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Natalie Dessay to say ‘addio’ to opera

Jun 112013

Natalie Dessay 333x500 Natalie Dessay to say addio to opera

I want to change my life — I want to go into straight theatre.

Natalie Dessay announced to Examiner.com’s Sean Martinfield.

After the summer Dessay is slated to sing Massenet’s Manon in Toulouse, and it could well be her adieu to the operatic stage.

I did my real début in Toulouse, in the chorus. I had started off as an acting student. That was my real passion. That is my real passion. It’s just a detour of thirty-three years—to finally get back to my first goal. There’s nothing left for me to sing. I’ve done most of the roles I could do. I don’t want to play Juliette. At my age? Please! Or Lucia or Adina or anything else like that.… [continue reading]

Joyce DiDonato’s recital interrupted by a call from Rossini

music, opera 3 Responses »

Jun 102013

P6090617 500x375 Joyce DiDonatos recital interrupted by a call from Rossini Joyce DiDonato well and truly conquered La Scala’s audience during her recital last night.

She was greeted by an ovation that took her aback — the sort of applause reserved for a Marilyn Horne or Teresa Berganza, recognising their past triumphs on the legendary stage. In this case is was more of a signal to the theatre’s management to get DiDonato back to Milan: she’s not slated for an opera next season, and hasn’t sung at La Scala since La Donna del Lago a couple of years ago. DiDonato has an easy charm on stage, with amusing and informative patter, and she is a captivating actress too: Rossini’s La regata veneziana songs were each perfectly-judged cameos. She knows her beautifully chosen all-Venice programme inside out, and it showed.… [continue reading]

Pereira to head La Scala: career and love come together in Milan

ballet, opera 1 Response »

Jun 052013

Pereira 500x330 Pereira to head La Scala: career and love come together in Milan October 2015 marks the start of Alexander Pereira’s reign as sovrintendente of one of the world’s greatest theatres, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Yesterday the city’s mayor, Giuliano Pisapia, announced the Austrian’s appointment,

He is the person we consider most suited to give true value to the jewel in Milan’s crown.

So, coincidentally just as his present contract at Salzburg expires he will arrive in Milan. But he is no stranger to the town. He worked for Olivetti for twelve years and has an apartment near the theatre. His 25-year-old girlfriend is a fashion student at Milan’s Istituto Marangoni. He speaks Italian fluently which gives him a big boost over La Scala’s current director, the Frenchman Stéphane Lissner, who arrived with very little Italian, and still insists on calling his place of work ‘La ScalA’ instead of ‘La ScAla’.… [continue reading]

Pavarotti water, Bocelli wine, now Britten beer

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May 272013

Native Britten Pavarotti water, Bocelli wine, now Britten beer San Pellegrino teamed up with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation to create special bottles of Big Lucy mineral water. Andrea Bocelli, together with brother Alberto, produce a range of wines from the family home in Lajatico, near Pisa. Now, demonstrating that this isn’t just a tenor tendency, Aldeburgh Music’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Reekie, has commissioned a Benjamin Britten Centenary Ale.

Fergus Fitzgerald of Adnam’s didn’t want to slap on a label and be done, but was inspired to create a new beer based on Benjamin Britten’s life and music.

As Britten had said, “My music has its roots in where I live and work,” he was inspired to use local produce, and being that Britten set Shakespeare’s line ‘I know a bank where the wild thyme grows’ to music in his opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fitzgerald decided to include the herb in the mix.… [continue reading]

New records set at Cecilia Bartoli’s Whitsun Festival in Salzburg

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May 222013

Cecilia Bartoli Norma 328x500 New records set at Cecilia Bartolis Whitsun Festival in Salzburg A new record for visitors and revenue has been set at Salzburg’s Whitsun Festival. The Festival, which ran from 17–20 May, boasted 13,450 visitors from 43 countries, who spent 1.3 million Euros in tickets.

After the artistic and economic success of last year’s and this year’s Festival, the contract with the artistic director Cecilia Bartoli has been extended until 2016, reported the Salzburg Times.

I am very happy to be able to bring music and pleasure to Salzburg until 2016. I look forward to carry out many ideas at the Whitsun Festival, of which I have dreamt of for years. I am very thankful that such a huge and interested audience is so enthusiastic about us being adventurous.

President of the Salzburg Festival, Helga Rabl-Stadler, is delighted with Bartoli’s record,

I am happy about the increase in the numbers of visitors: 7,600 visitors came in 2011 and one year later, there were 10,520 visitors.… [continue reading]

First reactions for Cecilia Bartoli as Norma

opera 3 Responses »

May 182013

norma salzburger pfingstfestspiele 102 v image853 7ce44e292721619ab1c1077f6f262a89f55266d7 500x281 First reactions for Cecilia Bartoli as Norma

Who loves Cecilia Bartoli, will probably love her Norma. Her eyes sparkle, she rolls her ‘R’s, breathes the piani, and tackles the coloratura easily. Her stage début in Norma wants to get rid of the existing performance tradition; to free interpreters from the shadow of Maria Callas. Bartoli’s Norma is a celebration of her own personal style: somewhat mannered, but perfect, and always unmistakable.

says Bayerischer Rundfunk.

However Deutschlandradio wanted to boo; not the performers or the production team, but the audience who annoyed with falling handbags, cell-phones and inappropriate hysterical cries of “bravo!”. However, they too cry “bravo” in their review,

Cecilia Bartoli is, at the beginning of Bellini’s Norma in Salzburg, below her potential, but then her musicianship shows through… After the interval Bartoli was totally convincing, and her coloratura fireworks fit perfectly, but paramount was her interpretation of the role, which offered something special, very different from Callas (and her countless successors): a spirituality in the bel canto with innumerable shades and colours.… [continue reading]

The first photos of Bartoli’s Norma at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival

opera 2 Responses »

May 152013

Whitsun Festival 2013 500x424 The first photos of Bartolis Norma at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival First glimpses of Cecilia Bartoli’s Norma at Salzburg. They explain the cover of the Festival brochure.

Bartoli’s introduction to the Whitsun Festival brochure reads,

But also, Norma is often misjudged from the point-of-view of its plot. A careful staging will show, however, that the gripping events unfold in a stringent and linear way, reflecting how the heroine develops emotionally until the conscious final step towards her self-sacrifice at the stake.

And indeed this tragic conflict between her duties and that towards which her heart is drawn is a struggle to which many women are exposed sooner or later. Too often, women give up what is most valuable to them, but too often they themselves are made into victims. Norma tries to escape from such restraints by sacrificing that which is most dear to her: first her children, then her love and finally her life.… [continue reading]

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gramilano

Natalie Dessay to say ‘addio’ to opera

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Joyce DiDonato’s recital interrupted by a call from Rossini

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Pereira to head La Scala: career and love come together in Milan

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Pavarotti water, Bocelli wine, now Britten beer

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New records set at Cecilia Bartoli’s Whitsun Festival in Salzburg

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First reactions for Cecilia Bartoli as Norma

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The first photos of Bartoli’s Norma at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival

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