“No make-up!”…Emmanuel Plasson

Emmanuel Plasson began his musical studies as a violinist. Son of the renowned French conductor Michel Plasson, he began formal conducting studies at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine, U.S.A., and continued his training at the Yale School of Music. His discography includes recordings on the EMI and Dynamic labels. Read the story »

“No make-up!”…Kenneth Tarver

The American tenor Kenneth Tarver is considered to be one of the outstanding tenore di grazia of his generation, internationally recognized for the beauty of his tone, virtuosic technique, extensive and even vocal range combined with an attractive and elegant stage presence. He has forged his career in many of the most important theatres on the opera circuit including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Dresden Semperoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Opéra Comique París, Teatro Capitole Toulouse, Teatro Lirico Trieste, Theatre de La Monnaie Brussels, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro San Carlos Naples and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Read the story »

“No make-up!”…. Kate Aldrich

The American mezzo soprano Kate Aldric has performed in the main worldwide theatres such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hamburg State Opera and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, Teatro Regio of Torino and many others. She recently gave birth to a child. Her roles include Carmen, Antoine Mariotte’s Salome, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Cesare and Sesto in Giulio Cesare, Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Arsace in Semiramide and Fenena in Nabucco, among the others.
Aldrich rose to international fame in 2002 through her starring role in the Zeffirelli production of Aida. That same year she won the CulturArte Award at the Operalia International Opera Competition, in 2006 she won the Alfréd Radok Award and the Thalia Award in the Czech Republic. For more information on her singing activity, please visit her official webiste. Read the story »

“No make-up!”… Richard Bonynge

Which is the main feature of your personality?
Laziness.
Your worst flaw?
Trying to choose dinner from a menu….and wanting everything!
Which is your star sign?
Libra. Read the story »

“No make-up!”… Robert Crowe

Robert Crowe, described by the New York Times as “a male soprano of staggering gifts“, is a member of perhaps the world’s smallest vocal category. In 1995 he was only the second countertenor (and first male soprano) to be a National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition. Mr. Crowe has sung on many opera stages in the US and in Europe and worked with such conductors as René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Fabio Biondi, Andreas Spering, Michael Hoffsteter, Julius Rudel, Rheinhard Goebel, Marcus Creed, and stage directors, Nicholas Broadhurst, David Alden, Peer Boysen, and Axel Köhler and many more. Read the story »

“No Make-Up!”… Aprile Millo

Soprano Aprile Millo was born in New York from a family of Italian descent. Both her parents, who were appreciated opera singers (tenor and soprano), were her vocal coaches.  After winning the Busseto competition for Verdi voices and debuting in the title role of Aida at Utah Opera in Salt Lake City, she started an international career that brought her to sing in major opera houses because of her consistent  and extensive lyric soprano  voice with its particulary fine timbre, plus an outstanding personality in performance, that built her reputation as one of the finest Verdi singers of the twentieth century.
Read the story »

“No Make-Up!”… Nicola Beller Carbone

Born in Germany, soprano Nicola Beller Carbone grew up in Spain, where she initially studied to be an actress but later turned to singing, studying at the Escuela Superior di Canto of Madrid with Dolores Ripollès. In Munich she studied under Astrid Varnay and in 1991 obtained a permanent contract at the Opernstudio of the State Opera of Munich. Read the story »

“No make-up!”… Brandon Jovanovich

Winner of the 2007 Richard Tucker Award, Brandon Jovanovich is recognized by the world’s leading opera companies for his passionate stage portrayals of leading roles in French, Italian, German, and Slavic opera.
An accomplished musician and actor, Mr. Jovanovich has had successes in repertoire both standard and contemporary, including, among the others, Pollione in Norma, Boconnion in Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur, Macduff in Macbeth, Alfredo in La Traviata,   Baron Lummar in Strauss’s Intermezzo, Luigi in Il Tabarro,   the American premiere of Lowell Lieberman’s The Picture of Dorian Gray as Lord Geoffrey, the title role in the world premiere of Craig Bohmler’s The Tale of the Nutcracker and Phillippe l’Entendu in Romberg’s The New Moon. Recently, he starred opposite to Elina Garanca in Bizet’s Carmen at the Met in New York and now he is about to debut in the world première of Marco Tutino’s Senso in Palermo with Nicola Beller Carbone. For further information, his website is: www.brandonjovanovich.com. Read the story »

“No make-up!”… Ailyn Pérez

foto Dario Acosta

Which is the main feature of your personality?
Compassionate.
Your worst flaw?
Apologizing too much.
Which is your star sign?
Leo.
Are you superstitious?
No. Read the story »

Nicola Luisotti interview

Maestro Nicola Luisotti is currently conducting the centennial performances of  La fanciulla del West at the Met including the upcoming HD simulcast on January 8th. He has been met with success in New York and just received the 39th Premio Puccini Award in recognition for his work. The Opera Tattler spoke to the effervescent conductor just before his final performance of Fanciulla at  San Francisco Opera last season. Upon reaching his dressing room, Luisotti could be heard playing the piano. Read the story »

Deutsche Oper Berlin:”Tancredi”

Berlino, Deutsche Oper, Stagione Lirica 2011/2012
“TANCREDI”
Melodramma eroico in due atti su libretto di Gaetano Rossi, da Tancrede di Voltaire
Musica di Gioachino Rossini
Read the story »

Munich, Bavarian State Opera: “Don Carlo”

Munich, Bavarian State Opera, 2011/2012 operatic season
“DON CARLO”
Five-act opera, libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, Italian version by Achille de Lauzières and Angelo Zanardini.
Music by Giuseppe Verdi 
Read the story »

Vladimir Ashkenazy and Patricia Kopatchinskaya at Salle Pleyel, Paris

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Stagione concertistica 2011/2012
Vladimir Ashkenazy and Patricia Kopatchinskaya at Salle Pleyel, Paris
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy
Violin Patricia Kopatchinskaya
Read the story »

Paris, Palais Garnier:”La Cenerentola”

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s original staging, costumes and extraordinary decor for La Cenerentola has been touring the world since 1971. For its first Paris performance, as part of an initiative of Paris Opera director Nicolas Joël to reinstate historical landmarks in opera, Grischa Asagaroff revives a production full of sparkle and pizzazz. Musical director Bruno Campanella conducts with engaging vivacity, maintaining crisp energy throughout. The cast worked admirably together, the chorus even performed a few stylised choreographic numbers, and the audience, young and old, was enchanted.
Ponnelle’s opening is breathtaking. The facade of Don Magnifico’s mansion is painted in white anthracite on a curtain. When this curtain rises, we are projected inside the four little rooms of the interior. Don Magnifico has two rooms on the first floor, Clorinda and Tisbe each their own room on the ground floor, and Angelina, alias “Cinderella”, nowhere to sleep but the kitchen area, centre stage…In the final scene, Ponnelle makes Angelina’s transformation even more spectacular by having her enter down this central axis.
Karine Deshayes (Angelina) looked glorious at this point, and her final aria Nacqui all’affanno was her best singing. Her characterisation was admirable. She needs to connect her powerful top notes and her penetrating low register with more evenness. In her duo with Javier Camarena (Don Ramiro), her vocalises were no match for the crystalline legato tones of her partner.
Jeannette Fischer (Clorinda) and Anna Wall (Tisbe), both fine singers, were irresistible as the ugly stepsisters. Ponnelle imagined Clorinda as an aspiring prima ballerina. Jeannette Fischer had the hall in hysterics with her clownish pranks. Tisbe’s pretentiousness was doubly confirmed by Anna Wall’s wicked laugh.  Tenor Javier Camarena (Don Ramiro) was sensational. His showstopper aria, Si, ritrovarla, lo giuro, kept mounting in intensity and the virtuosity of his vocalises was electrifying.  Bass Carlos Chausson (Don Magnifico) was well-cast as the tragic-comic father figure. His scene with Dandini was opera buffa at its best.  Riccardo Novaro (Dandini) is a dynamo on stage. His rich baritone timbre and impeccable diction also brought great intensity to much of the ensemble singing. Bass Alex Esposito (Alidoro), the prince’s mentor, kept his dignity despite rather poor intonation.

“Semele” in concert version at the Salle Pleyel, December 4th, 2011

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Stagione Concertistica 2011/2012
“SEMELE”
Oratorio profano-Opera in tre atti, libretto di William Congreve
Musica di Georg Friedrich Handel
Read the story »

Franz Schubert, “Die schöne Müllerin” performed at the Salle Pleyel on November 8th, 2011

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Stagione concertistica 2011/2012
Matthias Goerne e “Die schöne Müllerin”
Baritono Matthias Goerne
Pianoforte Christoph Eschenbach
Read the story »

Paris, Salle Pleyel:”The Fairy Queen”

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Stagione concertistica 2011 / 2012
“THE FAIRY QUEEN”
Semi-Opera in cinque atti su libretto di Anonimo, da A Midsummer-night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Musica di Henry Purcell
Coro e Orchestra “Le Concert Spirituel”
Direttore Hervé Niquet

Sophie Karthäuser, Emmanuelle de Negri
Controtenore Cyril Auvity
Emiliano Gonzales Toro
Basso Christopher Purves
Esecuzione in forma di concerto
Parigi, 6 novembre 2011

In the brochure of the Salle Pleyel, this concert version of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen by Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel originally featured soprano Veronique Gens. Long before the concert, Gens had already been replaced by Sophie Karthäuser. On the day itself, a second distribution change was announced by a page inserted in the program: Emmanuelle de Negri would be replacing Ingela Bohlin, indisposed. At least the three male singers would all be as advertised. But five soloists for The Fairy Queen are perhaps not enough. We could have done with a third soprano, even a second bass. There is enough variety in this opera to warrant a larger cast.
When the instrumentalists of Le Concert Spirituel came on stage, they dribbled in and sat down immediately like weary travelers in a transit lounge, without as much as an acknowledgement, even from their leader, to an enthusiastic full house. The choristers were more alive, even beamed a few confident smiles as they waited for the soloists and conductor to arrive.
Hervé Niquet took such a fast tempo for the Overture that the trumpets couldn’t get a note in edgewise. His beat was always there, all the time, but he seemed to give no thought to its crucial role to phrasing and dynamic colour. He must have been breathing because he was still alive at the end. But there was not enough craftsmanship (preparing, chiselling, tapering, finishing) in the ensemble playing. The choir were better, but still not tight enough. More work on detail would have meant greater pleasure for us and a broader palette for him. In orchestral replies and interludes, Niquet seemed almost afraid of expressiveness: as a result, much of the exquisite resonance of this opera was lost. There was no freedom in the echoes of May the god of wit inspire, the symphony of the swans sounded like a wilderness of monkeys, the fairies too plaintive to be trusted and the green men like they needed practice.
Plus, in a work like The Fairy Queen, the rhythms of English meter must prevail, simply because the words give so many clues to the phrasing. Just because a libretto is “anonymous” is no excuse for it not to have sense and shape. Niquet churned out bar after bar without any poetic scansion in mind and words were constantly garbled. The music of Purcell needs far greater breadth, fantasy and purity of expression. Its open forms should never be forced into moulds. English musical editions from the time of Tallis and Byrd had been a vehicle for poetry. The words are essential. These texts have feet, caesuras, cadences and rhyme. The music needs time to paint the words. Accompanying singers doesn’t seem to come naturally to Niquet. Sing while we trip it was too fast, the words were tripping themselves up.  But it was the unrelenting strictness of slower tempi performed without any elasticity that was tiresome, and charmless.
In If love’s a sweet passion, also too fast, the words were shunted about like unwanted children, what a wasted moment! In Ye gentle spirits of the air, the continuo line was too heavy. Emmanuelle de Negri looked like she was tied in knots as she sang. Her ornaments were more like impediments, gauche, and not graceful. Neither soprano survived Niquet’s onward thrusting, there were far too many accents and no lines. Sophie Karthäuser sang the complaint Oh let me weep in Act V with good intentions, but there was still much more left to do before even approaching the sublime. Her eyes were too glued to her score to find secrets in the words, and her three repetitions of “forever” and “sigh” were not helped by an inexpressive, unresponsive solo violin accompaniment.  Bass Christopher Purves, countertenor Cyril Auvity and tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro fared better. Purves and Toro were sensational in their Corydon and Mopsa sketch. Auvity and Toro were excellent in their Let the Fifes and the Clarions, though they could have done this with more playfulness. The first phrasing in the production came from the powerful voice of countertenor Cyril Auvity in One charming night. The hundreds and thousands of his text had just the right tonic accent and in Thus the gloomy world he did the best word-painting of the evening on “glory round” and “bright”. In See my many colour’d fields, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro gave a most convincing performance, but his words were harder to catch. A blissful moment came when English bass Christopher Purves sang Hush, no more. He has beautiful tone and, not surprisingly, excellent diction. His later cadenza on “so divine” in My torch indeed was very effective. It may seem unfair to insist on vocal diction so much when performances are now generally subtitled. But text and music only begin their chicken-or-the-egg tug-of-war much later in music history. In these glorious days of the birth of opera, text was still the prime motor for musical expression. Not to understand the text was, and still is, to miss the music.

Paris, Opéra:”La forza del destino”

Parigi, Opéra National, Stagione Lirica 2011/2012
“LA FORZA DEL DESTINO”
Melodramma in quattro atti su libretto di Francesco Maria Piave, dal dramma Don Alvaro o La fuerza del sino di Angel Perez de Saavedra.
Musica di Giuseppe Verdi
Read the story »

Riccardo Chailly conducts the 9 Beethoven symphonies – 4

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Stagione concertistica 2011/2012
Riccardo Chailly e il  ciclo delle Sinfonie di Beethoven
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Choeur de Radio France
Direttore Riccardo Chailly
Read the story »

Riccardo Chailly conducts the 9 Beethoven symphonies – 3

Parigi, Salle Pleyel, Sagione concertistica 2011/2012
Riccardo Chailly e il  ciclo delle Sinfonie di Beethoven
Orchestra del Gewandhaus di Lipsia
Direttore Riccardo Chailly
Read the story »