News

[MAuer]

Anja Harteros cancels Desdemona.

Opinion is divided on Marina Poplavskaya but I'm not an expert on sopranos & have to speak as I find. I love her performance as Elizabeth on the Don Carlo DVD & I saw & loved her Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. She was also very good as Corinna in the recent Il viaggio a Reims.

Harteros is one of my favorite sopranos, but this woman is turning into the Cancellation Queen. If she keeps it up, she'll find opera house managers becoming reluctant to offer her roles.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Harteros is one of my favorite sopranos, but this woman is turning into the Cancellation Queen. If she keeps it up, she'll find opera house managers becoming reluctant to offer her roles.

Yes, it seems to be a worrying trend.

[CountessAdele]

Diana has had to cancel a lot too but unfortunatly this is because she's been having problems with her second pregnancy, according to her website that is. But she only has I think one more engagement scheduled before she'll go on maternity leave so hopefully the rest will do her good and she can focus on having the baby. I wish her all the best.

[Aksel]

Things are heating up in Wagner-Land. The Wagner sisters have released a sneak-preview of coming seasons, including a Parsifal from the German artist Jonathan Meese. Meese reportedly drew swastikas and sieg heiled all over the place in an installation/performance thing he did in Japan some years ago. Coming just days after the Nitkin hubbub, this can't be good press for the Wagners, and this has already sparked outrage on the Twitter-machine, but then again, so much does.

Clicky

[jflatter]

I love Poplavskaya in Otello, I was soon going to post a review of this DVD.....I love it.
I think ROH actually got an upgrade

No!!!! I saw Harteros last week and she is a proper singer. I saw Popsy murder the Willow song last autumn at the Domingo bash at ROH.

[MAuer]

The image is too large to post, so I'll have to just provide the link instead:
http://www.jkaufmann.info/bilder2/ariadne03.jpg

No, this is not a publicity photo for "Liberace: the Opera." It is a photo from the new Salzburg Festival production of Ariadne auf Naxos, with my fave tenor as Bacchus. Yeah, the costume's cheesy, but this guy looks good in anything.

[Amfortas]

The image is too large to post, so I'll have to just provide the link instead:
http://www.jkaufmann.info/bilder2/ariadne03.jpg

No, this is not a publicity photo for "Liberace: the Opera." It is a photo from the new Salzburg Festival production of Ariadne auf Naxos, with my fave tenor as Bacchus. Yeah, the costume's cheesy, but this guy looks good in anything.

You laugh, but I used to own one of those suits back in the 70's. And damn I looked good in it!

[HarpsichordConcerto]

I think it's a bit of a clever marketing ploy by label Naïve (recording the complete surviving operas, and other of Vivaldi's works especially the concerti). Scholars already have this earlier version of Orlando Furioso (RV 819) of 1714; the topic of the article, but until recently, its authorship was not fully ascertained, suspecting it might have been Vivaldi revising the work of another composer. So now it appears the scholars are happy to declare it was by Vivaldi. There are no recordings of it. According to the article, Naïve will release a new world premiere recording of it. Bring it on! I will buy one!

Vivaldi wrote another Orlando Furioso (RV 728) more than ten years later ~1727. This later version shares a similar libretto as the earlier version but the music is completely different (or largely different) according to what I have read. This later version has already been recorded and released by Naïve and CPO. I have them both. A lovely work, full of rich Vivaldian-dramatic-Italianess.

Finally, to add to the "confusion", Vivaldi wrote another opera using "Orlando" as part of it title, Orlando finto pazzo also of 1714. This is unrelated to both versions above. It appears to be composed before the first Orlando (RV 819), and was rather unpopular, and so Vivaldi wrote RV 819 (or led scholars to hypothesize that RV 819 was a revision of another composer's work). Orlando finto pazzo was been recorded and released by Naïve.

More on this "newly discovered" Vivaldi opera. I was not far off.

However, Carlo Vitali writes in a subscriber-only article in Musical America that the Vivaldi "discovery" is hype and that the information in the Observer article differs in many ways from what is known to the "whole community of Vivaldi scholars.... Exactly how much of the non-autograph material in Giordano 37 is a simple copy from Ristori's lost score [from 1713] is an open question. Vivaldi is undoubtedly responsible for the material in his own hand and the material for which there are concordances in other works by him.... As to the contents of the lost act, any speculation is possible." I suppose we're fortunate that the score could be passed off as a Vivaldi opera, since a Ristori Orlando probably would not have been recorded despite the high quality of his music.

[MAuer]

It looks like Plácido Domingo is adding some more baritone roles to his repertoire: in addition to singing Giorgio Germont at the Met next year, he's also supposed to take on the title role in Nabucco at the Royal Opera House. Speaking of new roles, Violeta Urmana will be singing her first Brünnhilde in a concert performance of Siegfried by the Berlin Philharmonic next March. Marek Janowski will be conducting.

[Soave_Fanciulla]

It looks like Plácido Domingo is adding some more baritone roles to his repertoire: in addition to singing Giorgio Germont at the Met next year, he's also supposed to take on the title role in Nabucco at the Royal Opera House.

OK, that's it, I'm officially no longer a fan of his. This is self-indulgent clap-trap. GET OUT OF THE THEATRE, PLACIDONE!

[Almaviva]

Aw, Nat, poor Placidone! He old chap can still deliver, and it's very entertaining to listen to his baritone roles, with the darkening of his voice. More power to Placidone! I remain a fan!

[Aksel]

Speaking of new roles, Violeta Urmana will be singing her first Brünnhilde in a concert performance of Siegfried by the Berlin Philharmonic next March. Marek Janowski will be conducting.

Is she the Brünnhilde of the Pentatone Ring? If so, God help us all.

EDIT: So, I've been examining the matter after I've said something about it, which is what I normally do in these circumstances. Violeta Urmana is indeed the Brünnhilde of the Pentatone/Janowski Ring, but they've gone with the 3 operas, 2 Brünnhildes approach. The Walküre Brünnhilde will be Petra Lang, the Siegfried Brünnhilde will be, as previously mentioned, Violeta Urmana, and the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde will once again be Petra Lang. They are also using different Siegfrieds, Stephen Gould and Lance Ryan for Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, respectively.

ADDENDUM: The orchestra is not the Berliner Philharmoniker, although the concert is being held at the Philharmonie. The orchestra will be, as in the rest of the series, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

[MAuer]

Is she the Brünnhilde of the Pentatone Ring? If so, God help us all.

EDIT: So, I've been examining the matter after I've said something about it, which is what I normally do in these circumstances. Violeta Urmana is indeed the Brünnhilde of the Pentatone/Janowski Ring, but they've gone with the 3 operas, 2 Brünnhildes approach. The Walküre Brünnhilde will be Petra Lang, the Siegfried Brünnhilde will be, as previously mentioned, Violeta Urmana, and the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde will once again be Petra Lang. They are also using different Siegfrieds, Stephen Gould and Lance Ryan for Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, respectively.

ADDENDUM: The orchestra is not the Berliner Philharmoniker, although the concert is being held at the Philharmonie. The orchestra will be, as in the rest of the series, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

I wonder what Lang's Brünnhilde will be like. To me, she's still essentially a mezzo.

[Aksel]

So, it turns out, Evgeny Nitkin is innocent after all. Norman Lebrecht says so, and so it must be true. As does Peter Gelb and The New York Times. So we will see him in Parsifal next season at the Met.

Another potentially very interesting bit is Norman Lebrecht's link to an interview he did with Patrice Chereau a few years ago, where the subject of nazism in Bayreuth came up. Haven't listened yet, but it should prove interesting listening.

[sospiro]

So, it turns out, Evgeny Nitkin is innocent after all. Norman Lebrecht says so, and so it must be true. As does Peter Gelb and The New York Times. So we will see him in Parsifal next season at the Met.

Another potentially very interesting bit is Norman Lebrecht's link to an interview he did with Patrice Chereau a few years ago, where the subject of nazism in Bayreuth came up. Haven't listened yet, but it should prove interesting listening.

I like Lebrecht, try & read his blog every day.