Marc Piollet News
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2024-03-28
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2017-04-13 15:02:32
Mountain high, valley low
[…] in the opera. Catalani’s brilliance as an orchestrator, if not quite so anarchic as Arrigo Boito’s, is justly remembered, and the intermezzo (every opera of the post-Verdi era was expected to have an intermezzo, to prove that Italians could change scenes just as vividly as the Germans could) can be thrilling if played with color and distinction . This, indeed, occurred at the Volksoper by their branch of the Staatsoper Orchestra, suavely led by Frank Piollet, musicians more likely to be heard in Carl Millocker’s Bettelstudent or Frank Loesser’s Wie man Karriere macht, ohne sich anzustrengen. La Wally was given, as is the Volksoper’s usual habit, in German translation. The opera puzzled me the last time I saw it (fifty years ago with some dame named Tebaldi) in putting characters named Gellner and Hagenbach in an Italian opera. Doing it in German fixed that problem. Some auditors might miss the […]
2016-05-04 15:26:18
New Recording of “Carmen”
I was a young boy when I first watched and listened to a live performance of this opera. I remember the feeling of excitement and passion that was sung and acted in this story. Now we have a new recording that tells this story in a somewhat different way. Bizet: Carmen Recorded at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2011 The singers are Béatrice Uria-Monzon (Carmen), Roberto Alagna (Don José), Erwin Schrott (Escamillo), Marina Poplavskaya (Micaëla) With the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Marc Piollet conducting. In this production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, controversial stage director Calixto Bieito sees in Carmen the embodiment of the mythical gypsy and touches upon sensitive issues such as racism, xenophobia and right-wing politics. Bieito conjures up a sensual and realistic atmosphere full of powerful symbolism. An outstanding quartet of vocal stars, led by a “splendid and sensual” (El Periódico) […]
2016-04-22 07:46:00
[…] Almerares was uneven as Donna Anna; her voice is changing and lacked the needed clarity of delivery. María Bayo, who had been splendid as Zerlina back in 1993, unfortunately is now in a sorry decline: in this Elvira the voice has become acid and she constantly recurred to slides. There was a second cast, all-Argentine. Marc Piollet was a correct conductor with adequate speeds but the Orchestra should have been more crystalline in its articulation. The small orchestral groups at the end of the First Act were too far back, and in the dining room scene should have been on stage, not in the pit. The Chorus under Fabián Martínez was acceptable when not amplified. For Buenos Aires Herald
Norman Lebrecht - Slipped disc
2016-02-12 12:06:59
Bonn ends its music director standoff
Players in the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn voted 98-2 in favour of Jun Märkl as their next music director, only to be overruled by a committee of three, including Nike Wagner, who chose Marc Piollet. Both sides stepped back and let in Christoph Prick for an interim season. Now they have agreed on a mutually acceptable, quite promising candidate. Bonn’s next music director will be Dirk Kaftan, 45, presently at Graz Opera.
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