LA MONNAIE / DE MUNT

Strolling through a strangely quiet theatre, Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski - Is this the end?'s director - talks us through her plan to breathe life into our institution again. For this unique virtual production La Monnaie shakes up its traditional publications and offers you a "virtual programme" true to the spirit of this unprecedented and ambitious project.

An impressive spectrum of emotional registers, coloraturas at breakneck speed and a stratospherically high F. Mozart really did go all out for the Queen of the Night’s entrance in Die Zauberflöte. Her grand aria ‘O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn” is a technical challenge unlike any other. In our 2018 production, Soprano Sabine Devieilhe gave everyone goosebumps with this soul-wrenching mother’s lament.

The coronavirus may have prematurely ended our symphonic season, but that couldn’t stop Alain Altinoglu from serving you musical bliss one final time. Our Music Director brought together 54 musicians from 13 opera houses around the world for a digital closing concert with the renowned “Coro a bocca chiusa” from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. An international collaboration in which musicians that were forced to remain quiet, can have their voices heard after all.

Oh how we looked forward to her role debut as Countess in our production of Pikovaya Dama! A couple of months after she was forced to cease rehearsals in Brussels, Anne Sofie von Otter found a way to sing for the La Monnaie audience after all. Enjoy this performance of the folk tune “Vindarna sucka uti skogarna” from her own backyard, and let the Swedish opera royalty drift you into the summer holidays.

The Covid pandemic was a major blow to our current cultural year, with many of our productions having to be postponed to a later season. The artists who were meant to perform at La Monnaie did not forget our audience, though. Canadian mezzo Michèle Losier, who was set to perform the role of Octavian, here performs the very first sung words from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, as well as the Prière by Charles Gounod.

For weeks our musicians have had to practice from the safety of their own home, but now they are finally able to return to La Monnaie. For the first Concert-E-no, Saténik Khourdoïan (violin), Noémi Tiercet (violin), Yves Cortvrint (viola), Dominique Lardin (viola), Sébastien Walnier (cello) and Corinna Lardin (cello) perform Tchaikovsky’s string sextet Souvenir de Florence. In this video you can get a sneak preview into how they rehearsed the piece remotely. The result can be heard this friday at 12:30.
 

“Each time I finish working on a Wagner opera, my first question is: ‘when can I start again?’” Our Music Director Alain Altinoglu has been entranced by the Meister von Bayreuth for several years. This time, he is getting ready to work on the composer’s final and most enigmatic opera. The musical mystery play Parsifal was the opera debut for Romeo Castellucci. Ten years later he is confronting his own electrifying production.

“After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little," Verdi commented on his comical swan song. Chief-conductor Alain Altinoglu explains how the gags in Falstaff are not limited to what is seen on stage. Director Laurent Pelly, meanwhile, mixes bitter and sweet into a well-balanced Verdian cocktail. As if he himself were a bartender in the Osteria della Giarrettiera.

The outside world knows her as a renowned harpsichordist, but Donna Anna’s self-assured facade hides a complex personality. This is especially clear in the way she deals with the opposite sex. Her father, the Commendatore, Don Giovanni or her tender husband Don Ottavio: each of the men in this opera provokes feelings that are both extreme and ambiguous. Soprano Simona Šaturová tells us all about her character in Don Giovanni.

He’s the owner of a newspaper stand who seems to know everyone. A gender-fluid street philosopher who breaks societal norms just by being himself. A manipulative intruder who pulls the strings of all the characters in Così fan tutti. In our Trilogia Mozart Da Ponte, Don Alfonso – portrayed by baritone Riccardo Novaro – is all that… and so much more. 

Nothing escapes her eagle eye. She is the puppet master in control of every situation. Mozart depicts Susanna – a female servant – as the most quick-witted character in Le nozze di Figaro. She’s been through enough to comprehend the true intentions of Il Conte di Almaviva. Now all she needs to do is get the Contessa onboard the #metoo-movement.

For the Chorus of La Monnaie, each opera production takes weeks or even months of meticulous preparation. Martino Faggiani has for years been safeguarding its artistic quality. In this video, chorus manager Pieter Hulst lifts the veil on our illustrious and colourful maestro, and explains his unique work ethic that you’ll get to admire at our choral concert Via crucis.