Salzburg Wrap-up

Salzburger Festspiele

Ok, this year’s festival was a short one for me. I saw only a couple of performances but some of these were really excellent!
1) Grisey: Les Espaces Acoustiques. I’ve already written about that one on this blog.

Marc Ribot

2) Then there was this other concert from the Kontinent Scelsi series. An evening with the Ensemble [...]

Coraggio!

Just to remind all of us how great the Vienna Philharmonic and Christine Schäfer are… and of course that nothing can kill a good song!

And this one only of you are really bold! Watch it until the end, there is a great tremolo coming…

Because once is never enough!

Almost exactly one year after I heard Claus Guth’s Figaro in Salzburg, I had the chance to hear that same production again yesterday (again in the Orchesterhauptprobe). The impression it made on me was even better than last July. It’s a very intelligent staging and the cast consists of truly great singers, amongst them Gerald [...]

Oper für alle?

Eine Unverfrorenheit sondergleichen ist es, daß Klaus Wowereit, der Mann also, welcher das Amt des Kultursenators mirnichtsdirnichts im letzten Jahr abschaffte und damit der Kulturlandschaft Berlins nachhaltigen Schaden zufügte, daß dieser Mann sich also gestern Abend auf den Bebelplatz stellte, um ca 20 000 Menschen zu einer Liveübertragung von Massenets Manon aus der Staatsoper [...]

What’s cookin’ in Berlin this week?

The Deutsche Oper is continuing its 19th-century opera marathon with performances of Rossini’s Semiramide (today), Verdi’s La Traviata (Thursday), Léo Delibes’ ballet Sylvia (Friday), the Verismo-potpourri Cavalleria rusticana | Pagliacci by Mascagni and Leoncavallo (Saturday), and on Sunday Weber’s Freischütz.
The Staatsoper is still worshipping Anna N. with performances of Manon on Thursday and Sunday [...]

Ridiculous Dress Code at La Scala

This has probably been roaming around for quite a few days but nevertheless I don’t want to deprive you, dear readers, of this fabulously ridiculous story about a new dress code at the Scala in Milan.

The dress code
Our correspondent Opera Chic in Milan on the matter
Tagesschau covering

God, I’m glad I live in Berlin. The [...]

A Flowering Tree in Berlin

For those of you who live in Berlin: rush over to the Berliner Philharmoniker website and buy a ticket for today’s (December 22) performance of John Adams’ newest opera “A flowering tree”. For those of you who cannot make it in time: read on …

Munich Opera House

Last night, Seda and I went to the Munich Opera House where we saw the Bayerisches Staatsballett with a very interesting program featuring Century Rolls (Davide Bombana, John Adams), In the Country of Last Things (Michael Simon, Heiner Goebbels), and Elemental (Jacopo Godani, 48nord).
A couple of weeks ago I read an illuminating article in the [...]

Mozart in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

Since today, visitors of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin can marvel at fifty Mozart autographs from the library’s collection. Among the items on display are the scores of Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito.
This is a page from the Posthornserenade, K 320 [...]

Dido and Aeneas

(Image taken from the Staatsoper website)
This was the first time that I saw Dido and Aeneas on stage. A couple of years ago I was listening to a recording of this piece quite often and I always wondered how it would work out on stage. There is a lot of reflection but very little action [...]

Deutsche Oper cancels Mozart’s Idomeneo due to Islamist Threat

After a phone call from the minister of the interior of Berlin, the artistic director of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Kirsten Harms, canceled four performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo. According to tagesschau.de the minister speaks of an “incalculable threat” for audiences and members of the staff. Apparently the minister informed her of an anonymous hint [...]

Addenda

1) Les grands spectacles II. Just a couple of words on this exhibition at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg. After yesterday’s boring display of traditional stage setting, it was refreshing, fascinating, and shocking (in the cases of Hermann Nitsch and Christoph Schlingensief) to learn more about the history of stage design. The exhibition that [...]

Mozart: La Finta Giardiniera

This is the second time that I am reporting from the Landestheater in Salzburg. The first post was on Zaide/Adama by Mozart and Czernowin. This time I’ll write about the premiere of Doris Dörrie’s staging of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Doris Dörrie is a well-known TV and film director in Germany, who debuted in opera [...]

Premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Gogo No Eiko

Three years ago the Salzburg Festival staged the world premiere of Henze’s L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, a huge success at the time. It is thus no wonder that today’s performance of Gogo No Eiko drew a lot of media attention. The aging composer himself was present for the concert premiere of the third [...]

Premiere of Czernowin’s Zaide - Adama in Salzburg

Somewhere towards the end, there is a short moment of hope. The possibility of forgiveness. The possibility of reconciliation and fraternization. Everything is up in the air. Will Soliman, the despotic ruler of the Serail forgive the lovers Zaide and Gomatz who are desperately in love which each other and try to flee from him? [...]