GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL (England)
This is one of the greatest summer opera festivals in the world, and its lineup this year does not disappoint. The chestnuts have good singers and interesting productions, and then there are the unusual items, like the staged version of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. It is the English answer to the operafied St. John Passion at the Châtelet in March (with Emmanuelle Haïm conducting the Concert d’Astrée, a staging design by Robert Wilson and choreography by Lucinda Childs, with Andreas Scholl, among others). The Nikolaus Lehnhoff Tristan and any production of The Turn of the Screw get our attention.
| June 17 to August 12 Rossini, La Cenerentola | July 1 to August 26 Bach, St. Matthew Passion Staged as an opera by Katie Mitchell, conducted by Richard Egarr With Mark Padmore and Sarah Connolly |
| August 1 to 22 Wagner, Tristan und Isolde Conducted by Jiří Bĕlohlávek, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff With Nina Stemme and René Pape | August 11 to 25 Britten, The Turn of the Screw |
OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS (France)
While not really an opera festival, the Paris Opera always has interesting productions that continue into the summer. The new Christoph Marthaler production of La Traviata is probably going to cause the biggest stir, but the world premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's new opera is prominent on the Ionarts radar.
| May 15 to June 11 Wagner, Lohengrin Directed by Robert Carsen, conducted by Valery Gergiev With Ben Heppner and Mireille Delunsch | May 23 to June 10 Salvatore Sciarrino, Da gelo a gelo World Premiere |
| June 14 to July 13 Verdi, Un ballo in maschera Directed by Gilbert Deflo | June 16 to July 12 Verdi, La Traviata Directed by Christoph Marthaler With Christine Schäfer, Jonas Kaufmann, and José Van Dam |
THÉÂTRE DU CHÂTELET (Paris)
In the recent and ongoing upheaval of management change at almost all of the Parisian opera theaters, the Châtelet is about to finish its first season under Jean-Luc Choplin. The former Disney executive announced plans to lighten up the Châtelet's programming by guiding it back to its founding principle, to be the "théâtre musical de Paris," that is, as a house for operetta. Some of the most radical parts of the first season fall to the summer months, including Marc Minkowski's Carmen, which concluded this weekend, and Le Verfügbar aux enfers, the operetta-revue produced initially in the concentration camp of Ravensbrück, with words by Germaine Tillion, the celebrated member of the French resistance who turns 100 this summer. The season ends as it opened, with Francis Lopez's Le Chanteur de Mexico, which Choplin had originally planned with Roberto Alagna in the title role.
| May 10 to 28 Bizet, Carmen With Sylvie Brunet, Teddy Tahu Rhodes Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski | June 2 and 3 Germaine Tillion, Le Verfügbar aux enfers With Gaële Le Roi |
| June 19 to 29 Francis Lopez, Le Chanteur de Mexico |
FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE (France)
Ionarts is going to cover Aix-en-Provence for the first time this summer, thanks to the wanderings of Michael Lodico. The Aix Ring Cycle continues this year, after a notable success with Das Rheingold last summer, with Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and the provocative staging of Stéphane Braunschweig. The best casting comes on a Figaro with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, behind Nathan Gunn and Kate Royal. Two eminent HIP conductors lead another Mozart opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and a 400th anniversary production of Monteverdi's Orfeo.
| June 29 to July 8 Wagner, Die Walküre Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle | July 1 to 21 Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding With Nathan Gunn and Kate Royal |
| July 6 to 20 Mozart, Die Entführung aus dem Serail Les Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski | July 6 to 15 Monteverdi, Orfeo Concerto Vocale, conducted by René Jacobs |
| July 1 to 18 Monteverdi, Madrigals Staged by Arco Renz, conducted by Kenneth Weiss |
MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO (Florence)
This is one of the festivals I am planning to cover during my time in Italy this summer, although I arrive too late to hear an all too rare performance of Monteverdi's first opera. I am hoping to bring you a review of the crazy half-Ring cycle by La Fura del Baus, which premiered in Spain earlier this month.
| May 31 and June 1 Monteverdi, Dafne Ensemble Antonio il Verso Coro Costanzo Porta | June 14 to 29 Wagner, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre With La Fura del Baus, conducted by Zubin Mehta |
64TH SETTIMANA MUSICALE SENESE (Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena)
It's the summer of Orfeo, which was premiered 400 years ago in 1607. They may have Concerto Vocale in Aix-en-Provence, but we will also be reviewing the opera as performed by Rinaldo Alessandrini's Concerto Italiano.
| July 8 and 9 Fabio Vacchi, La Madre del Mostro World Premiere Orchestra della Toscana | July 11 Monteverdi, Orfeo (concert performance) Concerto Italiano, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini |
DROTTNINGHOLM SLOTTSTEATER (Sweden)The fabulous Baroque opera theater outside of Stockholm hit hard financial times a couple years ago. They had to scale back their summer schedule to just two operas, a trend that continues this year, and without the regular visit of Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques (a match made in heaven).
| May 26 to August 11 Handel, Serse |
| July 28 to August 11 Monteverdi, Orfeo |
SAVONLINNA OPERA FESTIVAL (Finland)
Italy this summer, and hopefully Scandinavia next summer! As always, there will be new Finnish opera at the Savonlinna Festival, in the beautiful lake setting of Olavinlinna Castle. This year, the visiting company is from the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and they bring two Russian operas.
| July 7 to 17 Olli Kortekangas, Daddy's Girl World Premiere | June 29 to July 11 Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor With Eglise Gutiérrez |
| July 24 to 28 Modest Musorgsky, Boris Godunov Bolshoi Theater | July 25 and 27 Leonid Desyatnikov, The Children of Rosenthal (2005) Bolshoi Theater |
OPÉRA DE LYON (France)
There is no themed festival in Lyon this summer like the Kurt Weill festival last year. Still, a production of Rake's Progress, something old, and something new all look good.
| May 24 to June 3 Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress Directed by Robert Lepage | June 8 to 14 Isabelle Aboulker, Jérémy Fisher New children's opera |
| June 24 to July 8 Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro Conducted by William Christie, directed by Adrian Noble |
DE NEDERLANDSE OPERA (Amsterdam)
Amsterdam continues to offer interesting and all-contemporary operatic fare this summer, after the world premiere of Michel van der Aa's new opera last year. Jonathan Harvey's new opera imagines Richard Wagner in a Buddhist afterlife.
| May 18 to June 9 Franz Schreker, Die Gezeichneten | June 6 to 13 Jonathan Harvey, Wagner Dream |
| June 10 to July 13 John Adams, Doctor Atomic With Gerald Finley, Jessica Rivera, Eric Owens |
MÜNCHNER OPERNFESTSPIELE (Germany)
I will leave the discussion of the Munich Summer Opera Festival to our man on the ground in Munich, but here are some of the highlights as it looks from here.
| June 30 Unsuk Chin, Alice in Wonderland Libretto by David Henry Hwang | July 2 Wolfgang Rihm, Das Gehege / Strauss, Salome |
| July 14 Mussorgsky, Khovanshchina |
Sir Spam Alot, or not.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Amsterdam performances of Schreker's great Die Gezeichneten, having seen the production in Stuttgart 5 or 6 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe conducting and playing (by the Concertgebouw no less, who are the NO's pit band) were out of this world, just totally spectacular. Ingo Meztmacher gets Schrker's idiom completely and conducted the hell out of it. The playing was to die for, just perfect.
The staging is good and the third act orgy well done. Some full frontal (male and female) nudity, some hotties in the chorus, it was well done.
The singing, however, was very, very poor. Gabriel Schade shrieked and wobbled his way through Alviano's part, some woman whose name I can't remember was practically inaudible as Carlotta (and I didn't like what I heard when I could hear her) and the Tamare, the same. How disappointing considering the other elements were so well done.
The Het Muziktheatre is a great place to see an opera. I had seats both in the first row of the first balcony and in the very last row of the place and the sound and visuals are great, maybe 1,500 seats?
The Los Angeles Opera will be doing Geziechneten in the next couple of seasons, I can't wait to hear James Conlon conduct the whole score (he's conducted the amazing prelude before). Just get some good singers, that's all I ask....