Aude Extrémo News
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2024-04-24
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2023-06-11 22:56:03
New and recent releases of interest. Byrd, Mass for Five Voices and other works; Owain Park leading The Gesualdo Six (Hyperion) Spontini, La Vestale; Marina Rebeka, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Tassis Christoyannis, Aude Extrémo, Nicolas Courjal, David Witczak, Christophe Rousset conducting...
2020-06-06 08:47:14
A fascinating conundrum - Les contes d'Hoffmann: with its troubled genesis & editorial confusion, Offenbach's final opera seems unique, yet it developed out ideas from the composer's lesser-known late period
Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann – scene from the premiere in 1881with Adèle Isaac as the dead Antonia, Jacques Offenbach's output is so large (close to 100 stage works) that we tend to be familiar with only a small number of his operas. So, a work like his grand opera Les contes d'Hoffmann seems to appear out of nothing, and to bear little resemblance to other key works such as Orphée aux enfers or La belle Hélène. It does not help that matters are confused by the editorial difficulties, performing material being difficult to obtain, manuscripts being dispersed and the fact that a number of Offenbach's works exist in significantly different versions. Jacques Offenbach photographed by Nadar in 1860s But as reliable editions of his works become available and some of the lesser known pieces are explored, we can […]
2020-03-21 11:03:15
Orchestre National de Lille on-line, with 'Carmen' and Mahler's symphonies
[…] Bloch leads a highly dramatic and very vivid account of the score, but one which does not neglect the work's subtleties too, and it is great to see an opera performance with the orchestra on full view, and the orchestra is in fine form. The cast members are all, I think, Francophone which makes a big difference in this opera and all the soloists are off the book so that performances are engagingly dramatic. Aude Extrémo is a rich-voiced Carmen, moving between the sexy and the dramatic, this is definitely an account of the role I would love to see in the theatre. And this seems to have been her role debut! Canadian tenor Antoine Bélanger made a very intense and naively earnest Don José, with Bélanger freely using a lovely mezzo voce. Gabrielle Philiponet was a very self-possessed Micaëla, rising to the challenge of Act Three, whilst and Florian […]
2019-02-02 18:13:00
Berlioz Les Troyens, Paris - How to kill an opera
[…] Sementchuk weren't bad, but didn't quite rise to the heights, either. A rather depressing Royal Hunt and Storm, saved by Jordan's incisive conducting, splendidly luminous in the love scene, and demonic in the storm. So rewarding, in fact, you could enjoy this Les Troyens as an orchestral exercise. Very well cast minor roles - Véronique Gens as Hécube and Paata Burchulzade as Priam, who can still create character, Thomas Dear as The Ghost of Hector, Aude Extrémo as Anna, Cyrille Dubois as Iopas,Michèle Losier as a very fetching Ascagne, Christian van Horn as Narbal. At the end D'Oustrac, Dégout, Gens, Burchulzade and Dear return as ghosts, raising the staging from the grave. With this conductor, this orchestra and most of this cast, this Les Troyens could have been brilliant, but let's hope we won't have to wait another 30 years for a better production. This staging might be fine in some […]
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