March 23, 2006: La Favorite in Zurich

2006-03-23 La Favorite (Donizetti), Opernhaus Zurich

Leonor de Guzman = Vesselina Kasarova
Fernand = Fabio Sartori
Inez = Jaël Azzaretti
Alphonse = Roberto Servile
Balthazar = Carlo Colombara
Don Gaspar = Eric Huchet

Marc Minkowski, conductor



La Favorite - Donizetti
In französischer Sprache

Dirigent Marc Minkowski
Inszenierung Philippe Sireuil
Bühnenbild Vincent Lemaire
Kostüme Jorge Jara
Choreographie Avi Kaiser
Choreinstudierung Jürg Hämmerli
Lichtgestaltung Hans-Rudolf Kunz


First time that I saw Vesselina Kasarova live. And I liked the mezzo voice. Only wish it was La Favorita and not La Favorite. O mio Fernando would have been better than O mon Fernand. But today everybody likes to have the original. Well I think Favorita in Italian is better than Favorite in French. But will the operahouses nowadays dare to take the Italian Version that used to be more popular than the French (times has always been changing that). Nice voice, nice acting, nice woman, Kasarova. Unfortunately I found her voice not always as florid as I wished.

Jaël Azzaretti (Inez) was marvelous. Loved her singing. And Carlo Colombara (Balthazar) was as always wonderful, how I love his voice, deep and sonorous. Fabio Sartori (Fernand) has a good voice, beautiful and had he been slimmer then I would understand why Leonor fell for him. One was not always so aware of physical appearance when one listen to such a voice and he was also act, so he became Fernand. Roberto Servile (Alphonse) was not an ideal Alphonse, so unlike Carlos Alvarez in Vienna who I found very attractive as the King. Roberto Servile still had some great moments with Leonor but his thick and not so florid singing gave some rough moments.

The production: very nice scenography but unfortunately the team who created this Favorite had not believed this bel-canto opera good enough to stand on its own feet. La Favorite and the story here need not any more symbolism, just let it unfold. The director though he had good ideas, Fernand is only dreaming this etc. Just let us believe it, that the people and their feelings are real.

But worst of all the ballet, it was actually booed, not something that I believe happened frequently in Zurich. The King is throwing a party/ an entertainment for his mistress, the Favorite, Leonor. But the ballet is an insult to Leonor and an insult to the audience, do you really believe we are stupid, that we do not see the injustice to the women, the double morale. It was really such a disappointment to have that ballet moment done that way right in the middle of a fine opera evening. IT WAS JUST A VERY stupid IDEA.

It was the ballet alone that made a FIVE of even SIX star production become just a 3 star. Luckily the ballet did not end the opera, but it was life a knife in your heart that one. SENSELESS, stupid. Thank God, Carlo Colombara was singing in the last act, his aria was just really the best thing in the whole evening. What a voice!!!!

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October 13, 2012: I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (Bellini) in Oslo

2012-10-13 I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (Bellini), Den Norske Opera & Ballett (Oslo)

Giulietta = Marita Sølberg
Romeo = Vesselina Kasarova
Capellio = Magne Fremmerlid
Tebaldo = Diego Torre
Lorenzo = Yngve André Søberg

Antonio Fogliani, conductor
Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Chorus and Orchestra

It was Vesselina Kasarova's debut in Oslo's new opera house, but it was Marita Sølberg's triumph.

It was strange being in Oslo for an opera. This was a concertant opera. But that was not it. My mother died early Monday morning. And now on Sunday this opera, I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, a Romeo and Julia story. My mother died of breast cancer. This time it had spread through her body.

I still liked Bellini's music and the opera, but I could not get into it. It was too far away from my life. Marita Sølberg was fantastic. Her voice is so warm and so she was the ideal Giulietta. Vesselina Kasarova is, of course, the famous Bulgarian mezzo, but I have never really warmed up to her. She was a teenage Romeo, walking strangely about. Her voice was more soprano than mezzo. Diego Torre was a wonderful Tebaldo. Loved his tenor voice. Magne Fremmerlid as Cappelio and Yngve Andre Søberg as Lorenzo are two amazing basses who sang well. The conductor Antonio Fogliani worked hard to get the right sounds from the orchestra. The chorus sang well. It would have been wonderful if it could have become staged this opera, but that was not to be this time.

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My original blog post

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com If you want to see more photos from my OperaDuets Travels, go to www.operaduetsphotos.com

May 21, 2011: Samson et Dalila in Berlin

2011-05-21 Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns),Deutsche Oper Berlin

Samson = José Cura
Dalila = Vesselina Kasarova
Abimelech = Jörn Schümann
High Priest = Laurent Naouri
Ancient Hebrew = Ante Jerkunica
Messenger = Clemens Bieber
First Philistine = Peter Maus
Second Philistine = Sergio Vitale

Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Director - Patrick Kinmonth
Stage design, Costume design - Patrick Kinmonth, Darko Petrovic
Light design - Manfred Voss
Dramaturgie - Katharina John, Miriam Konert
Chorus master - William Spaulding
Artistic production manager - Christian Baier

I love Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila and act 2 is the best act. But today in Deutsche Oper Berlin I was bored and I was pained by listening to the mezzo Vesselina Kasarova. It was not helped by the feeling of lacking fresh air in the audience room. But, any way, I am pleased to say that both Jose Cura and Vesselina Kasarova was excellent in the big duet of act 2 beginning with En ces lieux and continued with Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix.

Kasarova's voice is deeper now and sound almost like an alto. Her voice lacks some agility and she was not helped by the young maestro's slowing the music. Jose Cura's voice seemed to have opened of by act 2 and continued its triumph in act 3. In act 1 his voice sounded muffled. Laurent Nouri was an excellent High Priest of Dagon.

This Samson et Dalila was not shocking, or edgy. It was not even interesting. Even having Jose Cura singing his heart out in Vois ma misere did not change the fact that this production failed to make us care. It was the best singing of this aria so this says the production failed. It did not fail because director chose to put the action to another time place, Paris at the time the opera was composed. It fail by having half-cooked ideas, by defying logic, by putting distractions up instead of making the audience think and feel. The young boy and young woman (his mother? and servant to Dalila), the boy was supposed to be the alter-ego of Samson, but what interpretive value did it give the opera? Little value but plenty of distractions to the real story. The offensive part was the end of the opera with cattle wagons and Philistine dressing down as if they were Jews off to Auschwitz. But the real offensive part of this offensiveness was to make Holocaust into kitsch and it did not even make sense.... BAD

Yes it was bad, really bad, I have never applauded so little in my life, except that time when I had almost broken my wrist.

UPDATE: All the reviews I have read about this production gives the highest praise to Vesselina Kasarova.

Lost and found in Berlin's Samson et Dalila (original blog post)

OD Travel + Photos

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com If you want to see more photos from my OperaDuets Travels, go to www.operaduetsphotos.com