Cleveland Orchestra will stage two operas in its 100th year
mainFranz Welser-Möst has announced plans for a Tristan and Isolde with Nina Stemme and Gerhard Siegel, along with a revival of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen, as part of the orchestra’s centennial season in 2017-18.
There will also be a complete Beethoven symphonic cycle and two European tours.
Very underwhelming. They did Vixen 3 years ago. And how is Tristan about Cleveland? And a Beethoven symphony cycle? Lame.
Looks to me like a fairly interesting season; even the tried-and-true programs look thoughtfully conceived. I don’t think you can do Tristan or any Janacek opera too often.
Ho hum…what a dull, uninspired season. They’ve played everything over and over. Another Beethoven cycle? Really? Mahler 6 & 9? Not done those before? Rite of Spring? Rachmaninoff 2nd…and we wonder why audiences stay away. But it is the Cleveland Orchestra and they play fabulously and I’m sure that they’ll fill the seats. The only thing worth traveling to Cleveland for is the Suk Asrael Symphony. Maybe Elgar 2 which rarely gets played in the US.
FWM conducted Mahler 6 here in Cleveland a few years ago (also when the orchestra was in Miami). It was an excellent performance–big improvement over the Mahler 2 a few years earlier. I’m very excited to hear their performance of Mahler 9.
This week, the orchestra performed an unusual all-Stravinsky program of Apollo, Threni, Fireworks, and Symphonies of Wind Instruments. So it’s fine with me to have the Rite of Spring back next year.
User name checks out.
Even less reasons to travel to Chicago.
Ya know, I think I’d survive a season like that!
Ennui ensues.
Franzie was underwhelming with the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera. You can have him!
He has changed over the last few years. His conducting is much more emotionally involved.
Vixen … again?
How about groundhog, as in groundhog day…every year for 100 years, the same programming, over and over and over again.
The headline should say ‘perform’, not ‘stage’. The orchestra’s website lists a stage director for ‘Vixen’, but not for ‘Tristan’. In this era of regieoper/Eurotrash many people would count that as a plus. For those who think this is a boring season, when was the last time a full ‘Tristan’ was performed in Cleveland? And this one is with Nina Stemme, no less.
FWM and Cleveland are offering a fine 100 anniversary season – some repeats of works audience wants, many new works. Emphasis on education, community. Audience this month included a good demographic mix for both St John Passion and Stravinsky concerts. And there is energy in Severance Hall that big cities can envy. That tour schedule also includes Japan.
When FWM guest-conducted our orchestra while still in his 20s, after several masterfully led rehearsals he became so “emotionally involved” during concerts that it looked to me like he was going to fall off the podium at any moment. It was always my impression that he later realized that it is impossible and unnecessary – indeed probably counterproductive – to be physically emoting that much in performances and therefore decided to keep his gestures and body language intentionally restrained while conducting in concerts. Internally, he was of course just as musically committed and expressively intense as ever during his consequent visits to our orchestra and later when I experienced his conducting as a listener. Therefore I consider his reputation of being “cold” totally unjustified and based much more on visual impressions than on musical results. It does not surprise me at all that in spite of all the criticism he has been subject to during last two decades, the orchestra of Cleveland’s caliber keeps renewing his contract because they understand and value his high quality as their principal conductor.