BD gifts: My mom gave me a ticket for Bonn Opera's production of Händel's Xerxes -- a simply riveting, tongue in cheek production setting the story in a dictatorial fairy tale puppet theatre (yes, there apparently is such a thing) -- and my BFF raided my Ammy wishlist ... as well as adding a few things along the lines of "all things kitties." I'm feeling very much spoiled!
Bonn Opera's promo clip for Puccini's La Bohème (2016-17 season), starring Sumi Hwang as Mimi.
Ahem. We now (finally) return you to your schelduled reading ...
... who but Bonn Opera's very own Sumi Hwang got to perform the Olympic Hymn at today's opening ceremony in Pyong Chang?!
A short interview with her on the experience (in German) is here -- she talks about this being a once in a lifetime experience that she's now privileged to share with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Plaicido Domingo and Anna Netrebko, about how the freezing temperatures on the stadium's outdoor stage compelled her to wear heating pads all over her body underneath the traditional Korean dress in which she appeared, and about how her Greek colleague from Bonn Opera, baritone Giorgos Kanaris (alongside whom she is currently appearing, inter alia, in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro -- he's Count Almaviva, after having appeared as Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville a few years ago) helped her learn the words of the hymn in the original Greek, which was the language the Pyong Chang organizers insisted the performance to be in.
A few shots from Le Nozze di Figaro, ,which just opened a little less than 2 weeks ago (and yes, my mom and I were there) ...
Photos: Susanna (Sumi Hwang) with Figaro (Wilfried Zelinka), Count Almaviva (Giorgos Kanaris), Countess Almaviva (Anna Princeva), and with the Countess and young Cherubino (Kathrin Leidig)
The first performance in which I saw her in Bonn, and where she instantly blew the audience away, was as Almirena in Händel's Rinaldo, four years ago.
("Lascia ch'io piangia" -- the captive Almirena's aria)
I've been a fan of hers pretty much ever since -- so I was over the moon when she appeared on the Pyong Chang olympic stage today!
... well, sort of. I'm not sure whether Bonn Opera actually had Halloween in mind when they scheduled the opening night of their production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (based on Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor) -- it's not overly likely, though I wouldn't put it past them -- but it of course fits the topic admirably, and thus made for a very nice post-blackout final accord to the bingo for me ...
... even more so as starring in the title role was Julia Novikova, who debuted in Bonn a few years ago and has since enjoyed a rather impressively successful career, which at a very young age has already taken her, inter alia, to Vienna and Salzburg -- and who, of course, gave a phantastic performance as Lucia.
(Ms. Novikova in the "mad scene")
No video of her as Lucia yet, but here she is with the "Moon Song" from one of my all-time favorite operas, Dvorak's Rusalka
... and for the German speakers, here's a brief portrait from her debut season at Bonn Opera.
And this, finally, is the famous "mad scene" from Lucia di Lammermoor with Natalie Dessay starring as Lucia (I much preferred Ms. Novikova's version, though):
(If the videos don't show in dashboard view, btw, follow the links to watch them on Youtube -- or open the post in blog view; they should show alright there.)
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