Fabio Luisi leads three complete “Ring” cycles at Met (April 6–May 11)
“Mr. Luisi drew clear-textured, radiant, and sure-paced performances of the four scores from the great Met orchestra.” – New York Times
Fabio Luisi took home his first Grammy Award last month, when his Deutsche Grammophon DVD release of Der Ring des Nibelungen – recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera – was named Best Opera Recording of 2012. As the Met’s Principal Conductor, Luisi now looks forward to leading the company in three complete cycles of the epic saga, marking this year’s bicentennial of Wagner’s birth. These performances will run from April 6 through May 11, and – as on the recording – will feature Deborah Voigt’s star turn as Brünnhilde in Robert Lepage’s landmark production. Verdi’s 200th anniversary also falls in 2013, and Luisi’s full summer schedule includes two productions of Rigoletto: one at the Bavarian State Opera and one at Zurich Opera. His other upcoming engagements in Zurich, where he is now serving in his inaugural season as General Music Director, include a new staging of Bellini’s La straniera.
Luisi’s masterful leadership of the four operas that make up Wagner’s monumental “Ring” cycle – Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung – has already received a warm welcome in the New York press. “Conductor Fabio Luisi won resounding bravos for his fleet, lithe leadership of the Met orchestra,” reported the New York Post last season, adding: “The players responded with one of their most radiant performances.” “Under the confident baton of Fabio Luisi, the Met orchestra brought out the beauty and might of Wagner’s rich score,” agreed the New York Daily News, and the Classical Review concluded: “The most exciting musical moments came courtesy of the Met orchestra and men’s chorus led by an impassioned Fabio Luisi.” New York magazine admired the conductor’s ability to “bring out the score’s three-dimensional detail and animal heat,” and Seen and Heard International observed: “Luisi … seems to be a revelation in this music and draws a performance – from his uncommonly good orchestra – that does exactly what he wants.” As the New York Times put it:
“Fabio Luisi … led an exciting, insightful, and assured performance. … [He] came across as a musician in charge of a production happening in the moment, someone always aware of the instincts and needs of the performers, especially the singers.”
As befits the composer’s milestone anniversary, Luisi’s three upcoming Met “Ring” cycles will once again boast a first-rate cast of Wagnerians. Deborah Voigt, whose soprano “sliced through the orchestra and throbbed with intensity” (New York Times) last season, reprises her “badass” (New York) portrayal of Brünnhilde. Other returning stars include Stephanie Blythe, who brings back her “indomitable Fricka” (New York Times); Eric Owens, “an Alberich for the ages” (New York Times); “the formidable bass” (New York Times) Hans-Peter König as Fafner; and Jay Hunter Morris, whose “hearty, youthful-sounding tenor” as Siegfried proved the “biggest surprise of the Met’s cast” (New York Times). Joining the production for the first time are baritones Mark Delavan and Greer Grimsley, who share the role of Wotan. After witnessing one of Delavan’s previous appearances in the part, the San Francisco Examiner proclaimed: “Delavan joins the historic line of Wotans to remember.” Similarly, one of Grimsley’s performances inspired the Seattle Times to declare: “As Wotan, Grimsley sounds like a singer who has found his true home.”
Robert Lepage’s visionary and cutting-edge production returns to the Met with sets by Carl Fillion, costumes by François St-Aubin, and video image art from Lionel Arnould, Boris Firquet, and Pedro Pires. All twelve performances will be conducted by Luisi himself, with presentations of Das Rheingold on April 6, 25, and May 4; Die Walküre on April 13, 26, and May 6; Siegfried on April 20, 29, and May 8; and Götterdämmerung on April 23, May 2, and May 11.
* * * * *
On the heels of this tour de force, Luisi heads to the Zurich Opera, where he premieres Christof Loy’s new production of Bellini’s rarely staged bel canto opera La straniera, starring legendary soprano Edita Gruberová (June 23–July 14); he then conducts a revival of Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s take on Der Rosenkavalier, starring Nina Stemme (June 30–July 12). On June 2 and July 7, he leads the Zurich Philharmonia in programs of Schumann’s orchestral and choral music. In the first episode of his new “Conductor’s Corner” video series (available on YouTube), Luisi explains why he chose Schumann’s music as the focus for his inaugural season with the orchestra.
The conductor also resumes celebrations of the present season’s other big operatic biennial, honoring Verdi’s 200th anniversary with Rigoletto presentations in Munich and Zurich. At the Bavarian State Opera, Joseph Calleja sings the Duke under Luisi’s baton in a new production of the opera from award-winning Hungarian director Árpád Schilling (July 17 & 20). And at the Zurich Opera Luisi conducts Quinn Kelsey in the title role of Tatjana Gürbaca’s recent staging (June 29–July 13), which they premiered together earlier this spring. The Basel Landschaftliche Zeitung pronounced that production “consistently exciting, at times even gorgeous”; this owed in no small part to “Luisi’s conducting, [which] was more than a magnificent breath of fresh air: it revealed a whole new side of the work.”
A list of the conductor’s upcoming engagements follows, and more information is available at the web sites provided below.
Fabio Luisi: upcoming engagements
April 6 & 25; May 4
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Wagner: Das Rheingold
April 13 & 26; May 6
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Wagner: Die Walküre
April 20 & 29; May 8
New York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Wagner: Siegfried
April 23; May 2 & 11
York, NY
Metropolitan Opera
Wagner: Götterdämmerung
June 23, 27; July 2, 6, 10 & 14
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opernhaus
Bellini: La straniera (new production)
June 29; July 11 & 13
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opernhaus
Verdi: Rigoletto
June 30; July 4, 9 & 12
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opernhaus
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier
June 2
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opernhaus
Philharmonia Zurich
Wagner: Overture to Rienzi
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 54 (with Rudolf Buchbinder)
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Opus 120
July 7
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Opernhaus
Philharmonia Zurich
Schumann: Paradise and the Peri (cantata)
July 17 & 20
Munich, Germany
Bayerische Staatsoper
Verdi: Rigoletto (new production)