Opera Chic

Teatro Regio di Parma's Verdi Bicentenary Rager

With talons snapping and incisors gnashing, Parma's Teatro Regio rolls out its 2013 month-long Verdi Festival during the best month of the year -- (R)october -- and turns Verdi's 200th birthday into a total rager. Forget Avicii, they've enlisted emcees of the first order: Carlo Bergonzi (October 2); Mirella Freni (October 10); Raina Kabaivanska (October 19) and Bruno Bartoletti (October 31) -- some of Verdi's coolest, living protagonists will speak about career-defining moments in generous round-tables.

Riccardo Chailly bows the festival on September 30 with an all-Verdi setlist played by Filarmonica della Scala in snatches of Oberto conte di san Bonifacio, Un giorno di regno, Jérusalem and I Vespri siciliani, and there are three operas that span Verdi's career -- Simon Boccanegra (Roberto Frontali in the title role and Carmela Remigio as Maria); Falstaff (Renato Bruson with the kids from the theater's academy) and I masnadieri (Mika Kares as Massimiliano and Roberto Aronica as Carlo).
 
Yuri Temirkanov will host an all-Verdi concert on October 10 at Busseto's petite Teatro Giuseppe with Macbeth, Otello, La forza del destino and Aida's second act in concert form.

Daniele Gatti holds two appointments: October 30 with the Orchestre National de France in an all-Wagner program (Die Götterdämmerung, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and Die Meistersinger) and he closes the festival on October 31 wtih Verdi's Requiem sung by Fiorenza Cedolins, Daniela Barcellona, Francesco Meli and Michele Pertusi.

Additional events span the festival, such as a special evening to toast Leo Nucci and Fiorenza Cossotto and free, open-to-the-public rehearsals. Music aside, we'll be there to sample Emilia-Romagna's delicious Fall harvest of wild turkey, utilitarian Lambrusco, sweet pumpkin ravioli, un-bashful mostarda and marbled culatello.

Put Your Money Where Your Verdi Is

In his bicentennial birth year, Busseto-born Verdi has inspired many projects, such as Berlin-based video artist David Krippendorff's Nothing Escapes My Eyes. His eight-minute mini-movie, calling for Kickstarter funds, is about cultural identity shifts inspired by Aida/Cairo, a billet-doux to his enduring love of ancient Egypt with EMI's blessings to use that Muti/Caballé/Domingo recording on the soundtrack.

OC & Grazia.it: Throw Your Hands in the Air & Wave Them Like You're Nicola Luisotti

All conductors will tell you that they put the music in front of everything and that they're simply servants of the art, but Nicola Luisotti doesn't have to even say it -- his actions [on the podium] speak louder than words. While his Puccini's unparalleled, his Verdi rocks. It's like, Bro, have you even heard his Verdi?

He's just wrapped up a highly-lauded Verdi Requiem at Naples' Teatro San Carlo (where he splits a Musical Directorship role with the San Francisco Opera) and he's off to London to conduct Nabucco at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Quite simply, Luisotti lets composers flex their musical muscle and find their voices while he gracefully dissolves into the podium like he's powered-up Halo's active camo and can bend light around armor.

In this bicentennial birth year of Verdi, he shared his thoughts on Naples and the Busseto-born Maestro for OC's latest piece for Grazia.it.

Opera Chic and The Royal Opera House: Leo Nucci's Nabucco Greatness

(Credit Rudy Amisano and Teatro alla Scala)

Let's count our heroes: Giuseppe Verdi and Bartolomeo Merelli, the Scala intendant who urged a broken-spirited, opera-dejected Verdi to take a chance on Temistocle Solera's libretto based on Nabuchodonosor, a 6th century BC Babylonian despot. We'll also add Leo Nucci and Nicola Luiotti to the list for their recent, prodigious performances at La Scala in a modern, new Daniele Abbado-signed Nabucco that ran through February. After tonight's final replications in Milan, the opera, in-coproduction with the Royal Opera House, will bow in April at Covent Garden with the Nucci/Luisotti Made in Italy perfection, which is why we were honored to write a piece for The Royal Opera House's website about opera's greatest Italian baritone the in the post-Cappuccili era.

RIP Verdi/Pucci Biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz

Phillips-Matz died at 86 in her UWS Manhattan home, overlooking Verdi Square. Her monster Verdi biography has been one of our go-to references in this Verdi bicentennial year.

Villazón's Verdi for Verdi

Verdi's turning 200. What do you get him? A Caribbean cruise? A Brookstone massage chair? An AARP membership? Rolando's gone the "gift for the guy who has everything" route and made Verdi a mix tape! On November 19, the Mexican tenor drops his new CD, Villazón Verdi, of assorted arias spanning from Verdi minore to the maestro's Top 40 hits of the 1850s.

Here's Rolando doing Rolando doing Verrrrrrdi. //Coming up on six years in Milan and OC still can't roll her Rs like that.

Verdi Vende

Palazzo Orlandi, the neoclassical gem bought in 1845 by Verdi, where he wrote Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Rigoletto and Trovatore, is on the market. It's in Busseto, close to Parma, just a stone's throw from Bergonzi's artifact-packed B&B Hotel I Due Foscari and its excellent restaurant where one could sit next to the Italian tenor in healthier times tucking into plates of culatello .

On the cusp of the Verdi bicentennial birth year, it's been put up for sale after Verdi's last heir recently passed away. Property value aside, it's the house where Verdi's father passed away and where the Busseto maestro made a love nest for Giuseppina Strepponi after his first wife died, but before they properly married.

Someone needs to do a Kickstarter, quick!

Teatro Regio di Parma's 2012 Verdi Festival (Leo Nucci +)

Teatro Regio di Parma's October Verdi Festival pairs the local hero's blood, guts & tears opera with the sumptuous fall harvest booty -- pumpkin purée wrapped in sweet eggy pasta, deeply-pink veined culatello and spalla cotta, juicy wild game and crisply-bubbling Lambrusco reds. And unbashful pear and apple mostarda. Or not. Or w/e. There's always the Autogrill's reheated pitstop panini.

In October, the petite Parma theater marks the 199th birthday of Maestro Verdi with two operas and a concert -- Rigoletto opens the festival on October 1 with five replications in Pier Luigi Samartini's 1987 production and stars Leo Nucci, Desirée Rancatore and Michele Pertusi, conducted by Daniel Oren.

After a sixty(+) year absense, Verdi's overtly patriotic sausagefest La battaglia di Legnano opens on October 6 and runs four replications in a new production by Pier Luigi Pizzi. It's conducted by Andrea Battistoni and stars William Corrò, Emanuele Cordaro, Gezim Myshketa, Aurelia Florian, Alejandro Roy, Valeriu Caradja, Erika Beretti and Cosimo Vassallo.

The concert falls on Verdi's birthday, October 10,with Inva Mula, Piero Pretti, Leo Nucci and Michele Pertusi singing Verdi's greatest hits.

Awesome Beard Power at Los Angeles Opera

(Dan Steinberg/Los Angeles Opera)

Everyone hibernates in the winter, including a bearded Christoph Waltz, who looks fittingly like a young Giuseppe Verdi. The Austrian actor had a beard-off with Placidone after last Saturday night's opening of Simon Boccanegra at the Los Angeles Opera. It opened to James Conlon on the podium, Placido Domingo in the title role, and Ana Maria Martinez as Amelia.

La Scala Super News for 2013, Starring Verdi

It's a Verdi blockbuster for 2013 that will unveil new productions of Traviata, Falstaff, Nabucco, Oberto, Macbeth, and Un ballo in maschera at Teatro alla Scala.

The sexxxtet of new Verdi productions will usher-in the Italian composer's 200th birth year anniversary, chased by two reprisals -- Don Carlos and Aida -- which was announced today by Scala GM Lissner.

Traviata will open the season on December 7, 2013 and will be conducted by Daniele Gatti (directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov). For the record, this year we have Wagner's Lohengrin conducted by Barenboim, directed by Claus Guth with Kaufmann and Pape. December 7, 2014 will open with Beethoven's Fidelio, conducted by Barenboim.

Falstaff is Carsen's production wtih Covent Garden to be conducted by Harding.

Nabucco will be conducted by Luisotti in Daniele Abbado's production.

Oberto is from the direction of Mario Martone (who did our Cav/Pag). Martone will also do a production of Trovatore in 2014 and a Traviata in 2015.

Macbeth is under the direction of Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and will be conducted by Gergiev.

Ballo will be directed by Damiano Michieletto (who we just interviewed for Stasera Esco) and conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

 

Verdi & Pavarotti Catwalk Concerto for Dolce & Gabbana Men's Fashion Week

So it's Men's Fashion Week in Milan, apparent by the insane dinner parties (Alberta Ferretti's last night at Giacomo Bistrot) and the sulky, pale male models that crowd our cobblestone streets and don't eat in our delicious restaurants.

The runway shows kicked-off this morning with Corneliani, Zegna and Costume National, and after the lunch break, Dolce & Gabbana showed their Men's fall-winter 2012/12 collection at their Viale Piave labyrinth.

Dolce & Gabbana aren't shy about their love of opera, and they've paid homage to Italy's great opera composers in the past -- the 20th celebration of their men's collection last year at Palazzo Marino blasted Verdi hits and their Women's 2009 spring-summer lline incorporated Teatro la Fenice playbills and Maria Callas' face into its collection. (OC didn't miss the blow-out, either). Off the catwalk and away from backstage, we used to bump into them at Teatro alla Scala's Sant'Ambrogio opening night, too (but sadly we haven't seen them since 2008).

But earlier this afternoon, their fall-winter 2012/13 Men's collection catwalked to the sounds of an all-Verdi playist. As fashion editors, buyers, journalists and well-dressed guests took their seats, waiters in white tie lined the runway with trays of champagne flutes (seen above from the D&G twitter). The intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana played and the show began.

Male models took the catwalk to Pavarotti singing La donna è mobile and Di quella pira and finished with Libiamo from Verdi’s La Traviata. Here’s a short video clip thanks to a front row GQ-er.

 

A Macbeth Victory to Open Rome's Teatro dell'Opera 2011-12 Season

German director Peter Stein's new ghost and knight-filled Verdi's Macbeth triumphed as the 2011/12 season opener at Rome's Teatro dell'Opera last night. It's the same production that Stein premiered in August at the Salzburger Festspiele to mixed reviews (photo above). Nevermind - Rome loved it.

"Un grande Macbeth ovazione" was part of the Rome-based daily La Repubblica's headline. Ten minutes of applause, mostly for Riccardo Muti and Russian soprano Tatiana Serjan as Lady Macbeth. Serjan also elicited mid-scene applause during her final aria. Rome's audiences made another statement with mid-scene applause after the chorus' "Patria oppressa" at the beginning of the fourth act. Muti and Serjan had also collaborated with Stein during the August Salzburg edition.

All the VIPs were in the house last night, including the Rome mayor (Gianni Alemanno), the president of the republic (Giorgio Napolitano), and the new culture minister (Lorenzo Ornaghi).

An intrepid youtuber uploaded a clip of Serjan singing Lady Macbeth's final aria.

The Critics Love Muti's "Warlike", "Unforgettable" Macbeth

From today's Corriere della Sera, that devotes a half page, above the fold, to Riccardo Muti's and Peter Stein's "Macbeth" in Salzburg, a "warlike Macbeth", writes the Milanese newspaper, "that makes one smell the stench of death".

From the review (not yet online, wait until tomorrow when the paper's content becomes available for free on Corriere's website):

"His [Muti's] interpretation is not only astonishing in its technique -- a thousand details are carefully refined -- but it's modern, dark, full of tragedy and less propulsive (on average, the tempi are now slower) but much more biting and gloomy than in the past. A 'gothic' interpretation, truly gripping."

 

Torino's Patriotic I Vespri

Last night at Teatro Regio di Torino premiered Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

Torino-bred director Davide Livermore made his high-profile Regio premiere in a production that will be attended by President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano in a special performance tomorrow night (also to be streamed live by Rai-Radio3 and later turned into a DVD)

Verdi's 1855 grand opera -- modified, translated, and censored throughout the years -- and its patriotic overtones makes a good match for Italy's March 17 holiday about solidarity and unity and Livermore's painterly qualities brings out the passion of the two lovers. 

Spoke Noseda to Io Donna about Verdi's work: "I Vespri is an opera of transition. Verdi was looking for a new style, different than that heard in Rigoletto, Traviata, and Trovatore. In Vepri, he experimented with lots of different elements. For example, the rapport between father and son, that finds a form completed by his previous operas. Despite the heroic dimensions, there wasn't a particular weight, the political events are reflected in the characters such as Elena and Giovanni da Procida."

Gianandrea Noseda conducts Sondra Radvanovsky (who we just saw here in Milan as a stellar Tosca) stars as Elena, Gergory Kunde as Arrigo, Ildar Abdrazakov as Giovanni da Procida, and Franco Vassallo as Guido di Monforte.

 

Quindi Quindi Quindi: I Soliti Idioti Send Up Verdi

The third season of the Italian sketch comedy cult show, I Soliti Idioti, launched last night and the show's two protagonists, Francesco Mandelli and Fabrizio Briggio, brought the ruckus. It's Italy's answer to edgy and witty television content, which is much needed amid the wasteland of variety shows, reality tv, and boring political inquiries. 

This season, the duo jump headfirst into the celebration of Italy's 150th anniversary of unification (this Thursday, March 17), making fun of Italy's most cherished and historical characters, among them -- Giuseppe Verdi. Daiiiii caxxxo!

Here's Vittorio Emanuele II, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Videos of season three are here, although the sketch in question isn't up yet.You can watch it here on slide #2.

 

Va' Pensiero @ Sanremo Festival, Earlier Tonight

Italian crooner Al Bano with soprano Dimitra Theodossiou and tenor Iannis Plutarchos.

Radvanovsky's Tosca If You Can't Catch Her Live

(Photo: Pavel Antonov)

With all the chaos following American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky's Tosca role debut in Milan on Tuesday night (in Luc Bondy's riot-inducing production that premiered in 2009 at The Metropolitan Opera), we think everyone deserves a nice Radvanovsky treat for taking a ride on the La Scala rollercoaster.

Although she was supposed to debut the role later this month, Radvanovsky was pulled onstage two nights ago at la Scala after a virus struck down primary Tosca Oksana Dyka -- among other colleagues, reported here and here and here and here -- lol omg it never ends! Less fortunate is Jonas Kaufmann's Cavaradossi who has been pulled from tonight's performance (to be subbed by Carlo Ventre) as well.

One of the best American sopranos rocking 19th century Italian opera today, Radvanovsky is poised for a follow-up to her April 2010 solo debut "Verdi Arias". Dropping on February 22 is Verdi Opera Scenes, a duet CD with colleague & friend Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Radvanovsky's shared the stage often with Hvorostovsky and they've channeled their ebony/ivory chemistry into a recording, singing duets from Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlo.

The CD also lists encores from their co-tour last season, one of which was Radvanovsky's “Vissi d’arte”. The Act II Tosca aria is a melodic reflection of devotion, a stirring prayer to love set to Puccini's iconic score. Starting today and ending on the CD's launch (Feb. 22), we're offering the track for download. So you can't catch her at La Scala? You can catch her (in digital form anyway) here!

The free track is after the jump...

Daniele Abbado's Rigoletto for La Fenice

Ages from its premiere at La Fenice in 1851, Italian opera director Daniele Abbado brings his new vision for Verdi's tragic opera (and Piave's gorgeously effective libretto) Rigoletto to Venice's historic opera house on September 25th.

Opening night's cast is Eric Cutler as The Duke, Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto, and Désirée Rancatore as Gilda. Our favorite humanitarian conductor, Myung-Whun Chung, conducts. 

Abbado (junior) spoke to Corriere's Io Donna about the new production: 

"The theatrical language of Rigoletto is powerful and revolutionary. In those years, Verdi was thinking about writing an opera about King Lear and he retained lots of ideas about that project which influenced this work. My production cuts out the exaggerated, deformed appearance of Rigoletto because to me it's not right to represent him like an Elephant Man figure. Instead, the scandalous characteristics of the opera depends on the fact that none of the protagonists have a uniform nature. Rigoletto, the Duke, and even Gilda mix in reality the negative and positive elements of their souls. None of them is completely innocent, the good and the bad is mixed in their hearts." 

More Photos from the Live Action Rigoletto in Mantova

(Above: Act II, Domingo in Mantova's Palazzo Ducale)

More photos from the live-from-Mantova Rigoletto (covered here, here, and here). 

^^^UPDATE^^^: you can watch it live, online via ZDF. 

 

(Above: Act II in Mantova's Palazzo Ducale)

 

(Above: Domingo as Rigoletto)

^^^Click for ten more!^^^

Rehearsal Photos from the Mantova Rigoletto

 

ZDF offers a slide show of rehearsal photos from the live-action Rigolettothat's taking Mantova by storm on September 4. It's Rigolettowith Placido Domingo and Vittorio Griogolo in the true-to-libretto locations of Verdi's opera (OC posted about it here).

Access it here.

Live Action Hero Grigolo Heads to Mantova for an Open Air Rigoletto

All the world's a(n) (opera) stage. Verdi's Rigoletto takes it to the streets for a live-action performance of the opera, where the singers will wander Mantova's authentic landmarks noted in Francesco Maria Piave's libretto: Palazzo Te, Palazzo Ducale, and Castello di San Giorgio will be lousy with opera spectators and singers -- among them Ruggero Raimondi, Placidone Domingone (singing for the first time Rigoletto), and Vittorio Griogolo as the Duke. RAI's Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale will provide the soundtrack, conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta.

Directed by Marco Bellocchio, RAI will broadcast «Rigoletto a Mantova» live to 138 countries on September 4 & 5. Although the interactive idea isn't particularly new (there's a live "Tosca in the Settings and Times of Tosca" from 1992 and a "La Traviata à Paris" from 2000), it attracts both opera fans and haters.  

Vittorio Grigolo spoke to Corriere della Sera (above) about the possible backlash from critics and opera purists who could crankily pan the unconventional Rigoletto as a detraction from the Opera is Serious Business ethic. Grigolo doesn't really care as long as the event has the potential to bring young people closer to opera. He also says it's important for him to sing and develop his career when he's young so that it attracts teens and new audiences to opera -- because if he doesn't e/insure a loyal following now, who will come to see him in 2035 when he hopes to still be singing? Don't worry, OC will be there in 2035 to hear him in Alfano's Cyrano...in vintage Alaia and orthopedic Roger Vivier.

Dolce & Gabbana Party with Giuseppe Verdi

 

Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana celebrate in Milan this coming weekend the 20th anniversary of their men's collections (they began showing their women's collections 25 years ago) with a huge art exhibit in Milan's piazza della Scala and inside Milan's City Hall, historic Palazzo Marino. It's the designers' way to say thank you to their city (adoptive city in Dolce's case -- he was born in Sicily)

The big partyparty will take off tomorrow night (Juliette Binoche, Monica Bellucci, Roberto Bolle, Morgan Freeman and Opera Chic will be there) and on Sunday the two designers have chosen to open the Palazzo Marino exhibit to the public, free, all day long from 10AM to 7PM.

And earlier today in Palazzo Marino, Dolce & Gabbana introduced the exhibit -- that includes a series of installations with touch screens (and lots of iPads) that illustrate the duo's legacy of men's creations.

The event's soundtrack? Dolce & Gabbana are big opera fans and regular Scalagoers, "therefore it seemed only right to choose Verdi's music as the soundtrack", explained Gabbana to the media during the press conference.

It was Domenico Dolce, the shy man of the duo, who gave the most heartfelt endorsement of Verdi's genius: "Who doesn't get emotional at Scala? Who doesn't get emotional when listening to Verdi? Verdi is Italy's heart, his music's in our blood because our hearts beat to its rythm. As Italians, we're all Verdi's sons and daughters, all of us".

(Sadly, the French General Manager of la Scala, Stephane Lissner, a notorious fan of Wagner and French opera, would never be capable of such a sincere, moving tribute to Verdi's greatness -- how about Domenico Dolce for next Scala's "sovrintendente"?).

Bad Choices: Domingo's & Barenboim's Simon Boccanegra at la Scala

 

Placidone's return to the opera stage last night in Milan after a two month recovery from colon cancer surgery as Verdi's Simon Boccanegra was undoubtedly heroic, admirable, and almost miraculous – especially in this annoying new age of divas and divos cancelling performances on a whim without giving any more explanation than “illness”. But this premiere of Boccanegra didn’t yield the dream reception (as some are erroneously spinning without even having been present) that the Spanish tenor could have wanted, nor a Boccanegra who Verdi himself could have imagined affecting the role. And it certainly didn’t rise to the unbridled success that greeted it in Berlin last fall for Domingo’s role premiere.

Last night at la Scala for the opening night of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra with Domingo in the title role, the unruly loggione made sure that the drama on the stage would be shadowed by the drama in the stands, made even more effective by a curse hurled at the stage by one of the angriest ticketholders. 

Despite an overwhelmingly positive curtain call before the first (and only) intermission, thirty minutes of interval was to be the final moment of tranquility: As Barenboim returned to the podium, he was jeered with endless bouts of booing, all of which he glared down. First came calls of "vergogna", then came a clear shout of "vaff*****", but after an old man shouted "basta", enough, Barenboim finally faced the orchestra and continued the opera.

At the end of the opera and Domingo's heart wrenching death, the tenor (as baritone) was initially met with clusters of booing, although it was effectively eviscerated by the overwhelming cheers. And after the loggione's decisive gutting of Barenboim during the intermission, the upper galleries emptied quickly and the Domingo-enforces stayed around to cheer their hero in front of the curtain. A success surely for Domingo, Hartejos, and most of the cast, but marred by boos, especially directed towards the production team and Barenboim. 

Read the rest after the cut!

Sondra Radvanovsky: All Verdi [Arias], All the Time -- With A Free Download

 

(Photo: Pavel Antonov)

American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is having a stellar 2010. With a big, solid voice and and effortless technique, she's one of the best sopranos rocking 19th century Italian opera today, scoring bulletproof reviews from every venue she visits. She just finished a North American tour with BF4E&E [opera's silver fox], Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky and her debut solo recording is about to drop.

Singing arias from Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Il corsaro, La forza, Ernani, Aida, and I vespri siciliani, Sondra sings with the Philharmonia of Russia led by Constantine Orbelian. Titled "Verdi Arias", it'll be in stores on April 27th (although it's available today on iTunes and pre-order on Amazon).

One of her signature roles is Trovatore's Leonora and her new CD has both D'amor sull'ali rosee and Tacea la notte placida -- the latter a tender retelling full of heartache, one of the most beautiful arias that Verdi wrote for soprano, which requires bulletproof technique and a deep interpretation, all which Sondra brings.

Free download after the jump!

The Attila You Never Knew: Philip Gossett's Critical Edition for the Metropolitan Opera

Philip Gossett, Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Music, Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, officially retires tomorrow (they're throwing him a huge bash for him -- so big that Joyce Di Donato and Vivica Genaux are singing in his honor -- more on that later), but in no way is he taking a break from music, thankfully, an expert on Italian opera who has worked decades preparing critical editions from Puccini to Rossini, author of Divas and Scholars, which has just been published into Italian.

He exclusively tells Opera Chic that the Metropolitan Opera, with Maestro Muti, called on his expertise in preparing the critical edition of Verdi's Attila that Muti is using.

Gossett collaborated with fellow scholar Helen Greenwald of the New England Conservatory for a new critical edition of the score. Riccardo Muti and Gossett are longtime collaborators, since Muti's Scala years, and the Italian maestro has been exceedingly helpful and receptive -- enjoying immensely the new treasure. He explained to OC:

"The Attila edition is very nice: this is an opera that was badly re-orchestrated in the late nineteenth century to take out several of its more characteristic elements, and we have restored Verdi's original orchestrations. Under Muti's baton, the orchestra sounds simply splendid: a chamber-music quality everywhere. [...] We make available, for the first time, all the pieces he added to the opera in later years."