Opera Chic

MiddleMarch Opera Round Up

This past week, the Ides of March blew some throbbingly-awesome stories our way, which go perfect with ●bullet ●points *bang bang bang* so let's do this.

• At the ROH's new season announcement, Everyone Loves Anthony [Pappano] backhandedly criticised the work ethic of opera's new generation. A few took the bait, but Rupert Christiansen's piece in The Telegraph was pure class.

• Hugo Shirley roundtabled with rumoured-Milan-bound Alexander Pereira, Salzburg's current intendant for April's Opera Magazine on fund raising, festival projects and the death of shock-&-awe Regietheater: "In Germany we have seen all these people running on stage and making pissy in the corner. [ed: lol x lol x lol] I think this is over and we are demanding that the stage directors are telling the story -- in a modern or traditional way, I don't mind. At the end of the day, there's only a good production or a bad production."

• David Remnick omitted nothing in his The New Yorker piece on the Bolshoi Ballet scandal.

• In Naples, Neil Fisher broke mozzarella with Maestro Nicola Luisotti during his San Carlo Verdi Requiem about his upcoming ROH Nabucco for The Times. Said the maestro on live music vs. the distilled experience: “Music has to be live. You sit in the opera house with somebody else and you live an experience. It’s like love — you can’t make love by phone or internet. Well, you can, but in bed, with a person, is better.” Which reminds us of OC's 2009 interview with Matt Poland for Splice Today, when grilled about our insistence of live opera over HD simulcasts/CDs: "The unamplified voice -- nothing like it, ever. YouTube and HD simulcasts have created this impression that opera is best enjoyed from afar, it's not true, the true visceral experience is there in the opera house, and it always will be. It's the difference between having sex and watching a porno. It's sad that one has to point this out."

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 Grazia Magazine: The Maestro's Magic Moves

(Above:Nicola Luisotti shows his emo side. Photo: Brescia and Amisano, Teatro alla Scala)

Opera Chic's latest piece for her weekly column on Grazia.it is up! Last Sunday night at Teatro alla Scala OC dipped in to hear Filarmonica della Scala and Italian maestro Nicola Luisotti for a program of Russian emo hits of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, featuring Georgian pianist Alexander Toradze. 

Go read about it here!

 

Return to Rome with Rai3: Albanese and Luisotti do Rota

OC remembers only a few months ago being under the gorgeous, late winter light of Rome and the creamy Bernini sculptures of Piazza Navona, the pragmatic and ancient Pantheon, the lovably-crusty Jewish Ghetto, and all of Rome's lovers out for a stroll around the Spanish Steps on Valentine's Day when she took in the excellently-robust Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia in the Eternal City. Luccan Maestro (and MD of the San Francisco Opera) Nicola Luisotti was in town to conduct Santa Cecilia in a program bearing witness to Nino Rota's rich legacy. After Beethoven's Fourth, Rota's Piano Concerto in C and Il Gattopardo Suite took the spotlight with Italian piano soloist Giuseppe Albanese cooly banging it all out on the Steinway.

Rai3 was also in the house filming, and tonight, OC (and the world) can fall back into the Rome light. At 1:40 am, Italy time, Rai3 will broadcast the concert. You can watch it on the website in Diretta TV (you can also hear Albanese play it on Youtube from a concert in Ecuador).

Luckily we won't have to wait much longer to catch both stars again -- Maestro Luisotti comes to Milan for his La Scala premiere with a new production of Verdi's Attila on June 20, and we'll find Giuseppe Albanese at Teatro degli Arcimboldi with Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali on June 26 for Liszt's concerto n. 1.

Here's a few of OC's photos from rainy Rome this past February:

 

The Boy with the Golden Award: Nicola Luisotti Receives The Premio Puccini

(Above: Marcello and Wilma Giordani with Nicola Luisotti and Paolo Spadaccini [right], President of the Foundazione Festival Pucciniano. Credit: Cory Weaver)

Well-dressed Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti received the 39th Premio Puccini award after a historic, 100th anniversary performance of Giacomo Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at NYC's Metropolitan Opera last night: La Fanciulla was commissioned and premiered by/at The Metropolitan Opera on December 10, 1910 and starred Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

As current Music Director at the San Francisco Opera, the Tuscan-born Italian Maestro Luisotti is on the East Coast to conduct the current run of La Fanciulla (in Giancarlo del Monaco's production), culminating in a final January 8, 2011 performance that's slated for the MET's live HD broadcast series.

Really, what better choice for the Premio Puccini to be given to the man whose great, great uncle used to chill with Puccini at Lago di Massaciuccoli (OC spoke to the Maestro almost one year ago -- you can read the full interview here) and has worked hard through posts held at Milan's La Scala, Florence's Maggio Musicale, and Venice's La Fenice (and singing in the chorus of the annual Torre del Lago Puccini Festival)?

Maestro Luisotti was the guest of honor at a special reception after the performance on Friday night where he was presented with the award by President of the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano, Paolo Spadaccini. The award has been around since 1971 and has been presented to a handful of opera celebs like Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Pavarotti, Josè Carreras, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, and Renata Tebaldi. All photos below credit to Cory Weaver. Compliments to the Maestro!

(Above: Luisotti with Angela Lansbury)

(Luisotti with Dan Rather)

(Luisotti with Walfredo and Elaine Toscanini, Arturo's grandson)

Opera Chic's Week (In Alphabetical Order): Hahn, Luisotti, W Magazine

How was your week?

Opera Chic interviewed Hilary Hahn, interviewed SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti, inaugurated her weekly (every Wednesday) guest blog on W magazine's website.

Then Milan's Fashion Week (menswear) began.

Nicola Luisotti On "The Conductor's Time Machine": The Opera Chic Interview

 
(photo Terrence McCarthy)

Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti may still be only a few months into his official tenure at the San Francisco Opera as new Music Director (taking over ~The Runnicles's~ 17-year reign), but he's already shaken-up the Bay City in his own way. In an attempt to return to an Italian opera repertory, SFO has certainly picked the right dude: Born into a fabulously well-connected Italian family in Viareggio (in Tuscany), his great great uncle enjoyed duck hunting on Lago di Massaciuccoli with Maestro Puccini. How's that for an enviable musical legacy and/or awesome bragging rights? He's paid his dues and earned his conducting chops already at Milan's Teatro alla Scala (rehearsal pianist and assistant conductor), Florence's Maggio Musicale (a member of the chorus for their festivals), and at Venice's La Fenice (as a chorus master).

Although now a lover of everything West Coast, the Italian translpant still finds time in his schedule to make plenty of appearances on his native soil. He's leading Teatro Comunale di Bologna's prestigious season-opening ceremonies (this Saturday, January 16) with his powerful Strauss, zapping the audience into submission with a Salome stunner (with Swedish-American soprano Erika Sunnegårdh replacing a 12th hour cancellation from German soprano and OC-fav Nadja Michael) and all-around talented cast. If you can't be in Bologna on Saturday night, you can catch the performance in a live simulcast at select theaters.  

Maestro Luisotti spoke right before his Bologna Salome with Opera Chic in his native Italian. Sucks for you if you don't speak Italian! <-- Just kidding! Opera Chic presents the interview in both Italian and English. Remember, all translations copyright Opera Chic, k thx!

Click the link below to be transported to a world of time-travel, Verdi's Attila, a window into San Francisco, and how a maestro needs to keep it real.

Nadja Out, Sunnegårdh In for Bologna's Salome

 

Teatro Comunale di Bologna is poised to open their new season on Saturday, January 16 with Salome. Opera Chic was there for last year's inauguration with Daniela Dessì's first ever Norma, and rogue cell phones aside, it rawked. 

This year, Italian Maestro (and San Francisco Opera MD) Nicola Luisotti will be on the podium to lead a talented cast, although we're sorry to see that German soprano Nadja Michael, who was supposed to open the season flaunting her minx-like Salome (OC saw her at La Scala in 2007 as the rebellious teen and she was perfection) has been replaced by Swedish-American soprano Erika Sunnegårdh.

San Francisco Opera Promises Oh So Much More for Next Season

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley announced the ambitious line-up for the company's 2009-10 season earlier today, and it's chock full o' star power for their upcoming 87th season. We can expect gorgeous appearances from Diana Damrau, Nadja Michael, Sondra Radvanovsky, Patricia Racette, Nina Stemme, Deborah Voigt, Stephanie Blythe, Juan Diego Flórez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Incoming Music Director, Puccini man Nicola Luisotti (taking over this summer from Donald Runnicles's 17-year-reign), has been saddled with the company's new agenda to return to an Italian opera repertory, and will inaugurate it with an auspicious David McVicar production of Verdi's Il Trovatore on September 11, 2009.

More plans include three commissions by American composers Christopher Theofanidis, Mark Adamo and Jennifer Higdon, a June 2011 Wagner Ring Cycle, and two free simulcasts (Tosca and Il Trovatore) in the San Francisco Giants's baseball stadium. Visit the site for more details.

Verdi's Lady Macbeth in Munich: Blood, Sweat, Tears & (.)(.)s

Martin Kusej's new production of Verdi's Macbeth just went balls2thewall @ die Bayerische Staatsoper, leaving critics shocked & awed. Shirley Apthorp reports for Bloomberg, and recounts a performance ripe with naked supers, exposed breasts, fake blood, orgies, and lesbians. The best part? An act III pee-fest where the cast urinates on stage...omg 100++ power-up points for Ms. Apthorp's copy, which reads, "collective golden showers".

Maestro Nicola Luisotti was praised, as well as Nadja Michael's "show-stopping Lady Macbeth", as continued in the review: "[Nadja] Michael, though announced as indisposed, delivers a performance of animal power and kamikaze commitment. She looks like a supermodel and sings like a banshee."

~*~

La Bohème At Metropolitan Opera: Came for Luisotti, Stayed for Frengo, Gheorghiu Was, Um, There, Too

One of the more detached Bohèmes that OC has been to, with every eye in the house bone dry and tissues unused by the time Ramón Vargas uttered, "Che vuol dire quell'andare e venire...", though not all fault of the tenor. The chemistry between the Ceauşescu-ian ice princess and our Mexican lyric-of-many-scarves was not terribly convincing, and Gheorghiu was detached, while Vargas remained aloof when scenes called for them to converge. Both singers acted independently well enough, but a sense of platonic buddies pervaded their scenes together. Gheorgs couldn't wait for her death scene to be over, squirming uncomfortably and stroking her jaw, while Teh Fargster kept hovering over her and kept like 3-inches away at all times.

The best performance was by Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti, who guided the tipsy, capsizable ship of Puccini's La Bohème to the safe shores. Angela Gheorghiu was at the helm of S.S. Unprepared, struggling to match obvious and egregious orchestral cues, at one point transposing notes at the end of a passage that was waiting for her measures ahead, and giving Maestro Luisotti the best workout he's had in years. Things got so precarious at one moment that Luisotti abandoned his orchestra and began furiously guiding the short-of-sight Gheorghiu through one of her simpler, later act songs with gigantic and florid flutters of his hand, matching her swells with the ebbs of the orchestra. Gheorghiu hasn't been doing her homework, and bombed the oral quiz. Vargas was more or less on point and the house clearly loves him. His Che gelida manina! wasn't anywhere close to perfection, but he received a wall of spontaneous bravi from the crowds, despite the fact that his voice at the higher notes was pinched, and he strangled a passage.

When Gheorgs wasn't singing to the beat of her own drummer that mysteriously thumped away inside her own head, or searching for the proper facial expression instead of her dependable fallback knotted brows, or beginning her scenes in a timid, inaudible voice that grew in confidence and volume as the act gelled, what did emit from her was a gorgeous, tender, well controlled voice. Act I was a mess for her entrances, while Act III had her struggling once again against the orchesetra. More insulting than her sloppiness was the male leader of the local Gheorghiu fan club, who screamed encouragement from the Family Circle at the end of an early aria "BRAVO". FAIL! U FAIL @ LIFE!

The perfect sound coaxed by Maestro Luisotti from the Metropolitan Orchestra was at moments heavenly. His mastery of Puccini's well-known score was a stellar interpretation, his idiosyncrasies insanely sexay and elegantly succinct, picking-up passages that can easily delve into sentimentality and sappiness. Afterall, it was Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti's grandpappy that duck hunted with Puccini himself, so we expected a lot from the legacy of Puccini's circle of friends.

One of the highlights of the night was the presentation of two plaques to Mistah Franco Frengo Zeffirelli, who toddled onstage at the end of Act II's immense and unforgettable Cafe Momus scene before the first intermission to speak a few words. Gelb came out and elaborated that they were putting up two commemorative plaques on the stage walls. Frengo then thanked everyone, and personally thanked Mirella Freni, Carlos Kleiber, and Luciano Pavarotti. And Opera Chic. And his legions of silk and cashmere scarves. We <3 u Frengo!

There were a few opening night issues that have to be worked out, such as when Vargas and Gheorghiu remained in shadowed darkness during Act III's "Donde lieta usci". But more on that tomorrow, cuz this OC without sleep thing is about to get ugly.

Nicola Luisotti: Hunting with Puccini

This past Tuesday, forty-five year old Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti has been appointed the new Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and will assume his new position with the 2009-10 season. He will succeed Donald Runnicles. SF Opera General Director David Gockley said in a statement, “Nicola Luisotti is the ideal music director for the next stage in the company’s life, a passionate music maker who is especially experienced in the Italian repertory.”

Endearingly stated by the incoming Maestro Luisotti:

"Era stato il mio sogno quello di tornare a lavorare a San Francisco. Considero un grande privilegio dirigere l'orchestra di questa città così piena d'incanto, di tradizioni culturali. Mi piace la gente di San Francisco. Mi piace tutto di questa città."

Translation, "It had been my dream to return to work in San Francisco. I consider it a great privilidge to direct the orchestra of a city that is so full of enchantment, and of cultural tradition. I like the people of San Francisco. I like everything about this city."

Of Luisotti's cultural legacy and involvement with music, he gave an interview with Corriere a few years ago, and shared an anecdote of previous summers that his family passed with Maestro Giacomo Puccini:

"Mio nonno andava a caccia di folaghe in barca sul lago di Massaciuccoli con Puccini. E a Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, dove sta la mia famiglia, Puccini veniva sempre a sentire il gioco delle campane. Dall' epistolario ho appreso che lì ha tratto l' ispirazione per l' inciso delle campane all' alba nella Tosca".

Translation: "My great great uncle would go duck-hunting in a boat on the lake of Massaciuccoli with Puccini. And to Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, where my family was, Puccini came always to hear the playing of the [church] bells. I later learned from his letters that he got the inspiration of the bells in Tosca from hearing them when he stayed with us."

In bocca al lupo al nuovo Maestro!