Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012

IOLANTA
Music by P. I. Tchaikovsky
Concert opera performance

Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012

Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Slovenian Chamber Choir
Emmanuel Villaume, conductor
Martin Batič, conductor
Janez Podlesek, concert master

Soloists
Anna Netrebko, Jolanta, blind daughter of King René
Sergey Skorokhodov, Count Vaudémont, Burgundy Knight
Lucas Meachem, Robert, Duke of Burgundy
Vitalij Kovaljow, René, Provençal king
Luka Debevec Mayer, Bertrand, manager of the manor
YunHo You, Almeric, squire of King René
Nuška Rojko, Laura, Jolantina friend
Monica Bohinec, Martha, wife of Bertrand, Jolantina nurse
Theresa Plut, Brigitte, Jolantina friend
Vladislav Sulimski, Ibn-Hakia, doctor

REPORT
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012
By Herbert

After a 6-hour-train-journey I arrived at Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia – a nice city with a beautiful Old Town and a great number of young people (a typical university town).

At the Cankarjev Dom – not a very attractive building from the outside – there was the first performance of IOLANTA, before it will be shown in many other places in Europe. Emmanuel Villaume conducted the “Orkester Slovenske filharmonije”. Anna Netrebko sang the role of the blind Iolanta. The other main characters were sung by Vitalij Kovaljov (King René), Sergej Skorohodov (Vaudémont), Lucas Meachem (Robert), Vladislav Sulimski (Ibn Hakia), and Monika Bohinec (Marta).

Anna, of course, was the star of the evening, as she was in Baden-Baden and Salzburg where she had performed Iolanta already. She is so convincing, and her voice is just magnificent.

After the show she could spend only a few minutes at the stage entrance because it was so cold outside and her chauffeur was waiting for her.

Good luck for the performances to come!

PHOTOS
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Iolanta, Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana 30. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

La Bohéme, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012


LA BOHÈME
Giacomo Puccini

Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012

DIRECTION TEAM
Conductor: Daniele Rustioni
Staging and sets: Franco Zeffirelli
Costumes: Piero Tosi

CAST
Rodolfo: Piotr Beczala
Schaunard: Massimo Cavalletti
Benoît: Domenico Colaianni
Mimì: Anna Netrebko
Marcello: Fabio Capitanucci
Colline: Marco Spotti
Alcindoro: Matteo Peirone
Musetta: Ellie Dehn
Parpignol: Cristiano Cremonini
Sergente dei doganieri: Ernesto Panariello
Un doganiere: Roberto Lorenzi
Un venditore ambulante: Marco Voleri

REPORT
The following report and photos have been sent to me by one of the Blog readers that has attended this show:

Yesterday I was in La Scala for Boheme with Anna: of course it was a big success, especially for her. She was surely the best singer of the evening, and in my opinion the best Mimì of everytime.

I met a person that attended Zeffirelli's La Boheme at La Scala with Karajan and Mirella Freni, and he told me that Anna is very close to Freni. This is an enormous compliment!.

There was a lot of young people and a lot of foreigners in the audience. In my box, for example, there were a Japanese guy and a young girl from New York, both came to Milan especially to attend La Boheme with Anna.

Her portrait of Mimì is perfect for Zeffirelli's production: very romantic, sweet and tender. Also vocally, Anna used a lot of sweet notes, mezza-voce high notes with a perfect control of the voice and a very very sweet and beautiful bright sound. It was almost a bel-canto performace. In any case, her voice is now so big and round, that also piano notes are big and overcome the orchestra. Not exactly the same for her colleagues....

The final act was incredible. Anna performace as singer and actress was so intense that the audiece was in a religious silence; Mimì was so real on the stage, she was magnetic and kept the complete attention on her.

At the first courtain call, she appeared moved; in the following instead she was very happy.

At the end of the performance I waited for her to take some photos and ask her for some autographs. See attached some photos. Anna was very kind and had a big patience because it was a lot of people; It was also a chinese girl who cried taking her photo with Anna because of the big emotion, and Anna embrassed her; and an old man that asked to Anna for a kiss and she was very kind with him: her heart is surely big, on the stage and out of it.

Unfortunatly next year Anna will not sing in Italy, italian theatres will loose a big opportunity and a big artist (probably the only one in opera actually).

PHOTOS
Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012
Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012
Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012
Anna Netrebko, La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 22. Oct 2012

VIDEOCLIPS

Saturday, October 20, 2012

La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012

LA BOHÈME
Giacomo Puccini

Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012

DIRECTION TEAM
Conductor: Daniele Rustioni
Staging and sets: Franco Zeffirelli
Costumes: Piero Tosi

CAST
Rodolfo: Piotr Beczala
Schaunard: Massimo Cavalletti
Benoît: Domenico Colaianni
Mimì: Anna Netrebko*
Marcello: Fabio Capitanucci
Colline: Marco Spotti
Alcindoro: Matteo Peirone
Musetta: Ellie Dehn
Parpignol: Cristiano Cremonini
Sergente dei doganieri: Ernesto Panariello
Un doganiere: Roberto Lorenzi
Un venditore ambulante: Marco Voleri

REPORT
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012
By Herbert

Yesterday I attended the first of only two performances of La Bohème in Milan with Anna Netrebko as Mimi. This time I was not very lucky because I only got a bad (a very bad) ticket – in the second Galleria right below the roof. The seats were very uncomfortable and narrow: I had hardly any stage view and people in the Galleria are not even allowed to enter the main hall and the foyer of La Scala! I had to enter through a side door instead and climb up the narrow staircase. As far as comfort and hospitality is concerned La Scala is the complete opposite of, for example, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where customers are treated very kindly. I don’t blame the staff of La Scala – I am sure they would be much nicer if they were allowed to be so, but obviously they have orders to separate those customers with cheap tickets from the others. So I am sorry, but I can’t recommend visiting the Scala (at least if you sit in the Galleria).

Of course I tried to get a better ticket yesterday afternoon, but I was told at the box office that the show was completely sold out. “The first night of Netrebko – IMPOSSIBLE! NO CHANCE!” They told me that at 9 a.m. already people began to line up for the last standing tickets which are sold right before the performance begins!

So my personal well-being was almost at the bottom – but still I enjoyed the evening very much. Although it was the well-known and almost ancient production of Franco Zeffirelli (costumes: Piero Tosi) which runs like a clockwork, but it was the cast which made it such an event. All singers were really good – on top, of course, Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala who got cheers during the scenes and especially at the end with many curtain calls - and a bouquet of roses for Anna.

After the show both of them were awaited by numbers of fans at the stage door, and they spent a lot of time for autographs and photos, before they walked with some friends across the “piazza” and went to a restaurant in the spectacular Galleria Vottorio Emanuele II.


La Bohème at La Scala: the old, the new and the flowers
By Giulia Bonelli

 «I remember I saw Otello, and the singer was so great that when he died and the curtain fell down I stopped to breath. All the audience was the same, and there was silence for at least two minutes: people just couldn’t do anything, they were shocked… and then there was a big shout. I think after that moment I understood: ‘Yes, I want to do that’.»

With these words Anna Netrebko during the Deutsche Grammophon documentary “The woman, The Voice” talked about her budding passion for opera. It was almost 10 years ago. Well, since then Anna did that: she moved the audience of all over the world with her performances, giving life to every single character she played.

And she did that on Friday night as well: after the final notes of the last act of Bohème at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, there were a few seconds of complete silence. A moment of pure emotion, just before a burning ovation that lasted more than 15 minutes.

The enthusiasm ranged from opera experts to young people: the 19th of October belonged to the fatidic “turn G”, where G stays for giovani (young) and La Scala opens its door to the new public with low cost tariffs for the season subscriptions.

This time it was a real stroke of luck for people under 30, to whom are usually reserved the second casts only: their discounted ticket valued a show with some of the leading singers in the world.

The old-fashioned staging and sets of Zeffirelli were dug up from the theatre archives: a bit dusty after all these years, but still worth with its charming bohèmienne garret.

What instead wasn’t old at all was the singing and acting: Piotr Beczala as Rodolfo and Anna Netrebko as Mimì gave the opera a fresh and new touch. Their unchallenged vocal skills and interpretational intensity made them a great team since their first scene together.

Both Che gelida manina and Sì mi chiamano Mimì got warm applauses, which were constantly triggered during the whole show and led to many curtain calls after the end of each act.

Also the rest of the cast kept up with these high standards: the sharp Musetta was beautifully played by the American soprano Ellie Dehn, while the Italians Fabio Capitanucci, Massimo Cavalletti and Marco Spotti perfectly fitted the roles of Marcello, Schaunard and Colline, Rodolfo’s shabby nice friends.

A Bohème full of vitality then, also thanks to the energetic baton of the 29-year-old conductor Daniele Rustioni.

And the same vitality was tangible at the stage doors, where a big group of fans was waiting for the artists: Piotr and Anna were easy going and friendly, and the diva didn’t seem too upset even when - believe it or not - a hawker florist snatched some roses out of her hands. Quite a weird ending for the haunting beauty who just played the flower seller Mimì, isn’t it?

PHOTOS
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Giulia Bonelli
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Giulia Bonelli

Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Giulia Bonelli
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Giulia Bonelli
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert
Anna Netrebko. La Bohème, Teatro alla Scala, Milano 19. Oct 2012. Photo: Herbert

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