Calixto Bieito sets Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in a hedonist, decadent society whose citizens are defined by their egotism, ambition and sexual exploits.
From devoted wife and mother to murdering avenger, Médée is is a challenging role. A new Zurich production firmly secures her place in the collective memory, perhaps for the wrong reasons.
Just two and a half weeks before the première of its new Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the Zurich opera house programmed a semi-staged harmonie of the same favourite work.
Jens-Daniel Herzog sets his new Orlando in a sanatorium where, pulled between his love for a woman and his passion for war, the protagonist is trying to recover his sanity.
King Arthur,an action-packed five-act semi- or "dramatick” opera with music by Henry Purcell and libretto by John Dryden, took on an entirely new face at its recent Zurich première.
At the Barbican, Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón entertained a festive audience in a concert of belcanto highlights, determined not to let a cold put a chill on the evening.
The Mozart and bel canto program that Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón have concocted for their European tour this December is so packed with greatest hits that it feels like a festive gift.
Theatre director Christoph Marthaler is renowned – if notorious – for his “off the wall” productions and adherence to bad boy antics. This Viaggio was no exception.
A recent production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma starred Cecilia Bartoli, the great mezzo who lives close by, and whom the Zürcher like to claim as one of their own.
Seldom performed, this Vivaldi work plays on all the great themes of opera: jealousy, identity, paternal and fraternal love, and other human values cast aside for all the wrong reasons.
Die Zauberflöte may well tell us something about the Human Condition, but its staging in Zurich serves more to distract from the music and the messages than it does to support them.
Seeing Zürich Opera’s new production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria made me wonder why this is the least performed of Monteverdi's three surviving operas.
Opera being a strongly visual art form as well as a musical one, the idea of a pure concert performance seems a little strange to those unfamiliar with the form.
Il rè pastore was the last operatic work that Mozart completed before Idomeneo, and though there is a clear shift in style and level of achievement in the six years that separate them, it is very interesting to compare the 19-year-old composer to the later operatic master that we are more familiar with.
Richard Strauss’ outstanding catalogue of operas is part of the staple diet of opera houses around the world. From the musically and dramatically intense scores of Salome and Elektra to the romantically lush, emotional sweepings of Der Rosenkavalier, there is something in his canon for all manner of opera enthusiasts.
We spent last night in Zurich, where we had the chance to see the Zurich Opernhaus production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. It’s the first time I’ve been to the opera house here and the first time I’ve seen Offenbach on stage, so interesting on both counts.
The opera house is “small but perfectly formed”, as the cliché goes.
Bei Mozart zeigten sich die Qualitäten des Ensembles: eine ausgezeichnete Darbietung, virtuos, oftmals dramatisch und spannungsreich, zumal im Hauptthema des Eingangssatzes.
An diesem Abend leitete der britische Dirigent, Cellist und Cembalist Jonathan Cohen das Orchestra La Scintilla im Opernhaus Zürich. Am Programm stand nur Bach – jedoch war es nichts weniger als eintönig.
Version concert très convaincante de la nouvelle production zürichoise de l'Enlèvement au Sérail, œuvre dont la portée symbolique riche en possibilités de traitements semble ici laisser tout l'espace d'expression nécéssaire aux chanteurs.
Pour Noël, Cecilia Bartoli et Rolando Villazón ont entrepris une tournée européenne de neuf récitals lyriques avec l'orchestre La Scintilla, qui passait par Paris le 20 décembre. Mais si leur engagement en scène dans ces airs et duos de Mozart, Rossini, Bellini est sans faille, ces deux artistes attachants n'ont pas la même maîtrise de l'art du bel canto.
