The closing gala concert at Salzburg’s Whitsun Festival was to have featured the Festival’s director, Cecilia Bartoli, together with tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Rolando Villazón, and the Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. A line up that almost justifies the more than €300 ticket price. Villazón cancelled at the last moment “for health […]
Rolando Villazón
Cecilia Bartoli – the enchantress casts her spell at the Lucerne Festival
After a couple of years of not hearing La Bartoli live, I was a little apprehensive before her concert at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, KKL, after having read Rupert Christiansen’s Telegraph review of her concert with Rolando Villazón last December describing her voice as ‘worn and threadbare’, having followed her calendar with its […]
ROYAL OPERA SEASON 2016 – 2017: theatre, cinema and radio
All the details of the 2016-2017 Opera Season at London’s Royal Opera House: skip to section: ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON – IN BRIEF THE ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON THE ROYAL OPERA SEASON 2016-2017 – IN FULL BBC RADIO 3 AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE LIVE CINEMA SEASON ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON […]
Ramón Vargas in crescendo at La Scala
Talk about gaining momentum! Tenor Ramón Vargas’s recital at La Scala started off limply, not helped by a very determined little frog which insisted on residing in his throat until the interval. He sang the Petrarch Sonnets, that began his programme, almost uniformly throughout – probably to hide that frog – with his magnificent accompanist, […]
La Scala complete Opera casts and dates: 2014 – 2015
4 December (Preview for young people), 7, 10, 13, 16, 20, 23 December 2014 Ludwig van Beethoven Fidelio Conductor: Daniel Barenboim Director: Deborah Warner Sets and costumes: Chloe Obolensky Cast Anja Kampe, Mojca Erdmann, Klaus Florian Vogt, Falk Struckmann, PeterMattei, Kwangchul Youn, Florian Hoffmann Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala New production Teatro […]
Villazón and Barenboim at La Scala: Schumann, Verdi and beer
Seeing Rolando Villazón in recital for the first time was surprising. I was expecting him to bound on stage like a hyperactive puppy, agitated and full of life, gazing wide-eyed at the audience, searching for its approval; instead I found a composed artist, calming taking his place at the centre of the stage, thoroughly prepared to […]
Angela Gheorghiu falls ill as the curse of La Scala strikes again…
As already reported on this blog here, and here, the recital series at La Scala seems to have a generous share of bad luck when it comes to cancellations. There are only seven vocal recitals during a season, but in the last 18 months Daniela Barcellona, Diana Damrau, Rolando Villazón and Jonas Kaufmann have come a […]
The curse of the La Scala recital series? Barenboim bows out
Ok, the headline is a bit over the top, but the vocal recitals at La Scala have been having a spot of bad luck recently, especially seeing that there are only seven recitals each season. Just over a year ago Daniela Barcellona gave a concert postponed from January because of a ‘sudden illness’. Diana Damrau, having moved a recital to 21 […]
The opera world’s Angelina Jolie, Nino Machaidze: It’s useless to be nervous
Nino Machaidze, the 28-year-old soprano from Georgia, graduate of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala Academia, is in Los Angeles with Romeo and Juliet which is boomeranging her around the world’s opera houses for the last few years. The first four years of her professional career have been highly successful, and the LA Times recounts how she was […]
Vienna Opera and La Scala exchange goes ahead tomorrow
A much-anticipated exchange between the Vienna Opera and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala will go ahead despite earlier fears it might be cancelled because of a strike. Two unions at the Milan opera house – Cgil and Uil – had threatened to strike tomorrow, because of proposed changes to staff contracts announced earlier this year, thereby cancelling the […]