Harteros, Kaufmann, and Finley – Otello Live on Staatsoper.TV

Live on December 2, and available on-demand the next day for 24 hours. I am not an Otello super-fan, but I am looking forward to seeing/hearing this performance. 

Connect to the stream on December 2nd. 

And find out more information about the production now. 

  

Gratuitous Soprano Duet – Aber der Richtige (aus Arabella)

Sigh! I didn't get to see all of this in the live webcast. I am hoping an enterprising pirate...er...fan might have snagged 'n' shared it. Meanwhile, I found this kindly posted by the Bayerische Staatsoper. Anja Harteros and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller…

Sigh….that’s all…just…sigh!

Well, there is one more thing. I am tempted into a bit of fantasy opera casting. I am thinking, well, AH has sung the Marschallin, and HEM will be a marvelous Sophie (she makes her debut as Sophie in Amsterdam this fall). Who would be your choice of Octavian to place between them?

Arabella from the Bayersiche Staatsoper (Live on July 11)

From the STAATSOPER.TV website:

Bayerische Staatsoper will at 7 p.m. on Saturday, 11 July show the new production of Arabella by Richard Strauss with Anja Harteros in the title role.

With this opera, the film director Andreas Dresen will make his debut at Bayerische Staatsoper. Standing on the podium of Bayerisches Staatsorchester will be the Swiss conductor and musical director of the Paris Opera, Philippe Jordan. Anja Harteros will be participating in a Festival premiere for the fourth time after her premiere performances in Alcina (2005),Lohengrin (2009) and Il trovatore (2013). Singing at her side will be Kurt Rydl (Count Waldner), Doris Soffel (Adelaide),Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (Zdenka) and Joseph Kaiser (Matteo). Thomas J. Mayer, who was heard most recently at Bayerische Staatsoper as Wotan in Der Ring der Nibelungen (2012 and 2015), will be performing Mandryka.

La Forza del Friday – It's Back!

I was actually looking for the ROH Manon Lescaut with JK, and I came across this instead. But don't tell anyone, just go watch it! It's got JK, AH, LT, and German subtitles!

Anja Harteros sings the Final Scene from Capriccio

On June 19th, Anja Harteros joined Phillippe Jordan and the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris in Vienna to sing a bit of Richard Strauss. On July 6^th, Ö1 Radio broadcast a recording of that performance.

Here is the first half of that concert, which contains the Mondscheinmusik and the final scene from Capriccio (starting at about 33 minutes in.) Before welcoming Frau Harteros to the stage, the orchestra presented a sprightly performance of Bizet’s youthful symphony. While orchestral music usually is outside the realm of this blog, I do recommend listening to the Bizet and to the two Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Suites that follow the break.   

Anja Harteros – Soprano au Sommet

Lirico Spinto on France Musique pays tribute to "a great singer of our time."  A great singer of our time? Um, Yeah!! Anja Harteros sings scenes and arias from operas by Mozart, Handel, Verdi, and Wagner—with a little help from her friends, including Jonas Kaufmann, Piotr Beczala, and Matti Salminen, to name a few. This 90-minute program is available on the France Musique site for a few years, and you can also download it from iTunes as a podcast.

Trovatore Tuesday

Psst! Look what I found! Don't blink or you may miss it!

May the Forza be with You

Thanks to Intermezzo for finding us the virtually (and probably wisely) unsearchable capture of Saturday's broadcast. I saw most of it live, but experienced some live stream issues. I also missed the plot setup during the prelude, so I am glad to have a chance to catch up. 

Although there are some incongruities in the staging, and Martin Kušej definitely sees the world through a “glass-half-empty” (or the toast landing on the floor, butter-side down) lens, I thought it was quite good overall. Of course, there’s some (really, really) wonderful singing, too! Get it before the toast gets cold!

La Forza del Opera Fans

The Staatsoper copyright police
capture another YT bootlegger.

Thanks to some enterprising opera fans, we have two video clips from Saturday's broadcast of Verdi's La Forza del Destino from the Bayerische Staatsoper, and two audio clips from the radio broadcast of the prima last week. Fingers crossed for full-length recordings (and keeping an eagle-eye out for them, as they will disappear as soon as we discover them!!)

I actually got to watch the broadcast on Saturday! I had trouble with the live-stream feed freezing in full-screen mode, and ultimately gave in to watching it in the small-screen version (better than not seeing it at all) after trying low, high, and HD transmission modes. (Hmmm, the only thing I didn't try was using IE instead of Chrome. I'll file that thought away for future troubleshooting.)  I have opinions, of course, about the production and performances (I liked both a lot), but I'll save those for later. Meanwhile, let's enjoy these clips!

Videos from December 28:

P.S. Sadly, the videos have vanished.

La Forza Del Destino from Staatsoper.TV on 12/29

It's not exactly a holiday standard, but it's still wonderful Christmas present from the Bayerische Staatsoper: Their new production (directed Martin Kusej—that should be interesting) of La Forza del Destino, starring my personal Traumpaar: Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann. 

From the looks of the trailer, it's bloody, violent, and sexy-(ish)! Hey, it's opera! That's what it's all about, isn't it? And it's coming to a computer screen near you on Staatsoper.TV – Saturday, December 28, at 18:00 Munich time, which, these days, should be Noon in New York City.

Manic Monday Mozart – Anja Harteros is Elettrafyin'

I love the expression on Elettra's face as she discovers/remembers her power to call down lightning on her foes. The first expression is like "oh cool!" Anja Harteros' Elettra is pretty crazed, but it's not like she doesn't have a good reason to be angry. Things don't usually go well for this "third wheel" in Idomeno. When you watch her Act 3 aria, you know this poor woman has gone completely over the edge. 

In this performance from the Salzburg M22 Festival in 2006, AH hints at her exciting Verdi performances to come. 

Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros Sing Verdi's Requiem at La Scala

This is the new recording of Verdi's Requiem from La Scala. 
We finally watched it last night with the subtitles on (the DVD player's default setting, apparently). I'm not used to following the text so closely during this work, but it was illuminating, particularly in this excerpt. JK is the first tenor I've seen who gives any sense of story line to this piece. The usual story presented is "I'm a tenor, and I am singing this Verdi piece; listen to how beautiful my voice is." In this performance I really get a sense of someone who is more than a little bit worried of what he is going to face on that "day of wrath." 

This aria is not my favorite bit from the Requiem (plus, I generally prefer my Ingemiscos in context), but it it sure is wonderful. And of course, JK and AH are outstanding!

Speaking of Anja Harteros:

Gratuitous Friday – Anja Harteros in September

Anja Harteros sings September from Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs. I had trouble deciding which of the four songs to post. Each one sounded better than the last one. I settled on September, since it's...September (clever, huh?) 

Verdi: Don Carlo Live from Salzburg Friday, 16 August 2013

The webcast on medici.tv starts at 11:30 AM Eastern U.S. time.

I wonder if my boss will mind if I call in due to a case of severe opera attack.

Matti Salminen...................................................................... Flilppo II

Jonas Kaufmann................................................................. Don Carlo

Anja Harteros....................................................... Elisabetta di Valois

Thomas Hampson.................................. Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa

Ekaterina Semenchuk.................................... La Principessa Eboli

Sunday Brunch – Verdi Requiem: Domine Jesu Christe (excerpt)

Decca offers us a teaser from the La Scala Verdi Requiem recorded earlier this year. It will be available in the U.S. on DVD, Blu-ray, and CD on September 3. Have you pre-ordered yours yet?

Just Another Manic Monday Mozart – Anja Harteros is Elettra

Since the Earworm commented specifically on Anja Harteros on my post yesterday about this Idomeneo, I decided to see if Harteros' version of Ekettra's final aria was online. Her Elettra is not just lovelorn, frustrated, or merely p-ssed off—she has literally gone mad. 

This Elettra is not singing about metaphorical snakes and serpents tearing at her. They’re not really there; but she sees them! And when she calls for a sword, Neptune conveniently wanders by to hand her a dagger. I also love the way that Frau Harteros, during the (tumultuous) applause, keeps the insanity flowing. The translation below is by Opera Cat (whose blog, sadly, has not been updated in quite a while.)

Sunday Brunch – Mozart: Idomeneo: Andrò rammingo, e solo

Salzburg 2006: Visually, this M22 production may seem a bit bizarre, but with these wonderful singers—Magdalena Kozena, Ekaterina Siurinas, Anja Harteros, and Ramón Vargas—and Sir Roger Norrington on the podium, there is musical magic. The whole production is wonderful. (Text and translation are below.)

Trovatore on the Tube (at least Temporarily) – Harteros & Kaufmann

I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with U-toob. 

This week it’s love: JDD’s Master Classes on Wednesday, La Donna del Lago with JDD and JDF on Thursday and this gem on Friday night! 

Watch the new Bayerische Staatsoper production of Il Trovatore as soon as you can. (There are no subtitles, but it's easy enough to find a libretto to follow, if you don't already know it by heart.)

Gratuitous Friday – Consolation Trovatore Audio from Munich

If you are at work like I am, and don't have permission (or time) to watch the streaming video from the Bayrische Staatsoper today, here is the audio from last week's premiere performance of Trovatore with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros. On the other hand, if you are in any way at all able to watch the webcast, do it! (It starts at 1:00 PM Eastern U.S. Time.) And rest assured that some enterprising someone eventually will manage to make it available to us poor working slobs. 

First Review (and some audio): "Il Trovatore" bei den Münchner Opernfestspielen

Well, I managed to hear most of the premiere performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore from the Bayrische Staatsoper yesterday (even though: (a) my iPhone died mid-way through the second half; and (b) my boss kept expecting me to be productive). And someone already managed to post a clip (see below).

Bayrische Radio’s reviewer Annika Täuschel notes that Trovatore is full of well-known melodies (at least that’s my translation. The German is ohrwurm-trächtigste; and Google translates that as catchy-gious. Maybe we could say “the most earworm-filled.”) That certainly makes sense, as every other aria, trio, duet, or chorus sounds achingly familiar. And I kept thinking, “Aha! So that’s where that came from!”