New 2014-2015 Season at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse

Next season, the following operas will be performed in Toulouse :

- Giuseppe Verdi : Un Ballo in maschera, conducted by Daniel Oren, directed by Vincent Boussard (new production) ;
- Benjamin Britten : Owen Wingrave (revival from Frankfurt, January 2010) and The Turn of the Screw (new production), conducted by David Syrus, directed by Walter Sutcliffe ;
- Amadeo Vives : Doña Francisquita, conducted by Josep Caballé Domenech, directed by Emiliio Sagi (revival, first performed in June 2007) ;
- Richard Wagner : Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Claus Peter Flor, directed by Nicolas Joel (revival, first performed in March 2007) ;
- George Gershwin : Porgy and Bess, conducted by William Barkhymer, directed by Baayork Lee (1980s production from the New York Harlem Theatre, already performed all over the world) ;
- Jean-Philippe Rameau : Castor et Pollux, conducted by Christophe Rousset, directed by Mariame Clément (first performed in Vienna in January 2011) ;
- Wolfgang Mitterer : Massacre, conducted by Peter Rundel, directed by Ludovic Lagarde (opera first performed in Vienna in 2003, production premiered in Porto in 2008) ;
- Sergei Prokofiev : Betrothal in a Monastery, conducedt by Tugan Sokhiev, directed by Martin Duncan (revival from Toulouse, January 2011) ;
- Giacomo Puccini : Turandot, conducted by Stefan Solyom, directed by Calixto Bieito (new production) ;
- Philippe Servain : War of the Buttons, conducted by Christophe Larrieu, directed by Charlotte Nessi (children opera first performed in 1996, revival from a 2013 production).

With 11 operas (including a double bill evening) in six languages, the Théâtre du Capitole gives a wide survey of opera, from the baroque era (Rameau) to the contemporary (Mitterer), with 8 operas composed in the last 100 years !

Received this Monday morning

This Monday morning, I have received the following articles in the mail :

- June-July 2014 leaflet from the Stadttheater Giessen (Germany) ;
- 2014-2015 season program book from the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse.
- 2014-2015 season program book from the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden.

Received this Friday morning

This Friday morning, I have received the following brochures in the mail :

- Semperoper Dresden : May to July 2014 ;
- Landestheater Detmold : May 2014 ;
- Landestheater Linz : May 2014 ;
- Staatstheater Hannover : May 2014.

Today : World Première of Christian Lauba's opera in Bordeaux

La Lettre des sables, new opera by Christian Lauba will be performed for the first time this evening in Bordeaux.


© France 3 Culturebox

The libretto by Daniel Mesguich, inspired by H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine, relates the time travels of a man looking for the woman he loves, from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century.

The cast includes Christophe Gay, Bénédicte Tauran, Avi Klemberg, Boris Grappe and Daphné Touchais.
The Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Chœur de l'Opéra national de Bordeaux are conducted by Jean-Michel Lavoie. The director is Daniel Mesguich.

There is no broadcast planned.

Today : World Première of Bernhard Lang's opera 'Re:igen'

The new opera by Bernhard Lang, Re:igen, will receive its first performance this evening at the Rokokotheater in Schwetzingen.

The libretto by Michael Sturminger is based on Arthur Schnitzler's play Reigen, already adapted to the lyrical stage by Luc Bondy and Philippe Boesmans in 1993.

The cast include Almerija Delic, Cornel Frey, Clara Meloni, Alin Deleanu, Amélie Saadia, Kai-Uwe Fahnert and Lasse Penttinen. The SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and the SWR Big Band are conducted by Rolf Gupta. The opera is directed by Georges Delnon.

The opera will be broadcast by SWR 2 on Sunday, May 11.

Received this Thursday morning

This Thursday, I received the following in the mail :

- program book and libretto for the world première performance of Philippe Boesmans' opera Au Monde in Brussels

- May 2014 magazine from the Stadttheater Fürth.

Today : World Première of Andrea Molino's opera in Bologna

Today, the Opera Comunale di Bologna presents the world première performance of Andrea Molino's new opera - qui non c'è perché - (There is no why here), with a libretto by Giorgio van Straten, inspired by Primo Levi's memoir If This Is a Man - Survival in Auschwitz.

Conducted by the composer and directed by Wouter van Looy, the multimedia musical theatre piece involved two vocal soloists (David Moss and Anna Linardou), the Institute of Living Voice and the Bl!ndman ensemble, alongside with the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale.

The opera also requires involvement of the audience : members of the audience have been requested to send video selfies reading the following excerpt of Levi's book, and the videos will be used in the performance :

Driven by thirst, I eyed a fine icicle outside the window, within hand’s reach. I opened the window and broke off the icicle but at once a large, heavy guard prowling outside brutally snatched it away from me. – Warum? – I asked him in my poor German. – Hier ist kein warum, – (there is no why here), he replied, pushing me inside with a shove.

The first performance will be broadcast live by Rai Radio 3.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Volksoper in Vienna

This Wednesday morning, I received the program book for the 2014-2015 season at the Volksoper in Vienna.

As usual, the season consists of operas (13), operettas (6), musicals (6) and children opera (1).

The new productions (including a false one) are :
- Jacques Offenbach : La Vie parisienne (in German), conducted by Sébastien Rouland, directed by Michiel Dijkema ;
- Friedrich Cerha : Onkel Präsident, conducted by Alfred Eschwé, directed by Josef E. Köpplinger (Austrian première, world première production, from Munich, first performed there in June 2013) ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : Viva la mamma (in German), conducted by Kristiina Poska, directed by Rolando Villazon ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte (in German), conducted by Julia Jones, directed by Bruno Klimek (the same team was in charge of the same opera in Darmstadt in February 1996.

The revivals are :
- Johann Strauß : Die Fledermaus, original production by Robert Herzl, revived by Heinz Zednik (2006) ;
- Johann Strauß : Eine Nacht in Venedig, directed by Hinrich Horstkotte (première in December 2013) ;
- Paul Lincke : Frau Luna, directed by Peter Lund (première in June 2013) ;
- Franz Lehar : Die lustige Witwe, directed by Marco Arturo Marelli (première in Mai 2011) ;
- Emmerich Kalman : Gräfin Mariza, directed by Thomas Enzinger (première in March 2014) ;
- Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème (in German), directed by Harry Kupfer (première in 1984) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, directed by Helmut Lohner (première in December 2005) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Il Trovatore, directed by Dietrich Hilsdorf (première in November 2013) ;
- Giacomo Puccini : Turandot, directed by Renaud Doucet and André Barbe (première in October 2006, originally from Montréal) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata, directed by Hans Gratzer (première in June 2001) ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel, directed by Karl Dönch (première in December 1991) ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen (in German), directed by Guy Joosten (première in December 1995, originally from Brussels 1993) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro (in German), directed by Marco Arturo Marelli (first performed in November 1991) ;
- Benjamin Britten : Albert Herring (in German), directed by Brigitte Fassbaender (première in February 2014) ;
- Ludwig van Beethoven : Fidelio, directed by Markus Bothe (première in May 2014)

The following children operas will be performed :
- Mike Svoboda : Erwin, das Naturtalent, directed by Suasnne Sommer (première in February 2014)

The following musicals will also be performed : Harold Arlen's Der Zauberer von Oz, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly !, Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls, Cole Porter's Kiss me, Kate, Fredrick Loewe's My Fair Lady, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Komische Oper, Berlin

During the 2014-2015, the Komische Oper in Berlin will present the follwing new productions :

- Jacques Offenbach : La Belle Hélène, conducted by Henrik Nanasi and Kristiina Poska, directed by Barrie Kosky ;
- Marius Felix Lange : Das Gespenst von Canterville, conducted by Kristiina Poska, directed by Jasmina Hadziahmetovic (world première production first performed in Zurich in April 2012) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni, conducted by Henrik Nanasi and Kristiina Poska, directed by Herbert Fritsch ;
- Oscar Straus : Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will !, conducted by Adam Benzwi, directed by Barrie Kosky ;
- double bill : Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Bela Bartok's Bluedbeard's Castle, conducted by Henrik Nanasi, directed by Calixto Bieito ;
- Arnold Schönberg : Moses und Aron, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, directed by Barrie Kosky ;
- Georg Friedrich Händel : Giulio Cesare, conducted by Konrad Junghänel, directed by Lydia Steier.

The following productions will be revived :
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, directed by Suzanne Andrade and Barrie Kosky (first performed in November 2012) ;
- Nico Dostal : Clivia, directed by Stefan Huber (first performed in March 2014) ;
- Benjamin Britten : A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Viestur Kairiss (first performed in September 2013) ;
- Johann Strauß : Die Fledermaus, directed by Andreas Homoki (first performed in September 2007) ;
- Leonard Bernstein : West Side Story, directed by Barrie Kosky and Otto Pichler (first performed in November 2013) ;
- Milos Vacek : Des Kaisers neue Kleider, directed by Lydia Steier (first performed in October 2013) ;
- Pierangelo Valtinoni : Die Schneekönigin, directed by Anisha Bondy (first performed in October 2010) ;
- Paul Abraham : Ball im Savoy, directed by Barrie Kosky (first performed in June 2013) ;
- Claudio Monteverdi / Elena Kats-Chernin : Orpheus, directed by Barrie Kosky (first performed in September 2012) ;

- Claudio Monteverdi / Elena Kats-Chernin : Odysseus, directed by Barrie Kosky (first performed in September 2012) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte, directed by Alvis Hermanis (first performed in November 2013) ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen, directed by Sebastian Baumgarten (first performed in November 2011) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Rigoletto, directed by Barrie Kosky (first performed in September 2009).

And in concert :
- Emmerich Kalman : Arizona Lady, conducted by Kai Tietje ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Lucio Silla, conducted by Kristiina Poska.

Altogether, there will be seven new productions, 1 false new production, 13 revivals and 2 concert versions.

Most of the operas are performed in German, with the following exceptions : Gianni Schicchi, Lucio Silla and Giulio Cesare (in Italian), Cosi fan tutte (in German and Italian), Bluebeard's Castle (in Hungarian), West Side Story (in English and German).

In the program book for the new season, there is a chronology of the 23 works being performed. Only 11 of them (including the two Monteverdi operas arranged by Elena Kats-Chernin) have been composed before 1914, meaning 12 (more than half of the total) have been composed in the last 100 years.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Oper Köln (Cologne)

The Opera House in Cologne will be closed for the third and last season. The performances of the 2014-2015 will take place in 5 different locations not originally conceived to welcome such events.

The new productions are :
- Johann Adolf Hasse : Leucippo, conducted by Gianluca Capuano, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca.
In fact, this production premiered in Schwetzingen in May 2014 ;
- Detlev Glanert : Solaris, (German première, new production), conducted by Lothar Zagrosek, directed by Patrick Kinmonth. The opera was first performed in Bregenz in July 2012 ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Will Humburg, directed by Mariame Clément. This production was originally staged in Strasbourg in December 2012 ;
- Luigi Dallapiccola : Il prigioniero, conducted by Gabriel Feltz, directed by Markus Bothe. It is performed as the first part of a double bill evening ending with a staged version of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's ecclesiastical action Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne ;
- Richard Strauss : Arabella, conducted by Stefan Soltesz, directed by Renaud Doucet ;
- Leos Janacek : The Diary of One Who Disappeared, conducted by Rainer Mühlbach, directed by Béatrice Lachaussée.

The revivals are :
- Giacomo Puccini : Madama Butterfly, conducted by Claude Schnitzler, directed by Patrick Kinmonth (first performed in 2008) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte, conducted by Julia Jones, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca (already performed in Lucerne in 2005 and in Munich in 2007) ;
- Carl Maria von Weber : Der Freischütz, conducted by Andreas Schüller, directed by Viestur Kairiss (production of the Cologne Opera first performed in April 2014) ;
- Benjamin Britten : The Turn of the Screw, conducted by Gerrit Prießnitz, directed by Benjamin Schad (production of the Cologne Opera first performed in February 2011) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Christoph Spering, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg (first performed in October 2011) ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen, conducted by Claude Schnitzler, directed by Christof Loy (first performed in September 2009) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Otello, conducted by Will Humburg, directed by Johannes Schaaf.(production from the Stockholm Royal Opera, first performed in March 2013).

And in concert :
- Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky : Iolanthe, conducted by Dmitrij Kitajenko ;
- Hector Berlioz : La Damnation de Faust, conducted by Markus Poschner ;
- Franz Lehar : Die lustige Witwe, conducted by Marc Piollet.

Two productions shouldn't be advertised as new productions.
5 of the 16 operas performed have been composed in the last 100 years. Even with the Opera House being closed, the Cologne Opera manages to offer a well balanced season with baroque, classical romantic and modern music, in six different languages (German, French, Russian, Italian, English, Czech).

New Season 2014-2015 at the Theater Pforzheim

In 2014-2015, the Theater Pforzheim will present the following productions :

- Giacomo Puccini : Tosca, conducted by Markus Huber, directed by Bettina Lell (new production) ;
- Frederick Loewe : My Fair Lady, conducted by Tobias Leppert, directed by David Gravenhorst (new production) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by Martin Hannus, directed by Andrea Raabe (new production) ;
- Antonin Dvorak : Rusalka, conducted by Martin Hannus, directed by Bettina Lell (new production) ;
- Stephen Sondheim : Sweney Todd, conducted by Tobias Leppert, directed by Toni Burkhardt (new production) ;
- Richard Wagner : Lohengrin, conducted by Markus Huber, directed by Wolf Widder (new production).

No surprise there. The theater produced all kind of works : plays, operas, musicals, ballet. Interesting to note there are no revivals of former productions.

Received this Friday morning

This Friday morning, I have received the following in the mail :

- Amsterdam, Het Conertgebouw : Agenda and magazine for May-June 2014 ;
- Weimar, Deutsches Nationaltheater : Agenda from August 2014 to January 2015 and program for the Kunstfest Weimar 2014.

Program of the 2014 Salzburg Festival

Seven operas will be performed in Salzburg next Summer :

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni (production from Zurich, September 2009)
conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf
- Marc-André Dalbavie : Charlotte Salomon (world première)
conducted by the composer, directed by Luc Bondy
- Richard Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier (new production)
conducted by Franz Welser-Möst replacing Zubin Mehta, directed by Harry Kupfer
- Giuseppe Verdi : Il Trovatore (new production)
conducted by Daniele Gatti, directed by Alvis Hermanis
- Franz Schubert : Fierrabras (new production)
conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, directed by Peter Stein
- Gioachino Rossini : La Cenerentola (new production)
conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi, directed by Damiano Michieletto
- Gaetano Donizetti : La Favorite (in concert)
conducted by Nello Santi

In addition, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the prelude, second act and Isolde's Liebestod in concert with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the singers Waltraud Meier, Ekaterina Gubanova, Peter Seiffert, René Pape and Stephan Rügamer.

With just a few works, less than any opera house of international reputation would produce in a complete season, the Salzburg Festival manages to present a wide range of works, covering the main styles of operas history has produced.

New season 2014-2015 at the Teatro Real in Madrid

11 operas will be performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid during the 2014-2015 season :

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro, conducted by Ivor Bolton, directed by Emilio Sagi (revival, first performed in July 2009) ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : La Fille du régiment, conducted by Bruno Campanella and Jean-Luc Tingaud, directed by Laurent Pelly (first performance of this production in Madrid, after London, Vienna, New York, San Francisco, Barcelona and Paris) ;
- Benjamin Britten : Death in Venice, conducted by Alejo Pérez, directed by Willy Decker (first performance of this opera in the Teatro Real, production from Barcelona 2008) ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel, conducted by Paul Daniel and Diego Rodriguez, directed by Joan Font (new production) ;
- Mauricio Sotelo : El Público, conducted by Pablos Heras-Casado, directed by Robert Castro (world première) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata, conducted by Renato Palumbo, directed by David McVicar (production already performed by Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and Opéra de Genève) ;
- Ludwig van Beethoven : Fidelio, conducted by Hartmut Haenchen, directed by Alex Ollé (new production) ;
- double bill : Enrique Granados' Goyescas conducted by Plácido Domingo, directed by José Luis Gómez (new production) and Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Giuliano Carella, directed by Woody Allen with Plácido Domingo (first performed in Los Angeles in September 2008) ;
- Elena Mendoza : La Ciudad de las mentiras, conducted by Titus Engel, directed by Matthias Rebstock (world première).

And in concert :
- Charles Gounod : Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Michel Plasson.

This season includes 2 world premières, 3 new productions and 5 revivals.

Since 2007, the following operas received their world première performance at the Teatro Real :

- José María Sánchez-Verdú : El viaje a Simorgh, in May 2007 ;
- Leonardo Balada : Faust-bal, in February 2009 ;
- Pilar Jurado : Lá pagina en blanco, in February 2011 ;
- Philip Glass : The Perfect American, in January 2013 ;
- Charles Wuorinen : Brokeback Mountain, in January 2014.

Just received this Thursday

This Thursday morning, I have received the following brochures :

- May 2014 from the Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin (Germany) ;
- May 2014 from the Theater Chemnitz, Germany ;
- May 2014 from the Theater Hof, Germany.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Semperoper in Dresden

During the 2014-2015 season, the Semperoper in Dresden will perform 30 operas of 19 different composers, in 5 languages (German, Italian, French, English and Czech).

There will be 8 new productions (including 1 world première and 1 German première) :

- Peter Ronnefeld (1935-1965) : Nachtausgabe, conducted by Ekkehard Klemm, directed by Manfred Weiß. The opera was first performed in Salzburg in 1956 and had a second production in Vienna in 1987). This will be the German première ;
- Leos Janacek : The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Tomas Netopil and directed by Frank Hilbrich ;
- Richard Strauss : Arabella, conducted by Christian Thielemann, directed by Florentine Klepper ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Königskinder, conducted by Lothar Koenigs, directed by Jetske Mijnssen ;
- Claude Debussy : Pelléas et Mélisande, conducted by Mikko Franck, directed by Alex Ollé ;
- Lucia Ronchetti : Mise en abyme / Widerspiegelung, conducted by Felice Venanzoni, directed by Axel Köhler (world première) ;
- Carl Maria von Weber : Der Freischütz, conducted by Christian Thielemann, directed by Axel Köhler ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, directed by Johannes Erath.

The new production of Arabella was just performed at the Easter Festival in Salzburg, with the ensemble of the Semperoper, for only 2 performances.

The revivals are :

- Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème and Tosca ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen ;
- Gioachino Rossini : Il Barbiere di Siviglia ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : L'Elisir d'amore ;
- Richard Strauss : Daphne, Capriccio, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier ;
- Richard Wagner : Tannhäuser and Der fliegende Holländer ;
- Ludwig van Beethoven : Fidelio ;
- Henry Purcell : King Arthur ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel ;
- Johann Strauß : Die Fledermaus ;
- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Giulio Cesare and Orlando ;
- Franz Lehar : Die lustige Witwe ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Simon Boccanegra ;

One has to remember that 9 of the 15 operas composed by Richard Strauss have been first performed in Dresden, and that in 2014 we celebrate the composer's 150th birthday.

Among all these operas, 6 were composed in the last 100 years.

Three operas for children will also be performed, including 1 world première :

- Stefan Johannes Hanke : Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren, conducted by Ekkehard Klemm, directed by Manfred Weiß ;
- Johannes Wulff-Woesten : Prinz Bussel, conducted by the composer, directed by Valentina Simeonova ;
- Helmut Oehring : Die Brüder Löwenherz (world première), directed by Manfred Weiß.

Seven operas have received their first performance in Dresden since 2007 :

- Martin Hecker : Der Narr im Waisenhaus and Dinner for One in March 2010 ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Gisela ! in November 2010 (two months after first performance during the Ruhrtriennale Festival) ;
- Miroslav Srnka : Jakub Flügelbunt, in December 2011;
- Alexander Strauch : UT-OP.Er in October 2009 ;
- Manfred Trojahn : La Grande Magia, in May 2008 ;
- Johannes Wulff-Woesten : Prinz Bussel, in April 2013.

There is one more new opera to be performed in Dresden before Summer :

- Manos Tsangaris : Karl May, Raum der Wahrheit, in June 2014.

Just received this Wednesday morning

This morning, I have received the following :

- Mai to July 2014 brochure from the Komische Oper, Berlin ;
- 2014-2015 season program book from Oper Köln.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich

The following operas will be performed by the ensemble of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz during the 2014-2015 season :

5 new productions, including one world première :

- Benjamin Britten : Peter Grimes, in the Prinzregententheater, conducted by Marco Comin, directed by Balazs Kovalik ;
- Johann Strauß : Wiener Blut, in the Cuvilliéstheater, conducted by Michael Brandstätter, directed by Nicole Claudia Weber ;
- Mark Schubring : Gefährlich Liebschaften, after Choderlos de Laclos' Liaisons dangereuses, conducted by Andreas Kowalewitz, directed by Josef E. Köpplinger (world première), in the Cuvilliéstheater ;
- Hervé : Dr. Faust jun. (after Le Petit Faust, probably in German), conducted by Michael Brandstätter, directed by Rudolf Frey, in the Reithalle ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte, conducted by Michael Brandstätter, directed by Olivier Tambosi, in the Cuvilliéstheater.

Three revivals will complete the season :

- Emmerich Kalman : Die Zirkusprinzessin in the Circus Krone ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Aida, in the Prinzregententheater ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in the Prinzregententheater.

New season 2014-2015 at the Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden

During the Summer Festival 2014, the following operas will be performed :
- Valery Gergiev will conduct Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo, with the director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti ;
- Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in concert, with Diana Damrau, Rolando Villazon and Thomas Quasthoff.

Then, during the Autumn Festival :
- Karel Mark Chichon will conduct Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e ei Montecchi, with Elina Garanca, Alksandra Kurzak and Francesco Meli (in concert).

For the Easter Festival, Sir Simon Rattle will conduct :
- Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with the Berlin Philharmonic, in a production directed by Brigitte Fassbaender, with anja Harteros, Peter Rose, Magdalena Kozena and Anna Prohaska ;
- Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (concert version) with Joyce DiDonato, Charles Castronovo and Ludovic Tézier.

During the Spring Festival,
- Pablo Heras-Casado will conduct Giuseppe's Verdi La Traviata, with Rolando Villazon directing. The cast will include Olga Peretyatko and Ludovic Tézier.

Valery Gergiev will return to Baden-Baden in the Summer 2015 to conduct Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame ( a new staging from the Mariinsky Theater) and Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens (in concert). Yannick Nézet-Séguin will return too. This time for a concert version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro with Bryn Terfel, Diana Damrau, Luca Pisaroni, Anne Sofie von Otter and Rolando Villazon.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera)

In the 2013-2014 season, the Vienna State Opera produced seven new productions, including a world première (Das Städtchen Drumherum, a children opera by Elisabeth Naske, in October 2013), three revivals and 41 repertoire productions.

In the 2014-2015 season, there will be one Austrian première (of a contemporary opera), 6 new productions, and 43 repertoire productions.

- Thomas Adès' The Tempest will be performed in June 2015, in the Robert Lepage production which premiered in Québec in July 2012 and was subsequently presented at the Met in New York the following October.

The new productions are :
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Idomeneo, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, directed by Kasper Holten ;
- Modest Mussorgsky : Khovanshchina, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, directed by Lev Dodin ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Rigoletto, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, directed by Pierre Audi ;
- Richard Strauss : Elektra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : Don Pasquale, conducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos, directed by Irina Brook ;
- Albert Lortzing : Undine (in a version for children), conducted by Johannes Wildner, directed by Alexander Medem.

Repertoire operas are :
- Aida, Don Carlo, Nabucco, Simon Boccanegra and La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi ;
- Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano ;
- Anna Bolena, L'Elisir d'amore and Roberto Devereux by Gaetano Donizetti ;
- Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier and Salome by Richard Strauss ;
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola and L'Italiana in Algeri by Gioachino Rossini ;
- Cardillac by Paul Hindemith ;
- La Bohème, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini ;
- Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ;
- Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ;
- Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven ;
- Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauß
- Der fliegende Holländer, Parsifal, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tannhäuser and Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner ;
- La Juive by Jacques Fromental Halévy ;
- Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Dmitri Shostakovich ;
- Manon and Werther by Jules Massenet ;
- I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini ;
- Rusalka by Antonin Dvorak ;
- The Cunning Little Vixen by Leos Janacek.

With 50 operas in 6 languages (English, Italian, Russian, German, French, Czech) by 21 composers, the Vienne State Opera remains one of the most active opera houses in the world.

Recently, the following opera received its world premiere performance at the Vienna State Opera :
- Aribert Reimann : Medea, in February 2010.

If the Vienna State Opera is not the most active opera house in giving birth to new works, it produces a great variety of performances every year. Among the 50 operas to be performed next season, 4 have been composed in the last 100 years.

New Season 2014-2015 at La Monnaie (De Munt) in Brussels

During the 2014-2015 season, the following operas will be performed at La Monnaie (De Munt) in Brussels :

- Richard Strauss : Daphne, conducted by Lothar Koenigs, directed by Guy Joosten ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni, conducted by Ludovic Morlot, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski ;
- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Tamerlano, conducted by Christophe Rousset, directed by Pierre Audi ;
- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Alcina, conducted by Christophe Rousset, directed by Pierre Audi ;
- Wolfgang Rihm : Jakob Lenz, conducted by Franck Ollu, directed by Andrea Breth ;
- Pascal Dusapin : Penthesilea, conducted by Ludovic Morlot,directed by Katie Mitchell ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Un Ballo in maschera, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, directed by Alex Ollé ;
- Sergei Rachmaninov : Aleko, The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini, conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov, directed by Kirsten Dehlholm.

and in concert :
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by René Jacobs ;
- Franz Schubert : Fierrabras, conducted by Adam Fischer ;
- Giovanni Paisiello : Il Barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by René Jacobs ;
- Frank Martin : Le Vin herbé, conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann.

1 world première : Penthesilea ;
4 new productions : Daphne, Don Giovanni, Jakob Lenz and the Rachmaninov trilogy ;
3 revivals : Tamerlano (first performed in Stockholm in 2000, then in Munich in 2008), Alcina (first performed in Stockholm in 2000, then in Amsterdam in 2005) and Un Ballo in maschera (first performed in January 2013).

Since 2007, the following operas received their world première performances in Brussels :
- Luc Brewaeys, L'Uomo dal fiore in bocca, in February 2007 ;
- Benoît Mernier,  Frühlings Erwachen, in March 2007 ;
- Pierre Bartholomée, La Lumière Antigone, in April 2008 ;
- Kris Defoort, House of the Sleeping Beauties, in May 2009 ;
- Toshio Hosokawa, Matsukaze, in May 2011 ;
- Benoît Mernier, La Dispute, in March 2013 ;
- Howard Moody, Sindbad - A Journey through Living Flames, in February 2014 ;
- Philippe Boesmans, Au Monde, in March 2014.

With an average of one new opera every season, La Monnaie in Brussels remains one of the most interesting opera theatres in Europe.

Just received this Tuesday

I have just received the following in the mail :
- June 2014 leaflet from the Wiener Staatsoper ;
- Programma preliminare of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

This year, the program of the Rossini Opera Festival is the following :
- Armida, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, directed by Luca Ronconi
with Carmen Romeu, Randall Bills, Dmitry Korchak, Carlo Lepore, Antonino Siragusa
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti, in a semi-staged version
with Chiara Amaru, Felicia Bongiovanni, Paolo Bordogna, Alex Esposito
- Aureliano in Palmira, conducted by Will Crutchfield, directed by Mario Martone
with Lena Belkina, Raffaella Lupinacci, Jessica Pratt, Dempsey Crivera

It seems Aureliano in Palmira has been staged only twice since 1990 :
- in Savonne in October 1991 ;
- in Martina Franca in July 2011.

Today : World première of Philippe Hurel's opera in Toulouse

The first opera of French composer Philippe Hurel, Les Pigeons d'argile, will receive its world premiere performance today in Toulouse. The libretist Tanguy Viel has been inspired by the abduction of American Patricia Campbell Hearst, known as Patty Hearst by an urban guerrilla group in 1975. Victim of the Stockholm Syndrom, she will join her kidnappers.

The cast is the following :

Gaëlle Arquez : Charlie
Aimery Lefèvre : Toni
Vincent Le Texier : Bernard Baer
Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo : La Chef de la Police
Gilles Ragon : Pietro

Chœur et Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse
conductor : Tito Ceccherini
director : Mariame Clément

New Season 2014-2015 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris

For the first time in more than 25 years, the program of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées includes a world premiere.

With only 5 staged opera productions, general director Michel Franck manages to compete directly with larger opera houses, simply because he presents operas that are not performed by other opera houses in Paris.

The 2014-2015 season includes 5 operas :

- Jean-Philippe Rameau : Castor et Pollux (new production), no production in Paris in the last 25 years ;

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : La Clemenza di Tito (new production) ;

- Dai Fujikura : Solaris (world première) ;

- Giuseppe Verdi : Macbeth (new production) ;

- Gaetano Donizetti : Maria Stuarda (production from Houston, April 2012).

As usual, a number of operas will also be performed in concert : 

- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Alcina, with Joyce DiDonato ;

- Jules Massenet : Cléopâtre, with Sophie Koch and Ludovic Tézier ;

- Gioachino Rossini : Semiramide, with Elena Mosuc and Michele Pertusi ;

- Agostino Steffani : Niobe, with Karina Gauvin and Philippe Jaroussky ;

- Gioachino Rossini : Guillaume Tell, with Nicola Alaimo and Annick Massis ;

- Gioachino Rossini : L’Occasione fa il ladro, with Roberto de Candia and Désirée Rancatore ;

- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Hercules, with Matthew Rose and Alice Coote.

In the 2013-2014 season were performed, among others, Gaspare Spontini’s La Vestale, Gioacchino Rossini’s Otello (with Cecilia Bartoli) and Tancredi (with Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Patrizia Ciofi) and Giacomo Puccini’s Le Villi.

New season 2014-2015 at the Opéra Comique in Paris

During the 2014-2015 season, the Opéra Comique will celebrate its 300th anniversary.

Since Jérôme Deschamps is managing director, this theatre has offered a number of typical 19th Century French opera comiques :
 

- Emmanuel Chabrier : L’Étoile, in December 2007 ;

- Ferdinand Hérold : Zampa, in March and December 2008 ;

- Daniel François Esprit Auber : Fra Diavolo, in January 2009 ;

- Emmanuel Chabrier : Le Roi malgré lui, in April 2009 ;

- André Messager : Fortunio in December 2009 ;

- Hector Berlioz : Béatrice et Bénédict, in March 2010 ;

- Ambroise Thomas : Mignon, in April 2010 ;

- Jules Massenet : Cendrillon, in March 2011 ;

- Jacques Offenbach : Les Brigands, in June 2011 ;

- Daniel François Esprit Auber : La muette de Portici, in April 2012 ;

- Reynaldo Hahn : Ciboulette, in February 2013 ;

- Henri Rabaud : Marouf, savetier du Caire, in May 2013 ;

- Léo Delibes : Lakmé, in January 2014 ;

- Charles Lecoq : Ali-Baba, in May 2014.

Many of these operas had not been staged in France for years.

Baroque operas and contemporary works have also been performed :

- Jean-Baptiste Lully : Cadmus et Hermione

- Henry Purcell : Dido and Aeneas

- Jean- Baptiste Lully : Atys

- Johann Christian Bach : Amadis de Gaule

- Pier Francesco Cavalli : Egisto

- Marc-Antoine Charpentier : David et Jonathas

- Jean-Philippe Rameau : Platée

- Pascal Dusapin : Roméo et Juliette

- Peter Eötvös : Lady Sarashina

- Georges Aperghis : Les Boulingrin

- Oscar Strasnoy : Cachafaz

- Marco Stroppa : Re Orso

- George Benjamin : Written on Skin

For his last season as managing director, and before closing the theatre for a whole season (to build an air conditioning system in the hall) Deschamps offers a season similar to the previous ones :

- Johann Strauss : La Chauve-souris, in a new French version ;

- André Campra : Les Fêtes vénitiennes ;

- Philippe Boesmans : Au Monde, the opera that received its first performance last March in Brussels ;

- Ferdinand Hérold : Le Pré aux Clercs ;

- Reynaldo Hahn : Ciboulette ;

- Xavier Dayer : Les Contes de la lune vague après la pluie, only 2 months after the world première in Rouen ;

- Louis Varney : Les Mousquetaires au couvent.

We have 3 new productions : La Chauve-souris, Les Fêtes vénitiennes and Le Pré aux Clercs, 2 coproductions : Au Monde and Les Contes de la lune vague après la pluie, and 2 revivals : Ciboulette and Les Mousquetaires au couvent (from Lausanne, December 2013).

New season 2014-2015 at the Opéra National de Paris

Here are the operas to be performed in Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille during the 2014-2015 season : 

- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata

- Gioachino Rossini : Il Barbiere di Siviglia

- Giacomo Puccini : Tosca

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail

- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel

- Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni

- Richard Strauss : Ariadne auf Naxos

- Claude Debussy : Pelléas et Mélisande

- Charles Gounod : Faust

- Jules Massenet : Le Cid

- Antonin Dvorak : Rusalka

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte

- Ernest Chausson : Le roi Arthus

- Christoph Willibald Gluck : Alceste

- Francesco Cilea : Adriana Lecouvreur 

16 operas by 12 composers in four languages. 

14 of these operas are among the most performed in the world.

In the foreword to the season program book, the general manager Nicolas Joel writes about six new productions : “Six nouvelles productions lyriques”. But, if you decide to check for yourself, you’ll find out there are only 3 (Tosca, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Le roi Arthus). What a shame !

- Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia : directed by Damiano Michieletto, it has already been staged in Geneva in 2010, Reggio Emilia, Saint-Etienne and Firenze ; 

- Massenet’s Le Cid: directed by Charles Roubaud, it has been staged in Marseille in June 2011 ;

- Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur : directed by David McVicar, it has been staged in London in November 2010, and then in Barcelona and Vienna. 

The only two productions that could be of interest are Le Cid and Le roi Arthus. But Nicolas Joel is really not lucky, considering the Chausson opera has just been performed by the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg and Mulhouse.

Therefore we have 3 real new productions, 3 false new productions, and 10 revivals.

Here are the world premiere performances that took place at Opéra national de Paris since 2007 : 

- Georg Friedrich Haas : Melancholia, June 2008 ; 

- Philippe Boesmans : Yvonne princesse de Bourgogne, January 2009 ; 

- Bruno Mantovani : Akhmatova, March 2011 ;

- Philippe Fénelon : La Cerisaie, January 2012 (it had been performed in concert in Moscow in December 2010). 

Since then, Opéra national de Paris has done nothing to promote living composers, ensuring their defection to foreign countries to have their operas performed (for example, Marc-André Dalbavie’s opera Charlotte Salomon will be performed next Summer in Salzburg).

We have no operas in Russian or English, no contemporary or even modern work (in fact no opera composed in the last 98 years, since Ariadne auf Naxos), no opera that has not been recorded.

At least, the casts will include some of the most famous singers of our time : Dmitri Hvorostovsky in La Traviata, Marcelo Alvarez and Ludovic Tézier in Tosca, Erwin Schrott in Don Giovanni, Franz Grundheber, Sophie Koch and Klaus Florian Vogt in Ariadne auf Naxos, Stéphane Degout in Pelléas et Mélisande, Piotr Beczala in Faust, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Annick Massis and Roberto Alagna in Le Cid, Sophie Koch, Thomas Hampson and Roberto Alagna in Le roi Arthus, Véronique Gens and Stéphane Degout in Alceste, Marcelo Alvarez and Angela Gheorghiu in Adriana Lecouvreur.

Unfortunately, these great casts can barely hide the poverty of this unchallenging season.

Just received this Monday

This Monday, I have received the following items :

- 2014-2015 program book from the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna ;
- May 2014 leaflet from Theater Ulm.

Link to my publisher

Here is the link to my personal page on my publisher's website :

http://www.publibook.com/librairie/auteur-universitaire.php?id=10311

I have published two books so far, both in French :
- a biography of Benjamin Britten ;
- my PhD thesis, with the title : Le Personnage de Puck, du modèle Shakespearien à l'opéra contemporain (Britten, Vreuls, Delannoy, Gerber).

Since I completed my PhD, I have also collected as much information as possible (program books, scores, librettos, articles) about Shakespearian operas.

Link to my website of opera recordings

Here is the link to my own personal website :

http://www.opera-collection.net/

You will find information about all the opera recordings I have (both audio and video). At some point, I used to record three broadcasts every Saturday, but for a few years now, I am not recording anymore. I am mostly interested in contemporary and rare operas, but there are really too few broadcasts of this kind.

In the future, I am planning to completely redesign my website as a database generated one. I will post more information about that here.

On my website, you will also find information on a few other things I am interested in.

Pictures of musical places on flickr

I have uploaded a lot of pictures I took in the last few years on flickr.

Here is the link to my gallery there :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22297671@N03/

I have stored them in different sets :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22297671@N03/sets/

Here are some examples of music-related pictures you can find there :

- graves of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, in Aldeburgh :

- bust of Ludwig van Beethoven in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco :

- bust of Hector Berlioz in the Palais Garnier, Paris :

- statue of Richard Wagner in front of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth (the picture was taken in 2013. I am not sure the statue is still there in 2014) :

- bust of Carl Maria von Weber in the Nationaltheater in Munich :

- statue of Herbert von Karajan in front of his birthplace in Salzburg :

- plaque on the birthplace of composer Emile Waldteufel in Strasbourg :

I have lots of pictures of graves and commemorative plaques related to music in Paris, but I am not uploading them yet. For example, here is the plaque you can see on the building where Francis Poulenc was born :

There might be more pictures in the future.

All my books are on LybraryThing

I have catalogued all my books and scores on the website LybraryThing. Use the following link to get there :

http://www.librarything.fr/profile/thepuck

I still have a few scores (Hans Werner Henze's symphonies) to add. At some point, I might even add the program books I have for all the opera performances I have attended, but it will probably take some time.

Program books for new operas, 2011-2012 season

During the 2011-2012 season, I managed to collect program books for the following new operas : 

- Markus Fagerudd : Free Will, Savonlinna, July 21, 2012 (PDF)

- Detlev Glanert : Solaris, Bregenz, July 18, 2012

- George Benjamin, Written on Skin, Aix-en-Provence, July 7, 2012

 - Lucia Ronchetti : Neumond, Mannheim, July 1, 2012

  
- Toshio Hosokawa : The Raven, Luxembourg, June 27, 2012

- Jennifer Walshe : Die Taktik, Stuttgart (Kammertheater), June 14, 2012

- Anno Schreier : Mörder Kaspar Brand, Düsseldorf, June 14, 2012

 
- Robin de Raaff : Waiting for Miss Monroe, Amsterdam, June 9, 2012

- Olga Neuwirth : The Outcast, Mannheim, May 25, 2012 (PDF)

- Silvia Colasanti : La Metamorfosi, Firenze (Teatro Goldoni), May 22, 2012 (PDF)

- Marco Stroppa : Re Orso, Paris (Opéra-Comique), May 19, 2012

- Gordon Kerry : Midnight Son, Melbourne (Victorian Opera), May 16, 2012

- Arnulf Herrmann : Wasser, Munich (Muffathalle, Biennale), May 16, 2012 (PDF)

- Eunyoung Kim : Mama Dolorosa, Munich (Gasteig, Biennale), May 5, 2012 (PDF)

- Sarah Nemtsov : L’Absence, Munich (Muffathalle, Biennale), May 3, 2012 (PDF)

- Moritz Eggert : All diese Tage, Bremen, April 28, 2012

- Enno Poppe : IQ, Schwetzingen, April 27, 2012 (PDF)

- Jüri Reinvere : Purge, Helsinki, April 20, 2012

- Sidney Corbett : Ubu, Gelsenkirchen, April 14, 2012 (PDF)

- Ludger Vollmer : Border, Köln (Palladium), April 13, 2012

 

- Edward Rushton : Babur in London, Zürich (Theater Rigblick), March 28, 2012

- Jérôme Combier : Terre et Cendres, Lyon, March 10, 2012 (PDF)

- Bruno Giner : Pion prend tour en D9, Paris (Auditorium St. Germain), March 7, 2012

- Enver Yalçin Özdiker : Aufstand, Wuppertal, March 4, 2012

- Betsy Jolas : La Maison qui Chante, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Febuary 9, 2012 (PDF)

- Simon Wills : The Stolen Smells, Luzern, January 29, 2012

- Philippe Fénelon : La Cerisaie, Paris, January 27, 2012

- Manfred Trojahn : Orest, Amsterdam, December 8, 2011
 

  

- Ragnar Söderlind : I Cancelliraadens Dage, Brumunddal, November 17, 2011

- Elzbieta Sikora : Madame Curie, Paris (Unesco), November 15, 2011

- Lera Auerbach : Gogol, Vienna (Theater an der Wien), November 15, 2011

  

- Anno Schreier : Die Stadt der Blinden, Zürich, November 12, 2011

- Kevin Puts : Silent Night, Minneapolis, November 12, 2011

- Andrew P. MacDonald : Mary’s Wedding, Victoria (BC), November 10, 2011

  

- Nico Muhly : Dark Sisters, New York (Gotham Chamber Opera), November 9, 2011

- Gerhard Wimberger : Heinrich und Kleist, Frankfurt an der Oder, November 4, 2011

- Samu Gryllus : Blaubarts, Vienna (Theater an der Wien), November 4, 2011

- Joanna Doderer : Papageno eine Ausflucht, Vienna (Theater an der Wien), November 4, 2011

- Karmella Tsepolenko : Heute Abend Boris Godunow, Vienna (Theater an der Wien), November 4, 2011

  

- Christian Jost : Mikropolis, Berlin (Komische Oper), October 30, 2011 (PDF)

- Marcela Rodriguez : Las cartas de Frida, Heidelberg, October 26, 2011

- Claude Lenners : Der Turm, Luxembourg, October 6, 2011

- Philippe Manoury : La Nuit de Gutenberg, Strasbourg, September 24, 2011

 

- Alessandro Solbiati : Leggenda, Torino, September 20, 2011

- Leo Dick : Der Wunsch, Indianer zu werden, Bern, September 10, 2011

- Christopher Theofanidis : Heart of a Soldier, San Francisco, September 10, 2011

  

- Reinhardt Wagner : René l’énervé, Paris (Théâtre du Rond-Point), September 7 2011

- Santa Ratniece : War Sum Up, Riga, September 2, 2011 (PDF)