Guth/Cosi Redeux – La Scala 2014

There are some opera productions we get to see over and over on video (a certain very elaborate La Boheme, for example). But this is the first time that I’ve seen a second video version of a Claus Guth Mozart production. 

It seems Herr Guth has done some rethinking, so comparisons should be interesting. However, this is not that post. This is the post that calls attention to the videos to make sure my fellow Guth fans and fellow Mozart fans (and fellow Guth/Mozart fans) check out this 2014 La Scala iteration of this Cosi fan tutte that originated in Salzburg.

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:

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?

Wagner's Ring at the Proms on BBC Radio 3

•    Wagner: Der Ring des Niebelungen 
     from the Proms
     Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim conductor
  
  
  
  The first two operas can be heard on BBC Radio 3 now; the rest are on their way.
  
  

Das Rhinegold (7/22)

Iain Paterson baritone (Wotan)

Anna Larsson mezzo-soprano (Erda)

Johannes Martin Kränzle baritone (Alberich)

Eric Halfvarson bass (Fafner)

Die Walküre (7/23)

Bryn Terfel bass-baritone (Wotan)

Eric Halfvarson bass (Hunding)

Simon O'Neill tenor (Siegmund)

Anja Kampe soprano, Proms debut artist (Sieglinde)

Nina Stemme soprano (Brünnhilde)

Ekaterina Gubanova mezzo-soprano (Fricka)

Siegfried (7/26)

Lance Ryan tenor, Proms debut artist (Siegfried)

Nina Stemme soprano (Brünnhilde)

Terje Stensvold baritone (Wanderer)

Peter Bronder tenor (Mime)

Götterdämmerung (7/28)

Nina Stemme soprano (Brünnhilde)

Andreas Schager tenor (Siegfried)

Mikhail Petrenko bass (Hagen)

Gerd Grochowski baritone (Gunther)

Also coming up:

Tristan und Isolde (7/27)

Tannhauser (8/4)

Parsifal (8/25)

Lohengrin at La Scala – Impressions from the Cinema

Not surprisingly, one picks up a lot more of an opera performance when sitting attentively in the theater and paying attention to the screen; not checking email; not looking up odd words in the subtitles; not googling the baritone to see what else he’s done, etc. There was a post not long ago over at operaramblings about this phenomenon. 

This production is way more powerful than it was on YT. Guth’s ideas about this story are predictably dark, but not necessarily as weird as some of his other productions.

The La Scala Lohengrin – I think I may be in love with Annette Dasch (Sort of an Actual Review)

Watching Annette Dasch's Milan Elsa—similarly bewildered as her Bayrueth Elsa but more girlish—I thought, “I really love this girl.” Elsa von Bayreuth is already set up as a martyr, and one feels distanced from her. But Elsa di Milano is more of a dreamy, innocent girl; she seriously doesn’t know what she’s getting in to. Elsa's fascination is not romantic love at all to me. She's intrigued. She's attracted. It's like she just found a puppy (a really, really cute puppy). When it dawns on her that Lohengrin might really be Gottfried, (and egged on by Ortrud) she just has to find out. 

Gratuitous Friday – Dorothea Röschmann IS Michaela

This one caught me by surprise.  Not only is Dorothea blonde(!), she's singing in French. 

Unfortunately, it seems she is not in the commercial DVD release of this 2006 Berliner Staatsoper production. It looks pretty interesting; it also stars Rolando Villazón, is conducted by Daniel Barenboim (apparently his first Carmen), and directed by Martin Kušej.  It seems Don José dies during the overture and the rest is in flashback. I hear that Escamillo falls before the Finale, too. 

Die blonde Dorothea