Nicola Alaimo

The lecherous Falstaff, with his infamous roving eye, finally meets his match when his underhand plans to solve money troubles have the three merry wives of Windsor conspiring to teach him a lesson. Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts a fine ensemble cast directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. The result is a joyful production, with gorgeous costumes that seem to inspire those wearing them as much as they will delight OperaVision viewers.

Politics. Religion. Nabucco is Verdi's retelling of the Old Testament story of King Nebuchadnezzar II's religious conversion. On one side, the fiery Hebrew priest Zaccaria, battling to lead his people from oppression. On the other, Nabucco, the tyrannical Babylonian king and his adopted daughter Abigaille, who will stop at nothing to get her father's throne and her sister's lover. Will King Nabucco's ambition rob him of his beloved daughter as well as his kingdom?

Le véritable héros de ce Guillaume Tell admirablement complet, présenté à Pesaro en août 2013, est le maestro local Michele Mariotti. L’inimitable ouverture, heureusement non mise en scène, est magnifiquement interprétée, avec de splendides solos de violoncelle et de flûte : le niveau d’excellence ne faiblit jamais. La partition extraordinaire de Rossini, datant de 1829, annonce déjà Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Glinka, Verdi et Wagner, entre autres. La mise en scène de Graham Vick met en avant la lutte des classes, symbolisée par un poing levé sur le rideau rouge et blanc. Les costumes édouardiens opposent les Autrichiens, vêtus de blanc en tenue de soirée, aux Suisses, habillés de noir et chargés de nettoyer le sol pendant que les dirigeants profitent d’un tournage — dont plusieurs séquences suivront. Ainsi, le pêcheur Ruodi se retrouve dans un bateau avec une blonde et un décor artificiel, tandis que Tell et sa famille assurent le support technique.

The composer's opera buffa transcends the spirit of Beaumarchais’ comedy and combines the absurd with a touch of satirical realism in a score where rhythm and virtuosity place the comic effects in an ongoing dramatic narration. As a result, the characters – Rosina in particular – gain a new degree of realism and break with the usual archetypes. Damiano Michieletto’s giddying production embraces this perpetual motion and carries in its wake the happy couple formed by Lawrence Brownlee and Pretty Yende.

Verdi's lively opera Luisa Miller – filled with tricks, betrayals, and love stories – is performed at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in a staging by Jean-Claude Fall and conducted by Massimo Zanetti.

The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children. Calixto Bieito, that most Shakespearean of opera directors, brings humanism and truth to a work haunted by gleaming images of the sea.

Opéra de Giuseppe Rossini enregistré à Pesaro en 2004. Corradino (Juan Diego Flórez) est surnommé "coeur de fer" car il joue au guerrier brutal. Mais, touché par l'amour, il tombera sous la domination de Matilde di Shabran (Olga Peretyatko)... Même s'il s'agit d'une rareté, Matilde di Shabran est bel et bien une oeuvre de premier plan dans la production rossinienne, avec des airs d'une virtuosité et d'une difficulté extrêmes ! Juan Diego Flórez, célèbre pour ses contre-uts explosifs s'en donne à coeur joie dans ce rôle taillé sur mesure.