Ewa Podles: an interview with an operatic Legend

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/podles-1009.shtml
Coming soon:

interviews with Diana Damrau, Elizabeth Watts and Janis Kelly.

The ROH's new Tristan und Isolde opens at Covent Garden with Nina Stemme, Ben Heppner, Antonio Pappano and John Tomlinson

The first new production of the current season, this Tristan und Isolde sees Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano collaborate again with German director Christof Loy just months after their Lulu, premiered in May. There was some hope that this new staging would erase the memories of Herbert Wernicke's deeply unpopular 2000 production – revived just once – but Loy's rather dreary, resolutely unerotic vision of this great work proves just as frustrating.

Read more at:

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/opera/roh-tristan-0909.shtml

Il trittico opens at San Francisco Opera with Ewa Podles, Patricia Racette and Paolo Gavanelli

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/opera/sfo-trittico-0909.shtml

Roberto Alagna interviewed about the ROH's Carmen revival with Elina Garanca

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/alagna-0909.shtml

Marianne Cornetti interviewed about her ROH Debut as Eboli in Don Carlo

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/cornetti-0909.shtml

Angela Gheorghiu and Nelly Miriciou replace Deborah Voigt as Tosca at Covent Garden

The Royal Opera has announced the withdrawal of Deborah Voigt from the high-profile revival of Tosca, opening on 9 July. The American soprano has cancelled all her appearances as the title role of the opera due to 'acute colitis'.
In her stead, two oustanding Romanian-born sopranos will share the role of Floria Tosca: Angela Gheorghiu and Nelly Miricioiu.
Angela Gheorghiu returns to this production in the role that she created in 2006, when this staging with set designs by Paul Browan was first seen. With Bryn Terfel interpreting the role of Scarpia, Tosca's dream team will be reunited, as both artists featured in the original production. Gheorghiu will sing in the performances on 9, 14 and 16 July.
Gheorghiu is familiar to the Royal Opera stage, where she made her international debut in 1992 singing Zerlina in Don Giovanni and came to fame in the 1994 production of La traviata, which will be revived for her next season. Her first Tosca in a fully staged production was at Covent Garden in 2006.
However, the more intriguing part of the announcement is that in the other two performances of Tosca, on 11 and 18 July, the title role will be taken up by Nelly Miricioiu.

Read the whole article here: http://www.musicalcriticism.com/news/roh-cast-tosca-0609.shtml

An Interview with Ramón Vargas on Un ballo in maschera at the ROH

The Royal Opera's summer Italian mini-festival continues with a revival of Verdi's mid-period masterpiece, Un ballo in maschera. Heading an interesting cast in Mario Martone's production is Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas in the lead role of Riccardo, the Governor of Boston, who dies at the hands of his best friend Renato during a masked ball when the latter believes Riccardo has been engaged in an affair with his wife, Amelia. It's an innocent love, however, and Riccardo dies innocent of the crime for which he has been murdered.
Un ballo in maschera is one of the composer's most underrated mature works, and Riccardo has become something of a signature role for Vargas who, more than twenty years into a distinguished career, ranks amongst the world's finest lyric tenors. He partnered Renée Fleming in excerpts from Manon and La traviata in the Met gala given in her honour to open the 2008-09 season, came to London to sing Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni,and is now back to perform an opera by Verdi, whom he ranks as the greatest of all opera composers.
We meet during rehearsals for Un ballo and Vargas is a charming, direct and expressive interviewee, as well as being a keen advocate for his art form. When I ask why he thinks this piece remains so powerful 150 years after its premiere, he answers simply: 'Because in many ways it's a very modern story. It's something that happens every day. Many people in the audience will be able to relate what happens on stage to real life. Frustrated love is very human, and it's always happening.'

Read more here:

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/vargas-0609.shtml

Coming soon:

Reviews of Boheme, Orpheus, Ballo and Katya Kabanova at Opera Holland Park
Reviews of L'Amour de loin at ENO;
Barbiere, Ballo and Tosca at the ROH;
DiDonato, Hampson and Calleja in concert at the ROH;
Colin Davis and the LSO at the Barbican;
Oklahoma! at the Chichester Festival

Recording reviews:
the Danish Ring on DVD; Magdalena Kozena's Vivaldi disc; Corrado d'Altamura on Opera Rara; and the Mariinsky's new label