Intermezzo

Anna Netrebko out of Covent Garden Traviata

Anna Netrebko is pulling out of both her sold-out La traviata dates at the Royal Opera House (17 and 20 January) due to 'an urgent operation on her foot'.  Bunions? Verruca? The imagination wanders. Anna said a few months ago that she was moving on with her repertoire and withdrawing Violetta, so it could be that we've heard the last of her tubercular coughs.

Ermonela Jaho is likely to replace her, though Covent Garden haven't announced anything yet.

This follows high-profile cancellations over the holiday season at Dresden ('lack of preparation time') and La Scala (a 'bad cold'). Three German concerts in January with Erwin Schrott have also been cancelled and rescheduled for later in the year.

Anna expects to return to the stage later in January once she has fully recovered from the operation.

Erwin Schrott's Covent Garden Don Giovanni is unlikely to be affected, since he doesn't take over the role from Gerald Finley until 16 February.

**********************

*UPDATE*  5.1.12 - After six days combing the globe for a replacement, Covent Garden have finally announced that they have 'managed to secure' Ermonela Jaho for the two dates.

Arise Sir Tony!

Congratulations to Classic Brit Antonio Pappano, who has been knighted in the New Year Honours List for services to Music.

No more Bayreuth tickets for Wagner Societies

Some people will always find it easier to land a Bayreuth ticket than others. 

For the rest of us, joining a Wagner Society has long been a good way of improving your scoring chances.  Every year the Festival granted them a special allocation (I understand around 10% of the total tickets) for distribution amongst their members.

No more.

Wagner Societies all around the world have received an unwelcome Xmas present - a letter from the Bayreuth Festival informing them the allocation is to be withdrawn with immediate effect. That means no tickets for the 2012 Festival.  No more tickets will be set aside for tour operators either.

The move follows criticism from local and national government funding bodies, concerned that after all the special societies, sponsors, guests and so on were taken care of, less than half the tickets were left for the general public.

According to Festival management:

 "The modifications to ticket allocation procedure have been made following investigations conducted by the Bavarian General Accounting Office and the German Federal Court of Auditors, which are responsible for the Bayreuth Festival. The reports criticized certain measures in ticket allocation and proposed clear conditions to bring about tangible and lasting changes in order to introduce greater fairness in the allocation of tickets and excluding as far as possible the preferential treatment of certain groups or individuals and to improve transparency."

The news will come as a blow to anyone who joined a Wagner Society purely in the hope of netting a ticket. On the plus side, your chances via the public ballot must surely be improved.

Tosca on the box

There are more Nutcrackers than you can shake a sugar plum at, but the festive TV schedules are more parsimonious with their operatic offerings this season.

The one highlight is the Royal Opera House's recent all-star Tosca (Kaufmann, Terfel, Gheorghiu) which airs tomorrow, 24 December, on BBC2 at 2.35pm.

Preceding it at 1.35pm is a DVD extra-style documentary. Pappano's Essential Tosca isn't just a ponce around the historical locations, though inevitably there's quite a bit of that sort of thing. There's also rehearsal footage (Angela is surprisingly 100x more compelling in this than the real thing), a detailed look at how the bell sounds are produced, and an interview with the legendary Ennio Morricone. The programme also marks the first and I confidently predict only time a Music Director of the Royal Opera House says 'masturbatory' on daytime TV

The ROH website has a clip of the documentary's start (strangely, they miss a trick by not plugging the opera itself). The BBC have more clips - none of them featuring Jonas Kaufmann, in case you're wondering. In total you can watch nearly half the show online.

Both programmes will be on the iPlayer later.

Die Meistersinger round 2

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Royal Opera House, 22 December 2011

As a penetrating symbol of a social order so decisively male-centred that a woman can be given away as a competition prize, the codpiece has much to commend it. But like bare bewbs and live animals, codpieces have a tendency to dominate any scene they're in - which in this production is pretty much all of them. I suppose the comedy has to start somewhere.

Angela Gheorghiu's role in Holocaust

Angela Gheorghiu has joined forces with greying Romanian rockers Holograf  ('Holocaust' in English, according to Google) to record what sounds from the clip like a Bono-style charidee single. Only not for charidee.

Curiously, they've not chosen to exploit the festive market; the record emerges sometime next year.  If you can wait that long.

Salzburg - the Festival that gives back

A new study shows the Salzburg Festival is a major money-spinner for the region,  giving back far more than it takes in subsidies.

The Centre for Future Studies of the University of Salzburg found that the 2011 Festival generated 276 million euros of income, which resulted in 36 million euros of tax revenue. Its public funding on the other hand was a measly 10.9 million euros.

With 200 year-round jobs and over 3,600 employees in the summer, the Festival is a major employer in the region, too.  It's also estimated that it indirectly safeguards a further 3,200 year-round jobs by generating additional revenue for various businesses.

The survey of 3,500 visitors also revealed what most of guessed long ago - that the Festival is full of rich, old people. 80% stay in a hotel, typically an upscale one in the centre of Salzburg. The average foreign Festival guest stays a week, taking in around four events. Typical expenditure is around 2,220 euros on accommodation, dining, shopping and other expenses and a further 550 euros on tickets (I have to point out it can be done for significantly less than this, if you're thinking of visiting).

Despite the Festival's purse-draining properties, the proportion of repeat customers is extraordinarily high, with 72.5% classified as regular visitors. Only 8.2% of respondents were there for the first time in 2011.

Die Meistersinger at the Royal Opera House - with photos

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Royal Opera House, 19 December 2011 (first night)

The scene above is the most imaginative one in a production that otherwise sticks doggedly to the letter of the text.  As midsummer madness or Wahn grips the Nuremburgers at the end of Act II, the featureless walls are suddenly pocked with openings. Bodies froth out from high, low, and even above the stage. The boundaries are breached; the city can no longer contain the human activity within. It's subtler than it looks.

Putting the Royal into the Royal Opera House

Prince Charles (far left above) got in touch with his German roots earlier tonight when he paid a low-key visit to the Royal Opera House for the first night of the Meistersinger revival.

Slipping in unobtrusively, he sat attentively through the full nearly six hour performance (no mid-show tweeting for HRH), offering generous applause before he escaped quietly through a side door into his waiting car.

I didn't recognise any of HRH's five-strong posse, proof I spend too much time listening to opera and not enough studying Hello!

Der fahrende Hollander

We've had street opera, pub opera and dinner opera - now there's bus opera.

For a single fare of 17.35 euros,  the Pocket Opera Company offer New Year's Eve revellers a 35 minute bus ride through Nuremberg accompanied by a cut-down version of Wagner's Flying Dutchman.  The journey, they promise, will be just like sailing on a ghost ship - presumably that's a coded hint to bring your own sick bag.

Cod Almighty

No, Simon O'Neill hasn't had an 'accident' with a Dustbuster.  Distracting codpieces are all part of the 16th century styling of Graham Vick's 1993 Royal Opera House production of Die Meistersinger (check out the gents in the lower corners of Pieter Brueghel's The Wedding Dance below).

Barbara sur votre radio

I don't listen to Radio 3 much these days, but I couldn't resist Sunday evening's profile of the quintessential French chanteuse and eyeliner icon, Barbara, who holds the proud title of Most Played Artist on my iPod. 

Norman Lebrecht travelled to Paris to meet some of those who knew her, considering how and why she became a national treasure, and discussing the dark and painful past lying behind her timeless, compelling songs.

It's perhaps not the ideal introduction to Barbara if you've never heard of her, but a fascinating programme nevertheless - who knew the former president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Jacques Attali, wrote a song for her, for example? What emerges most of all is how deeply her music touched so many different people.

As with so many music documentaries, the programme (available on the iPlayer until 25 December) is too short to fit in much actual music, so here are a few videos:

Renee Fleming lands in London

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach / Renee Fleming - Royal Festival Hall, 14 December 2011

Dr Evil and the Halloween Fairy

In a scary gown that looked like it was knocked up by Gok Wan from a pumpkin and a mile of mosquito netting, Renee Fleming made a brief visit to London last night to despatch Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder with the LPO and her old mate Christoph Eschenbach. 

Hitching up her curtainaceous skirts to avoid smothering the cello section en route to the podium, she revealed not just a shapely ankle but - steel yourselves - matching tights beneath her high heeled black sandals.  Anna Wintour may have spent 25 years in America but clearly her mission is not yet over.  

Free opera from Munich

Festive gifting continues into the new year, as the Bavarian State Opera stream a couple of their performances live online  - for free. 

On 7 January at 7pm (6pm UK) David Bösch's L’elisir d’amore offers a rare opportunity to catch Pavol Breslik scaling a lamp post in his underpants whilst despatching Una furtiva lagrima.

Then on 22 January at 5pm (4pm UK) there's a brilliantly-cast revival of  Jürgen Rose's ageing but sturdy Don Carlo, with Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape, Mariusz Kwiecien and Anja Harteros.

Full details on the website 'later'.

Tete in HD*

The Tête à Tête company, who specialise in new opera, have created an online archive where you can view their past shows from the comfort of wherever you happen to be.  For free.

The archive includes all of their annual summer festival productions for the last three years, together with many others stretching back to 1998.

(* -ish )

Look no blings

The only time Anna Netrebko felt sick during her pregnancy, she told Russian Vogue, was when she looked in her closet and saw some black and grey clothes.

"I'm from Krasnodar - I like colour!"

Like the pro she is, Anna bravely stifled her gag reflex to model a sombre selection of Cold War spy-chic for the magazine's November issue.

 

Photos - Peter Rigaud

Wiener Woof Factor

Paul Halwax (Tuba) with his chihuahuas Fafner and Franca (© Zeppelzauer)

The Wiener Philharmoniker are fonder of a cold wet nose than you might think. Eight members of the orchestra are featured in this months Wuff magazine, together with their furry friends.

What's on Stage opera awards

Fancy an online poll?  What's On Stage's 2011 opera awards are up for grabs, and your vote counts.

Stuff only Placido can get away with, Part I

I wonder when Rolando Villazon was taking his first tentative steps towards a career in opera if he ever dreamed that one day he'd find himself beneath the searing lights of a Salford theatre with a microphone clamped to his jaw, Hayley Westenra at his side and HRH the Princess Royal tucked away somewhere in the audience.

Last night's Royal Variety Show, all four hours of it, was recorded by ITV to be shown in an edited version (i.e. possibly Rolando-less) on 14 December. Personally I think you'd have to be a very, very big fan.

Anna Caterina Antonacci at Wigmore Hall

Anna Caterina Antonacci / Donald Sulzen - Wigmore Hall, 5 December 2011

Cesti Intorno all’idol mio   Respighi Sopra un’ aria antica   Tosti Lasciami! Lascia ch'io respiri  L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra  In van preghi  Che dici, o parola del Saggio?   Cilea Serenata  Nel ridestarmi  Non ti voglio amar  Hahn Sopra l'acqua indormenzada  La Barcheta  L'avertimento  La Biondina in gondoleta  Che pecà!   Refice Ombra di nube   Encore: Tosti Marechiare

The elusive Anna Caterina Antonacci spreads her bounty rather thinly these days. No wonder she still looks and sounds twenty years younger.  To many she's a goddess, but clearly not of the domestic type - her gold-encrusted black column gown was divine, but the matching shawl could have done with an iron.