A wrap up || George Enescu Festival 2019 journal

oana September 22, 2019 No Comments

This year the festival had a much greater focus on opera repertoire, and I tried to take advantage of this as much as possible. Out of all the shows I went to, seven of them were operas in concert. Of the ten performances I’ve seen, my favourite ones by far were Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck (Anna Caterina Antonacci and Christopher Maltman were magnificent), Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss (the work, the singers, the orchestra, everything was superb) and the The 12 Cellists of The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (12 cellos, what’s not to love about it).… Read more

Other concerts || George Enescu Festival 2019 journal

oana September 22, 2019 No Comments
RUNDFUNK-SINFONIEORCHESTER BERLIN

Date: 5 Sept 2019

Location: Grand Palace Hall

Category: Great Orchestras of the worlds

Georg Katzer “discorso” for orchestra; Brahms Violin Concerto în D major op. 77; Enescu Symphony no. 3 in C major op. 21

Vladimir Jurowski conductor; Choir of The „George Enescu” Philharmonic; Iosif Ion Prunner conductor of the choir; Romanian Radio Children’s Choir; Răzvan Rădos conductor of the choir; Julia Fischer violin

Katzer’s composition is pretty gimmicky, a mixture of sounds coming from all sorts of weird instruments, a fun work but not that impressive overall.… Read more

Anna Caterina Antonacci

A Gluck infusion || George Enescu Festival 2019 journal

oana September 22, 2019 No Comments
ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Date: 6 Sept 2019

Location: Romanian Athenaeum

Category: By Midnight Concerts

Gluck “Iphigénie en Tauride”, opera in concert version

Laurence Cummings conductor, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Anna Caterina Antonacci – Iphigénie (mezzo-soprano), Christopher Maltman – Oreste (baritone), Toby Spence – Pylade (tenor), Andrew Foster-Williams – Thoas (bass-baritone), Mary Bevan – Diane (soprano), Sofia Larsson – Greek Woman (soprano), Miriam Allan – First Priestess (soprano), Jessica Cale – Second Priestess (soprano), Dingle Yandell – Scythian (bass-baritone), Brian Mcalea – Minister (baritone)

Anna Caterina Antonacci has been the one that made me truly fall in love with opera, she’s one of my favourite opera singers and seeing her live has been a ten years old dream.… Read more

die frau ohne schatten - the nurse

Die Frau Ohne Shatten || George Enescu Festival 2019 journal

oana September 8, 2019 No Comments
RUNDFUNK-SINFONIEORCHESTER BERLIN

Date: 4 Sept 2019

Location: Grand Palace Hall

Category: Great Orchestras of the world

Vladimir Jurowski conductor, The Rundfunkchor Berlin, Benjamin Goodson conductor of the choir, Romanian Radio Children’s Choir,  Răzvan Rădos conductor of the choir,   Carmen Lidia Vidu multimedia director

Torsten Kerl the Emperor (tenor), Anne Schwanewilms the Empress (soprano), Ildikó Komlósi the Nurse (mezzo-soprano), Yasushi Hirano the messenger of Keikobad (baritone), Andrey Nemzer the Guardian of the Threshold, Artjom Vasnetsov, Christoph Oldenburg, Philipp A.… Read more

Cello Heaven || George Enescu Festival 2019 journal

oana September 8, 2019 No Comments
Diana Damrau – soprano and Xavier de Maistre – harp

Date: 1 Sept 2019

Location: Romanian Athenaeum

Category: Recitals and chamber music

I so badly wanted to get tickets for this recital but unfortunately I didn’t catch any, as they were sold instantly. Damrau is an important name in the operatic world, so she was part of five artists I truly wanted to see live, the other ones being: Joyce DiDonato (no tickets left, but I’m not that sorry about it), Bryn Terfel (no tickets left – this is the one show I actually regret not getting tickets to, I love his voice), Rolando Villazón (I didn’t even try to buy one when I saw his program) and Anna Caterina Antonacci (she was, along with Kaufmann, among the artists that got me falling in love with opera so I’m super excited to see her live on the 6th of September).… Read more

La Cetra d'Orfeo ensemble

Baroque Delights || George Enescu Festival 2019 Journal

oana September 2, 2019 No Comments

La Cetra d’Orfeo “Ay Amor!”

Date: 31 Aug 2019

Location: Romanian Athenaeum

Category: By Midnight Concerts

This was the second performance from the first day and it dawned on me only several hours before the show, upon a more thorough checking of the program, that it’s an ensemble performing mostly baroque chamber music, with lutes (a theorbo) and harps and viola da gamba and flutes (a recorder).… Read more