Dresden triumphs: Blomstedt’s Mendelssohn and the Philharmonie’s Ligeti, Prokofiev and Stravinsky

Dresden Music Festival 2023 (Dresdner Musikfestspiele 2023) (MC) This year the Dresden Music Festival (Dresdner Musikfestspiele) is dedicated to the areas of tension in music and society under the motto BLACKANDWHITE (SCHWARZWEISS). Festival artistic director Jan Vogler had the idea for the motto, ‘whilst reading Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace. The great writer … Read more

A welcome post-Covid step back towards operatic ‘normality’ with Der Rosenkavalier in Dresden

GermanyGermany Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier: Soloists, Children’s Choir of the Semperoper Dresden, Dresden State Opera Chorus (chorus director: André Kellinghaus), Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Cornelius Meister (conductor). Semperoper, Dresden, 3.4.2023. (MB)

Der Rosenkavalier © Semperoper Dresden/Klaus Gigga

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Manfred Honeck leads a thoughtful presentation of Mozart in Dresden  

GermanyGermany Mozart, Haydn, and Gregorian Chant: Nikola Hillebrand (soprano), Marie Henriette Reinhold (contralto), Sebastian Kohlhepp (tenor), Mikhail Timoshenko (bass), Ulrich Tukur (reciter), Dresden Chamber Choir (chorus director: Tobias Mäthger), Dresden Kreuzchor (chorus director: Karl Pohlandt), Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Manfred Honeck (conductor). Semperoper, Dresden, 11.4.2022 (MB)

Manfred Honeck (c) Oliver Killig

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In Dresden, Christian Thielemann’s first Aida is a triumph

GermanyGermany Verdi, Aida: Soloists, Dancers, Dresden State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Livestreamed (directed by Michael Beyer) on 13.3.2022 from the Semperoper Dresden and available until 12.6.2022. (JPr)

Georg Zeppenfeld (Ramfis) and Oksana Volkova (Amneris) (c) Ludwig Olah

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Semperoper Ballett’s first streaming event is a six-part celebration of who they are and how they’re doing things

GermanyGermany A Collection of Short Stories – multi-part ballet evening: Dancers of Semperoper Ballett. Filmed (directed by Tilo Krause for Armida Film) at Semperoper Dresden and streamed from 2 until 15.7.2021 (click here). (JPr)

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (c) Ian Whalen

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Excellently sung new Capriccio in Strauss’s spiritual Dresden home is conducted by the unsurpassable Thielemann

GermanyGermany Richard Strauss, Capriccio: Soloists, Men’s Chorus of the Dresden State Opera, Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann (conductor). Recorded (directed by Tiziano Mancini) at the Semperoper Dresden on 8.5.2021 and streamed from 22.5.2021. (JPr)

Semperoper Dresden’s Capriccio (c) Ludwig Olah

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Köpplinger’s child-friendly Die Zauberflöte returns opera to Dresden’s Semperoper

GermanyGermany Mozart, Die Zauberflöte: Soloists, Dresden State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Dresden / Christoph Gedschold (conductor). Filmed (directed by Tilo Krause) at the Semperoper Dresden on 31.3.2021 and streamed on 5.4.2021. (JPr)

Klaus Florian Vogt (Tamino) and Nikola Hillebrand (Queen of the Night)

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The Dresden Festival Orchestra’s Beethoven shows all you need is the right players and a sympathetic conductor

GermanyGermany Beethoven: Dresden Festival Orchestra / Josep Caballé Domenech (conductor). 12.9.2020 performance from Löwensaal, Dresden, reviewed when streamed live on Dreamstage. (LV)

Josep Caballé Domenech (conductor)

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