Michieletto presents an engaging new production where magic and reality reflect each other through a mirror, and humans are exposed in all their vulnerability.
At its 2015 inauguration at the Royal Opera House, a controversial rape scene in Act 3 drew outrage from the audience and critics alike. Now the Teatro Massimo is presenting the production once again.
Even stronger than first time round, Michieletto's impressive staging is complemented by an outstanding double role debut from Hymel and a heartbreaking Santuzza from Elīna Garanča.
Lord Sidney's contemplation of the insanity of the world seems to be the impetus for this delirious production. So endless is its stream of gags that to attend this show is to be left feeling exhausted.
Damiano Michieletto’s intriguing production of Rigoletto is set in a mental hospital, and sidelines emotion in favour of analysis. The singing, on the other hand, is heartfelt and exciting.
The 2013 Salzburg production of Damiano Michieletto's Falstaff finally arrives in Milan where the director sets the opera in “Casa Verdi”, the Milanese residence for elderly singers and musicians.
Damiano Michieletto's inspired intertwining of the standard double-bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci makes for vivid storytelling, the whole supported by an excellent cast solidly directed by Andrea Licata.
Fifty years ago, on 4 November 1966, Venice was struck by a terrible flood. Now this is the subject of a new opera by composeer Filippo Perocco premiered at the Teatro La Fenice.
Sadly, Damiano Michieletto and Antonio Pappano's production is more likely to be remembered for its failings – the awful rape scene, its dullness, plus a list of annoying details too long to mention – than for its musical excellence. It’s worth seeing to get a feel of both.
Director Michieletto’s playful staging, Stefano Montanari’s expressive conducting and stylish singing from a cast of seasoned Rossinian singers make for a thoroughly enjoyable new production of the too rare Il viaggio a Reims at the Dutch National Opera.
The Madrid opera house ends the year with a production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore from Damiano Michieletto, transporting the action to a noisy Mediterranean beach.
“Of all my works, the one that pleases me most is the Casa I’ve had built in Milan to accommodate old singers who have not been favoured by fortune or who did not possess the virtue of thrift in their youth”. This is how Verdi described the retirement home for elderly musicians he founded at the time of the composition of this opera Falstaff.
Following a string of misses, the Theater an der Wien emerges from its recent dry patch with a new production of Puccini’s triptych which offers a winning cast, the best playing heard at the house in months, and a smart production.
When Salzburg Festival director Alexander Pereira stepped onto the stage of the Großes Festspielhaus last night to announce that one of the cast members of La bohème was sick and unable to sing, he faced a chorus of hisses from the audience. Soprano Anna Netrebko, the festival’s biggest non-conductor star, was feeling fine (though as Mimì she would shortly die of consumption).
L'Opéra Garnier propose la reprise de la géniale mise en scène de Damiano Michieletto, qui multiplie les trouvailles heureuses. Michele Pertusi, Christian Senn, Javier Camarena et Pretty Yende forment une distribution convaincante.
En faisant le choix d’une modernité parfois triviale et brutale, cette nouvelle production déçoit quelque peu malgré la grande qualité du plateau vocal et musical.
Puisqu’ils constituent, finalement, les soubassements autour desquels devrait s’édifier le reste du spectacle, autant saluer d’emblée les prestations vocales solides de cette année.
