Anna Netrebko: Le Nozze di Fiagro, Salzburg 2006

[coffeebreadMAPT]

why are they kissing cherubino? can anyone explain please? This version is really nice :)

[drbarbarabaker]

Well. Later in the story Cherubino and the countess have a child together.

[ramune808]

I don't understand why they're kissing cherubino... I thought they were just trying to dress him up as a woman to keep him from getting sent away

[3002vincenzo]

ein kuss von dorothea!

[jomuc68]

overrated crap!

[bellafredina]

Schwulengeschwätz!!!

[bellafredina]

Wichser!

[vladislavskalicky]

people like to look at attractive singers - not some plump singing baboons -- that is called marketing management - and that is what sells this music --capito ???

[TedMichaelMorgan]

Well, this folks look good and they sing well. Capito?

[hermioney2k]

yes vladislav, it's what sells.

[filaredo]

Why? You are deaf!

[marahlu]

i definitly heard better voices then hers....dunno why everybody loves her so much....

[LilMack549]

You mean ignorants like Valery Gergiev and Daniel Barenboim and Keri-Lynn Wilson and James Levine and Claudio Abbado?

[blichilde]

@LilMack549 Has Netrebko worked with Abbado? Can you tell me when and in which opera please?

[LilMack549]

@blichilde She recorded an album with him. And they have both spoken very fondly of each other.

[hermioney2k]

He didn't say she's the best. The standards has just been lowered.

[bendfeldtf]

Anna you are NOT  for Mozart ! go for Manon villazon or Alaga-non

[schmup53]

I don't think Netrebko should sing Mozart. The voice needs to be much more open. I fine with her as Mimi or dramatic roles (I loved her in Lucia) but she doesn't have the facility for this role.

[TheBasilio]

No es el tipo de voz para netrebko, ademas los tempos estan lentos y eso la hace ver mas pesada. aburridor. ella es diva en otros papeles.

[thugman30]

R.I.P. MOZART

[PeterPan060]

To be said in a Leo Bloom voice: "Ooh my god!"

This is fantastic. :)

[serRudyll]

The making out between the 30sth old contessa and the 10sth old Cherubino gives the opera a whole disturbingly sick and new twist.

[g4thz]

Well, they do have a CHILD in the third part of the Figaro trilogy...

Just saying...

(plus, he's not ten, he's fifteen, and Rosina is supposed to be 24-ish)

[aeru9]

I think this is one of the best Le nozze di Figaro-productions ever. And I like the Susanna from Netrebko, the Cherubino from Schäfer and the Figaro of D`Arcangelo. They`re all so great!!!

[thurshus]

i love the classic, but this is pure gold!

Mozart for ever!!!

[KatherineXIX]

To top it off, why didn't they just all engage in a three-way kiss and then strip off their clothes and have an orgy? If you're going to shit all over Mozart, you might as well go ALL the way...

[yodavidnavarro]

Mozart would be proud of your very elegant eloquency!

[KatherineXIX]

Thank you. I think he would, too, actually. He was a vulgar man himself and probably talked exactly that way. But his music was sent from heaven, and this "epic-fail" production just about kills it.

[birgitnilsson]

Narrowmindedness? Bad temper? Old fashioned and bitter? What is it, Katherine?

[KatherineXIX]

We'll go with recognition for overrated-ness...

[Satirike]

hm the kissing _does_ take away from the opera, somewhat. it's not necessary for the listener to get what it's about.

[Heartlessiceboy]

yeah but the opera needs to combine acting too!

is not just listen to music

It's about time that opera try new things

[dust2340]

This piece is in fact a trio where Susanne speaks for herself, the Countess and Cherubino. It is not Susanne kissing him...

Think about it!

[princesspeach89]

ladies and gents that are compairing this with the britney and madonna kiss . . . THIS IS ACTING!!!! please remember, the original juliet was a MAN. get over it and see this for what it really is . . . ART.

[yodavidnavarro]

Great comment!

[swanningaround]

Christine Schäfer is great in this role. As for Netrebko, it shows she will do anything for commercialism. Anna covers her obvious lack of talent with gimmicks. Christine is a far better soprano, and also better looking and more talented.

[tararep]

Well, the Countess kissed her too, so why accuse only Netrebko of commercialism? Not that she should be singing Susanna, or Mozart in general, or anything at the met that is, but let's be fair...

[Mariosergio61]

Who had the great idea, Netrebko or the director? Why put the gilt over the singer?

Have you anything against she?

If there is any wrong, it's the try to make a novelty, at any cost.

[sonnet43]

Wow...did somebody get inspired by Madonna kissing Britney and Christina in a row?

[xilpix]

lol, don't forget Cherubino is a boy.

[sonnet43]

And a mezzo usually. haha! ;)  I love Christine Schaeffer more than life itself actually.

[hillevifan]

i do too :)

[tehblogger]

There's no reason why the Countess and Cherubino can't have a little fun. Da Ponte's text, and Mozart's music certainly allow for this. It's a valid new interpretation - even Bernard Williams noticed the frisson there. By doing this, the director is taking away the identities of Susanna and the Countess as sympathetic characters, and makes the whole opera much darker than is usually interpretated.

[magicj530]

read the plays. the sexual tension is acutally usually played down - perhaps mistakenly so. This was over the top, but get over Madonna comparisons.  Cher. and Ros. do have a child in the third play. That is just a fact. Whether or not you like it. If you want traditional takes on opera, please, go only to the met. you wont find shocking things there. Whether that is a good or bad thing, you can ask yourself.

[xgianpatrick]

Perhaps Beaumarchais intended more sexual tension, but this is Beaumarchais twice removed. I find the music and staging at odds, and I doubt that was Mozart's intention.  When Mozart wants tension of a darker hue, he writes as in Don Giovanni: dm and trombones. Figaro and Cosi are cut of a different cloth.

[xilpix]

The festival of Salzburg always wants surprise. but its realizations are always debatable (and also very ugly, imho).

[anneyre]

So, what do we do now? We copy Madonna - Britney Spears commercial kissing right into opera? Does Mozart need this? I kept on looking for some plastic sex toys scattered around the stage. No, i don't like it, and I don't think Mozart, or Da Ponte, ever thought of going for cheap thrills and the vibrator.

[0chero]

No, it is NOT intelligent. Rosina and Cherubino should absolutely not be making out.

[cyfieithydd]

I don't like it either. And from the faint hearted applause at the end of a well sung aria, I guess that the audience were also confused. But I don't know enough about the chronology of Beaumarchais's plays - didn't Rosina / the Countess bear a child by Cherubino in the last of the trilogy? If so, when?

[0chero]

Apparently that happened in the third play, which takes place twenty years later. I haven't read it. And anyway, Mozart's libretto was written by da Ponte "after Beaumarchais," with no textual basis anywhere for Rosina, who is still in love with the Count, to be making out with a page.

[olympicfreak678]

Well, no matter what it is, this is gross and wrong. People do not expect a lesbian makeout scene at this opera. Cherubino is supposed to be about 5 to 6 years younger than Rosina and Susanna, who are supposed to be about 19. Maybe twenty years later, ok. But a 13-14 year old with a 19 year old, GROSS. This is a very odd production.

Also, to comment on Netrebko: She is a great singer, I think she is better suited for the Countess. I think she is a little too heavy for this role.

[arifink]

i really like the staging, it's so special and intelligent but you should see the whole see the whole thing to understand it!

[xgianpatrick]

On second thought...the staging is more disgusting than the singing...which is saying a LOT.

[xgianpatrick]

I find the singing much more problematic than the staging. Nebtrenko may be the most overrated soprano of the last 30 years. Her sense of pitch is horrid, and the voice isn't attractive to begin with. What an industry this has become. Bring back Arleen Auger and Pilar Lorengar!

[arifink]

christine schäfer is a scholar of arleen auger so just listen to her and you will have arleen auger back :-)

[lusciousbobby]

part3

Last night's Susanna, while a fine soprano, leaned toward the heavy side. The story does not ring true when the older Countess Almaviva is more beautiful than Susanna, as seen last night. In this Salzburg 2006 Figaro, updated to today, Anna is the perfect Susanna. Even though Le Nozze di Figaro is 221 years old it's not some old dried up story. This opera is about nothing but lusting, scheming, flirting and sex. And, it has a happy ending. I like happy endings.

[lusciousbobby]

part2

Despite all these positives the perfomance did not come together for me. There was no star, no focal point in last night's production. As technically proficient as the performance was, it lacked passion. It lacked heat. It lacked.....Anna. Anna Netrebko was the missing Susanna. Susanna is the object of men's desires. Susanna is so hot that the Count wants to "have her" on her wedding night, in defiance to his repeal of law stating that the Lord had such a right.

[lusciousbobby]

part1

I was fortunate enough to attend the October 18th performance of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera. The performance was technically perfect in almost every way. The singing was excellent, with no detectable hair riasing errors. A professional and smooth performance which is of course to be expected from the Met. The sets and costumes were both authentic and charming. The integration of the ensemble was also excellent. The Met orchestra played beautifully, as expected.

[lusciousbobby]

In this scene Susanna, the maid, dresses Cherubino, a feverishly hot and bothered teenage boy, as a girl. Cherubino lusts after girls, women, dowagers, you name it. Not gay. That appears to be exactly what this scene in this production portrays.

If you and I are lucky "opera" is about love and sex and not so much about death. But alas, mostly it's about love and sex AND death.

[Mavros40]

This isn't "Venite inginocchiatevi" this is "Venite molestatemi"! If the director is so self indulgent why bother with da Ponte's prose he'd been better off writing his own at least the actions might have matched the words!! The only saving grace is Netrebko's singing!!

[vivacezza]

Yet another staging that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. I wonder whom or what the director is serving- certainly not the music or the drama here. It's a self-serving production meant to titillate- nothing more. Sigh. Great singers, great opera, though.

[pageturner7]

Christine Schäfer is a delight to watch and, of course, to listen to. Her Lulu is great and her lieds and baroque music and her Mozart Arias & Strauss Orchestral Songs are wonderful!! And that's just for starters (lol).

[CDNjen]

I love Treb's hair here! :)

[Filmfan4Ever]

Anna Netrebko is just adorable... Her voice! If she is sitting, lying on her back or dancing - she could make everything and her voice is still the best...

[LVB1770]

mmm, 3 naughty little Diva's!

[Lilith89ibz]

Yay! LOL

[poursuivant1]

One can be self indulgent and good.

This is just self indulgent shite.

[vanillababy79]

"Let's just stay at home and avoid going to see great productions."

Ah I see you are a costume director für opera. The donkey went on the ice ;-). Well, of course you can hear or play the great music of Mozart at home. But not even one person would watch the boring pretentious trash of claus guth et al from beginning to end if it wasnt presented with the Mozart label.

[vanillababy79]

You seem to be the kind of person that pretends to be intellectuell.

[vanillababy79]

Salzburg is not a museum ? Maybe youre a museum too, blabber.

[SIT805]

Does your nickname stand for your I.Q.?

[bristow615]

And now for something completely different...........

[juli07]

No coment :/ I understand: these things in theatre, but in opera!!! It's.... bleee :P

[belleville75020]

what's the difference between theatre and opera?just the music...why should that be allowed in the theatre and not in the opera???opera is a theatre!!!

[vanillababy79]

Joachimforlani is absolutely right. They use this great composer just to put themselves in the spotlight. It´s not the fault of the sincere listener if he thinks Mozart is just shallow blaring when it is interpreted like this. And if I look at the daft staging of claus guth it just makes me want to throw up.

[SIT805]

Oh yes, Mozart is not theatrical. Not at all! Let's just stay at home and avoid going to see great productions. Mozart and da Ponte were not even aware of their time's potential! They just kept sweeping the dust under the carpet by writing politically correct operas that have nothing to tell us today. I just can't understand why all these wayward directors keep trying to convince us that opera is not a museum... Bleee!

[Potterat]

Tolle Aufnahme aus Graz !

Liebe Grüße aus Wien !

[718163]

Я ее люблю и восторгаюсь ею. Минск.

[joachimforlani]

A stage setting without any report with the libretto, a catastrophic way of singing, no moose in the music and this need to put sexual allusions everywhere...

Bravo, it just makes me vomit! The worst I've ever seen!

[andrewgeorg]

If that is the worst you've ever seen, you've had a really sheltered life.

[wenarto]

hanoncourt is on HEROIN

[FoggyRoad81]

Wow, I didn't think that Nebtreko could actually sing well. This sounds gorgeous and except for a few incomplete phrases (she never will learn to breath will she?) it is a great version of the song. The staging, there's alot more sexual innuendo in Mozart than stage directors have been willing to admit. I love it.

[wenarto]

everytime Harnoncourt conducts, everything has to be sooooo slow. I want a vivacious lively susanna, fast pace actions, and I feel so draggy listening to this. Do I want to buy the DVD when it releases in the US this June? probably just because I have to complete my collection. My last collection with Harnoncourt in conducts, after this, no more.

[acladiva]

omgsh! this is the worst version of this scene. yuck!

[stackgzup]

eeww

[radubradu]

and if you had made a whore only of the countess and try to get away with a parallel between the virtuous suzana-figaro couple and the decandent rich count-countess couple i could have let you go! but this is outrageous!!!! why didnt you thrown figaro there as well?! actually if it had been bryn id really be thanking you by now;))

[radubradu]

OMG WTF! What on earth and heaven are they doing?!? I didnt know Mozart personally but i really dont think this is how he imagined the scene! Wasnt the countess supposed to incarnate the virtue wrongfully accused? This interpretation makes the countess as much a whore as the count! I simply resent it! And in Beaumarchais' play was no allusion whatsoever, la mere coupable is something else, those events occur much later in time! And the singing isnt that good as well girlfriends...

[LFP2010]

im all for innovation in apera and what not, but i think staging that are supposed to create a sensation just for the ske of being different and dont actually help the sotry along just distract from the music and the drama. So overall, not a fan of the threeway with cherubino

[LFP2010]

sorry for the bad typing, i wasnt really paying attention

[troubalex]

Being a fan or not - this staging is not new at all. Take a look at Peter Sellar's staging of Nozze di Figaro from the late 1980s: he has got the same idea of the scene.

[SIT805]

I don't believe that this particular staging from Salzburg pretends to be radical or new... It just is what it is. You can't compare it to Sellar's version, since the context is completely different here.

[operaticxingenue]

Why the HELL is the Countessa making out with Cherubino?

[Feldmarschallin]

Why? Well, listen to this opera especially to this scene and read the libretto. And maybe - if you are still unconvinced after that - you can have a closer look at the original play of Beaumarchais. In the third part of his Figaro-Trilogy the Countess has a son from Cherubino (by the way: even Beaumarchais wanted a woman for the role of Cherubino - so this is also ABSOLUTELY OKAY).

[pworg]

Well done,feldmarschallin !

[SchweigsameFrau]

Holy Buckets! I had heard about this, but I..I...I...didn't expect this!

[Meleagro]

Questa è un'indecenza assoluta! Il festival di Salisburgo è scaduto a livelli infimi. Il cast è orrendo e non so come questi cani ululanti possano essere considerati tra i migliori cantanti di oggi. La Netrebko è ingolata stonata, ecc. ecc.: non ho parole. Non parliamo poi del resto del cast (D'arcangelo a parte)... La regia sfiora il pornografico e non ha senso, la direzione è misera, orripilante. Mah...

[SIT805]

Sono perfettamente d'accordo per quanto riguarda la direzione e il cast. Ma per la regia no! Penso all'ennesima ripresa delle "nozze" scaligere di Strehler: una grande delusione, improponibile oggi! Qui invece abbiamo un grande esempio di teatro di regia, con un incredibile ricerca sul personaggio. Non v'è, infatti, una gran differenza col film di Ponnele, ad esempio. Solo che qui tutto è reso più evidente, ma anche pessimista. Mai pornografico. Ed è forse più giusto così.

[Orbazzano]

Personalmente preferisco il film di Ponnelle! :-)

[moew99]

I don't like the way Netrebko sings Susanna, I've heard Patricia Ciofi in this role and I think it's muuuuch better! Ciofis voice is very clear and I don't think that Netrebko is a lyrical soprano...

[SIT805]

Now, how professional was that? By the way, I think there's nothing bad about a few sensual moments in Mozart, since there is nothing more erotic to me than his music. He knew something, don't you think? And so did il caro abate Lorenzo... As long as it doesn't get too explicit it's fine with me, and I think it works perfectly. It's quite aesthetic, and Claus Guth is not among the directors who hate opera.

[davy91101]

This production created a lot of controversary because of Harnoncourt's tempi. It's very slow, too slow but Netrebko sings well within these parameters.

[SIT805]

When asked by a journlist whether he had his own idea of tempi for "le Nozze", Harnoncourt replied: "well, it's not my fault if everybody have done it the wrong way so far".

[D9l3tt]

Great retort from Harnie

[erin129]

well this is drab, like the pauper's The L Word with generic, substandard singing and boring visuals. they must have saved a bundle on costumes alone. ugh. i wouldn't have given a penny to this production, that's for sure.

[VerdianoBR]

Unfortunately it seems this atrocious way to stage an Opera is getting very common in Europe. What's the problem with those stage directors? Don't they think that a great story can exist without these "sensual" moments? Besides, one must follow the composer's intentions, and I'm sure Mozart wouldn't allow it. I think these people think life is only sex, drugs and rock'n'roll (yes, because they certainly want to destroy Opera!) heheheheheh

[emr4688]

This is absolutely hilarious. i ould definitely not pick THIS as my favorite...by far.

[Orbazzano]

She screams not sings!!

[belleville75020]

I suppose you sing better...

[Orbazzano]

What a silly think...

[dinacarina88]

well this is pretty atrocious

[TedinNY]

A 3-way with a minor! What will they think of next??

But yes, it's certainly seductive staging which will keep the audience's attention. But does Netrebko really need that? She does sing this beautifully though, in a pretty straightforward, unimaginative manner. Maybe if one could see the rest of the production, this would make more sense.

[jacqueslaumone]

Lorenzo da Ponte was banned from Venice in 1779 because he had a 15-year old girl who was already married as his concubine, so I think the evidence is quite strong that he wouldn't have objected to this "3-way with a minor"!

[ARReith]

interesting staging. Netrebko actually sounds good as Susanna. . . more her type of role, I think.