Travels | News Music & Opera

Bellini and Handel in Puglia

admin_mowp — Wed, 22 May 2024 08:19:33 +0000

The famous Festival della Valle d’Itria celebrates its 50th anniversary this season with two major events. Bellini’s Norma conducted by Fabio Luisi and Handel’s Ariodante conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli are scheduled with, as always for the institution, historically informed performances. To mark the occasion, M&O in partnership with Classica magazine are taking their readers on a journey to discover Puglia…

Discover the Festival della Valle d’Itria as part of our musical stay in Puglia

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The new Queen of the Arena

admin_mowp — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 09:00:37 +0000

The Verona Arena Festival, to be held from June 8 to September 7, 2024, has just revealed the cast, but only of one production for the time being. Crowned Queen of Ice in Turandot in 2021, Queen of Egypt in Aida in 2022, Anna Netrebko confirms her place as the new muse of the world’s largest open-air festival, as she returns to the stage as Tosca in Puccini‘s big year. The diva in the firmament will be on stage on August 2, 9 and 16, alongside Yusif Eyvazov (Mario Cavaradossi) and Luca Salsi (Scarpia).

Discover Tosca at the Verona Arena Festival

Anna Netrebko © Dario Acosta

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Thunderclap in Barcelona

admin_mowp — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:32:21 +0000

The Gran Teatre del Liceu was looking forward to offering one of the most exciting performances of the international season with Adriana Lecouvreur in June 2024. However, Jonas Kaufmann has cancelled his participation “for reasons beyond the Theatre’s control”, according to the Liceu. Another leading singer, Anita Rachvelishvili, who was due to perform as la Bouillon, has also withdrawn from the production for artistic reasons. The other alternating cast has changed also, with Eleonora Buratto saying she was not yet ready for the role. A real Chinese puzzle was then put in place with tenor Freddie di Tommaso replacing Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna called upon to replace the dates scheduled for Freddie di Tommaso! Aleksandra Kurzak and Valeria Sepe sing Adriana instead of Eleonora Buratto, while Daniela Barcellona and Clémentine Margaine share Anita Rachvelishvili‘s dates. The only member of the cast to remain unchanged is the great Sonya Yoncheva, who will perform on 16, 19, 22 and 26 June 2024.

Discover Adriana Lecouvreur at the Gran Teatre del Liceu

Adriana Lecouvreur © Gran Teatre del Liceu website

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La Scala’s big day

admin_mowp — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 09:00:21 +0000

As it does every year on 7 December (Saint Ambrose’s Day, patron saint of the city of Milan), Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala opens its season with a highly anticipated production. Verdi’s Don Carlo was chosen by the renowned conductor Riccardo Chailly, its artistic director, to open the 2023-2024 season. As always, he has assembled a first-rate cast, with Anna Netrebko and Elīna Garanča partnering Francesco Meli, Michele Pertusi, Luca Salsi and Ain Anger in the production directed by Lluís Pasqual, which is already sold out. But La Scala’s season, packed with highlights, has plenty of other surprises in store…

Discover all upcoming performances at the Teatro alla Scala

© Riccardo Chailly website

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Lisbon’s low-key venue

admin_mowp — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:00:49 +0000

While it can boast a glorious past, Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional de São Carlos remains a low-key venue with a programme that European music lovers have been watching out for. The eighteenth-century theatre, located in the heart of the historic Chiado district, hosts only a handful of productions each season, as the institution has other, more modern venues at its disposal. With a concert version of Die Fledermaus and a semi-staged version of Trilogia das Barcas (a Portuguese opera by Joly Braga Santos), only three titles are staged: Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, which opened the season in October, Beethoven’s Fidelio, due to open in January 2024, and Verdi‘s truculent Falstaff, which will open in May 2024.

Discover Verdi’s Falstaff at Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

Madama Butterfly octobre 2023 © TNSC/António Pedro Ferreira

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French Baroque in style in Berlin

admin_mowp — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 08:00:45 +0000

From 17 to 26 November 2023, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin will be hosting the Barocktage 2023, where the French presence will be in evidence everywhere. Of the three major productions on the bill, two are from the French repertoire: Charpentier’s Médée (performed by Magdalena Kožená in Peter Sellars‘ staging conducted by Simon Rattle) and Cherubini’s Médée (sung in its original French version) immortalised by Maria Callas. The third title, Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponto, is conducted by Marc Minkowski and Medea by Christophe Rousset, another great French conductor. Among the great artists are Elsa Dreisig, Stanislas de Barbeyrac and French-speakers Ana Maria Labin and Reinoud Van Mechelen. After Norma, the divine soprano Marina Rebeka follows in the footsteps of Callas with the formidable role of Medea.

Discover the Barocktage 2023 here

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Wagner at the end and beginning of a cycle

admin_mowp — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 08:00:05 +0000

From 9 November to 3 December 2023, the Zurich opera house will be staging Götterdämmerung, Twilight of the Gods, the final part of Wagner‘s famous Nibelungen Ring tetralogy. Other performances of the complete cycle are scheduled at the Opernhaus in May 2024, but another Ring event has been announced for Berlin during the Festtage at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in March 2024, for which bookings are now open! Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Zurich Ring, while Philippe Jordan is at the helm in Berlin.

Embark on a musical journey at the Festtage here

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Karine de Aix and her Norma

admin_mowp — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:21:01 +0000

As the programme for the next 2022 Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence is unveiled, the music lovers’ party seems to be confirmed on all floors and in all halls with Mozart’s Idomeneo and Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon at the l’Archevêché theater, Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Strauss’s Salome, concert versions of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice revisited by Berlioz, and a stage creation by Pascal Dusapin at the Grand Théâtre de Provence. In this theatre, an event that attracts a little more attention is Bellini’s Norma, performed by the great voice of the immense artist Karine Deshayes and at her side, tenor Michael Spyres!

More info / Book your trip here

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A musical trip around the Festival dell’Arena di Verona

admin_mowp — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 09:48:30 +0000

The line-up for the new 2022 season of the Verona Arena is spectacular. There is the prestige of two huge international stars. The magnificent prima ballerina Roberto Bolle and the fabulous Plácido Domingo will be on the huge stage in Verona for two beautiful evenings.

Among the many masterpieces, Verdi’s Nabucco and Aida, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Turandot are the titles to be seen at least once in one’s life in a setting as imposing as the arena. A dazzling Traviata completes the 2022 program of the Verona Arena Festival!

To make your stay even more enjoyable, Music & Opera offers guided tours on the theme of your choice and breathtaking hotels.

More info / Book your trip now here

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A unique cruise in Italy !

admin_mowp — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 09:25:04 +0000

Music & Opera offers you a sublime cruise departing from Venice. In addition to visiting the city of Venice, you will have the opportunity to visit the city of Mantova and Cremona.

Part of the trip will take place by boat, the rest by bus, as part of an itinerary proposed by the Monteverdi Festival of Cremona. The trip will include three concerts of baroque music, but the art and architecture of the period will also be present in the verses of the author of the theater Carlo Goldoni in Chioggia, in the frescoes of Mantegna and Julius Romano in Mantova, and in the curves of the precious violins of Stradivarius in Cremona.

More info / Book your cruise trip here

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