Another Marriage of Figaro? Really?

Do we need another Le Nozze di Figaro? Well, I do. It's my favorite opera. And Luca Pisaroni as Figaro makes any Nozze a don't-miss performance! In honor of his recent San Francisco appearance (and in lieu of a recording of those performances), here he is. There are some other singers and a conductor, too. 

Figaro – Luca Pisaroni

Susanna – Rosemary Joshua

Il Conte Almaviva – Pietro Spagnoli

La Contessa Almaviva – Annette Dasch

Cherubino – Angelica Kirchschlager

Marcellina – Sophie Pondjiclis

Antonio – Alessandro Svab

Bartolo – Antonio Abete

Don Basilio – Enrico Facini

Barbarina – Pauline Courtin

Don Curzio – Serge Goubioud

Conductor – Rene Jacobs

Following Earwormopera Around on YouTube

Lately it seems that every third interesting opera video I click on is posted by none other than the blogger known as Earwormopera, under the nom d'Tube musicalpunchlines. 

This is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a very good thing*. Clearly, Earworm and I have very similar tastes. In fact, many of my readers may know that I was greatly inspired by the Earworm to start my own blog. (Fans of this blog can thank Earworm. Non-fans can...well, non-fans can do whatever you want—so long as it's not illegal or immoral.)

Since I've been kind of stuck in Don Giovanni-land lately, I'd like to share one of my (many) favorite clips from the Claus Guth production in Salzburg, featuring one of Earworm's and my all-time favorite sopranos: Dorothea Röschmann.

*In fact, the only thing better would be if there were even more clips on the musicalpunchlines channel! (Hint, hint!)

Lohengrin at La Scala – Impressions from the Cinema

Not surprisingly, one picks up a lot more of an opera performance when sitting attentively in the theater and paying attention to the screen; not checking email; not looking up odd words in the subtitles; not googling the baritone to see what else he’s done, etc. There was a post not long ago over at operaramblings about this phenomenon. 

This production is way more powerful than it was on YT. Guth’s ideas about this story are predictably dark, but not necessarily as weird as some of his other productions.

The La Scala Lohengrin – I think I may be in love with Annette Dasch (Sort of an Actual Review)

Watching Annette Dasch's Milan Elsa—similarly bewildered as her Bayrueth Elsa but more girlish—I thought, “I really love this girl.” Elsa von Bayreuth is already set up as a martyr, and one feels distanced from her. But Elsa di Milano is more of a dreamy, innocent girl; she seriously doesn’t know what she’s getting in to. Elsa's fascination is not romantic love at all to me. She's intrigued. She's attracted. It's like she just found a puppy (a really, really cute puppy). When it dawns on her that Lohengrin might really be Gottfried, (and egged on by Ortrud) she just has to find out. 

Jonas Kaufmann is Lohengrin – Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

Well! Call me late for dinner. I was idly browsing the net to see who else was writing about the 2012 La Scala Lohengrin, and I discovered that a film distributor called Emerging Pictures is presenting the opera in movie theaters [in the US] this winter. 

In addition to indie films, Emerging Pictures has an opera and ballet series, and they're offering a series of performances from London and Milan over the next few months. Like all good websites, you enter your zip code to find theaters near you. Most theaters seem to be showing it only once or twice. Living in a major metro area, I have a choice of two dates in February at a cinema nearby, or two dates in January at a theater a bit further away. 

Since La Scala had the YouTube video of Lohengrin pulled (can you blame them?), and since opera is way better in the cinema than on a laptop, I'm looking forward to seeing this on the big screen. Boy, am I glad I was wandering around the net this afternoon. The internet: it's not just for porn anymore.  

After this post, I'm going to see if I can go a whole week without posting about JK. I'll give it a try, but I'll tell you right now, I'm not optimistic!

Kaufmann is Lohengrin at La Scala: The Video (Another Pre-Review)

Well, I finally found it! I am probably a bit late to the party. I've only viewed bits on my iPhone, and the quality there was not great, but given the other comments at YT, I would guess that's a connection issue on my end.

I don't think I've ever heard JK sing better. Annette Dasch sounds better to me than in the Bayreuth recording; and she stepped in more or less at the last minute here. Evelyn Herlitzius may just be the best current Ortrud (sorry, Petra Lang, I still love you, too.) René Pape is suitably regal. 

More Lohengrin, More on Regie, and More Blog Posts I Wish I had Written

Today's Operaramblings pointed me in the direction of a post here at barczablog. Well, actually it directed me to a different post, but I'm linking this post because today's post makes more sense if you read yesterday's first. 

If you have any interest at all in the new La Scala Lohengrin, the work of Claus Guth, Jonas Kaufmann, or Annette Dasch, or Regieoper in general, you need to read this. In this post, Mr. Barcza said, in part:

Regietheater is simply a response to who we are. While texts seem to be etched in stone, humanity (thank goodness) is not.