Munich is one of the top European destinations for opera tourists. It’s not difficult to see why. Because of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s repertory system, productions rotate so frequently that it’s possible to spend just a few days there yet catch a number of operas at the Nationaltheater. Each July, its opera festival gives a second showing of the season’s new productions, along with reviving the best shows from previous seasons, often luxuriously cast. Where else would you catch Ambrogio Maestri – the world’s reigning Falstaff – cast in the relatively minor role of Fra Melitone, the irascible monk in Verdi’s La forza del destino? When that cast is led by Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann, you can appreciate why it will be a hot ticket, despite being a revival.
The Staatsoper's season is built around six new opera productions at the Nationaltheater, ranging from Rossini to Schreker. Donizetti’s grand opera La Favorite is the first première of the season, given in the original French version. Donizetti had been busy composing Le Duc d'Albe for the Paris Opéra when its director, Léon Pillet, objected that it didn’t have a leading role for Rosine Stoltz (his mistress). Donizetti swiftly abandoned Le Duc d'Albe (never to be completed, alas) and composed La Favorite, to a libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz. Ironically, the mezzo role in the opera, Léonor de Guzman, was also a mistress – the favourite of Alphonse XI, King of Castille. However, Léonor is also in love with Fernand who, at the start of the opera, is serving as a monk! A tangled love triangle follows, peppered by jealousy and misunderstandings, which doesn’t end happily. The bel canto role of Léonor is prized by mezzos and suits the velvety voice of Elīna Garanča perfectly. She has sung the role at Salzburg Festival and Deutsche Oper Berlin and recorded the aria “O mon Fernand” (here in the Italian version):
Amélie Niermeyer, who has previously directed at the Salzburger Landestheater, creates this new production with a starry cast which also includes Mariusz Kwiecień and Matthew Polenzani as Léonor’s love interests.
Bel canto of a different sort comes via Rossini. Semiramide was the composer’s final Italian opera seria, premiered in 1823. It has the scale of a biblical epic. Semiramide, Queen of Babylon, has promised to name a successor to the throne and the opera concerns the rivalries – political and romantic – that follow. It’s very much a showcase for exceptional singers.
The title role was written for the great Isabella Colbran, often described as a dramatic coloratura soprano – the perfect description for Joan Sutherland, who reigned as Semiramide. However, many commentators note Colbran’s exceptionally wide vocal range from F sharp below the stave to E – and sometimes F – above, suggesting she could have been a mezzo with a high extension. Contemporary accounts describe Colbran’s “sweet, mellow” middle register. Mezzo superstar Joyce DiDonato makes her role debut as Semiramide in David Alden’s new production, alongside glittering bel canto singers such as Lawrence Brownlee and Daniela Barcellona.
Staunch Jonas Kaufmann fans will already have seen him tackle the title role in Andrea Chénier in Sir David McVicar’s new production at Covent Garden. It’s unlikely that film and opera director Philipp Stölzl’s staging of Giordano’s opera set during the French Revolution will be as safely traditional as McVicar’s, however. Chénier, an idealist poet, gets caught up in the Revolution and clashes with one of its leaders, Carlo Gérard, who sees Chénier as a dangerous political enemy but also as a rival for the affections of Maddalena de Coigny. Stölzl reunites Munich’s ‘Traumpaar’ by casting Anja Harteros as Maddalena, while Italian baritone Luca Salsi tackles Gérard.
Harteros features in another new staging, Romeo Castellucci’s production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Appropriately for an opera about a song contest, and Tannhäuser’s struggle between the pure Elisabeth and the sexual allure of Venus, some beautiful voices are cast. Alongside Harteros are Klaus Florian Vogt, praised on these pages for his “beautiful command of pianissimo and a lovely cantilena”, and Christian Gerhaher, whose “honeyed singing and silky legato lines” were lavished on the role of Wolfram in London.