Vienna Opera chief will conduct the next 12 nights out of 13
NewsThe house reopens tonight after Covid lockdown but with multiple dropouts.
Music director Philippe Jordan has agreed to step in for Franz Welser-Möst in Verdi’s Don Carlo.
That means he’s conducting almost every night between now and Christmas.
Other changes to Don Carlo:
María José Siri has stepped in as Elisabeth for an unwell Asmik Grigorian;
Ain Anger comes in for Dmitry Ulyanov as the grand Inquisitor;
and René Pape jumps in for Anger as Philip II.
Just another bit of Covid recasting.
Jordan’s stamina will get a good testing.
Time to wristercise.
This is a piece of luck for both singers and audience, if it doesn’t wear him out. I thought he did a superb job with the Don Carlos he conducted at the Bastille a few years ago. (And I don’t much care for FWM.)
His work at Paris was fantastic. Outside of France they didn’t talk enough about that. And there’s no suprise that he’s in Vienna now
The rate at which Omicron seems to be spreading at the moment, I wouldn’t rely on any casting anywhere until the curtain is up.
Oh, is that a new opera?? From the ‘safetyism’ genre.
No, it’s just facing the fact that many performers are likely to test positive over the coming weeks and will sensibly choose to self-isolate rather than appear on stage. I’m not sure why you feel the need to sneer.
Philippe Jordan can do that. No problem. he did also Les Troyens in Paris, it’s not Cavalleria rusticana for the duration… I have seen him at Bayreuth for the Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The third act very very long and he was in perfect shape at the moment to salut the public at the end. He can do 40 evenings in a row.
I’ve seen him conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Nobody moves from Philip II to Inquisitor voluntarily.
Now THIS is a music director who puts first the company to which he is fully committed. No month off to “re-engergize”…
That comes much later, with a big remuneration package.
And your point?
Reminiscent of some of the work loads Mahler undertook in the 1890s- documented in the early volumes of de la Grange’s biography.
Absolutely… that was my first thought.
I think this rivals it, but admit he had a few days off — on at least one of which he played an all-Carter chamber program.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1880940.stm
Fabio Luisi conducted all seven shows at the Met one week. (Neither Toscanini nor Levine quite pulled that off. On Sunday, he rested, one trusts. And no, he did not do it again the following week.)
Philippe Jordan Top, Top, Top in Bayreuth where I heard his magnificent Parsifal and Meistersinger where he save the operas from Stefan Herheim and Barry Kosky inept staging.
Both stagings – especially Kosky’s Meistersinger – were absolutely mind blowing.