Puccini: Manon Lescaut Webcast from Bayerische Staatsoper 7/31/2015

July 31, 2015, 8.15 p.m. (C.E.T.)

Giacomo Puccini

Manon Lescaut

New production

Musical Direction: Alain Altinoglu

Stage Direction: Hans Neuenfels

With Kristine Opolais, Jonas Kaufmann a.o.

Vocal Joys (and more) from the Verbier Festival

Joyce DiDonato sings Berlioz 

Malin Hartelius, Marie-Claude Chappuis, and others led by Ton Koopman in Mozart's Requiem

Mark Padmore singing Schubert, Tippet, and Purcell

Thomas Quasthoff conducts Bach's St. Matt (with Mark Padmore, Manuel Waiser, Christine Karg, Bernarda Fink, Mauro Peter, and Christopher Maltman) 

Daniela Barcelona, Piotr Beczala and others singing Verdi

Matthias Goerne as Bartok's Bluebeard

Plus a ton of wonderful orchestral and chamber music! See the full list of programmes (some already in archive, and some still to come) at medici.tv.  Go! Watch! Listen!

Orfeo and Eurydice and Franco and Malin (for a few more days)

There're only a few more days to catch this concert version of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (the Vienna version, with some extras, like the zippy Act 1 finale) on medici.tv. Laurence Equilbey conducts with Franco Fagioli as Orfeo, Malin Hartelius as Euridice, Emmanuelle de Negri as Amore, the accentus choir, and the insula orchestra. How could you go wrong!?

Dutch National Opera Rosenkavalier Promo (Ewwww or Hmmmmm?)

So, after learning of HEM's upcoming debut as Sophie, I hopped over to the DNO site to learn more about their upcoming production of Rosenkavalier and found this:

(click this link to see the animated version)

Intriguing or Creepy? You be the judge. 

Alls I'm sayin' is I don't think die alte Marschallin is supposed to be an octogenarian! Who comes up with these ad campaigns? Someone with a minimal knowledge of the opera I guess. Imagine the description the designer was given: "This old broad is messing around with a hot teenage boy... now go design something!" 

Maybe not, but I wonder...

You can also see the video without the text across it. If you wanna..

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?