Kirill Petrenko restores swagger to La Scala
OrchestrasWe’re hearing breath-stopping accounts of the Rosenkavalier revival at La Scala, conducted by Kirill Petrenko of the Berlin Philharmonic in his first appearance at the matrix of Italian opera.
Giornale della Musica reports ‘endless applause’ for a conductor who ‘exceeded all expectations, indeed he left us amazed with how he worked on the colours of the orchestra, bringing it to a state of grace’. Il Foglio writes that ‘maestro Kirill Petrenko triumphed, making hearts beat with the nervous and electric pace of the moments of “pure” comedy and paying homage to eternal Vienna.’
The pianist Luca Ciammarughi specifies: ‘Petrenko’s attitude towards the orchestra looks like someone who says “I expect the best from you, but I will never behave in a punitive or authoritarian way: I want something from you because I would like to enjoy it, with you, to the highest degree possible.” It is this dynamic, psychological more than technical, which explains what appeared to many a kind of “miracle” that the conductor performed with the Scala orchestra.’
Officials at La Scala are quietly congratulating themselves with the coup. The elusive Kirill Petrenko has never agreed to conduct at the Met, Covent Garden or Paris. But La Scala can now continue to maintain it attracts all the world’s great conductors, bar none.
As long as it’s German or Russian repertory. You don’t want to hear his Verdi!
I want! Otello in Munich was sensational. And his Puccini (Tosca, Boheme, Trittico ) is as good as anything he does. By the way Mr. NL: He conducted in Covent Garden. His debut: Butterfly
I did .It was fantastic.No cheap italian”traditions”
Aside from Falstaff…I wouldn’t wish to hear, or play, ANYONE’S Verdi…….
you are wrong! His Verdi in Munich was fabulous and honestly he is by far the most exciting around
Kirill Petrenko has appeared at Covent Garden several times. I saw him conduct Der Rosenkavalier in December 2009 and Bluebeard/Erwartung in May 2006.
What was your thought? I was there for the 2009 Rosenkavalier, Isokoski was Marshallin. I can‘t say I remember much on his conducting, it was a restrained, elegant and well-sung performance. My guess is that the ROH orchestra did not fully follow what he wished. I listened to him in Munich doing Salome, totally different sound.
Hardly surprising, considering that Austro/German orchestras sound VERY different than British ones. The closest to the generally ‘darker’ German sound in London would be the L.P.O. on a really a good day. Just to be clear, that’s not a knock on British orchestras, as they’re excellent in wide variety of music.
That’s a long time ago.
I must have been hallucinating when I heard mo, petrenko conduct zauberflote, Ariadne (two seasons), and, above all, a stupendous khovanschina (sp) at the met; as usual, nl wants to score points against the met, often at the expense of getting his facts wrong; I also seem to remember reading about asuccessful appearances at covent garden; I suppose like every other “news” story these days the narrative comes before the facts; it is true that petrenko has severely cut back his operatic ventures since he took over to bavarian opera and the Berlin philharmonic and this is his first operatic venture outside of munich and baden-baden in over ten years
You’re 99.9% right – except for his “Rosenkavalier” in Vienna in November 2014, I believe.
(Sorry for smartassing.)
He conducted Salome in Munich in 2018
Kirill Petrenko has conducted at the Met, more than once. What are you talking about?
“The elusive Kirill Petrenko has never agreed to conduct at the Met, Covent Garden or Paris.”—False statement. Petrenko conducted at the Paris Opera as far back as 2003 (Don Giovanni).
I have not read a Rosenkavalier review like that since Carlos Kleiber passed. Good for Petrenko.
Petrenko also had an Elektra with Bergen Phil last year, but cancelled last minute, so indeed this would be the rare case where he actually guests conductor an opera production in 10 years.
Given he already done Die Frau and Elektra at Berlin, one may certainly hope he will also conduct the Rosenkavalier with Berliner in the next few years, possibly at the Salzburg Easter. But one also hear abt the rumour of Berliner Ring cycle at Salzburg, so why not both? One can only hope lol
Kirill Petrenko’s entry at the MET database includes 9 performances of Merry Widow, 10 of Ariadne auf Naxos, 8 of Zauberflöte, and 6 of Khovanshchina, though these were all from 2003-2012.
Kleiber lives again …
I heard Don Giovanni with him at the Opera National in Paris around 20 years ago.
Petrenko is stellar with opera in Baden-Baden, the contrast to BPO under Rattle couldn’t be more obvious. Sadly the staging usually is on the nonsense side as usual nowadays. Cheap seats are of the essence – saved money, partially protected view. Silver lining – this year (“Elektra”) an animated still picture appeared, de facto a “konzertante Oper”. Great progress and undisturbed musical quality.
Kirill Petrenko conducted Chowantschina at the MET in 2012.
and Don Giovanni in 2003 in Paris.
Isnt’ there a fact checker at SD ?
That’s us, unless our posts are censored. Sometimes we are advised to leave website or blocked.
Kirill Petrenko at the Met: 33 performances.
https://archives.metopera.org/MetOperaSearch/search.jsp?q=%22Kirill%20Petrenko%22&&sort=PDATE
Kirill Petrenko at Covent Garden: 29 performances
https://www.rohcollections.org.uk/SearchResults.aspx?searchtype=performance&page=0&person=Kirill%20petrenko
Kirill Petrenko’s bio on the Berlin Philharmonic’s website says that he has in fact conducted at the Met, Covent Garden, and Paris:
He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra national in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Bayreuth Festival.
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/about-us/orchestra/foundation/kirill-petrenko/
It’s shameful if Norman doesn’t revise this post to fix a factual mistake.
And do better. This is easily verifiable information.
In case anyone is wondering:
Stoyanova, Lindsey, Devieilhe, Groissböck…
As we know from the good old Munich house, his Strauss is superb.
Check your records. Maestro Petrenko conducted several seasons at the Met.
The photo is obviously not one of Rosenkavalier.
It could be Meistersinger, but only if there are a lot of chorus members not in view.
Not Falstaff, as it’s daylight and there’s no obvious Sir John. Freischütz, perhaps
Any bright ideas? It’s a bit like one of the regular questions on Face the Music.
It took me approximately 2 seconds to find this on Petrenko’s agent’s website:
“He has appeared as a guest conductor at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Opéra Bastille in Paris.”
https://www.arsis-artists.com/en/artists/kirill-petrenko
Kirill Petrenko has conducted at the MET Opera for at least 33 performances. See here:
https://archives.metopera.org/MetOperaSearch/search.jsp?q=%22Kirill%20Petrenko%22&src=browser&sort=PDATE
Didn’t he also conduct Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met with Nina Stemme; a truly memorable event. 2010 or thereabouts
We heard it in person on Saturday, Oct 19. While Kirill Petrenko is a brilliant conductor, and the singing cast was well balanced and well chosen, when it came to Richard Strauss, the orchestra at LaScala really is not on par with Berlin or Munich orchestras during the Petrenko era. In Milan the orchestra did not really succeed with the complex score, it was at its best in the overture and act 3, with many misses in-between. My impression was Petrenko did the best he could with the orchestra he got. The other big problem was the technical aspect of the staging. It is not clear if the late Harry Kupfer would have wanted this staging at LaScala due to severe acoustical compromise it imposed. Adapted from Salzburg Festival, the moving floor platforms where all the singing took place had to be placed at LaScala far behind the proscenium arch, which severely compromised most of the singers. La Scala has beautiful acoustics, but the singers need to be near proscenium for clarity and, in case of Rosenkavalier, acoustical boost to carry over occasionally dense orchestration. Third act was the best, and Petrenko received enthusiastic applause, deservedly so, as did Krassimira Stoyanova whose beautiful voice best overcame the acoustic obstacles from ill-conceived stage adaptation. Still I am happy we got to see it!!!