Le nozze di Figaro - Haus Für Mozart, Salzburg, 30 July 2011
Claus Guth's cinematically-inspired 2006 production sets Figaro in funereal Bergmanesque monochrome. Hitchcock's The Birds is referenced in the dead crows and autumnal leaves littering the bare rooms. It looks more like a particularly scary The Turn of the Screw than a Mozart comedy.
Continue reading "Salzburg's nozze di Figaro gets the bird" »
Half the publicity the Salzburg Festival receives is based around the talented and indecently photogenic Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott. Not to mention the glowing critical reviews and through-the-roof ticket sales for anything they're in.
So it's surprising to read an interview with the pair in today's Austrian News magazine that confirms next year's La bohème is the last Salzburg Festival booking in Anna Netrebko's calendar. Worse, Erwin Schrott says there's no place for him whatsoever in new Intendant Alexander Pereira's plans (which are noticeably stuffed with job opps for his old Zurich cronies).
"Doesn't that hurt?" asks the interviewer. "Yes it does" they both confirm.
When you bear in mind that they're not clapped-out old singers trading on past glories, but young (in classical music years) artists whose talents grow year on year, the exclusion seems even odder. Bad for music, bad for business.
But it's not goodbye to Austria. They remain based in Vienna, and performances there will feature in their future, even though there are no immediate plans. Netrebko says she's waiting for the right time and the right production. They both dodged questions about specific commitments, with Netrebko refusing to confirm that she'll make her Wagner debut as Elsa with Thielemann in Dresden - though she does say she can't wait to sing the role. And she wants to clarify that although she's retiring some roles, Violetta is not one of them, as has been reported elsewhere.
They also talk about their widely-reported plans to open a restaurant (location: Vienna, cuisine: undecided).
Read an extract from the interview online, or see the whole thing below (click to enlarge):
Continue reading "Netrebko and Schrott 'hurt' to be ditched from Salzburg Festival" »
The results are out. Fresh from winning the World Cup for Russia, Anna Netrebko provided the final boost of star-power that Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle needed to win their New Year's Eve TV ratings war against the Berlin Philharmonic.
After a tidy set-up from Anna and hubby Erwin, team mate Renee Fleming finished off the opposition.
Gustavo Dudamel, Elina Garanca and the Berlin Philharmonic didn't stand a chance.
The final score - 1.67 million viewers (7.7% of total) for Dresden and 1.19 million (5.9%) for Berlin - enough in total to fill roughly a thousand opera houses.
Semperoper Dresden, 28 December 2010
German TV's big New Year's Eve event is the annual concert on the ZDF channel. For many years it was the preserve of the Berlin Philharmonic. But their escalating pay demands led to the baton being passed this year to the less financially-demanding Staatskapelle Dresden.
The change has not exactly gone smoothly. First, when Dresden's then-music director Fabio Luisi discovered ZDF wanted future (from 2012) director Christian Thielemann to conduct the concert, he resigned in a fit of pique.
Then a few weeks ago Thomas Hampson dropped out, unable to fit initial rehearsals into his schedule. That left Renee Fleming, pencilled in to sing extracts from Die lustige Witwe with Hampson's replacement Christopher Maltman. But the Beautiful Voice has been trapped all week in the New York snow, leaving her unable to fly to Germany for rehearsals.
Fortunately, Anna Netrebko has agreed to step in to the final rehearsal at the last minute - together with bonus hawtness in the form of hubby Erwin Schrott.
Dates have been scheduled for Munich (29 July), Vienna (6 August) and Berlin Waldbuhne (16 August). Advance ticket sales will start this Friday.
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