All-new classical power couples of 2020
mainThere have been multiple changes since our last power list, due to divorce, death and other human drifts but the top place is unchanged. Anna is getting Yusif into all the best gigs.
New entrants include Mr and Mrs Kaufmann and some rising maestro partners.
Here’s the 2020 leaders board:
1 Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov
2 Met boss Peter Gelb, conductor Kerri-Lynn Wilson
3 Berlin maestro-for-life Daniel Barenboim, festival director Elena Bashkirova
4 LSO chief Sir Simon Rattle, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena
5 NY Philharmonic president Deborah Borda, Met’s chief development officer Coralie Toevs
6 Tenor Jonas Kaufmann, aspiring director Christiane Lutz
7 Tenor Roberto Alagna, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak
RENDEZ-VOUS 🇮🇹 | On 8th August 2020, @roberto_alagna will make his debut on the stage of the @arenadiverona ! He will embody #Turiddu + #Canio in a #GalaPerformance of the double bill CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA by Mascagni and PAGLIACCI by Leoncavallo.#Verona #Summer2020 #CAVPAG pic.twitter.com/ghaeZBFKdd
— Roberto Alagna (@roberto_alagna) December 18, 2019
8 Antwerp conductor Elim Chan is engaged to hot percussionist Dominique Vleeshouwers
9 Conductors’ agent Michael Lewin, soprano Anja Kampe
10 Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, conductor Rafael Payare
11 Mezzo-soprano Elena Garanca, conductor Karel Mark Chichon
11 = Soprano Kristine Opolais, tenor Jonathan Tetelman
13 Violinist Nicola Benedetti, composer-trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
14 Glyndebourne hosts Gus Christie, soprano Danielle DeNiese
15 Soprano Sonya Yoncheva, conductor Domingo Hindoyan
16 Outgoing Minnesota music director Osmo Vänskä and concertmaster Erin Keefe
17 BBC conductor Sakari Oramo, soprano Anu Komsi
18 Trumpeter Alison Balsom and director Sam Mendes
19 Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, violist Pierre Tourville
20 Cellist David Finckel and pianistWu Han, chamber music entrepreneurs
21 Soprano Kate Royal, singer and film actor Julian Ovenden
21 = Soprano Miah Persson, tenor Jeremy Ovenden
23 Nino Machaidze, baritone Guido Loconsolo.
24 Soprano Diana Damrau, bass-baritone Nicola Testé
25 Conductor Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Amanda Forsyth
26 Conductors Holly Mathieson and Jon Hargreaves
27 Composers Kaija Saariaho and Jean-Baptiste Barrière
28 Hollywood composers Eimar Noone and Craig Stuart Garfinkle
29 Pianist David Fray, director Chiara Muti
30 Conductor David Robertson, pianist Orli Shaham
31 US tenor Charles Castronovo, Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina
off-piste: singer Placido Domingo, director Marta Domingo
conductor Charles Dutoit, violinist Chantal Juillet
Lucky Yusif Eyvazov.
What about Eva-Maria Westbroek & Frank van Aken?
hetero-normative
Oh, I see. Gay people shouldn’t form couples. What a little bossy-boots you are!
I think “equality” was commenting on the list, not expressing a heteronormative point of view. (I did find two gay couples on the list, out of 30… I wonder if there are any/many others with a high enough profile to make this list.)
Definition: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=hetero-normative
Who knows what he meant? I think my reading was as plausible as yours. Forming couples has sometimes been branded a hetero thing which gay people shouldn’t ‘mimic’.
Maybe some gay couples are wary of having the word get out, in case (say) it might be thought to stand in the way of one of them getting romantic tenor leads.
Both points seriously antiquated today…
Come on, it s a small world. They cannot elect profane partners, they pair within their own circle of trust.
It happens in all walks of life.
You forgot Bonnie and Clyde, who I notice really aren’t on the list….
strange….
Maybe they got shot.
No, um, I thought it was auditions for them…
Sort of the Queen of the Night and Sarastros at it again.
But you’re right, they got shot. Could have been a 110 years old power couple in the classical vein otherwise.
But it seems the opera has come out
https://newclassic.la/2017/03/10/second-take-bonnie-clyde/
https://theindustryla.org/projects/bonnie-and-clyde/
Still strange though, this is making me nervous, and I’m supposed to be happy they aren’t at large anymore?
Anyhow, “power couple” as it goes, and since there’s such a need for target practice: what’s good about them, what’s not good, what’s terrible, what’s wonderful, what everyone else should think about them or also be considered such or not such, might as well have two that are used to getting shot at.
Just hand in your unnecessary target practice supplies here
https://time.com/5754267/new-zealand-hand-in-guns-assault-weapon-ban/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=world_&linkId=79464150
Gosh, I am so out of it. I had no idea Nicola Benedetto and Winton Marsalis were a couple. They may not be the most powerful pair from the list, but they have to be the best looking.
Benedetti, that is. (Darn autocorrect!)
I wonder what is the evidence for this.
Wow… Michael Lewin, and Anja Kampe… Wasn’t Petrenko in a relationship with Kampe just a few years back?!? And hasn’t Lewin planned/designed Petrenkos career since the beginning? How does their relationship work?
Same curiosity here… would love more color as Kampe is simply fascinating as a singer and always very nice and kind to fans… hope she’s having a great time with this lucky guy!
Are you sure Nicola and Wynton are a couple? I know he wrote her a concerto, but they don’t look like a couple.
They may not be romantically involved, but have known each other for about 20 years now — thus the violin concerto. Perhaps “friends with benefits”?
Yes, but *those* benefits???
How do Kate Royal and Julian Ovenden outrank Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth? Has anyone written a double concerto for them?
Number 11 is a mezzo-soprano, and her name is spelled Elīna Garanča.
Pinchas Zukerman still plays violin more than he conducts. He should be listed as violinist/conductor.
Greatest living violinist
Surprised that Olga Peretyatko and conductor Michele Mariotti, surely among the very best looking couples out there, are not on the list
No longer a couple, I’m afraid.
They’re divorced as of 2018, she married in 2020 Bass Grigory Shkarupa from Berlin and just had a baby at the end of January.
Bartoli & Oliver Widmer
Did Nicola Benedetti break up with Leonard Elschenbroich? From when? they looked good together…
Simone Alberghini ,Italian Bass-baritone and wife Anna Goryachova ,Russian mezzo-soprano . Netrebko started a relationship with Simone Alberghini when they met each other during performances of Rigoletto at the Washington National Opera in 1999. She announced their engagement but did not consider marrying due to a busy schedule. In May 2007 their relationship was confirmed as ended.
Yeah…she contracted Erwinitis lol
Kristine Opolais and Jonathan Tetelman are no longer together, he had a baby with someone else and supposedly later , last summer was a wedding, I wonder who that is …