SINCE 1999 A LIVE REVIEW SITE FOR OPERA, BALLET, CONCERTS, BROADCASTS, AND THEATRE
Germany Auerbach, Shostakovich: Soloists and Gewandhauschor, Gewandhausorchestra / Alan Gilbert (conductor). Grosser Saal of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, 11.1.2024. (GT)
Germany Puccini: Tosca: Soloists, Chorus of Leipzig Opera and Gewandhaus Orchestra / Moritz Gnann (conductor). Leipzig Opera, 10.1.2024. (GT)
United Kingdom Montgomery, Mozart, Beethoven: Nicola Benedetti (violinist), Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (director / violin). City Halls, Glasgow, 15.12.2023. (GT)
Czech Republic Richard Strauss, Salome: Soloists, Orchestra of Brno Opera / Marko Ivanovic (conductor). National Theatre Brno, 25.11.2023. (GT)
Czech Republic Skrowaczewski, Bruckner: Brno Philharmonic Orchestra / Dennis Russell Davies (conductor). Janáček Theatre, Brno, 24.11.2023. (GT)
The Bulgarian soprano Mariana Zvetkova talks to Gregor Tassie about her career One of the most outstanding singers from the 2023 Ring cycle in Sofia was the distinguished soprano Mariana Zvetkova. She has enjoyed a major worldwide career over several decades and was cast in the first Sofia Ring cycle in 2013 and was Fricka in Das Rheingold in Plamen Kartaloff’s … Read more
Portugal Sibelius, Chopin, Beethoven: Alexandra Dovgan (piano), Gulbenkian Orchestra / Risto Joost (conductor), Large Auditorium of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 9.11.2023. (GT)
Sofia Opera’s Woodbird Ayla Dobreva talks to Gregor Tassie
Apart from the stupendous production standards, a great deal of the acclaim for the 2023 Plamen Kartaloff Ring cycle was for the singers in the roles of Wotan, Brünnhilde and Hagen, but the coloratura soprano Ayla Dobreva as the Woodbird provided one of the most striking performances in Siegfried. Dobreva performed in all four operas of the cycle; firstly, as Woglinde in the opening scene of Das Rheingold singing when soaring on a trampoline, in Die Walküre, she was Helmwige mounted on one of eight red horses of the Valkyries, and finally challenging Alberich in the closing scene in Götterdämmerung. She was also one of the Flower Maidens in Parsifal, but it was her spectacular entry on a trapeze that made the biggest impression of all.