Festival premiere

Triumph for Anna Netrebko as “Gioconda”!

Anna Netrebko as "Gioconda" at the Großes Festspielhaus(Bild: Bernd Uhlig)

Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann drew standing ovations at the Salzburg Easter Festival in "La Gioconda", Amilcare Ponchielli's highly dramatic opera full of betrayal, intrigue and murder!

It was wise advice when maestro Antonio Pappano advised Anna Netrebko in London to wait before taking on the role of Amilcare Ponchielli's "Gioconda": she has now made her debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival in the wonderful role of the Venetian street singer driven between hatred, a desire for revenge for unrequited love and a willingness to sacrifice: a triumph! A scenically and musically thrilling thriller, whose score - grand opera full of betrayal, intrigue and murder - is impressively realized with intensity by the excellently studied Accademia di Santa Cecilia under its director Antonio Pappano. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of Oliver Mear's British-style production - to the audience's taste.

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Fotos

Noble: Philipp Fürhofer's Venetian arcades, tasteless: Annemarie Wood's costumes. But the evening belongs to the ideal "Gioconda" Anna Netrebko. Her vocal culture was flawless, her burning expression in the confrontation with her rival Laura, her warmly glowing high notes in the "Suicidio" aria and in the murder scene with the informer Barnaba. The audience finally celebrated her with a standing ovation. Excellent: Luca Salsi as the smearing intriguer Barnaba and Agnieszka Rehli as Chieca, Gioconda's blind mother; noble Jonas Kaufmann as the unfaithful lover Enzo - his aria "Cielo e mar" aria was very delicate - and Tareq Nazmi's sombre organ-playing inquisitor Badoero, somewhat lackluster Eve-Maud Hubeaux's Laura.