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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
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Alcina: the Last Pleasures of an Enchanted World

This year, a new production of Alcina, the « magical » opera written by Handel, is given for the opening of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, with Patricia Petibon singing the role-title alongside Philippe Jaroussky and Anna Prohaska. The occasion to (re)discover the enchanting work by the Germano-British composer, talking about freedom as well as bewitching seduction against true love, being maybe quite representative of its era. As the illusive world of the...

Published onthe 26 of June
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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
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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
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Aida, an Underrated Masterpiece

On 27 February, the Saint Cecilia Academy of Rome will be used as the setting for a concert version of Aida, the Verdi opera, interpreted in particular by Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tezier in the principal roles, under the baton of Antonio Pappano directing the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Chorus. An “ideal cast” for one of the most popular operas, which we often think we are familiar with but which contains deeper subtleties than we sometimes imagine. We shall...

Published onthe 22 of February
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Andrea Chénier, a Poet in the Midst of Revolutionary Turmoil

With Andrea Chénier, Umberto Giordano turned an iconic poet of the French Revolution into one of the legendary roles of Italian opera. “Give me a good libretto and I’ll take personal responsibility for the success of the music.” Giordano addressed that enthusiastic request to Luigi Illica, Giacomo Puccini’s usual collaborator. After a promising start that was followed by three successive failures, the young composer staked everything on the work. ...

Published onthe 28 of January
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Timeless Arabella

In a letter dated 1927, Richard Strauss begs Hugo von Hofmannsthal to write him a new libretto: “You can even make me a second ‘Rosenkavalier’ if you don’t have anything better in mind.” This was to be the starting point of Arabella, the work with which the two accomplices would try to match the success of Der Rosenkavalier. The composer never imagined that this new work would mark the end of his collaboration with the man he called his “Da Ponte.”...

Published onthe 11 of November
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The Abduction from the Seraglio, or the Art of Synthesis

At the age of 24, just freed from his tyrannical employer, Archbishop Colloredo, Mozart set off to win over the Viennese public by realizing his dream of writing a grand opera in German that would rival Italian opera. The Abduction from the Seraglio was a triumph from its opening night, becoming Mozart’s most popular work in his lifetime. Nothing seemed able to slow the success of this singspiel, which travelled all over Germany before continuing its triumphal career in Europe. The...

Published onthe 15 of October
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Il Trovatore: A Song of Night, Fire and Vengeance

The Salzburg Festival plays Verdi’s Il Trovatore. A dark and flamboyant, complex and convoluted work being known to require the “four most beautiful voices in the world”. In order to complete this demanding challenge, the Salzburg Festival relies on Placido Domingo (il conte di Luna) and Anna Netrebko (Leonora), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Azucena) and Francesco Meli (Manrico). To coincide with the Salzburg’s production, we are getting back further in detail on this unlikely and brillant Trovatore,...

Published onthe 08 of August
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Jonas Kaufmann recounts Werther

Often considered the most personal and sensitive of Massenet’s works, Werther – whose libretto is freely inspired by The Sufferings of the Young Werther, Goethe’s epistolary novel – stands as one of the landmarks of 19th century French Romanticism. A melancholy work imbued with a resolutely tragic aspect sometimes bordering on the morbid.  In both Massenet’s work and Goethe’s novel, the young poet Werther is madly in love with Charlotte – who...

Published onthe 19 of February