Marianne Crebassa

The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and their forbidden love has inspired countless versions, from opera to cinema. Among the most evocative is that by Vincenzo Bellini, one of the most infrequently performed bel canto composers. I Capuleti e i Montecchi returns to La Scala in a new production conducted by Speranza Scappucci and marking the debut of Adrian Noble, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for thirteen years. The cast features some of the most outstanding contemporary Bellini voices.

Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro returned to Teatro alla Scala in 2016 in a new production directed by Frederic Wake-Walker and conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Created to mark the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, the staging offers a fresh perspective on the composer’s celebrated comedy of love, deception and social hierarchy. Antony McDonald designed the sets and costumes, framing the intricate intrigues surrounding Figaro and Susanna’s wedding. The international cast features Markus Werba as Figaro, Golda Schultz as Susanna, Diana Damrau as the Countess, Marianne Crebassa as Cherubino, and Carlos Álvarez or Simon Keenlyside as Count Almaviva.

As Christof Loy put it: Così fan tutte invites us to embrace the complexity of life and face the future with heads held high. In his staging of the version he abridged with Joana Mallwitz for the Salzburg Festival 2020 the focus is wholly on the figures and the subtle choreography of their emotional states — in a space that like a magnifying glass exposes the intricate mechanisms between the characters. In this way the production leads the protagonists and the audience to experience the ‘serene calm’ that can perhaps indeed cure our own ‘distempers’.

The Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Alla Scala conducted by Marc Minikowski; Teatro alla Scala, Milan, March 2015

Amour, the messenger of the gods, tells Orpheus that he may descend to the underworld and return with Eurydice. His singing has the power to appease the Furies and animate the blessed Shadows. Yet, his voice cannot reassure Eurydice who despairs of the feigned indifference of Orpheus, put to the test by Jupiter. Raphaël Pichon conducts the opera of operas and Aurélien Bory displays the giddiness of the mental and supernatural spaces traveled by Orpheus and beyond. Marianne Crebassa plays a new breeches role with Hélène Guilmette (Hélène in Le Timbre d’argent) and Lea Desandre (the title role in Alcione).

Picture a day like this recounts the story of a woman bereft at the loss of her baby, who is told that she has a chance to restore her infant to life: "Find one happy person in this world and cut one button from their sleeve. Do it before night and your child will live." After a series of initially promising encounters end in disappointment, can she pull off the miracle she needs? Find out in this fable about human nature, a tale of self-discovery where the flow of music—performed by the excellent Mahler Chamber Orchestra, marking their 25th anniversary—follows the flow of life.

How do we live together in an age of conflict? How do you heal a divided and angry people? In their 2017 production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Peter Sellars and Teodor Currentzis examine these questions through the story of a warrior-emperor who brings peace to his divided land and pardons his own would-be assassins. Written under a time crunch (legend has it that it was written in only 18 days, although it is likely an exaggeration) during the last year of Mozart’s life, the opera is based on a libretto written more than half a century earlier by Pietro Metastasio. It was commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, and received its first public performance at the Estates Theatre in Prague on September 6, 1791.

“Nothing is harder to put on stage than lightness. And humor is the sharpest weapon of the desperate. That is why it is an obligation, indeed a must, to enjoy this Figaro by Jürgen Flimm at the Staatsoper to the fullest.“ (ARD Radio) This production of “Le nozze di Figaro” is directed by the former artistic director of the Staatsoper Berlin, Jürgen Flimm, who characterizes it as follows: “Figaro is by far the best work ever devised for the stage; it combines everything that moves the human heart and mind – forlorn hope, pleasantry, satire, profound significance, also much ado about nothing and vain amours.”

Divested of its traditional attributes – glass slipper and pumpkin carriage – and dominated by a tyrannical stepfather instead of a cruel stepmother, Rossini’s la Cenerentola plays with these most conventional of fairy‑tale characters. Nonetheless Cinderella lives in a closed world devoid of tenderness and under the yoke of the tormentor whom she protects. Deep beneath her goodness smoulders a fire that her encounter with the prince will set free… Guillaume Gallienne subtly highlights the halftones of this dramma giocoso, somewhere between opera buffa and opera seria, and ranging from sombre melancholy to the burlesque.

This release from Erato consists of highlights from the live concert of April 15, 2017 in the city of Strasbourg in eastern France. A magnificent cast of singers, predominantly Francophone, assembled under the baton of John Nelson, an acknowledged master of Berlioz’s music who has conducted Les Troyens more frequently than anyone else over a period of more than 40 years; he made his name with the piece when he led performances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1974 and enjoyed great acclaim for a production at the Frankfurt Opera shortly before the Strasbourg concerts.

Filmed production of the 2016 Scala production of the famous opera.