Kirill Petrenko restores swagger to La Scala

Kirill Petrenko restores swagger to La Scala

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

October 16, 2024

We’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.

Comments

  • Peter says:

    As long as it’s German or Russian repertory. You don’t want to hear his Verdi!

  • Graham says:

    Kirill Petrenko has appeared at Covent Garden several times. I saw him conduct Der Rosenkavalier in December 2009 and Bluebeard/Erwartung in May 2006.

    • Po Sung says:

      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.

      • B. Guerrero says:

        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.

    • Stephen says:

      That’s a long time ago.

  • olivia nordstadt says:

    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

  • Upper West Sider says:

    Kirill Petrenko has conducted at the Met, more than once. What are you talking about?

  • Singeril says:

    “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).

  • Save the MET says:

    I have not read a Rosenkavalier review like that since Carlos Kleiber passed. Good for Petrenko.

  • Brian says:

    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

  • MusicBear88 says:

    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.

  • Ernest says:

    Kleiber lives again …

  • Hermann Lederer says:

    I heard Don Giovanni with him at the Opera National in Paris around 20 years ago.

  • WU says:

    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.

  • professional musician says:

    Kirill Petrenko conducted Chowantschina at the MET in 2012.

  • Antoine says:

    and Don Giovanni in 2003 in Paris.

    Isnt’ there a fact checker at SD ?

  • Chiminee says:

    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.

  • NorCalMichael says:

    In case anyone is wondering:

    Stoyanova, Lindsey, Devieilhe, Groissböck…

  • IP says:

    As we know from the good old Munich house, his Strauss is superb.

  • Peter says:

    Check your records. Maestro Petrenko conducted several seasons at the Met.

  • Barney says:

    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.

  • Oliver says:

    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

  • All Things Considered says:

    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

  • kaa says:

    Didn’t he also conduct Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met with Nina Stemme; a truly memorable event. 2010 or thereabouts

  • Alex says:

    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!!!

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