“According to Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc.: The Hungarian State Opera did not receive permission to produce Porgy And Bess with a cast of Hungarian singers. “The manner in which this production of Porgy And Bess is being produced is unauthorized and is contrary to the requirements for the presentation of the work.”
Happy Birthday Maestro!
Happy Birthday Plácido! We wish Plácido Domingo, who celebrates today his birthday all the best, great new roles and productions as well as a new great discoveries of young and promising talents and personalities!
Editorial: Does the color really does not matter?! – Budapest’s Porgy and Bess are now white!
“Porgy and Bess is a folk tale. Its people naturally would sing folk music. When I first began work in the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folksongs. But they are still folk music – and therefore, being in operatic form, Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera.”
A true master, a real magician of the sound and dynamics intensity.’
Jansons was born in 1943 in Riga, as the son of the Latvian conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother Iraida, a Jewish singer, gave his birth in a hiding place escaping the terror of Riga Ghetto, where her father and brother had died.
The singer has to be able to create a space, a particular atmosphere around the personage he is singing!
German Baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle is particularly known for his intense artistic interpretations of complex operatic characters and is regarded as one of the leading baritones of his generation.
Opera Views wishes all readers Happy Holidays and great new opera experiences in the coming New Year 2018!
Do come back soon! Some exciting interviews a.o. with Bayreuth´s Beckmesser Martin Kränzle are coming up. Don´t miss it! Till then we wish everyone to get home for Christmas supported by the beautiful singing of the Three Tenors!
Goodbye to Simonetta Puccini. The last survived heir of the grand Giacomo Puccini has passed away!
By Opera Views, December 19th, 2017 The heir of the great Maestro has died on December 16th in Milan. The 89-year-old was named sole heir after a lengthy judicial battle. “The New York Times” once called this a ” Merky tale, that is well operatic”. Ms Puccini dedicated her life to preserving the memory of her…
Editorial – Tosca will jump anyway!
Bryn Terfel steppes down form singing Scarpia at the MET
Editorial – Do #theytoo ?!
By Opera Views, December 9th, 2017 No criminal charges against Levine! Days after the James Levine´s story about alleged sexual misconduct has broken out, an aching, gnawing feeling of sadness and anger has settled in the heart. One question persistently comes up: Is this over now? I mean this conductor-icon-power plays. Is this a beginning of the new…
Editorial – Sex and the Opera!
In NYC there is not only “The Sex and the City” , but the “Sex at the Opera”! The MET suspends James Levine on account of sexual misconduct!
Bayreuth Triangle – Part 3 – “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”
Sudden knowledge strikes like lightning and makes one freeze: all this Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda was built on nothing but the air! A frightening realisation, considering its high human cost. At such a moment one can physically feel and realise a power of the theatre.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017)
“I opened the window” P. I. Tchaikovsky and Graf Konstantin Romanoff I opened the window, it became stiflingly unbearable, I knelt down before him. And my face smelled nightly spring The fragrant breath of lilac. And somewhere in the distance, a nightingale sang wonderfully, I listened to him with a deep sadness, And with…
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017)
A sad news arrived this morning. Dmitri Hvorostovsky, world-renowned Bariton passed away on November 22nd in London surrounded by his family.
Bayreuth Triangle 2017-Part 2 – Parsifal! Do not let this chalice pass me by!
This last opera by Richard Wagner was specially composed adapting to the unique acoustics of Festspielhaus and exhibits composer’s message of universal love and eternal freedom. During the last “Parsifal” performance in August 1882 composer himself took the button and conducted the show from the transformation scene till the end. Soon afterwards he travelled to Venice, where on 13. February, the heart attack has terminated his life.
Bayreuth Triangle 2017 – Part 1 – “Tristan und Isolde” – Rich voices, minimalistic staging and 3D orchestra sound.
Thielemann leads and accompanies, firmly keeping all the dynamic reins in his hands. One could physically feel his love and devotion to the score in its smallest detail mastering a majestic, passionate, dreamy, explosive sound culminating in the most beautiful piano in Isolde’s death scene.
The Crime and Punishment
Poignant staging and a musical triumph of Mariss Jansons at the “Lady Macbeth von Mzensk” premiere in Salzburg. “Lady Macbeth von Mzensk” by Dmitri Shostakovich at Salzburg Festival.
Singers, Staging, Orchestra 