Travelling and enjoying opera performances
I have been trying to get a chance to see prima donna assoluta of bel canto Edita Gruberova for last three years without success. There have been rumours that this is her final season for staged operas, and thus to get to see her performing in the legendary role of Queen Elisabetta in “Roberto Devereux” […]
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It was my first premiere performance of 2019 – and the next one after premiere performance of “Otello” which I almost missed on November 23rd last year. I love Puccini, but somehow “La Fanciulla” is not on the top of my list, nevertheless, with the right cast and staging it should come on par with […]
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Unquestionably, the most exciting event of the season was the premiere of “Otello” with Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros in Munich. The demand for premiere, according to rumors, exceeded seating capacity of Nationaltheater 25 times, while for the total run of 7 performances number of ticket requests exceeded 100 000. Thus, when receiving email informing […]
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The performance of “La traviata” while booking tickets for Munich opera festival was not an intentional choice – my prime target was another Verdi gem – “Les Vêpres siciliennes” on Sunday, and as interim event on Saturday I put it in the booking. Somehow I did not pay too much attention on the planned cast, […]
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My intent when booking the ticket for another “Tales of Hoffmann” was to see Aleksandra Kurzak interpreting all 4 roles, and to see how Ildar Abdrazakov will play 4 various villains. None of it materialised since both pulled out and were replaced: Kurzak by a combo of Olga Pudova and Diana Damrau, and Abdrazakov by […]
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That was a second consecutive night in Munich with the production of Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Munich Opera Festival – following the very successful premiere of “Die Gezeichneten” a night before. Therefore, my main challenge was to put aside impressions of the previous night and look into layers of symbolism created by the team for […]
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The excitement was in the air, and just looking around you can notice an obvious difference in the audience of the premiere night – most of the people know each other, greeting, chatting and looking for the rooms where their designated reception is held. The main sponsor of BSO, The Linde Group, gathers their crowd at […]
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The bad news came a week or so before the performance – Jonas Kaufmann cancelling all next month performances, starting with Meistersinger in Munich.. Should I cancel the trip and wait for next opportunity? When decided to go regardless of cast changes I made up my mind not to expect too much from the performance […]
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Werther as the character of most famous suicidal poet is probably known by everyone who have read Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther) in their youth, for most of us – as part of compulsory program in foreign literature class. Even if many years have passed since graduation, the […]
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It has been already quite a time since I enjoyed fantastic performances at Bayerisches Opernfestspiele or Munich Opera Festival. For me it is second year in a row when I carefully plan extended weekend with great hope to get all wished- for tickets from the Bayerisches Staatsoper box office in line with priorities defined in some 8 […]
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