Opera is at stake on slippedisc.com tonight
OperaInspired by Schiller’s tragedy, Tchaikovsky wrote The Maid of Orleans about the famous French heroine between 1878 and 1879. While Schiller sees her as an innocent, momentarily tempted by love for Lionel, Tchaikovsky permits Joan to indulge fully in her love and then die in religious ecstasy. Here is a historical heroine with something of the Tatyana from Eugene Onegin about her. Tchaikovsky’s score is filled with the same passion, with orchestral tumult, grand choruses, and beautiful arias, many reserved for Joan herself. Deutsche Oper am Rhein’s 2023 production has been ecstatically received by audiences and critics alike for Elisabeth Stöppler’s powerful staging (of an opera with quite some dramatic challenges) and for the outstanding performance of Maria Kataeva as the heroine leading a top-class ensemble. Brought to you by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision.
The Plot: in the grips of the Hundred Years War against England, the French find themselves in a difficult situation: Paris has fallen, Orléans is besieged, and their king, Charles VII, appears more interested in his affairs of the heart than those of the state. In this hopeless situation, the farmer’s daughter Joan announces that God has commissioned her to liberate Orléans. The ‘Maid of Orléans’ may be victorious in battle but loses her heart in passion to a Burgundian knight, Lionel. The flames consume a woman torn between love and her divine mission.
Subtitles in English and German.
Available on 29 September 2023 at 1900 CET / 1800 London/ 1300 NY
The historic Joan of Arc favored breastplate armor rather than T-shirts.
Thank you for streaming this very rarely produced opera. I love the music and the orchestra, chorus and singers were splendid. Didn’t care for the modernized production, where everything takes place in one room on one set and the dance was cut.
Musically, one of Tchaikovsky’s most sumptuous, glorious works.