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While Robert Dornhelms’ film “La Bohème” is playing in cinemas, there are plans already underway towards the next big opera movie (see previous articles on this topic here and here). Georges Bizets “Carmen” will be filmed with top stars: Elina Garanča (title role), Anna Netrebko (as Micaela) and Rolando Villazón (as Don José). “We would [...]

Austria isn’t exactly known for premiering a movie first. Usually a few months behind with Hollywood movies released in the States; this time Austria’s got it first!
The trailer can be seen on the official website here:  http://www.labohemefilm.com/
For a movie interview (German only) with star tenor Villazón: http://kurier.at/kultur/209655.php
La Bohème the movie will premier October 10th in [...]

Every season the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) house changes its stage curtain to a new abstract artistic rendition.
When I first moved here in 2006 we had a curtain designed by the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija with the saying “Angst essen Seele auf” (“Fear eats away at the soul”) over the familiar television SMPTE [...]

The international Haydn festival in Eisenstadt, Austria began with the oratorio “Il ritorno di Tobia” last Thursday. This yearly celebration of Hadyn’s flourishing years spent working at one of the Esterházy families’ castles is a little bit extra special this time around. This year’s festivities are especially important since it marks 20 years of the [...]

“The biggest danger I see today is with ‘Netrebkoismus’” said the Vienna State Opera director Ioan Holender in an interview with Bühne magazine. “It is all about the events and what’s around them. We see what is playing out in Salzburg.” Mr. Holender went further to say that theater managers are increasingly more interested on [...]

Opera as bloodsport? The Viennese opera singer Alejandro Gallo (age 38) was stabbed in the face by a dagger during a Romeo and Juliet production staging rehearsal in Malta (National Theater Teatru Manoel). The dagger had travelled through his nose into his brain. The injuries were life threatening, and after a risky surgery, his career [...]

It all started when my Italian girlfriend introduced me to “La Bella Figura – A Field Guide to the Italian Mind” by Beppe Severgnini. A comical book written by an Italian journalist who’s lived outside of Italy long enough to view his own people from an outsider’s perspective, and explain the differences. Such as, why [...]