In 1781, Emperor Joseph II abolished serfdom, ensuring servants like Figaro and Susanna of some civil freedoms, including marriage. Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte reflect on changing times and the Count and Countess learn lessons in love and life.
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen streams its new production to to Slippedisc readers, courtesy of OperaVision. Director Tom Goossens interleaves the Italian libretto with his own imaginative Dutch. The conductor Marie Jacquot is a Mozart specialist. Together they navigate Nozze’s comedy and tragedy, virtuosity, and elaborate twists. As spirited as the opera itself, this is an artistic team to shake up our conventional expectations; like Mozart and Da Ponte themselves, they are respectfully sending up a passing generation. With them, we can ultimately rejoice in Mozart’s message of love, forgiveness and hope.
The opera is sung in Italian with subtitles in English, Italian and Dutch.
The Plot: take a philandering and arrogant Count who is no match for his wily servant Figaro and his soon-to-be-wife Susanna, as manipulative as she is charming. Add in one beautiful, disillusioned Countess and one irrepressible, testosterone-laden teenage boy Cherubino. Mix with the genius of Mozart and you have one of the most perfect operas ever written.
Streamed on 8th September 2023 at 1900 CET / 1800 London / 1300 NY
This is a delightful performance/documentary which grew out of a long-cherished dream of Sarah Willis, a young British French horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic. Her dream comes true here with a grand concert in which she performs with the young musicians of the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón, as well as a Cuban salsa mambo band. This is a musically irresistible encounter between musicians of different disciplines coming together in an exuberant combination of styles and cultures.
A joint celebration of Mozart as never before seen and heard, including works such as Mozart’s beautiful Horn Concerto No. 3 and lots of Cuban rhythms. Joyous original arrangements of Mozartian themes played by an irrepressible group of young Cubans who simply can’t help Mambo-ing to Mozart.
The director is Magdalena Zieba-Schwind who does a fine job expressing visually the joy the musicians find in each other and in the music, as well as the exceptional communication between conductor and soloist.
Click here to watch During lockdown, the innovative Garsington Opera made this series of performance/documentaries, examining operas through their other artisic connections. In this first episode, Music for the Eyes takes Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro as its focus, looking at the rise of the middle class, gardens and ambiguity in many works of 18th Century art.
These programmes look at opera side by side with visual art and literature to draw new connections between masterpieces. The series is presented by Garsington’s Johnny Langridge and art historian Dr Imogen Tedbury.
You can watch the Garsington production of Le Nozze di Figaro that provides the trigger for this documentary in full on Garsington’s YouTube channel.
I’d love to tell you that my bitter complaints to the San Francisco Opera about how my international readers couldn’t access their wonderful livestreamed productions because they didn’t start until 2am UK time, they immediately changed their minds, and, as a direct result of my complaints from over the sea, they are now livestreaming at a reasonable hour so we can all see them. But I can’t. I don’t know what caused this splendid turnabout but something did, and this girl isn’t going to ask any questions that might cause them to change their minds again.
Director Michael Cavanagh’s new production of Don Giovanni is the third and final chapter of San Francisco Opera’s multi-year Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy, presenting all three operatic collaborations by Mozart and poet Lorenzo Da Ponte.
The international cast is headed by Etienne Dupuis as Don Giovanni, Adela Zaharia as Donna Anna and Nicole Car as Donna Elvira, all in Company debuts: Christina Gansch (Zerlina), Luca Pisaroni (Leporello), Amitai Pati (Don Ottavio), Cody Quattlebaum (Masetto) and Soloman Howard (Commendatore). Parisian conductor Bertrand de Billy makes his Company debut conducting the 1788 Vienna version of the score.
The SF Opera Mozart-Da Ponte Trilogy launched in 2019 with the production of The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) set in America’s early postcolonial period when the American house setting and the nation itself were newly founded. The narrative arc continued in November 2021 with Cosi fan Tutte, in which Cavanagh’s “richly inventive touch” moved the action to the 1930s where the house has been converted into a country club and the characters find themselves at moral crossroads. The director and his creative team of set and projection designer Erhard Rom, costume designer Constance Hoffman and lighting designer Jane Cox conclude their vision for the trilogy with Don Giovanni, set 150 years after the previous instalment in an uncertain future where the house and society are crumbling.
The livestream is available from June 12 at 2 pm PT and thereafter on demand for 48 hours. It’s a great cast, don’t miss it.
I chose this one for the picture, of course. The boys are just too cute to ignore but, if you actually watch the programme, they can sing too. They’re members of The Australian Boys Choir and for this concert, on period instruments, they will join with The Vocal Consort and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra to present some of the finest 18th century choral repertoire.
It includes Mozart’s Spatzenmesse and also works by fraternal composers Joseph and Michael Haydn, conducted by Nicholas Dinopoulos. Soloists include – Soprano Suzanne Shakespeare, Contralto Emily Bauer-Jones – Tenor Henry Choo and Baritone Stephen Marsh.
This is a livestream on May 22 but all digital tickets come with 72-hour viewing starting from the morning after the concert so you can watch it from anywhere.
Click here for tickets March 31 7pm AEDT. $24AUD – Do check what time 7pm AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) is where you are This is a pocket-sized production of Mozart’s fantastical opera which is an ideal introduction to opera for the young, for opera neophytes and even for those who don’t think they can manage to sit through a full-length opera. This one is a judiciously and sensitively edited experience which may well encourage the previously opera-allergic to try another longer version, perhaps the Met’s or the Royal Opera.
Mozart’s timeless classic is on a search for truth and justice, love and enlightenment.
Here are the adventures of Prince Tamino, an Asian price, and the bird-catcher Papageno on their quest to rescue Princess Pamina. To assist their mission, they are given musical instruments with magical powers, which they use on their journey towards a deeper understanding of true love and happiness.
The Magic Flute is sung in German with English and traditional Chinese scene descriptions.
If you missed this performance of The Magic Flute from the Pacific Opera and Willoughby Symphony in February, here’s another chance to see it. All digital tickets come with a 72-hour viewing window starting from the morning after the concert.
Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision, brings you the live stream from Staatsoper Hannover of the first night of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Hannover Staatsoper was Oper magazine’s 2020 ‘Opera house of the year’.
Mozart’s great comic opera is a tale of intrigue, misunderstanding and forgiveness. Director Lydia Steier teases out the touching melancholy of the characters with the mixture of opulence and black humour.
She says: ‘We start the piece with the finale – with everyone standing around in pairs and happy and harmonious and it all worked out. And then when we see that again at the end of the piece, then we see how hollow and real almost hopelessly sad this ending is that people came together against their will.’
Conducted by Giulio Cilona. the production stars Germán Olvera as Count Almviva, Kiandra Howarth as Countess Almviva, Sarah Brady as Susanna, Richard Walshe as Figaro and Nina van Essen as Cherubino.
The Plot: A count has designs on his personal valet’s fiancée and is determined to stop their wedding taking place. Meanwhile, the countess tries to regain her husband’s love by any means necessary.
Available from Thursday 20th January 2022 at 19.30 CET, 18.30 London, 13.30 NY
The Magic Flute from RCM
Who doesn’t have memories of their time at school – a place of new discoveries, encounters with authority and perhaps the odd day dream at the back of the class? The Royal College of Music’s new production sets The Magic Flute in a secondary school and a dreamscape of hidden desires. Outstanding director Polly Graham explains this is the perfect backdrop for protagonists who are ‘on the cusp of sexual awakening, grappling with big intellectual ideas, and at a place in their lives where things happen for the first time, and where interactions with adults can be fraught.’ Michael Rosewell conducts a wealth of young talent on stage and in the pit – all not so long out of school themselves.
The Plot: Mozart’s last opera recounts the trials and tribulations of two opposing yet complementary young couples – Tamino and Pamina and Papageno and Papagena – who, in their search for love, journey through darkness to reach light and happiness.
Sung in German. Brought to Slippedisc New Year revellers courtesy of OperaVision.
Available from 1st January 2022 at 1700 CET, 1600 London, 1100 NY
December 18and thereafter for 72 hours, Australian time
You have to pedal fast if you want to catch this one. It’s only available until Wednesday. It looks like it might well be worth it. It’s the Australian Haydn Ensemble livestreamed from City Recital Hall in Sydney.
I particularly like the AHE’s programme notes which are very informative:
“AHE presents an orchestral programme featuring Mozart’s Prague Symphony, his stunning Piano Concerto No. 21, ‘Elvira Madigan’, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 38.
Mozart’s life was tragically cut short in 1791 at the tender age of just 35. In stark contrast, this was the same year that Haydn travelled to London, where he was viewed as a celebrity with his performances drawing huge crowds, and rose to the peak of his fame. Meanwhile, Mozart died in relative poverty in Vienna, a poignant juxtaposition of the lives of the two men. One wonders what Mozart would have achieved had he lived as long as Haydn.
This final programme for 2021 brings together one of Mozart’s most loved late piano concertos No. 21, made famous by the film Elvira Madigan, with his beautiful Prague Symphony and a powerful C minor symphony of Haydn.
The Prague Symphony, composed in late 1785, was premiered in Prague on Mozart’s first visit, from which came the work’s nickname.
The programme opens with Haydn’s powerful C minor Symphony No. 95 completed in 1791, the tragic year of Mozart’s death and during Haydn’s first visit to London. During that trip Haydn composed his set of twelve famous London Symphonies, of which this is the fourth. It is the only symphony of the set that the composer wrote in a minor key and without a slow introduction. The dramatic opening of the work in the powerful key of C minor sets the tone for a dramatic program. no 95.”
Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision, presents Bergen National Opera’s new production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with an excellent young all-Norwegian cast. Conducted by Edward Gardener and directed by Rodula Gaitanou. Tito is sung by Bror Magnus Tødenes and Vitellia by Beate Mordal .
Mozart’s last opera asks the deeply relevant question: who is the leader we want in times of crisis? It deals with the appalling jealousies, ambitions and love affairs during the reign of the Emperor Tito.
Plot: when his friend, blinded by love, is driven to an act of terrorism, the Emperor has to learn the personal cost of political power.
Sung in Italian. Subtitles are available in English, Italian and Norwegian.
Only available until 29th November 2021
Among the many things you can do in Salzburg between one opera and the next marzipan ball is visit the state-licensed prostitutes on the street where Mozart was born – just a few minutes’ stroll from where ‘Silent Night’ was first heard.
I offer this information from an official Salzburg tour site which was brought to my attention by artists who are being offered accommodation on the same lane.
Now prostitution may be an older profession than music and no-one would ever confuse one for the other. But it does seem callous, even by Austrian standards, to be selling both services off the same site and without the faintest wink of irony.
The sex workers, we are informed, ‘have little red lanterns in front of their main entrance’. I guess opera singers don’t.
Among the many things you can do in Salzburg between one opera and the next marzipan ball is visit the state-licensed prostitutes on the street where Mozart was born – just a few minutes’ stroll from where ‘Silent Night’ was first heard.
I offer this information from an official Salzburg tour site which was brought to my attention by artists who are being offered accommodation on the same lane.
Now prostitution may be an older profession than music and no-one would ever confuse one for the other. But it does seem callous, even by Austrian standards, to be selling both services off the same site and without the faintest wink of irony.
The sex workers, we are informed, ‘have little red lanterns in front of their main entrance’. I guess opera singers don’t.
