Zurich Opera News
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2024-04-24
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2024-01-22 07:34:00
Let the dialogue flow: Benjamin Bernheim leads a wonderfully memorable account of Massenet's Werther in Zurich
Massenet: Werther - Benjamin Bernheim, Valeriy Murga - Zurich Opera (Photo: Toni Suter)Massenet: Werther; Benjamin Bernheim, Rihab Chaieb, Sandra Hamaoui, Audun Iversen, Valeriy Murga, director: Tatjana Gürbaca/Nina Russi, conductor: Giedrė Šlekytė; Zurich OperaReviewed 19 January 2024One of those performances created by people who understood what is needed in Massenet's opera with one of the most finely sung accounts of the title role that I have ever heard. Pure magicZurich Opera debuted its production of Massenet's Werther at Zurich Opera House in 2017, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca with Juan Diego Florez in the title role. On Friday 19 January 2024, the production received its first revival (revival director Nina Russi), conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė with Benjamin Bernheim in the title role, Rihab Chaieb making her house debut as Charlotte, Sandra Hamaoui as Sophie, Audun Iversen as Albert and Valeriy Murga as Le Bailli.Werther has an important Swiss history. Written in 1885, it was rejected by the […]
2023-10-28 07:22:00
Exploring his musical roots: conductor Duncan Ward chats about his jazz-inspired, Eastern European & French music coming up with the London Symphony Orchestra
[…] LSO is not a period ensemble, it is not of the most flexible that there are, and he feels super lucky to work with them and he first conducted them at the age of 20 in a masterclass. Since then he has done a range of concerts including streamed ones, smaller programmes, string ensembles at LSO St Luke's, and Stockhausen's Gruppen in the Tate Turbine Hall.Coming up he has Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Zurich Opera, and when Duncan and I spoke (in June this year), he was about to go to the dress rehearsal of the 2023 revival of Peter Hall's classic production at Glyndebourne Opera [see my review]. Performing such repertoire in Europe, there is far less baggage and it can be liberating. He describes A Midsummer Night's Dream as a masterpiece, and he recently saw it in Frankfurt. Other Britten operas he has worked on include Peter […]
2023-01-13 06:52:00
Metropolitan Opera. Giordano's Fedora. January 11, 2023.
[…] much of the praise she has received. Tonight her acting was simply flat, despite her putting a "sad face" on most of the time. Her voice was good, but lacked the emotion I expected of her. At the end of the day, she isn't quite ready to take Netrebko's place.My first encounter with Beczala was him in role of Rodolfo in Luisa Miller at the Met in April, 2018, and role of Werther at the Zurich Opera a month later. He dispatched the main aria with ease, and got the only applause during the opera. Perhaps today I was a bad listener, out of the four performances I have seen him in, tonight's was the flattest. The Met put out him singing this aria on YouTube.I wonder if the apparent lack of chemistry between the principals contributed to how the performance was perceived. (Conjecture on my part, of course.)The bright […]
2022-11-01 15:09:56
Switzerland's Zurich Opera Extends Music Director Contract
[…] The post appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.
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