Medici.tv Presents Renée Fleming, Anne Sofie von Otter, Cecilia Bartoli and More

Medici.tv presents some of the world's best known voices online for free – including Renée Fleming in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos from Baden-Baden and Cecilia Bartoli's first exclusive online appearance in Rossini's very rarely-heard Otello ossia il Moro di Venezia from Zurich. The live offerings on medici.tv include Stéphane Degout, Anne Sofie von Otter, and rising star Elena Tsallagova in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, staged by Robert Wilson at the Opéra National de Paris (March 16). And a series of recent productions from the Opéra de Paris will appear as part of the medici.tv on-demand catalog, ranging from Mozart's La clemenza de Tito with Susan Graham to Rameau's Les Indes galantes led by William Christie.

This month medici.tv presents live, and free of charge, the counterintuitive, cross-stylistic partnership of eminent conductor Bernard Haitink and the vibrant Chamber Orchestra of Europe, who will perform a series of the Beethoven symphonies from the Salle Pleyel in Paris (March 2, 3, & 5).

The Cecilia Bartoli event – available for viewing from March 8 until June 8 on medici.tv – sees the superstar mezzo-soprano add yet another role to her signature Rossini repertoire as she portrays Desdemona in the composer's rarity Otello ossia il Moro di Venezia. Rossini's Otello of 1816 is only loosely based on the Shakespearean tragedy, being primarily indebted to a subtly altered drama by Baron Carlo Cosenza that had premiered in Naples three years beforE. Rossini's opera enjoyed great success until the premiere of Verdi's Otello 71 years later. Rossini's score contains some of the melodic highlights of his entire oeuvre. Giacomo Meyerbeer put it in a nutshell:

"The third act is really divine, and the extraordinary thing about it is that its beauties do not sound at all like Rossini. First-class declamations, continuously passionate recitatives, mysterious accompaniments full of local color and, particularly, the style of old romances are superbly accomplished."

Medici.tv presents Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, live from Opéra National de Paris on March 16 at 1:30pm EST. The production stars baritone Stéphane Degout (who earned raves in this opera alongside Natalie Dessay in 2009 and was recently awarded a Victoire de la Musique in France) and the ever-compelling mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The staging of this Paris Pelléas by Robert Wilson is already being hailed as a contemporary masterpiece.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the opera's premiere, the production of Ariadne auf Naxos – coming from Baden-Baden and starring the great Strauss soprano Renée Fleming – will be available on medici.tv until May 24. The German production is something of a sequel to the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus staging of Strauss's Rosenkavalier, which was widely acknowledged to be a rare theatrical experience. The creative team behind that lauded Rosenkavalier – Fleming and conductor Christian Thielemann – has reunited for Ariadne, the 1916 follow-up to Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Ariadne auf Naxos showed once again that Strauss was a lover of the female voice in all its lyrical refinement and emotional beauty. The young Cavalier to Fleming's Marschallin in the Baden-Baden Rosenkavalier was Sophie Koch, also returns to co-star as the Composer to Fleming's Ariadne. The stage director and set designer of the Festspielhaus production is Philippe Arlaud.

According to press notes, the pairing of Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, performing live in Paris on March 2, 3, and 5 on medici.tv (2pm EST), represents the mingling of two disparate traditions of Beethoven interpretation: on one hand, the lean, propulsive, period-influenced method that has marked the COE's Beethoven since its acclaimed recordings with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; on the other, the classic, rigorous, and deeply lyrical approach of Haitink, whose recordings of Beethoven with Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw and the London Symphony Orchestra have long been best-sellers. In addition to the symphonies, Haitink and the COE will perform Beethoven's Triple Concerto with three highly compatible partners: violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and pianist Frank Braley.

The recent opera productions added to medici.tv's on-demand offerings represent some of the most acclaimed stagings from the Opéra de Paris. They include two Mozart operas: La clemenza de Tito starring mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and Christoph Prégardien from 2005 and Le nozze de Figaro with Heidi Grant Murphy and Christianne Oelze from 2006. There are also two Rameau productions: Les Indes galantes starring Patricia Petibon and led by William Christie from 2005, plus Platée featuring Paul Agnew and conducted by Marc Minkowski from 2002.

Live in March at medici.tv

March 2, 2pm EST

Bernard Haitink, Frank Braley, and the Capuçon brothers perform Beethoven

Renaud Capuçon, violin; Gautier Capuçon, cello; Frank Braley, piano; Bernard Haitink, conductor; Chamber Orchestra of Europe

March 3, 2pm EST

Bernard Haitink conducts Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7

Bernard Haitink, conductor; Chamber Orchestra of Europe

March 5, 2pm EST

Bernard Haitink conducts Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 9

Jessica Rivera, soprano; Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano; Roberto Saccà, tenor; Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass baritone; Bernard Haitink, conductor; Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Netherlands Radio Choir

March 6, 2pm EST

Nina Stemme and Marek Janowski perform Webern, Wagner, & Strauss

Nina Stemme, soprano; Marek Janowski, conductor; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

March 16, 1:30pm EST

Pelléas et Mélisande with Stéphane Degout, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Elena Tsallagova

Phillipe Jordan, conductor; Paris Opera Orchestra

To post a comment, you must register and login.