Decca Releases a New Recording of Fidelio Starring Nina Stemme & Jonas Kaufmann, Available August 2, 2011

By -

Recorded Live at the Lucerne Festival with Claudio Abbado Conducting

Fidelio is known not only as Beethoven’s only opera but also for the demanding lead roles for both soprano and tenor. Decca is proud to release an all-new recording of the opera starring Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann, two singers who effortlessly bring new life to these notoriously demanding roles. Claudio Abbado conducts the opera, recorded live during the 2010 Lucerne Festival, which will be released in the US on August 2, 2011.

The central tenor role of Florestan in Fidelio is known as one of the most demanding and difficult in all of opera and it has tested the limits of many great tenors for the past two centuries. For his first complete opera recording for Decca, Jonas Kaufmann, “the world’s greatest currently performing tenor” (London’s Daily and Sunday Express), delivers everything the role demands: fearless tone, peerless style, and heart-stopping dramatic intensity. His full-throated delivery of Florestan’s great aria in Act 2 reaches a level of excitement rarely achieved by most tenors.

Kaufmann is partnered by the exquisite Swedish soprano Nina Stemme. Of her recent performances in Wagner’s Ring Cycle the San Francisco Chronicle stated that “the triumph of this Ring has been the Brünnhilde of soprano Nina Stemme, in a performance of steely power, tonal bloom and dramatic depth.” Stemme brings uncommon warmth of sound and depth of character to the role of Leonore and is a match for Kaufmann’s power.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more