Opéra Magazine's July 2021 pick of the month

Posted
Photos © Barbara Aumüller

Every month, France's Opéra Magazine rates new recordings (CD and video) on a scale from 1 to 5 and hands out the occasional 'Diamant' ('Diamond') award to what it considers exceptional ones, for whatever reason. This month, its 'coup de coeur', complete with a 'Diamant', is a 3-CD set of Schreker's Der ferne Klang, recorded in Frankfurt.

Sebastian Weigle conducts the Frankfurt Opera, with Magnus Baldvinsson, Barbara Zechmeister, Jennifer Holloway, Nadine Secunde... 

Opéra Magazine's reviewer regrets that there is no DVD, as Michieletto's production was 'as technically accomplished as its characterisations were analytical...' Nevertheless, this recording is a 'référence' version (the French critics love those) in the Schreker catalogue, 'A very great historical moment for the Frankfurt Opera, with Der ferne Klang's dazzling return, almost exactly one century later, to the city of its triumphant creation on August 18 1912.'

This YouTube clip is about the Frankfurt production:


This one contains an audio excerpt:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rameau - Hippolyte et Aricie

Posted
Image
Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Sunday May 26 2019. Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Aricie: Mélissa Petit. Hippolyte: Cyrille Dubois. Phèdre: Stéphanie D’Oustrac. Thésée: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Pluton / Neptune: Wenwei Zhang. Diane: Hamida Kristoffersen. Œnone: Aurélia Legay. Première Parque: Nicholas Scott. Seconde Parque, Tisiphone: Spencer Lang. Troisième Parque: Alexander Kiechle. Une Prêtresse de Diane, Une Matelote, Une Chasseresse: Gemma Ní Bhriain. Orchestra La Scintilla Zurich. Chorus of the Zurich Opera. The cast for this concert performance of Hippolyte comes fresh from staged performances in Zurich in a production that, from what I’ve seen online, looks very striking. Perhaps rehearsal time in Paris was too short for the singers to take possession of the narrow strip of stage left to them and fully adjust to the restricted theatrical potential of the concert: I expected more sustained dramatic thrust and tension. In the event, it was somehow intermittent, with moment
Read more

Händel - Giulio Cesare

Posted
Image
Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday May 11 2022. Conductor: Philippe Jaroussky. Production: Damiano Michieletto. Choreography: Thomas Wilhelm. Sets: Paolo Fantin. Costumes: Agostino Cavalca. Lighting: Alessandro Carletti. Giulio Cesare: Gaëlle Arquez. Cleopatra: Sabine Devieilhe. Sesto: Franco Fagioli. Cornelia: Lucile Richardot. Tolomeo: Carlo Vistoli. Achilla: Francesco Salvadori. Nireno: Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian. Curio: Adrien Fournaison. Ensemble Artaserse. Photos: Vincent Pontet I no longer have a subscription at the TCE, having decided, after several years there, it hadn't been good value for money. But an opera expert I know said he thought the cast of this Giulio Cesare was 'intriguing' and a friend who's a Händel fan wanted to see it, so along I went with him. I guess what was 'intriguing' about it was the mix of vocal stars with others already  marked out as promising, and Jaroussky conducting a staged opera for the first time from the pit. T
Read more

Gounod - Roméo et Juliette

Posted
Image
ONP Bastille, Tuesday June 20 2023 Conductor: Carlo Rizzi. Production: Thomas Jolly. Sets: Bruno de Lavenère. Costmes: Sylvie Dequest. Lighting: Antoine Travert. Choreography: Josépha Madoki. Fights: Ran Arthur Braun. Juliette: Elsa Dreisig. Roméo: Benjamin Bernheim. Frère Laurent: Jean Teitgen. Capulet: Laurent Naouri. Stephano: Lea Desandre. Gertrude: Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo. Mercutio: Huw Montague Rendall. Mercutio: Florian Sempey. Benvolio: Thomas Ricart. Tybalt: Maciej Maciej Kwaśnikowski. Pâris: Sergio Villegas Galvain. Gregorio: Yiorgo Ioannou. Le Duc de Vérone: Jérôme Boutellier. Manuela: So-Hee Lee. Pepita: Izabella Wnorowska-Pluchart. Angelo: Vincent Morell. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos : Vincent Pontet/ONP     Roméo et Juliette is the fourth of Thomas Jolly's opera productions I've attended (the others were Eliogabalo in 2016, Fantasio in 2017, and Dusapin's Macbeth Underworld in Brussels in 2019), and a kind of 'team style&
Read more