By David Salazar
Opera Zuid’s production of “Lady in the Dark” has earned the distinction of Opera of the Year 2022 by Place de l’Opera online magazine.
The production of the Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin classic earned 48 percent of the 1,200 total votes. The work was directed by Anna Pool and conducted by Weill luminary David Stern with Liza Elliott in the lead role.
“With soprano Maartje Rammeloo in the lead role, the operatic element is totally accomplished with a great singer and actress. And as a musical, the production comes off brilliantly with wonderful dance and show work,” Place de l’Opéra remarked regarding the production.
Coming in second place was Nederlandse Reisopera’s “Giulio Cesare” with 33 percent of votes, followed by the Dutch National Opera’s “Anna Bolena” (11 percent), the Dutch National Opera’s ‘Königkinder” (five percent), and the Dutch National Opera’s “Tosca” (three percent).
Next up for Opera Zuid is “Het Lijflied,” which runs through Jan. 8, 2023 as well as productions of “Ändere die Welt” in March and “Orphée aux enfers” in May.
By Francisco Salazar
The Royal Swedish Opera is set to hold a New Year’s Eve concert featuring conductor Vincenzo Milletarì.
The conductor will join forces with the soloists of the Royal Swedish Opera including Miriam Treichl, Daniel Johansson, Vivianne Holmberg, and Håkan Ekenäs.
The performance will also feature graduating students from the opera program at Stockholm University of Dramatic Arts. The festive program will feature a French theme and showcases Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, as well as excerpts from Bizet’s “Carmen,” Delibes’s “Lakmé,” and Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann.”
Milletarì has conducted at the Kungligan in productions of “Rigoletto,” “La Traviata,” and “Ariadne auf Naxos.” He is set to lead “La bohème” at the Göteborg Opera and will conduct at the Prague State Opera.
By Francisco Salazar
The Teatro La Fenice is set to celebrate the New Year with its annual gala performance.
The concert, which is set to be performed four times from Dec. 29 through Jan. 1, will feature soloists Freddie De Tommaso and Federica Lombardi and will be conducted by Daniel Harding.
Audiences not in Venice will be able to watch the performance on Jan. 1 on TV on Rai as well as WDR + ARTE DE and ARTE FR.
The program will include music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky, Vincenzo Bellini, Georges Bizet, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pietro Mascagni, Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini, and Giuseppe Verdi.
By Francisco Salazar
The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced a cast change for Puccini’s “Tosca.”
The company said that Vittorio Grigolo will sing the role of Cavaradossi, replacing Joseph Calleja, who has laryngitis.
Grigolo recently performed the role of Cavaradossi in Zurich and also sang productions of “La Bohème” in Vienna and “Il Trovatore” at the Liceu. He is set to perform at the Teatro alla Scala and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli.
Grigolo will sing performances on Jan. 10,14,17, and 20 and will join sopranos Sondra Radvanovsky on Jan. 17 and 20, Maria Agresta on Jan. 10 and Monica Zanettin on Jan. 14. Željko Lučić will perform on Jan. 10, 17, and 20 while George Gagnidze will perform on Jan. 14.
“Tosca” opens on Jan. 4 with Maria Agresta ad Michael Fabiano with Henrik Nánási conducting.
By Francisco Salazar
With the year coming to an end, we bring you the last releases of 2022. Audiences will get a chance to hear a monodrama, a Christmas album, a solo album and rarities.
Eternal Heaven
Long-time musical partners Lea Desandre and Iestyn Davies present Thomas Dunford’s complete Handel program recorded with Ensemble Jupiter. Featuring Dunford on the lute, the new album features arias from “Semele,” “Theodora,” “Saul,” “Susanna, and “Esther.”
My Christmas
Diana Damrau teams up with the Hannover Orchestra under conductor Riccardo Minasi and Richard Whilds for a holiday album. The CD includes sacred music and Christmas songs.
In a statement, Damrau noted, “All my childhood memories and favorite songs, the cheerful ones like Fröhliche Weihnacht or Morgen Kinder Wird’s Was Geben to the quiet ones like Leise Rieselt der Schnee, I have included in this album. The peace and contemplation I felt back then have left their mark on me to this day. And I wish us all, especially in today’s time of restlessness, to let this inner peace return in order to be able to absorb the Christmas message.”
Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été - Harold en Italie
Following the award-winning Berlioz cycles “Les Troyens” and “La Damnation de Faust,” conductor John Nelson and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg present Les Nuits D’Été and Harold en Italie, with bari-tenor Michael Spyres and young violist Timothy Ridout.
Good-night/There is a Balm in Gilead
Baritone Will Liverman self-releases two singles from his own compositions, Good-night, co-written with violinist Lady Jess and his original arrangement of the traditional spiritual “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
Liverman performs on each song, with “Good-night” featuring him at the piano and singing, and co-composer Lady Jess playing the violin. Soprano Jasmine Muhammad and mezzo-soprano Tesia Kwarteng are featured on “There is a Balm in Gilead,” with Liverman on piano.
What is Ours Now
Navona Records releases the new album with Choir director Dominick DiOrio turning his reflections and sentiments about the pandemic into a profoundly engaging, almost philosophical choral album.
A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London
Cappella Records is proud to present its 30th release, “A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London,” performed by Cappella Romana and led by founder and music director Alexander Lingas.
The ensemble will perform the program as part of its Northwest concert series in Seattle and Portland in January and will feature Alexander Lingas’ discovery of never-before recorded works for Christmas.
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Das Himmelskleid
Marco Polo Label releases Wolf-Ferrari’s most mature opera with a cast that includes Angelina Ruzzafante, Anna-Maria Dur, Sibrand Basa, Reinhard Leisenheimer, Peer-Martin Sturm, Michael Kurz, Stefan Adam, and Sergio Gómez. The Hagen Opera Chorus and Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra are conducted by Gerhard Markson.
Johannes Brahms: Complete Songs, Vol. 2
Alina Wunderlin, Esther Valentin-Fieguth, Kieran Carrel, Konstantin Ingenpaß, and Ulrich Eisenlohr perform Brahms songs on this Naxos release.
La Voix Humaine
ALPHA releases Poulenc’s beloved one-act monodrama with French soprano Véronique Gens. The soprano is accompanied by the Orchestre National de Lille under music director Alexandre Bloch.
By Francisco Salazar
The Berlin Philharmonic is set to celebrate the New Year with a gala concert featuring Jonas Kaufmann.
The gala will be performed three times from Dec. 29 through 31 and will be televised, broadcast on radio, and in cinemas.
The concert will be broadcast on the Berlin Philharmonic’s Live in the Digital Concert Hall platform and will receive a free 7-day ticket to try out. It will also be in cinemas in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Arte will also broadcast the concert on TV in a time-delayed broadcast. Finally, for those who want to listen on the radio, the radio station rbb Kultur will broadcast the concert live from 17:30.
Kaufmann will be joined by Kirill Petrenko in a concert that includes music by Mascagni, Verdi, Zandonai, Giordano, Prokofiev, Nino Rota, and Tchaikovsky.
By David Salazar
The Royal Opera House has announced its streaming slate to kick off 2023.
For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal and operatic performances.
The company is set to stream Verdi’s “La Traviata” with Pretty Yende, Stephen Costello, and Dimitri Platanias. The work features Richard Eyre’s classic production.
Streaming Date: Jan. 19, 2023
Next up is Tobias Kratzer’s rendition of “Fidelio” with Antonio Pappano conducting. The opera stars Lise Davidsen and David Butt Philip.
Streaming Date: Feb. 2, 2023
That will be followed up by “Madama Butterfly” starring Maria Agresta, Joshua Guerrero, Carlos Álvarez, and Christine Rice. Nicola Luisotti conducts.
Streaming Date: March 23, 2023
The company will also stream productions of “Sylvia,” “The Cellist,” and “Romeo and Juliet.” The company announced that it would reveal future streaming titles on March 23.
By Francisco Salazar
On Dec. 11, 2022 operetta singer and actress Olga Haasová-Smrčková died in Brno at the age of 85.
Haasová-Smrčková died after a long, serious illness and is said to have spent the last years of her life in a retirement home in Brno.
Born in 1937, she was the daughter of composer Pavel Haas who was murdered in the Holocaust, and niece of the famous director Hugo Haas.
She went on to become a stalwart at the National Theater in Brno where she sang numerous roles and won the hearts of many viewers. In a statement, the theater said, “From the 1960s to the early 1990s, she was one of the pillars and pillars of the opera company. On the Reduta stage, she embodied dozens of characters from the classic operetta repertoire and in musicals,” theater colleagues recalled.
Among the roles, she was well-known for was Kristina in Čapkov’s “Veča Makropulos.” She also won over audiences in the role of Augusta Panicetti in Gordi Kramer’s opera “When It’s Sunday in Rome.” She retired in 1991.
Haasová-Smrčková was the first wife of writer Milan Kundera and was the inspiration for the play “The Owners of the Keys.”
By Francisco Salazar
Spanish tenor Jorge de León has sung the first encore in his career.
On Dec. 26, the tenor was asked for a “bis” at the end of his “Nessun Dorma” in “Turandot” at the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi de Salerno. De León was making his company debut with a cast that includes soprano Oksana Dyka in the title role, and Lianna Haroutounian as Liú.
Daniel Oren was conducting the production by Riccardo Canessa.
Over the years, De León has performed the role of Calaf at teh Teatro Regio di Torino, Palau de les Arts, and Gran Teatre del Liceu. He is set to sing the role at the Petruzzelli, and Teatro Real de Madrid.
The final performance of “Turandot” at teh Teatro Giuseppe Verdi di Salerno is set to be performed on Dec. 28.
By Francisco Salazar
On Dec. 27, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is set to open a new production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in its four-act version.
The production by Roberto Andò will be performed five times through Jan. 8 and will be conducted by Daniele Gatti. The cast will include Francesco Meli, Eleonora Buratto, Roman Burdenko, Massimo Cavalletti, Alexander Vinogradov, Ekaterina Semenchuck, and Mikhail Petrenko.
Regarding the title role Meli said, “I made my debut in this title role at Teatro alla Scala in January 2017. Once again, I’m taking on this Verdi opera, such a pulsating, tormented, and complex work, here at the Teatro del Maggio during the festival devoted to Verdi. In Milan, the five-act version was preferred, but here in Florence we’re performing the four-act version, which is also my favorite.”
He added, “I am also fascinated by the creative process, the adaptations, corrections, and cuts that the composer made to this work over the twenty years that passed between the first version in French and the final 1886 version. With Verdi, nothing is left to chance. In studying the different versions, I have found even more evidence of this. However, the completeness of the more frequently staged 1884 Milan version is fascinating and moving. It can be seen, firstly, in the contrast between different parts, when the rapid flurry of events and frenetic music give way to lyrical, melodic oases of absolute beauty. The opera’s appeal is a result of theatrical effect combined with musical genius. But there is no doubt that the individual characters are also fascinating.
“I am thinking, above all, of Philip Il, and of Rodrigo, but also the Queen. The opera is not named after Don Carlo by mere chance: in the dramatic conflicts around which the plot develops, which can be summed up as rivalry between father and son (Philip II and the Prince, Don Carlo), and differing political viewpoints between the King and Rodrigo and, above all, between the State and the Church, Don Carlo is an impetuous young man when moved by patriotic feelings, and ardent in his obstinate, dangerous love for Elisabeth. Verdi assigns him a challenging tessitura, which demands full mastery of one’s voice. At the same time, he also requires Don Carlo to sing mezza voce, helping to highlight the more lyrical side of this fundamentally impulsive character.”
Buratto who made her debut in the role last fall at the Metropolitan Opera added, “I loved giving my heart and my voice to this queen, who was crushed by a fate decided by those in power, yet was regal in her role as a wife and intimately as a woman, from the beginning to the end of the grandiose chain of events. As Verdi intended, the figure of Elisabeth is extraordinary, because she is involved in events that represent two opposing conceptions of politics, but also because of the impossible love between Elisabeth herself and her stepson, Don Carlo, Prince of Spain and Philip’s son.”
The first performance of “Don Carlo” is set to be broadcast on Rai Radio 3.
