While Benajmin and Crimp’s colleagues on the contemporary opera scene pander to audiences with trendy and timely topics, the British duo returns to truly universal sources—the archetypal myths that transcend time and culture. “Picture a day like this” is an hourlong chamber opera in the pattern of their first creation, “Into the Little Hill”—a dark retelling of “The Pied Piper.”

“Picture” adapts another, less familiar folktale that appears in various guises across the globe. Its plot is deceptively simple: a nameless Woman’s child dies, and the village crones tempt her with a magical solution. If she can track down a truly happy person by the end of the day and cut a button from their clothes, her son will live again.

Crimp’s libretto is reminiscent of “The Little Prince”—the possible candidates on the Woman’s list recall the string of self-deluded grown-ups that Saint-Exupéry’s pint-sized hero encounters. Initially, they seem happy. But as soon as the Woman scratches slightly beneath the surface, she discovers that their happiness is false.

The episodic format offers Benjamin the opportunity to develop a distinct sound world for each of the five contenders. Actually, two distinct sound worlds—one representing their supposed state of felicity and another once the Woman learns the reality of their situation. There’s a moment during each scene when this “switch” occurs, indicated by a drastic change in style and instrumentation.

She first meets two Lovers, a soprano and countertenor, who seem eternally suspended in erotic ecstasy. Their lines, supported by a rustic consort of recorders, intertwine like Poppea and Nerone’s. Benjamin has a way of staggering and overlapping voices that feels both conversational and lyrical—a stylized naturalism that is particularly effective in this duet.

The parodies of swelling Wagnerian climaxes evaporate as soon as the male Lover offhandedly explains that their relationship is open—something the female Lover didn’t entirely agree to. Sputtering brass and side-drum motives intrude, taken up by countertenor Cameron Shahbazi as he stutters out the word “polyamory.” Shahbazi comes off as a smarmy narcissist, yet simultaneously smooth-talking and seductive.

Following the Lovers, the Woman comes across an Artisan—a button-maker, in fact, whose button-covered suit is sonically simulated with a cabasa rattle. Backed by piccolo birdsong, baritone John Brancy ascends into his falsetto, scaling what resembles a natural overtone series.

It’s a delirious and almost giddy happiness that turns out to be, in his words, “dose-related.” To prevent himself from self-harm, the Artisan is dependent on anti-psychotic drugs, which Brancy bellows for with sinister desperation. The strings’ pricking pizzicato and cut-like col legno strokes are uncomfortably suggestive of razor nicks. Brancy offers a performance that is equal parts terrifying and affecting. He reaches a near-shouted A-flat when he exposes the rope-burn around his neck, the ensemble bursting into a fff chord of suffocating intensity.

Crimp wisely follows this with a comic intermezzo featuring an egotistical young composer. Soprano Beate Mordal’s endless self-aggrandizing is accompanied by flashy Vivaldian string figuration. Her execution is hilariously cocky and braggadocious, especially the cartoonish repetitions of “happy, happy, happy” that mask her character’s inner doubt.

The sequence of contrasting musical moments in Benjamin’s score calls to mind “Bluebeard’s Castle,” with its separate sonic palettes for each of the rooms. And as in Bartók’s opera, the scenes are unified by a kind of ritualistic repetition indebted to the structure of fairytales. The beginning of every scene, for instance, is marked by a muted trio of two trumpets and trombone. Its function is akin to the “Promenade” theme between the movements of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” But the little contrapuntal fanfares the trio plays are stylistically closer to medieval music, establishing an archaic atmosphere.

At the close of every scene is a series of clock chimes played on the tubular bells—a reminder that the Woman has until nightfall to carry out her mission. They always toll on the same two pitches, E-flat and D, which emerge as an idée fixe in Benjamin’s score. This descending half-step is first heard in the Woman’s opening line on the phrase “had died” when she relates the passing of her child. The motive’s association with these words, along with it’s keening, downward motion, would seem to connect it to mourning.

But this isn’t a Wagnerian-style leitmotif tied down to a single concept. Benjamin’s approach to musical meaning is closer to the Symbolist movement. It’s why Crimp is such an ideal match for the composer—both artists deal in the inscrutable and the ambiguous, only gradually revealing the half-lit shapes that hover at the edges of our consciousness.

Benjamin’s sonic symbol, though confined to just a pair of pitches, accumulates a vast constellation of associations as the opera progresses. It’s not simply an emblem of sorrow. Rather, it comes to represent the Woman’s obsessive belief that the resurrection of her child will bring her happiness—a notion that we slowly begin to realize is an impossibility, since no happy person exists in her world.

The opera’s cyclicality is momentarily broken halfway through by a solo passage for the Woman—a number that Benjamin explicitly labels “Aria.” Crimp’s ABA-form text would seem to call for a corresponding da capo setting. Yet Benjamin resists this urge. Instead, he traces a wide-ranging emotional trajectory. Mezzo Marianne Crebassa audibly passes through all five stages of grief. Backed by searing quadruple-stop harmonies, she rails against fate, cursing her lot in bitter, sobbing phrases.

Crebassa’s cathartic wail on “I wanted miracles” marks a complete shift in the aria. Her hushed delivery conveys that hollow numbness one feels after weeping. The vocal writing takes on a folksy quality, reminiscent of an Eastern European funeral lament. It closes with a passage of unexpected and unaffected melodic beauty, enveloped in a dewy cloud of harp and celesta. This finely crafted aria is the highlight of a role that is exquisitely tailored to Crebassa’s instrument. Benjamin takes ample advantage of her earthy bottommost register—her groaning low notes are positively gut-wrenching.

Following a Berg-like orchestral interlude on the E-flat/D motive, the Woman finds herself at the twilit home of Zabelle—finally, a truly happy person who dwells in domestic bliss with her family. Benjamin evokes her Edenic garden in lush textures that teem with instrumental activity. As Zabelle, soprano Anna Prohaska describes her paradisiac life in soaring flights of avian coloratura tinged with folk inflections. It’s a performance of such effortless, inhuman perfection that it borders on the impossible.

Indeed, the side drum ricochets that punctuate the scene—which seem to imitate the shimmer of a mirage—hint that all is not what it seems. Zabelle explains that the tableau is merely an illusion, a kind of frozen vision of times long gone. At some point in the past, a group of men invaded her home, seized her possessions, and kidnapped or murdered her husband and children. The details are left purposefully hazy. But considering the Armenian origins of Zabelle’s name, as well as the genocidal allegory of Crimp and Benjamin’s earlier “Into the Little Hill,” it’s likely that she was the victim of an ethnic cleansing. “I’m happy only because I don’t exist,” Zabelle explains before fading away. Meanwhile, the E-flat/D chimes signal that the Woman has failed her task.

Or has she? In the final scene, as the village crones gleefully mock her for trying the undo death itself, the Woman stretches out her hand to reveal a button. Whose? It couldn’t belong to any of the pseudo-felicitous individuals on her list. Nor to Zabelle, who was merely a memory projected into the present. Could it be the Woman’s, cut from her own sleeve? Perhaps she has attained, not happiness—which is dependent entirely on luck and circumstance—but a form of contentment. Or perhaps she’s achieved some Buddhist transcendence of worldly attachment. Benjamin’s closing music again conjures a verdant garden—a personal Eden or Nirvana where the falling half-step motive is transformed into a pastoral cuckoo call on clarinet.

While the libretto of “Picture a day like this” resembles a fable, there’s no pre-packed Aesopian moral at the end. It’s closer to a Zen koan—a paradoxical aphorism or anecdote that isn’t “solvable” in the sense of a riddle, but is meant to inspire meditation. In an age when sanctimonious creators of opera feel compelled to beat listeners over the head with political platitudes, Crimp and Benjamin show genuine respect for their audiences. Their musical myths challenge and provoke, but ultimately allow spectators to glean their own, deeply personal interpretations.

The post CD Review: George Benjamin & Martin Crimp’s ‘Picture a day like this’ appeared first on OperaWire.

For the purposes of this article only vocal performances are included.

Soprano Eleanor Lyons, mezzo-soprano Sophie Harmsen, tenor Benjamin Hulett, and bass Johannes Kammler with the Collegium Vocale Gent present works by Eisler and Beethoven. They are accompanied by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe.

Performance Date: March 22, 2025

Tenor Kieran Carrel serves as vocal soloist in Schubert-Tag and Schubert-Soiree.

Performance Date: March 23, 2025

Soloists soprano Céline Scheen and countertenor Vincenzo Capezzuto perform with L’Arpeggiata Barockensemble and Christina Pluhar to present a program of Baroque works.

Performance Date: March 24, 2025

J.S. Bach’s “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern,” BWV 1 and “Magnificat” in E flat major, BWV 243a is presented by soprano Marie Luise Werneburg, mezzo-soprano Heike Heilmann, countertenor Franz Vitzthum, tenor Daniel Schreiber, and bass Felix Schwandtke. They are joined by the Barockorchester L’arpa festante led by Markus Uhl.

Performance Date: March 25, 2025

Thomas Hampson leads two public masterclasses.

Performance Dates: March 28 & 29, 2025

“End of My Days” is performed by soprano Ruby Hughes and the Manchester Collective.

Performance Date: March 29, 2025

Soprano Katharina Konradi and mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison present a concert of Lieder. They are joined by Ammiel Bushakevitz at the piano.

Performance Date: March 30, 2025

The Naghash Ensemble presents “Songs of Exile.”

Performance Date: April 2, 2025

Soprano Anna El-Khashem and pianist Keval Shah perform a concert of works by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Performance Date: April 4, 2025

Tenor Rolando Villazón and harpist Xavier de Maistre present “Serenata Latina.”

Performance Date: April 4, 2025

Tenor Michael Spyres and Il Pomo d’Oro Baroque Ensemble perform the concert, “Tenore assoluto.” Zefira Valova conducts.

Performance Date: April 5, 2025

A concert of works by Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Adolph Hasse, and Georg Friedrich Händel is performed by soprano Emőke Baráth and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Maurice Steger conducts.

Performance Date: April 11, 2025

The post Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival Announces 2025 Season appeared first on OperaWire.

This week it’s all about the tenor. Three of opera’s leading tenors release albums that feature their vocal depths and their passion. There are a number of the world premiere recordings and several choral albums.

Ways You Went

Donald Nally’s chamber choir The Crossing releases its latest studio album which features original compositions by composers Martin Bresnick and Mason Bates.

Bresnick’s song cycle “Self-Portraits 1964” exclusively deals with the life and personality of a single man while Bates’ trilogy “Mass Transmission” takes a telegraph conversation between mother and daughter in the 1920s and sets it to music.

Ombre di luce

Nathan Granner presents an album of tenor arias by Paër, Mozart, Gluck, Salieri, and Bologne. He is joined by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, under the baton of Clelia Cafiero. PENTATONE releases the album.

In a statement, Granner said, “As I sit here, reflecting on the creation of this album, I can’t help but marvel at the parallels between our modern world and the Age of Enlightenment. Just like the classical era from 1750 to 1827, we find ourselves seeking comfort and stability amidst the chaos that surrounds us. The societal changes and revolutions of THAT time transformed every aspect of life, from literature and music to the very nature of war. It was a time when people began to demand their rights. Opera characters like Beaumarchais’ Figaro and Susanna and Da Ponte’s Don Ottavio subtly led to real-world shifts in how we treated one another.”

George Benjamin and Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern Media will release a new album featuring four works by George Benjamin, performed by the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and soprano Anna Prohaska. The album features “A Mind of Winter” “At First Light,” “Palimpsests” and the arrangements of the “Art of the Fugue.”

Nessun Dorma

Warner Classics releases Pene Pati’s second album, which balances favorite numbers with operatic rarities – two of them in world premiere recordings. The album features works by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, Mascagni, Mercadante, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet, Halévy and Guiraud. Joining the Samoan tenor on the album are his soprano wife, Amina Edris, his tenor brother Amitai Pati, conductor Emmanuel Villaume, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Choeur de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux.

Roberto Alagna 60

Aparte Music celebrates Roberto Alagna’s 60th birthday and his 40th career anniversary,

Alagna performs alongside the Morphing Chamber Orchestra under Giorgio Croci in a program that is very much in his image: showing a contagious passion, and an insatiable appetite for the exploration of different repertoires and styles. The repertoire includes the works of Gounod, Massenet, Thomas, Adam, Verdi, Leoncavallo, Pergolesi, Wagner, Flotow, Moniuszko, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. There are also Italian and French songs as well as English and South American crossover music.

Fairy Tale Song Cycle

Siblings Jennifer Shorstein and Benjamin Shorstein release their first recording with their “Fairy Tales” song cycle on Madre Vaca Records.

The Shorstein siblings have been crafting songs together for years, with Jennifer writing the words and Benjamin the music. In a statement, Benjamin Shorstein says “writing songs with Jennifer is a dream; she creates these beautiful, evocative scenes. It’s the most exciting thing to sit down at the piano with her lyrics and explore the musical terrain they inspire.” The work features soprano and tenor voices, piano, violin, cello, percussion, and clarinet.

Four vocalists, including another Shorstein sibling, Rebecca, perform the piece with instrumentalists from the Bold City Contemporary Ensemble. Sopranos Rebecca Shorstein and Monica Pasquini are joined by tenor Jake McKenna and soprano Jennifer Anderson.

Chamber Music by James Joyce, Vol. 1

Desmond Earley and the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin present an album of world-premiere recordings of choral works commissioned from 18 composers to accompany poems from the 1907 poetry collection “Chamber Music,” by the celebrated Irish novelist and poet James Joyce. Signum Classics Classics releases the album.

Zarzuela

Juan Diego Flórez releases his upcoming album “Zarzuela” which will be released on his new record label, Florez Records. The tenor performs music by José Serrano, Federico Moreno Torroba, Pablo Luna, Ruperto Chapí, Gerónimo Giménez, Rafael Calleja & Tomás Barrera, Reveriano Soutullo & Juan Vert, Amadeo Vives, and Agustín Pérez Soriano. Flórez is joined by the Sinfonía por el Perú Youth Orchestra and Choir and Spanish conductor Guillermo García Calvo.

The post Juan Diego Flórez, Pene Pati, & Roberto Alagna Lead New CD/DVD Releases appeared first on OperaWire.

This week audiences will get to hear one of the great tenors of his generation alongside some of the greatest sopranos in one album dedicated to Puccini. There are also world premiere recordings of new works and one debut album. Here is a look.

Robeson

In a statement, Tines said, “This album is my most personal artistic statement to date. I’ve endeavored to compare and contrast my journey as an artist with that of my artistic ancestor and hero, Paul Robeson, the unparalleled singer, actor, and activist. Standing on his beliefs of egality for the disenfranchised led to governmental and public attacks that almost ended his life. This album is the fever dream of the universal journey to battle internal and external persecution in order to find one’s self and decide what you need to say the most now that you’ve survived.”

Bach: Arias for Alto

Zoltán Daragó makes his long-awaited album debut showcasing the countertenor in 11 arias from well-known and lesser-known cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset are featured on the album.

The post Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko, Davóne Tines, Sonya Yoncheva & Zoltán Daragó Lead New CD/DVD Releases appeared first on OperaWire.

Bayreuth Baroque Festival has been awarded “The Best Festival of 2024” by Germany’s Oper! Awards. The first season began in 2020 with a staged production of Nicola Antonio Porpora’s “Carlo il Calvo”, and an opera in concert version of “Gismondo, Re di Polonia” by Leonardo Vinci and libretto by Francesco Briani’s Il Vincitor Generoso. The orchestras in residence have included Armonia Atenea (2020, 2021), {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna (2022), Concerto Köln (2023), and this year’s Les Talens Lyriques (2024). 

OperaWire attended this year’s festival and had the opportunity to visit more with Christophe Rousset, the Musical Director and harpsichordist of Les Talens Lyriques, about Bayreuth Baroque’s new production of Porpora’s “Ifigenia in Aulide” and what makes this year most exciting. 

As stated in their bio, the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques takes its name from the subtitle of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Les Fêtes d’Hébé (1739) was formed in 1991 by the harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset. Championing a broad vocal and instrumental repertoire, ranging from early Baroque to the beginnings of Romanticism, the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques aim to throw light on the great masterpieces of musical history, while providing perspective by presenting rarer or little known works that are important as missing links in the European musical heritage. This musicological and editorial work, which contributes to its renown, is a priority for the ensemble.

Christophe Rousset has been nominated for eight awards in the Opera and Gramophone Awards this 2024-25 season. His musical engagements at both local and international levels feature rare works evolving and baroque as something to be rediscovered and expanded upon today.  

OperaWire: What are you most excited about being here at Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival?

Christophe Rousset: I have a long story with Max Emanuel Cencic. He says that I introduced him to opera on stage with “L’incoronazione di Poppea” a long time ago in Toulouse and I’ve always had a nice relationship with him and I was very touched when he asked me to do this production. But not only the production of the opera but also all the concerts, including the one with Sandrine Piau and my recital with Anna Prohaska. So it’s a real honor for us. I didn’t know about Bayreuth at all unless I’ve touched Wagner, just very recently, but I never was a devotee to Wagner so I never made the trip to Bayreuth and it’s not that easy to reach, really, as you’ve probably noticed. So that was the opportunity to finally see this historical theater which is absolutely perfect. It’s such a beautiful place. There is kind of a link with this theater through “Farinelli” the film. We’ve (Les Talens Lyriques) done the soundtrack, but the images are from this theater. Unfortunately, I was not asked to conduct in the film, but I did conduct the soundtrack. But, you’ll see how incredible this theater is. It’s a real jewel. It sounds like the historical theaters I know, that’s to say it’s a little dry, but very clear and very inspiring. 

Max created the staging of it and he knows this stage quite well because it’s the fifth year of this festival and he knows that if you put the singer too far away upstage, it doesn’t sound at all. So, mostly the arias are front, downstage, and it helps with the balance with the orchestra. The pit of course is at a fixed level, so you can’t really adapt. You have to adapt with the dynamics of the orchestra.   

OW: How would you musically describe Porpora’s “Ifigenia in Aulide”?

CR: It’s a real rediscovery. It has never been performed in modern times. So, it’s quite an interesting piece based on “Iphigenia in Aulis”. We know this from the Greek tragedy. But the music is sometimes very dramatic and sometimes just bel canto. So you have to accept that opera seria is the place for nice coloraturas and beautiful tunes. This opera was written for London when Porpora was in competition with Händel, at exactly the same year as “Alcina”. People were raving for Porpora, actually, more than for Händel. This is the moment where Porpora took all the star singers of the troupe of Händel. And when Porpora arrived in London they all moved to Porpora’s because Porpora was the singing teacher of all those stars. So it was like a devotion to the master, going back to him. 

“Ifigenia” is quite demanding for singers. It’s difficult to cast. And you can recognize what is for Farinelli with wonderful spinato, with wonderful pieces. So, you have beautiful recits and incredible virtuosi for Diana and she has the biggest part of the arias in the opera. So, you have a trio, you have a duet for bass and a soprano which is quite unusual. You have accompanied recits, as I said, and some incredible numbers. For instance, there is a pastoral in the beginning of the third act sung by Achilles with flutes and oboes. It’s an atmosphere that’s really unique. It’s Porpora genius. So, we don’t know much about operas by Porpora, do we? I don’t know how much you know about Porpora. If you’ve seen the film, “Farinelli”, there’s a wonderful aria “Alto Giove, è Tua Grazia” which is now a hit for all the countertenors. But here you have new hits for the singers. 

The drama is really going towards this terrible end which involves sacrifice, when Diana appears as the ex-machina and she solves the whole thing. But, the tension is quite interesting because the paths of the priests are very important in that piece. It is quite demanding vocally, but also the place in the libretto, that really says that religion should be “the law”, and Achilles is against him and says that reason should be the law. So, it’s a real fit between them and the priest also says we can manipulate the people so easily, with religion. So it’s quite terrible, and this is really what the libretto is about. This fight between religion and reason. Which is quite actual, actually. But, also something important in the 18th century. 

OW: How do you feel that the music accompanies the hall itself? What aesthetically are you discovering while having the music of this opera in the Margravial Opera House Bayreuth? What feels new to you?

CR: What’s new is actually the music because it’s a rediscovery and I’m surprised by every note, even the recitative secco. It’s unusual for us, not exactly what we are used to. But also, of course, performing in that special place really drives you in a special direction. I must say that the staging is quite nice because it doesn’t really give you an idea of time, but it is tribal and gives something very strong. It goes very well with the music and beautiful costumes, and some nudities. Also, the whole thing is done very well.   

OW: What is your story behind creating your ensemble Les Talens Lyriques in 1991? 

CR: We have more than 30 years of existence now, so it’s quite something. We’ve been quite honored this year, especially in Germany. I had a Händel prize in Gotenna. I was the privileged artist in Gertsberg, the Mozart Festspiele. And now here in Bayreuth, it’s quite an achievement. I am very proud of all those honors in Germany. I keep trying my best to find the finest and most honest way of interpreting this music. It’s nice because with age my ideas are very clear. So, we had more than seven days of orchestra for this opera and in two days we were ready. So, the rest was for the staging. The members of my ensemble are used to my way of working and they know exactly where I want them to go. So, it’s very efficient. And this is a big satisfaction.

OW: What educational projects for school children does Les Talens Lyriques offer? How do you feel music education of young persons affects the future of local communities? 

CR: We offer many things, actually. We’ve started the youth educational project because we were looking for places to rehearse in Paris. This is really a difficult matter in Paris, to find places where my group could rehearse. So, I thought maybe let’s go to schools and have the spaces there and make this music exist for those young people. And then the project developed, so they are now participating a lot through education so they can play as an orchestra with tablets. So, one has the violin part, one has the viola part, and they play together along with a conductor giving the top to start. There is also education for composition and improvisation on harpsichord. There are some orchestra classes, too, where we teach them to play and experience the instruments. This is very important so they understand how much you have to be concentrated and devoted to an instrument to be able to produce. They can come to rehearsals, maybe in theaters as well. Some of the young people actually followed us in Vienna, last season. They had contact with the local students. When we performed “The Magic Flute” once, they organized a show with all the figures of the opera with classes in theater as well. They’ve interviewed us and once there was a broadcast on France Musique radio. So, it’s quite rewarding for them. They’ve also filmed us, so there are many possibilities and many collaborations with different classes. Literature of course, and Italian or German classes, history. There is quite a lot of interest in our actions and it’s very touching. Sometimes they come very close to us, so we rehearse and you might have a student right next to the flute or the harpsichord, next to the cellos. And then they have a different way of receiving music, of course. All of these moments are very touching, I must say. And I think they have an impact on those young people as well, so that’s quite nice.

OW: What can you tell us about your experience with music as a child? When did you know that this was for you?

CR: I didn’t start that young. I was ten when I started. But, it was for me more a matter of aesthetics. I’m interested in archaeology. That was my first passion when I was very young. Then I went towards baroque aesthetics. So, it was about painting, theater, architecture and the music came quite late. But it was very clear that the harpsichord was the instrument for me because it was a kind of time machine. I could really dive into this world. 

OW: What projects do you have planned for the remainder of this year?

CR: I’ve been asked to conduct the Monteverdi Choir Orchestra. I was so impressed with this invitation. It was quite unexpected and I’m very enthusiastic about it because I’ve been a big admirer for this group for many years. It has influenced my way of being with this music. So, it’s quite something for me. Plus there are two Bach cantatas and one piece by Charpentier. I am very happy about this! It’s a big tour with seven concerts, including Germany, England, Italy. I have a lot of things to do in the future with Händel, a lot of Händel. And a US tour, along the west coast and then in Canada. It’s also quite varied, sometimes oratorio, chamber music, opera on stage, so it’s a wide panel of activities. Two operas by Händel, “Orlando” and “Giulio Cesare”. It’s one of my first loves in baroque music. I remember when I was a child growing up in Aix-en-Provence and I had the chance to attend the rehearsals and I remember the first Händel piece I heard there and it was a big shock. So I always keep Händel next to my heart. When we travel to the US as an ensemble we also try to give the “French touch” of music. French music is a big part of our activity. This is why when we go to the states we try to put a big part of French repertoire, including Rameau, Lully, and Montéclair. Those composers in the medium sized orchestra with a mezzo. And, we try to make American audiences travel to Versailles with us through the time machine of baroque music.

The post Q & A: Christophe Rousset on Porpora’s ‘Ifigenia in Aulide’ & Les Talens Lyriques Orchestra at Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2024     appeared first on OperaWire.

Who’s afraid of a double bill? Part two. If Gluck’s Iphigénies required stamina from Aix operagoers, the double bill of Peter Maxwell Davies’s “Eight Songs for a Mad King” and György Kurtág’s “Kafka-Fragments” beseech us to be attentive. It was just an hour and a half of music, and the performances were vivid. But the musical deconstructionism of Davies and Kurtág’s lyrically erratic nature might not be for everyone.

Barrie Kosky and Urs Schönebaum composed a minimalist staging—basically just the singers’ bodies and a spotlight. Still, one did not feel the need for anything else. Extracting everything they could from their performers, Kosky made their theatrical personas so grandiose that more often than not, I even forgot the insanity of their vocal lines—and how hard Davies and Kurtág’s scores are for anyone’s throat.

Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969)

In “Eight Songs for a Mad King,” we are presented with a clear response to 1968’s global movements. Though concentrated most emblematically in France, the experience of May ’68 is a global one (for a good take on it, please watch João Moreira Salles’s documentary “In the Intense Now”). Maxwell Davies invites us to see the musical embodiment of that moment’s imagined rupture with the past. The musical atmosphere is dramatically charged and disruptive: the orchestra opens with a loud sound, and progressively finds its way to small moments of lyricism and melody.

The Mad King, as performed by Johannes Martin Kränzle (sporting only his white undies), showed great resources of theatrical commitment. His cries, yells, and falsettos were all perfectly executed. Kränzle embraced Davies’s deconstructed approach to language without ever losing a sense of the text’s comprehensibility. Let me explain. In Opera—or lyrical singing in general—understanding the text is always a question. The act of singing often distorts what, otherwise, would be a simple sentence to understand. Nevertheless, some singers sing and enunciate the text in a way that makes the words clear. In Davies’ music, the distortions of the text are augmented exponentially—consonantal repetition, vowels on impossible high notes. Still, an English speaker, deprived of the subtitles, could capture most of the text—a sign of the artistic strength of the performance, and the success of Davies’s theatrical proposal.

The Madness of the king, here, is not pleasant to look at. However, at its best moments, it is pretty funny. The shy giggles in the audience might have been too little for the bizarre spectacle that unfolded before our eyes. Maxwell Davies’s works can be challenging, but accepting the humor they offer us is perhaps the first key to understanding and enjoying them.

The Kafka-Fragments (1987)

Kurtág’s “Kafka-Fragments” was certainly more engaging lyrically, but was still demanding. The forty fragments after Kafka for soprano and violin were meticulously performed by soprano Anna Prohaska and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. While Prohaska is an actress and singer of much presence, Kopatchinskaja is a violinist whose talent is, in my opinion, still underrated. Her recordings of the standard repertoire of violin are excellent, and in Aix, she shined as a performer.

Kosky placed the two women as mirrors of each other. They wore similar dresses and, progressively, they feign to change places—one sings and the other plays. The effect is quite impressive, and their commitment to the performative act is commendable. And Kurtág’s music is, by any measure, more pleasant than Maxwell Davis.

All that said, I must say that I struggled a bit with the fragment as a literary form in the current age. It is certainly an extremely important mode of literary creation, especially after the nineteenth century—though it can be traced back to the ancient times. But in this day and age of social media, when it seems that all of our “content” is fragmented (from stories to twitter to videoclips), even Kurtág’s intellectual elegance seemed to have lost some of its edge. Perhaps it is only me, too immersed as I am in my Instagram, but I do not think so.

Still, for the few elects that want to immerse themselves in a good performance of contemporary works and great theater, “Songs and Fragments” is certainly a show to see.

The post Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Songs and Fragments appeared first on OperaWire.

The Female Singer of the Year went to Anna Prohaska for “Maria Mater Meretrix,” while the Male Singer of the Year went to Konstantin Krimmel for Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin.”

The Conductor of the Year award went to Klaus Mäkelä for Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring & The Firebird,” while the Solo Recording Singing of the Year went to Michael Spyres for “In The Shadows.” The Solo Recording Singing of the Year went to Charles Castronovo for “Giacomo Puccini/ Schachtner: ‘I Canti’ – orchestrierte Lieder und Werke.”

The Choral Recording of the Year went to Hans-Christoph Rademann and Gaechinger Cantorey for “Vision.Bach Vol. 1,” while the Opera Recording of the Year went to Dorothee Oberlinger and Ensemble 1700 for Giuseppe Scarlatti’s “I portentosi effetti della Madre Natura” and Paul Daniel, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Anne-Catherine Gillet’s for Offenbach’s “La Princesse de Trébizonde.” The World Premiere Recording of the Year went to Anna Skryleva, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, and Raffaela Lintl for Eugen Engel’s “Grete Minde.”

Reginald Mobley won the Classic without Limits for his album “Because,” while Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bradley Cooper, and the London Symphony Orchestra won the Filmmusic / Score of the Year for “Maestro: Music by Leonard Bernstein.”

Other winners include Gautier Capuçon, Isabelle Faust, Lang Lang, Liza Lim, María Dueñas, Valerie Eickhoff, Bruce Liu, Anna Lapwood, Hilary Hahn, Christian Thielemann, and Víkingur Ólafsson, among others.

The post Anna Prohaska & Konstantin Krimmel Lead 2024 Opus Klassik Awards Winners appeared first on OperaWire.

Giuseppe Mengoli conducts a program of Mahler and Beethoven with pianists Bruce Liu and Leonor Bonilla.

Performance Dates: Nov. 21 & 22, 2024

John Axelrod conducts the Women’s Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Torino in a program of music by Berio and Holst.

Performance Dates: Jan. 16 & 17, 2025

The post Anna Prohaska, Leonor Bonilla & Justina Gringytė Lead Rai Orchestra’s 2024-25 Season appeared first on OperaWire.

Here is a rundown of the season.

The ensemble heads to the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival to present “Ifigenia in Aulide” with Jasmin Delfs, Max Emanuel Cencic, Dennis Orellana, Olena Leser, Nicolò Balducci, and Daniel Giulianini. Giorgina Germanou directs.

Performance Dates: Sept. 5-15, 2024

Then comes “Aroma di Roma,” also at the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, featuring soprano Sandrine Piauu and works by Händel, Scarlatti, and de Montéclair.

Performance Dates: Sept. 8, 2024

And the final performance at Bayreuth will be “Oper in Hamburg,” featuring music by Händel, Mattheson, Telemann, and Keiser. Anna Prohaska is the soloist.

Performance Dates: Sept. 14, 2024

The company then heads to the Ambronay Festival to present music by Bach featuring Paul Figuier.

Performance Dates: Oct. 4, 2024

Ambroisine Bré and Nahuel di Pierro will present “Les Laurier de Händel” at the Château de Chantilly.

Performance Dates: Oct. 12, 2024

Also in Chantilly, Ambroisine Bré, Nahuel di Pierro, and Petr Nekoranec will present works by Rameau and Royer.

Performance Dates: Oct. 13, 2024

Then comes a North American tour across such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tuscon, Washington D.C., and Montréal featuring works by Lully, de Montéclair, Couperin, and Lambert, among others. Ambroisine Bree is the soloist.

Performance Dates: Nov. 12 – 20, 2024

The Bach program from Ambronay will then head to Paris to the Salle Cortot with Zoltan Darago as the soloist.

Performance Dates: Dec. 3, 2024

Then comes Händel’s “Orlando” in Paris with a cast starring Katarina Bradic, Siobhan Stagg, Elizabeth DeShong, Giulia Semenzato, and Riccardo Novaro. Jeanne Desoubeaux directs.

Performance Dates: Jan. 23 – Feb. 2, 2025

Elizabeth DeShong, Claudia Pavone, Nils Wanderer, Key’mon Murrah, Rose Naggar-Tremblay, William Shelton, Edwin Fardini, and Adrien Fournaison lead “Giulio Cesare.” Damiano Michieletto directs the production in Toulouse.

Performance Dates: Feb. 21 – March 2, 2025

Laurent Pelly directs “L’Opera Seria” at La Scala starring Pietro Spagnoli, Mattia Olivieri, Giovanni Sala, Julie Fuchs, Andrea Carroll, and Alessio Arduini, among others.

Performance Dates: March 23 – April 9, 2025

Then the ensemble and Rousset embark on a tour through Grenoble, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence, Paris, and Metz with a Bach program featuring Anna El Khashem, Mari Asvik, Nich Pritchard, and Edwin Crossley Mercer.

Performance Dates: April 16-26, 2025

Lysandre Châlon leads a program in Paris called “Louis XIV at Dusk.”

Performance Dates: April 28, 2025

Next up are two performances of “Mitridate” in La Scala and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The opera stars Sergey Romanovsky, Jessica Pratt, Olga Bezsmertna, Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Maria Kokareva, Alasdair Kent, and Nina Van Essen.

Performance Dates: May 18 & 25, 2025

Closing out the season is Lully’s “Prosperine” at Versailles and the Theater an der Wien. The opera stars Véronique Gens, Marie Lys, Ambroisine Bré, and Nick Pritchard, among others.

Performance Dates: June 15 & 17, 2025

The post Les Talens Lyriques Unveils 2024-25 Season appeared first on OperaWire.

The season opens with Dvořák’s “Rusalka” in a new production by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Dan Ettinger conducts a cast that includes Asmik Grigorian, Adam Smith, Ekaterina Gubanova, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Gábor Bretz.

Performance Dates: Nov. 20-Dec. 7, 2024

Verdi’s “Don Carlo” will be conducted by Henrik Nánási and will star Piero Pretti, Gabriele Viviani, Ildar Abdrazakov, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Varduhi Abrahamyan, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk.

Performance Dates: Jan. 19-31, 2025

Nadine Sierra and Javier Camarena will star in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” with Gianluca Buratto, Alessio Arduini, and Caterina Piva. Giorgia Guerra directs the production and Sesto Quartini conducts.

Performance Dates: Feb. 15-25, 2025

Ricarda Merbeth stars in the title role of Strauss’ “Salome” alongside Brian Mulligan, Charles Workman, Emily Magee, John Findon, and Štěpánka Pučálková. Dan Ettinger conducts the production by Manfred Schweigkofler.

Performance Dates: March 20-29, 2025

Anna Pirozzi headlines Puccini’s “La Faniculla del West” alongside Martin Muehle and Gabriele Viviani. Jonathan Darlington conducts Hugo de Ana’s production.

Performance Dates: April 16-29, 2025

Ildar Abdrazakov, Sondra Radvanovsky, Luciano Ganci, and Ernesto Petti lead Verdi’s “Attila” in concert with Diego Cereta conducting.

Performance Dates: April 24-27, 2025

Pretty Yende, Ruzil Gatil, Sergio Vitale, Sonia Ganassi, Eugenio Di Lieto, and Marisa Laurito lead Donizetti’s “La Fille du Regiment.” Damiano Michieletto directs and Riccardo Bisatti conducts.

Performance Dates: May 18-27, 2025

Comarosa’s “Il matrimonio segreto” will be directed by Stéphane Braunschweig and conducted by Francesco Corti. The cast will include Sebastià Serra, Anastasiia Sagaidak, Désirée Giove, Antonia Salzano, Maurizio Bove, Francesco Domenico Doto, Yunho Kim, Tamar Otanadze, Maria Knihnytska, Sayumi Kaneko, Antimo DellʼOmo, and Sun Tianxuefei.

Performance Dates: June 11-17, 2025

René Barbera, Roberta Mantegna, Annalisa Stroppa, and Nicola Alaimo lead Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux” in a production by Jetske Mijnssen. Riccardo Frizza conducts.

Performance Dates: July 16-25, 2025

Puccini’s “Tosca” will return with multiple casts. Edoardo De Angelis directs and Dan Ettinger conducts. Sondra Radvanovsky, Anna Pirozzi, and Carmen Giannattasio star in the title role alongside Jonas Kaufmann, Francesco Meli, Christian Van Horn, and Claudio Sgura.

Performance Dates: Sept. 10-23, 2025

Anna Netrebko, Piero Pretti, and Ludovic Tézier lead Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” alongside Elizabeth DeShong and Cassandre Berthon. The other cast includes Valeria Sepe, Vincenzo Costanzo, and Ernesto Petti. Pinchas Steinberg conducts the production by Massimo Gasparon.

Performance Dates: Oct. 4- 11, 2025

George Benjamin’s “Picture a day like this” closes the season with Corinna Niemeyer conducting. Marianne Crebassa, Anna Prohaska, Beate Mordal, Cameron Shahbazi, and John Brancy star.

Performance Dates: Oct. 24-26, 2025

Concerts

Dan Ettinger and Maria Agresta lead a program of music by Richard Strauss and Anton Bruckner.

Performance Date: Nov. 30, 2024

Asmik Grigorian and Lukas Geniušas perform music by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Performance Date: Dec. 1, 2024

The company will present “Aria di Natale.”

Performance Date: Dec. 5, 12, 18, 2024

Lisette Oropesa and Alessandro Praticò perform works by Ravel, Delibes, Massenet, Bizet, Rossini, Mercadante, and Verdi.

Performance Date: Jan. 9, 2025

Michele Mariotti and Ekaterina Gubanova perform music by Mahler and Brahms.

Performance Date: Jan. 24, 2025

George Petrou conducts Franco Fagioli in music by Rossini, Bonfichi, Mantzaros, Nicolini, Mayr, and Mercadante.

Performance Date: Jan. 30, 2025

Rosa Feola and Iain Burnside take on the music of Rossini, Martucci, Respighi, Debussy, Mozart, and Donizetti.

Performance Date: March 30, 2025

Elīna Garanča and Malcolm Martineau perform in recital music by Brahms, Berlioz, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Jāzeps Vītols, Mascagni, Chapí, and Bizet.

Performance Date: May 31, 2025

Luca Salsi and Nelson Calzi perform works by Bizet, Hahn, Martucci, Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi.

Performance Date: June 6, 2025

Maria Agresta and Marco Armiliato perform a concert featuring works by Brahms, Wagner, and Schumann.

Performance Date: June 28, 2025

Fabrizio Cassi conducts a Rossini concert.

Performance Date: Sept. 18, 2025

Ivano Caiazza conducts Paisiello’s “Don Chisciotte della Mancia” with Tamar Otanadze, Désirée Giove, Maurizio Bove, Francesco Domenico Doto, Maria Knihnytska, Costanza Cutaia, Tianxuefei Sun, and Sebastià Serra.

Performance Date: Sept. 27, 2025

The post Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Sondra Radvanovsky, Asmik Grigorian & Francesco Meli Lead Teatro San Carlo’s 2024-25 Season appeared first on OperaWire.