NABUCCO may be Verdi's first masterpiece, and not just because of that amazing Chorus of Hebrews which is justly beloved by everyone who hears it. Dramatically, this opera is tightly constructed, with believable characters in an intense conflict over values and beliefs. And Verdi's music, however early in his career, however distant from triumphs like LA FORSA DEL DESTINO or AIDA, is highly animated, revealing inner turmoil and outer passions with beauty and economy. The ensembles are especially impressive, building to satisfying heights of emotional release for the singers and the audience. And Placido Domingo is a wonder to behold and hear. Even though his original voice was baritone, which he managed to transform into a tenor voice, he doesn't SOUND like a baritone to me. B-U-T his performance is so committed, so deeply interfused with Verdi's music, so generously integrated to the younger singers around him, that the waters part.
Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.
The opera's dramatic structure frames and enhances the characters. Scenes of magnificence regularly alternate with scenes of darkness and squalor. From sumptuous interiors, we move to a dark street, a lonely inn. The secondary figures are astutely counterpoised: the plotting courtiers against the plotting Sparafucile and Maddalena (also ambiguously tender-hearted). When Rigoletto says "Pari siamo", he could be expressing the motto of the whole work: the beautiful and the ugly can be equally good, equally evil.
Coming just before the mature final works, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra - along with Un Ballo in Maschera, Les Vêpres Siciliennes, La Forza del Destino and Don Carlos - occupy a strange but fascinating hinterland in the career of the composer. Each of the operas, influenced by Verdi's political involvement in the Risorgimento for the reunification of Italy during the period, are very much concerned with the exercise of power, but they all rely on typically operatic conventions of bel canto and French Grand Opéra in their use of personal tragedies and unlikely twists of fate to highlight the human feelings and weaknesses that lie behind their historical dramas. Written in 1859, but revised by the composer in 1881, Piave's libretto given an uncredited reworking by Arrigo Boito, Simon Boccanegra is consequently one of the more interesting works from this period, certainly from a musical standpoint. Live from Teatro all Scala, Milan 2010.
Verdi’s admiration for Shakespeare led to such masterpieces as Othello and Falstaff, and if the earlier Macbeth isn’t on their exalted level it’s still a powerfully dramatic opera that hews closely to the original’s story line. The MET’s production retains the dark aura of the opera while updating it to a vaguely post-modern context. So the witches are bag ladies in various stages of decrepitude, with children in tow. The Banquet Scene features lowered chandeliers, a plethora of chairs, and a slew of extras dressed in tuxedos and party gowns. Macbeth sports a leather coat, the soldiers are in drab brown uniforms and seem to have fingers on their triggers even when they’re supposed to be in non-threatening situations. Director Adrian Noble also has Lady Macbeth do an inordinate amount of writhing around and singing from a lying-down position, adding to the feeling that a less interventionist directorial hand might have generated more impact.
The legendary Plácido Domingo brings another new baritone role to the Met under the baton of his longtime collaborator James Levine. Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, the warrior woman determined to rule empires, and Jamie Barton is the heroic Fenena. Dmitri Belosselskiy is the stentorian voice of the oppressed Hebrew people.
It truly is an historic performance. Domingo looking and singing like a god pouring out golden tones; Renato Bruson sounds, like the sublime Verdian Baritone that he was at that time; Nicolai Ghiaurov proves again that he was one of the greatest "Verdi Basses"; Mirella Freni shows that there was more to her than just being Mimi and Susannah-in fact I can remember reading that at the time of the premiere of this production that there were fist fights (not unusual in La Scala's gallery) between Mirella's many fans--between those fans that just wanting her to continue singing the light lyric repertoire that they were use to her singing and those that felt she should and could sing the lyric-spinto repertoire which, of course, she proved that,indeed, she could (She's still singing more than twenty years later). This performance captures some of the best Verdi singers of the time doing dear ole wonderful Giuseppi proud.
Leonora plans to elope with Don Alvaro, but he accidentally shoots and kills her father, who curses them as he dies. The lovers go on the run, but get separated. Bent on revenge, Leonora's brother Don Carlo, hunts them down.
Verdi painted an immense canvas with this dark but tuneful opera, vividly brought to life in John Dexter’s production, with sets by the great Eugene Berman. The legendary Leontyne Price is seen in one of her greatest roles, Leonora. Price’s soaring voice encompasses every nuance of Leonora’s emotion as she moves from joy through resignation to ultimate heartbreak. James Levine’s brilliant leading of the Met orchestra and chorus is a lesson in Verdi style. Giuseppe Giacomini is Alvaro, the man Leonora loves, and Leo Nucci is Don Carlo, the dark instrument of their Fate.
Die Neuauflage von Verdis Meisterwerk Otello, in Starbesetzung mit Renée Fleming, gibt es jetzt auf DVD und BluRay. Fleming verbindet eine lange Geschichte mit der Rolle der Desdemona, die zu einem ihrer ersten Erfolge in ihrer 30- jährigen Karriere zählt. An der Seite einer starken Besetzung mit Johan Botha als Otello und Michael Fabiano als Cassio füllt die Sopranistin mit ihrer unverkennbaren und sanftmütigen Interpretation von The Willow Song und Ave Maria die gesamte Halle der Metropolitan Opera. Diese Aufführung, die schon 2012 aufgenommen wurde, war wohlmöglich ihre letzte auf einer der großen Bühnen, was den Mittschnitt zu einem historisch wertvollen Dokument macht. Neben der wunderschönen Umsetzung machen üppige Sets und barocke Kostüme Elijah Moshinskys Produktion von Verdis Meisterwerk zu einem einzigartigen Erlebnis.
Ein Höhepunkt des Verdi-Jahres 2013 war diese Neuinszenierung von Verdis wichtiger Oper »Macht des Schicksals« durch den Regisseur Martin Kusej. Der Abend wurde zu einem Triumph des Traumpaares der Oper: TenorJonas Kaufmann als Alvaro und Sopranistin Anja Harteros als Leonora gaben ihre Rollendebüts und wurden vom Publikum frenetisch gefeiert. Weltweit sprach die Presse von einer »sängerischen Sternstunde«. Zu Kaufmann schrieb »Die Welt«: Er ist gegenwärtig zu Recht so einzigartig, weil es keinen Tenor gibt, der so vollkommen spielt, singt und gestaltet. Und das mit einer stupenden Rollenintelligenz, die aber immer von einem natürlichen Instinkt für das Richtige und Notwendige des jeweiligen Charakters geleitet ist.« Auch die weiteren Rollen waren hervorragend besetzt: Ludovic Tézier gelang als Don Carlo »eine Top-Leistung«, ebenso Vitalij Kowaljow (Leonoras Vater), Renato Girolami (Fra Melitone) und Nadia Krasteva als Preziosilla. Asher Fisch dirigierte stilsicher.
Claudio Abbado, conductor; Angela Gheorghiu, soprano; Daniela Bercellona, mezzo-soprano; Roberto Alagna, tenor; Julian Konstantinov, bass. Swedish Radio Chorus, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Orfeon Nonostiarra, Berliner Philharmoniker. Live recording at performances to mark the centenary of Verdi's death.
Jan. 25 & 27, 2001.
This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character.
This production from Covent Garden is set in Stockholm, and not Boston. With Reri Grist (Oscar), Placido Domingo (Gustavus), Katia Ricciarelli (Amelia), Piero Cappucili (Renato), Patricia Payne (? - the booklet or DVD fails to credit the singer) (Ulrica) and Claudio Abbado in the pit: all at their peak, you just simply cannot go wrong when purchasing this DVD. This performance made me realise why I had fallen in love with opera: beautiful (today one should be thankful) and convincing sets and costumes, and fiery conducting and singing from all the above soloists which leaves you breathless. Domingo as the King (not the Governor of Boston) is simply ravishing! He is so convincing and dashing as Gustavus - I think very few tenors nowadays can even attempt such a convincing vocal and dramatic performance.
Hochmütig. Eine Dreiecksgeschichte im alten Ägypten. Dazu feindliche Heere, zwei kämpferische Königreiche und schwere Entscheidungen. Der Liebe folgen oder das Vaterland retten – für den ägyptischen Heerführer Radames heißt es entweder oder. Denn Aida, nubische Prinzessin, gehört der Feindesseite an. Amneris, die Radames ebenfalls liebt, kann den Angebetenen nicht gewinnen. Sie verliert ihn an Aida – und den Tod. – Eine Opern-Inszenierung an der Mailänder Scala im Jahr 1985.
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Live showing of Verdi's Traviata with subsequent re-screenings Violetta, a Parisian courtesan suffering from tuberculosis, is throwing a party to celebrate her recovery. A young nobleman, Alfredo, plans to attend, and has long been in love with Violetta. Before long, Violetta has fallen for him as well, but Alfredo's father disapproves of their relationship. He convinces Violetta to leave Alfredo for the sake of his family's image, not realising how ill she really is. Richard Eyre's production of 'La Traviata' immerses the audience in the indulgence of 19th Century Paris, a vivid setting for Verdi's famous score.
Ghiaurov, Freni, and Bumbry were great voices in their time, and they are still effective here -- good enough musicians to put over the quite heavy vocal and expressive demands of their roles. Louis Quilico was never quite in that league, and he sounds a bit spread and woofy in places here, but he works hard and effectively to bring Rodrigo to life. Placido Domingo recorded his first Don Carlo, for EMI with Giulini, about 15 years before this production, but he looks and sounds fine here -- in the early 1980's he was doing very good Otellos and Lohengrins too, and Furlanetto, still in his 30's, brings a rich, young voice to an old part and succeeds in making the Grand Inquisitor vocally as well as expressively formidable. Levine brings both weight and energy to the score, and that reading fits well with the overall "traditional" design and production -- the Met's wardrobe budget must have been severely taxed, but everybody looks splendid.
Stiffelio is considered "early Verdi" to musiclogists who classify things, but, in reality, it is a final transition between the maestro's earlier (but most enjoyable) works, and the mature craftsmanship of Rigoletto. Preceded by Luisa Miller (q.v.), there is more dramatic intensity and story line than in the earlier works. The plot centers around Stiffelio, a minister, who discovers that his wife, Mina, has been unfaithful.
Linke müssen sich in Deutschland für ihre Ansichten nicht rechtfertigen. Sie haben ihre Meinung flächendeckend durchgesetzt, nicht im Volk, aber in den tonangebenden Kreisen, also da, wo sie vorzugsweise zu Hause sind. Wer links ist, lebt im schönen Gefühl, immer Recht zu haben. In der Politik haben sich die Linken oft geirrt, aber irgendwie macht das nichts, immer werden ihnen die besten Motive zugebilligt. Warum eigentlich? Jan Fleischhauer hat einen Großteil seines Lebens unter Linken verbracht - vom Elternhaus über Schule und Universität bis zum Milieu der Journalisten, in dem er seit zwei Jahrzehnten arbeitet. Jetzt unterzieht er sie einer genauen Betrachtung, mit dem Abstand desjenigen, der irgendwann entdeckte, dass er nicht mehr dazugehört. Das Buch ist Analyse, Polemik und persönlicher Erfahrungsbericht. Ein Streifzug durch das Imperium der Linken.
Nabucco - live from Metropolitan Opera, June 2002. On its surface, Nabucco is about the epic struggle of Zaccaria and the Jews suppressed by Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar and his vengeful daughter, Abigaille. But to Italians fighting for their freedom from Austria, Verdi’s first great opera was an inspiring call to arms.
Aida, live von den Bregenzer Festspielen 2009