Anna Caterina Antonacci Does Double Duty At San Francisco Opera

Anna Caterina Antonacci stars in two roles during the San Francisco Opera's June season, which opens Sunday, June 7, 2015. She will play the role of Cesira in the world premiere of Marco Tutino's Two Women and also portrays Cassandra in Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens. (Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera)

"Anna Caterina Antonacci is an opera star who thrives on defying expectations. A mesmerizing performer with a supple and lustrous voice, Antonacci seems equally at home in roles written for soprano or for the lower-voiced mezzo-soprano. She has triumphed in one of the most popular of operas, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, but mostly she has sought out repertory off the beaten path. And while for many singers, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera represents the pinnacle of success, Antonacci has never sung there, and likely never will. But though her career is mainly in Europe, she has recently been making annual concert appearances in New York. In March, after she sang a program of French songs and Francis Poulenc’s monodrama La Voix Humaine, Zachary Woolfe wrote in The New York Times that 'her alertness to the texts and the unassuming grandeur of her presence made the night riveting.' Now she’s back in the United States again to headline the San Francisco Opera’s summer season, which opens Sunday, June 7. She will portray her touchstone role of Cassandra in Berlioz’s epic Les Troyens and also will star in the world premiere of an opera based on a classic book and film. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the 54-year-old Italian singer talked about her unusual career and the roles she most responds to." [Source] Read the full interview, which covers how she chooses roles; creating the new operatic role of Cesira; interpreting the role of Cassandra in Les Troyens; why she infrequently performs in the United States; and what the future holds for her on the opera stage, by clicking here.

Regardez Tout Le Gala Du Tricentenaire De l'Opéra Comique

Watch the entire gala celebrating 300 years of the l'Opéra Comique with opera stars Anna Caterina Antonacci, Sabine Devieilhe, Patricia Petibon, Julie Fuchs, Stéphane Degout, and more. "Carmen, Lakmé, Pelléas et Mélisande, La Fille du régiment... Autant de chefs d'oeuvre de l'art lyrique nés sur les planches de l'Opéra Comique. Depuis sa création en 1715, cette prestigieuse maison fait rayonner l'opéra à la française, accueille des artistes de renom, programme des oeuvres de tous les répertoires. Un lieu chargé d'histoires que cette soirée de gala ambitionne de résumer. A grand renfort d'images d'archives, d'interventions et bien évidemment de chants, apprêtez-vous à voir défiler trois siècles de création artistique. En maître de cérémonie, Michel Fau. Avec son impertinence habituelle, l'homme de spectacle redonnera vie aux petits et grands moments de la célèbre institution. A ses côtés, chanteront Anna Caterina Antonacci, Sabine Devieilhe, Julie Fuchs, Patricia Petibon, Frédéric Antoun, Stéphane Degout et Vincent Le Texier. Des chanteurs d'envergure internationale, familiers de la Salle Favart, qui interprèteront les airs qui ont marqué l'Opéra Comique et l'art lyrique en général. Ils seront accompagnés dans ce voyage dans le temps par Jérôme Deschamps, des chanteurs de l'Académie de l'Opéra Comique, le choeur Accentus et l'orchestre Les Siècles dirigé par François-Xavier Roth. « Si l’Opéra Comique m’était conté », une soirée exceptionnelle pour un lieu qui l'est tout autant. Le 28 décembre, Arte diffusera une version enrichie de ce Gala du tricentenaire. Sujets documentaires et témoignages viendront s'ajouter à la captation du 13 novembre. La soirée sera également diffusée en direct sur France Musique." [Source] More photos and the video are after the jump.

Veronese Soprano Cecilia Gasdia To Get Recordings Reissued

"La casa Teldec ripropone poi una ristampa, uscita proprio in questi ultimi giorni dell'anno, di alcune opere in cui appare come interprete il soprano veronese Cecilia Gasdia. È il caso dell'edizione del Faust di Gounod (Teldec 1993) che viene rieditata con la partecipazione di interpreti di fama internazionale: dal tenore Jerry Hadley, a Samuel Ramey, Alexandru Agache, Brigitte Fassbaender, Suzanne Mentzer e dalla direzione di Carlo Rizzi a capo della Welsh National Orchestra. Un giorno di regno di Verdi è invece un video live dal Teatro Regio di Parma del dicembre 1997, per la regia, scene e costumi di Pier Luigi Pizzi, riproposto dalla Hardy Classic, in cui Cecilia Gasdia è a fianco di altri noti cantanti, come Anna Caterina Antonacci, Paolo Coni, Alfonso Antoniozzi e Bruno Praticò nella direzione di Maurizio Benini. Al 1981 appartiene la felice edizione live della verdiana Luisa Miller, con una Cecilia Gasdia ancora fresca della sua strepitosa vittoria al Concorso Callas (1980). L'opera andò in scena al Teatro Fraschini di Pavia, con la direzione di Gianandrea Gavazzeni e i cantanti Nazzareno Antinori, Simone Alaimo, Carlo Desderi, con il Coro e l'Orchestra della Rai nella regia di Filippo Crivelli. L'opera viene ora proposta in Dvd dalla Hardy Classic. E infine di questi giorni anche l'uscita della Aida areniana del giugno 2012 (in versione Blue Ray 3D) con Hui He, Marco Berti, Andrea Ulbrich, Ambrogio Maestri, la direzione di Daniel Oren, per la Opus Arte." [Source]

Anna Caterina Antonacci Brief Interview About Singing Career

Timed to coincide with a recital of Wagner, Berlioz, Resphighi, Tosti, Mascagni, Debussy, and Fauré, soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci gives an interview in which she discusses how she decided to become a singer; starting out as a Rossini specialist; the role she always longed to sing; whether she teaches or offers young singers advice; what her happiest performing experience has been in her career; and ends the interview with a funny anecdote of a staging mishap. Read the full interview here.

Fabio Luisi Tweets About Death Of Conductor Angleo Campori

Fabio Luisi took to Twitter on November 25 to discuss the death of fellow Italian conductor Angelo Campori. Luisi also commented that Campori, who died at age 79, "was one of the last Italian conductors who knew exactly what Italian opera means and how to conduct it." Maestro Campori worked with many of the great opera sopranos: Renata Scotto, Maria Chiara, Raina Kabaivanska, Giusy Devinu, and Anna Caterina Antonacci. "For the soundtrack to Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters, the indie film auteur, who knows his opera, plumped for an authentically Italian excerpt from Puccini's Manon Lescaut. The cast was from the Ragio Theater of Turin, the conductor was Angelo Campori. And the complete performance from which that was taken is indicative of the conductor Campori became--a noted exponent of musical Italy. It featured in its cast good voices that were idiomatically Italianate, with Maria Chiara and Nicola Martinucci in the leads...His closest associations were with the Teatro Regio in Parma and with the Verona Arena. But he had an American profile, as well. He had been close to Leonard Bernstein and had performed at the Metropolitan Opera, in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He had been seriously ill a decade ago and had required heart surgery, since when he'd been almost completely unable to perform. He left several recordings. As well as that Manon Lescaut, there's a film of Lucia Di Lammermoor from Parma starring Alfredo Kraus and Luciana Serra, Soliva's rarely-heard Guilia E Sesto Pompeo on the CPO label and Licinio Refice's Cecilia with Renata Scotto on VAI Audio." [Source] More about the conductor, and a riveting performance he conducted of Renato Bruson in "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" from Verdi's Rigoletto, after the jump.

Annenberg Center Presents "Il Teatro Alla Moda" in Beverly Hills

Roberto Capucci diva gowns: (top row) Raina Kabaivanska, Helga Dernesch*, Anna Caterina Antonacci;
(bottom row) Stefania Bonfadelli, Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Caterina Antonacci
[*costume originally for Salome/Teatro alla Scala/1987 as Herodias]

"The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the U.S. premiere of Il Teatro Alla Moda (Theater in Fashion), the first exhibition to explore Italy’s famous haute couture designers and their impact on the stages of opera, dance and theater. More than 80 costumes, sketches and drawings from Giorgio Armani, Roberto Capucci, Enrico Coveri, Fendi, Alberta Ferretti, Romeo Gigli, Antonio Marras, Missoni, Emanuel Ungaro, Valentino and Gianni Versace will be on display here to celebrate the current transformation of the Italian Renaissance Beverly Hills Post Office into a distinctive performing arts venue and to honor the designers’ contributions to the performing arts. The exhibition will have a limited 4-week run from Oct. 14–Nov. 13. While the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is under construction, the exhibit will be on display at 253 N. Beverly Dr. on the ground floor of the new MGM Place, which will be converted into a temporary gallery." [Source]

For more information about the operatic connections to the costumes in this exhibit, click here. More information for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts can be found here. Check out two more colorful costumes after the jump.

Anna Caterina Antonacci Is Just Fine Not Singing at the MET

The relaxed diva not concerned about the MET
(Photo: Pierre Mandereau)

"Nevertheless, she can seem a mass of paradoxes. She fits no stereotype and no precise vocal Fach. She was an early starter yet a late developer; she made headlines in Handel and Rossini but still had the courage to reinvent herself entirely at the age of thirty-eight. Her voice defies classification, yet she can fit it to an eclectic range of music, from great mezzo roles such as Carmen to Monteverdi, Berlioz and Gluck, as well as the songs of Respighi, Chausson and Fauré, to name a few. Remarkably, she has never sung at the Met. In the pub, Antonacci smiles and shrugs. 'I regret a little that I never, never sang at the Met,' she says, 'but I think perhaps they choose more the recording stars. It's a world that is quite far from mine.' Though she doesn't have a major label contract, she is well represented on opera DVDs — including, for instance, Carmen twice, Ermione, Rodelinda, Les Troyens, Cherubini's Medea and even Marschner's rarely heard Hans Heiling — and on CDs of L'Incoronazione di Poppea, La Mort de Cléopâtre and Così Fan Tutte, among others. But she has made only one solo album to date — Italian Renaissance works, mainly her beloved Monteverdi, under the title Era la Notte (on theAstrée Naïve label). The disc is based on a music-theater project that she toured in Europe: it brought together some of the great 'mad scenes' of early opera and culminated in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. OPERA NEWS's critic declared, 'Antonacci mesmerizes the house for a full, uninterrupted hour, running the gamut of vocal expression.'" [Source]

LaCroix Sweetie, LaCroix! Fashion Designers in Opera

Fleming wears LaCroix (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Since declaring chapter 11, Christian Lacroix has kept himself busy in the opera world designing costumes around the globe. In 2008 he, along with John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld, designed soprano Renée Fleming's gowns for opening night scenes of La Traviata, Manon and Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera. As an encore, he returned to the MET in January 2009 to design the costumes for Massenet's Thaïs featuring Fleming and Thomas Hampson with Jesús López-Cobos conducting. [Source, Source]

Pendatchanska in Berlin

This March, Lacroix is creating the costumes for Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Conductor Yves Abel leads a cast that will include Vesselina Kasarova, Eri Nakamura and Dimitri Pittas. [Source] In February 2010 he designed the costumes for Händel's Agrippina at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. The occasion marked his debut at the German opera house. He flew back and forth between Paris and Berlin to personally oversee the fittings. Alexandra Pendatchanska sang the title role and René Jacobs led the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. [Source]

After the jump is a 30-year retrospective of designers (Capucci, LaCroix, Armani, Versace) creating costumes for opera and evening gowns for divas (Kabaivanska, Antonacci, Fleming, Dernesch, Ricciarelli).