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Conversation about Carmen with Jonas Kaufmann and Inva Mula
They say that Carmen is the world’s most popular opera, especially because of its title role, a symbol of freedom and passion.And yet the role takes on meaning only as a counterpoint to those of Don José (the officer passionately smitten with the cigar girl) and Micaela (who tries to bring Don José back to his senses) both of whom are generally considered the representatives of a military order on one hand and a social or familial order on the other.More...
Published onthe 22 of July
Plácido Domingo, orchestra tenor
Plácido Domingo is a monument. Like all monuments, there may be a strong temptation to want to deconstruct him, put him on trial, undermine his foundations, and like any monument of that kind, the interested party is not the last one to provide arguments in favour of this deconstruction. This irrepressible desire to want to keep his long career going at any cost, for example: he had been paving the way for it for a long time, trying to establish himself as a conductor, with an...
Published onthe 12 of July
Meeting with Elza van den Heever, Norma in Bordeaux
After her oustanding performances in loco of roles like Elettra (Idomeneo), Leonora (Trovatore), Alcina (title-role) or Anna Bolena (title-role), the south-african soprano Elza van den Heever comes back to the Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux, this time for Norma as a role debut. Opera-Online met this magnificent dramatic soprano, one of the most accomplished of our time. ...
Published onthe 07 of June
Iphigénie en Tauride: Birth of the Musical Tragedy
Cecilia Bartoli is reviving Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride for the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. As we eagerly await this new interpretation (which we know will be very erudite and documented) in a new production, we take a look back at the work itself, mid-way between opera and theatre, and its historical context, marked by the advent of Romanticism at the expense of opera seria. *** Iphigénie en Tauride, Gluck’s last Parisian triumph, is...
Published onthe 20 of May
Nina Stemme: Wagner Today
Suddenly, it’s obvious. She had been virtually unheard of, and now her name is suddenly on everyone’s lips. Yet she was one of the winners of the first Operalia competition in 1993; she debuted in Bayreuth in 1997, but she was merely singing Freia three years in a row, and Bayreuth then forgot her until two summers devoted to Isolde, in 2005 and 2006.Meanwhile, she’d had the time to make her debut in Salzburg (in Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules in 2002),...
Published onthe 29 of April
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci: Betting It All on Verismo
Perhaps not as well known as some more regularly staged operas, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci (by Mascagni and Leoncavallo, respectively) are, nonetheless, major operas in the history of the genre (laying the foundations of verismo), with some of the most famous arias in opera and, in particular, having been interpreted by the greatest singers (Caruso foremost among them). And more recently, by Jonas Kaufmann, reprising the role of Turiddu at the Salzburg Easter Festival...
Published onthe 25 of March
Joyce DiDonato : Master Class at Carnegie Hall
"Besides talent, what does it take to be a successful opera singer?" asked the aspiring artist right next to me to Joyce DiDonato on the last day of her masterclass at Carnegie Hall on this freezing cold 23rd of February. DiDonato answered: “Be curious. Ask your teachers: what was life in the 17th century? How did Handel understand women so well?”. Watching her master class is a fascinating way to understand what opera singers have to go through before bringing an...
Published onthe 06 of March
Jonas Kaufmann renounces to Cavalleria Rusticana at La Scala
Each season or so in the biggest opera houses’ program, Jonas Kaufmann is nowadays one of the major performers of the lyrical scenes, able to fulfil entire auditoriums only based on his name, reaching a point that artistic directors wrest his commitments sometimes years in advance. This datebook can however turn out to be heavy, physically and vocally – the tenor highlighted recently on BBC that if “an agenda full for the coming five years proves to be financially...
Published onthe 05 of March
Anja Harteros : Aida young at last
Linked for a long time to Wagner's repertoire, Anja Harteros is nowadays obviously more dedicated to Verdi's one. Next friday, she embodies Aida at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Roma, alongside Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tezier. After referring to the work a few days ago, we now look at the role-title singer. *** Are divas condemned to live on an aeroplane between two triumphant appearances? They have been roundly criticised, perhaps...
Published onthe 25 of February
Jonas Kaufmann in Andrea Chenier : portrait
In a decade spent on the world’s great opera stages, Jonas Kaufmann has established himself as one of the most iconic singers of the day. And in a career he has built up intelligently and thoughtfully, the roles he takes on always seem like a major event. Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, January 20th, through February 6th he will be singing the title role of Andrea Chenier, at the Royal Opera House, alongside Eva-Maria Westbroek amd Zeljko Lucic. We are taking this occasion to review the...
Published onthe 20 of January
Interview with french soprano Anaïs Constans, third prize winner of Operalia 2014
Each year since 1993, the Operalia contest has been aiming to split and highlight the greatest voices of tomorrow among the young talents of today. And if currently the opera singing contests increase so much that we can sometime question their relevance, Operalia and its judging panel contributes to start up concretely their laureates’ careers. Placido Domingo, Operalia project manager, sees in it the opportunity to “offer to others the same good fortune whose he benefited...
Published onthe 06 of September
The voices of tomorrow : meet the tenor Bryan Hymel
At the occasion of a brief detour to Paris, we had the opportunity to meet Bryan Hymel. The young american tenor from New-Orleans, rising figure of the actual lyrical scene, talks about his atypical career which tooked him from Jazz to the greatest opera houses in the world, such as the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden (where he replaced Jonas Kaufmann as Aeneas), or the Wiener Staatsoper. Gifted of a particularly high tessiture, he explains his taste for the french heroïc tenor...
Published onthe 27 of July