.  Teresa is reading Match, a magazine with Cellini's face on the front and her own on the back.  Papa Balducci does not approve of Cellini.

Cellini arrives with roses in a helicopter.  There are balloons with smiley faces.  Papa comes out with a rifle and starts shooting at him.  Cellini wears a black leather jacket and looks quite disreputable--in short, he is a bad boy.  Women can never resist bad boys.  Papa's preferred suitor Fieramosca appears wearing a blue plaid suit.  It always comes down to outfits.  Cellini leaves Teresa a note saying he'll be back later, and they can go out.  She prepares with the help of her robots, who give a manicure and pedicure and shave under her arms.  As usual, she sings the aria twice, but changes her outfit between verses.

The neighbors don't like Fieramosca and dump him down one of the chimneys.

In the next scene we are at carnival.  Cellini's fellow goldsmiths are dressed as rabbits, muscle men, etc, and sing the praises of their profession.  Cellini is in his normal outfit.  Ascanio, Cellini's assistant, is a robot that looks like C-3PO.  He reminds Cellini that he must cast a statue that evening for Pope Clement. 

Fieramosca and his friend Pompeo appear and discuss the fact that Cellini and Ascanio will appear at carnival dressed as monks.  They decide to dress the same way and arrive at the same place.

Then follows one of the most chaotic scenes I've ever seen in an opera.  The stage is crammed with people dressed for carnival, many in skeleton suits.   Musically it is not interesting.  Everyone starts fighting and Cellini kills Pompeo with his sword.  Then the cannon fires from Saint Angelo, ending carnival.

The second act begins in Cellini's studio.  There's some nice musical numbers in this scene.  The Pope arrives in a car from the 50s with wings added, like an old red Fiat.  Everyone kneels down, and he gives them all communion wafers.  Two blond male dancers arrive with him.  The statue in this production does not resemble the Perseus.   The upshot of the whole thing is that if Cellini can successfully cast the statue for the Pope, he will be let off from the murder charge and allowed to return to Florence. 

I begin to understand why the commenter on my Giulio Cesare entry would blame it on the Americans.  These outrageous productions look a bit like the current wave of American movies that are all taken from comic books or science fiction--or maybe science fiction comic books.  Charlie Chaplin Modern Times mixed in, perhaps?

Now the robot Ascanio's head is lying on the floor singing while his body is wandering around the room.  He sings about how sad his soul is.  This is a pretty nice aria.

You get the idea.  It has a happy ending, as it did in real life.  One is alternately repulsed and attracted in rapid succession.  Ascanio donates an arm to the casting.  We are told the casting is a success, but we don't get to see the statue.

As a kind of post script, I want to say that while transporting us far from the late Renaissance of the title character, this chaotic production is a worthy expression of the artist's equally chaotic life.
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Boris Godunov in HD

Boris Godunov...........René Pape
Prince Shuisky..........Oleg Balashov
Pimen...................Mikhail Petrenko
Grigory.................Aleksandrs Antonenko
Marina..................Ekaterina Semenchuk

Conductor...............Valery Gergiev
Production..............Stephen Wadsworth

Perhaps 4.5 hours of Boris Godunov live from the Met in HD is easier for us on the west coast.  9 a.m. to 1:30 doesn't seem so bad.  Especially not when you are watching the absolutely spectacular René Pape.  The entire role of Boris, especially when sung by René, is a mad scene, it would seem. He's been watching too much Anna Netrebko mad scenes, or perhaps Natalie Dessay.

I understand we were seeing an uncut version so there were probably a few scenes I had never seen before.  My main previous memory of this opera, in San Francisco possibly in 1983, is of the chorus work which was spectacular.  It is one of the more powerful choral operas and was again spectacular today.

I notice that on its last appearance in SF in 2008 the role of Marina was completely cut.  The scene with Dmitri, sung brilliantly by Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Marina, sung today by Ekaterina Semenchuk, was wonderfully sexy.  Sex at the opera always keeps things moving.

I liked everything about this.  The last scene after Boris is dead does seem a bit superfluous.  I flagged this opera as eagerly anticipated and it was definitely worth it.  Magnificent.

After trashing Rheingold, am I required to comment on the production?  It did what productions are supposed to do:  provide an illuminating context while not trying to take over the story.

Pique

I am finally getting around to watching the DVD of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades with Valery Gergiev conducting, or as it is appropriately called on the cover: Pique Dame. I say appropriate because you can hear them saying it in Russian.

I always have something irrelevant to say. The third scene is a ball. We cut it entirely in Ulm, but must surely have moved the wonderful aria by the Prince. We can't surely have cut that. Never mind. In San Francisco there was always a surprise at the end of this scene. The chorus makes an elaborate announcement that Catherine the Great is coming. Her retinue makes its appearance. So does she enter or not? That is the surprise. Perhaps they could not afford the outfit or could find no one to wear it because sometimes they would announce and announce and the curtain would go down with no Catherine. I am excited watching this scene: will she enter or not? She does. She looks like a super and not like the Empress of Russia.

Maria Guleghina is a well sung Lisa, but she frowns all the way through. It would be difficult to imagine a better sung Lisa. Olga Borodina as Pauline is still thin in this.

Pique Dame for my taste contains some of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful music. The best scene musically and dramatically is the scene of the old Countess's death. Some wonderful actresses have performed this scene, and it was sad in Sacramento that they omitted it. It would have required a lot of added rehearsal, but they should have attempted it.

Herman is an asshole. For me he is the reason the opera ultimately fails and people prefer Onegin. The Met player has a version with Placido Domingo which I should try to see. Herman is on the stage almost constantly, and I'm not really sure we can bear an opera where the villain is also the hero. We prefer Onegin because he does not take her down with him. Gegam Grigorian is acceptable, plays the part with a lot of intensity, but does not redeem Herman. Perhaps no one can.

Gergiev makes the music sing.

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The Gambler

I went to see Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev's opera The Gambler (1929, during his exile from Russia), based on the novel by Dostoevsky. Until I saw it in the Metropolitan Opera's schedule, I didn't know it existed. Valery Gergiev was conducting. I liked The Fiery Angel (1927) and Betrothal in a Monastery (1941) quite a lot and thought I might like this, too.

I didn't. Musically I remember staccato trombones and tubas, heavy annoying voices and very little else. The plot is annoying if you have no interest in gambling. I made it only about half way through.

P.S. Further research tells me that Prokofiev's The Gambler was first performed in 1929, but it was written during World War I, before the October revolution. This makes it early Prokofiev. Contemporary with Fiery Angel made no sense at all.

Eugene Onegin in Portland

Eugene Onegin....Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Tatiana.................Renée Fleming
Lensky..................Ramón Vargas
Olga....................Elena Zaremba
Prince Gremin......Sergei Aleksashkin

Conductor...............Valery Gergiev
Production..............Robert Carsen

This is what opera is about. Those of us who go to opera whenever we can are waiting to see this: Eugene Onegin from the Metropolitan Opera with Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Onegin and Renée Fleming as Titania.

The reason everyone thinks Renée Fleming isn't doing any of her interpretive quirks in this opera is because this is the style her quirks are designed for. This is Renée Fleming at her very best. She also brought out the best in Dmitri, getting him fully engaged in the action. The opera was involving and heartrending.

Juan Vargas as Lensky and all the other singers were also very fine. And need I mention that Valery Gergiev was wonderful? It was the best that opera has to offer.

The production was a kind of compromise minimalism that worked for me. There were no real sets. In the scenes in the first act, through the scene where Onegin rejects Titania with an absurd arrogance, the set consists of some suggestions of trees, a trap door in the stage and piles of leaves. In the second half chairs suggested scenes.

This style of production focuses the attention on the actors. When they deliver, it works, and this time it was perfection. The costumes were period and very beautiful. Dmitri in particular looked gorgeous. He is such a beautiful man.
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Homage

In the notes to Homage Renée Fleming calls herself a creature of the fin de siecle, and we heartily concur. We have known this since she perched in the top of a tree for us in Rusalka and sang her wonderful “Song to the Moon.” Renée is one of those artists with a completely personal style which she uses to transform all she sees into her own personal music. She cannot help this--it is simply her musical soul speaking. The situation is like the verse my mother used to recite to me:

There was a little girl had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Every piece that she might want to sing does not successfully make the transformation, but when it works, it works very well indeed. There is a lot of inner awareness in evidence in this album.

We do not quite buy her imitation of a coloratura soprano in Gounod’s “O légère hirondelle.” However, the great variety of composers she has transformed includes Richard Strauss, Puccini, Cilea, Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Smetana, Verdi, Massenet and Rimsky-Korsakov, an impressive selection indeed. The very familiar “Vissi d’arte” and “Tacea la notte placida” are successfully given the intimate treatment that is Fleming’s specialty.

Lifting this album over the top is the presence of Valery Gergiev and the orchestra of the Marinsky Theater, already personal favorites. Gergiev grasps this repertoire as few others.

The image on the cover seems to be aiming for Klimt, an effect that is difficult in black and white. The album booklet also includes photos of divas from the past. We are pleased to be puzzled and alarmed by a photo of Emmy Destinn standing next to a grand piano as though in recital with her right hand on an adult male lion lying calmly on the piano. What can this possibly mean?

For my ears the personalizing influence of Renée Fleming in this repertoire is very successful, very beautiful, even fascinating.
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Betrothal in a Monastery

I find this completely charming.

Young people are in love, as they inevitably are, and papa is standing in the way. He wants his beautiful daughter to marry his old rich fish merchant friend. He seems to think of her as a financial investment.

Daughter Louisa and her duenna find a solution in deception. The proposed bridegroom has never met Louisa, and the duenna proposes that if Louisa does not want him, she will marry him and his ducats herself. She likes beards, and she likes money.

They all find a monastery full of drunken monks who will happily marry all three couples--Louisa and her beau, Louisa's brother and his love, and the fish merchant and duenna. Everyone lives happily ever after.

We have purchased this dvd of Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery from the Kirov Opera with Valery Gergiev because Louisa is sung by Anna Netrebko, our current fascination. All of the comic singing actors are delightful, especially the duenna and her fish monger, but it is Anna we love. The role does not really show off her voice--composers in the twentieth-century don't seem to understand how to do this--but her singing and acting are utterly charming. There is simply not enough Anna to go around.
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We had them first

It doesn't help that we had Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko first in San Francisco (Ruslan and Ludmilla). We still can't get tickets to anything they're in now. I could go camp in Vienna, I suppose, and see if anything developed for Romeo et Juliet, but I would have to retire first.

Ruslan and Lyudmila

This video of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila is a joy. In an interview with Valery Gergiev at the end I learned that Anna Netrebko was a mere 23 at the time, infancy in singer’s years. She was chosen for her voice, for her youth and for her beauty.

I learned also that the production was a reproduction of a production from 1892. I particularly like the way this looks—very much like a fairy tale.

I saw this live in San Francisco in 1995, also with Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko, and with the same production.  We were thrilled and loved Anna instantly.

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