If you read my Best Bets for this just concluded weekend, you know that I’ve started added streaming productions from Wiener Staatsoper in Austria. As long as they continue to stream productions, I will now include a weekly listing of their productions. So let’s begin with Vienna State Opera: April 27th – April 30th.
There are four productions being made available this week and one of them will be performed live. All productions will be available for 24 hours for free. The archive films being shown become available at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT. The live performance on Thursday will take place at 12:00 PM EDT/9:00 AM PDT.
Each opera has a unique link taking you to its event page.
Here is the line-up for Vienna State Opera: April 27th – April 30th:
Tuesday, April 27th: Beethoven’s Fidelio
Conducted by Peter Schneider; starring Klaus Florian Vogt, Anja Kempe, Evgeny Nikitin, Stephen Milling and Valentina Nafornita. This Otto Schenk production is from the 2015-2016 season.
The only opera ever composed by Ludwig van Beethoven had its premiere in 1814 in Vienna. This was the third version of the opera.
Beethoven went through several librettists and made multiple changes until the opera we all know was finally presented to the world.
Leonore gets a job in a prison disguised as a man who goes by the name Fidelio. She’s there because her husband, Florestan, has been imprisoned by a political rival, Don Pizarro. Even with a burgeoning relationship with Rocco who runs the jail, Leonore might not have time enough to rescue her husband as Pizarro is set on executing Florestan just as an investigation into prison cruelty is launched.
Wednesday, April 28th – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
Conducted by Peter Schneider; starring Peter Seiffert, Iréne Theorin, Albert Dohmen, Tomas Konieczny and Petra Lang. This David McVicar production is from the 2014-2015 season.
Richard Wagner wrote the music and the libretto for Tristan and Isolde. Gottfried von Strassburg’s novel, Tristan, from the 12th century, serves as his inspiration. The opera had its world premiere in Munich in 1865.
It is a bit of oversimplifying to say that the story in Tristan und Isolde is about two lovers whose passion for each other is so strong, it can only truly thrive in the afterlife. But frankly, in a nutshell, that’s the essential premise. But don’t be mistaken, this is pure drama and glorious music.
Thursday, April 29th – Gounod’s Faust – LIVE PERFORMANCE (starts one hour earlier)
Conducted by Bertrand de Billy; starring Juan Diego Flórez, Nicole Car, Adam Palka and Étienne Dupuis. This is a Frank Castorf production.
Charles Gounod’s Faust had its world premiere in Paris in 1859. The libretto was written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré who used both Carré’s play Faust et Marguerite and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part One as inspiration.
This oft-told story is about a man who sacrifices his soul to the devil, Méphistophélès, in order to maintain his youth and the love of Marguerite.
But you know what happens when you make a deal with the devil…it’s not going to end well.
Friday, April 30th – Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE
Conducted by Adam Fischer; starring Jörg Schneider, Olga Bezsmertna, Hill Fahima, Thomas Tatzl and René Pape. This Moshe Lesier and Patrice Caurier production is from the 2017-2018 season.
Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.
Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?
I hope you enjoy Vienna State Opera: April 27th – April 30th
Photo: Peter Seiffert and Iréne Theorin in Tristan und Isolde (Photo Courtesy Wiener Staatsoper)