# Highlights of 2010



## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Just wondering what everyone's operatic highlight of the year was. Whether it was a live performance, DVD, CD or anything else. My personal highlight was the semi staged performance of Tristan und Isolde in London starring Gary Lehman and Violeta Urmana in the lead roles, supported by Ann Sofie von Otter as Brangane. The real highlight was the sensational conducting of Essa Pekka Salonen and the wonderful playing of the Philharmonia orchestra.

Plus it was a good way of doing semi staging opera by getting the singers to sing all around the auditorium.

Anyone else wanting to contribute?


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Mine was seeing Anna Netrebko live at the Met in Don Pasquale. I posted a whole thread about it.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. The most powerful operatic masterpiece of the last century.
Conducted by Hartmut Haenchen.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

I guess it was getting to know Kaija Saariaho's "L'Amour de Loin", not only because of that opera itself but it also sort of opened the door for me (or helped opening it further) to modern classical music in general.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

On DVD for me it has to be L'amour de loin. Just a stunning production and stunning music.

On CD, Enescu's sole opera Oedipe. It may well be a very fast-paced opera, but Enescu makes it seem like it takes much longer, which is a good thing in Enescu's case.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Operas that I've seen for the first time this year and loved:

The Makropulos Case (Janacek)
L'Amour de Loin (Saariaho)
Les Troyens (Berlioz)
The Fiery Angel (Prokofiev)
The Love for Three Oranges (Prokofiev)
Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck)


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Live: NZ Opera's Le Nozze di Figaro, a fun production which my daughter saw for the first time and loved. Sharing the experience was magic, listening to her laugh and hearing her enthusiasm after.

The big screen: the production of Don Pasquale that Alma saw live. What fun. The Met Carmen as a close second.

DVDs: Getting to know Wagner. Saw 5 Ring cycles, with the Barenboim one as the standout. Also Lohengrin with Kaufmann. Honorable mention for DVDs goes to Werther with Koch and Kaufmann.


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## Herkku (Apr 18, 2010)

For me the operatic highlight of the year was finding this forum and all you wonderful guys! And I had thought that my interest in opera had died...


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## danslenoir (Nov 24, 2010)

The Telegraph (a UK broadsheet) published its top 10 opera moments of 2010 in the UK last week:

In a great year, during which I must have given more five-star reviews than I have in the previous three years put together, nothing gave me a deeper sensual thrill than Anna Netrebko and Vittorio Grigolo letting rip like a pair of magnificent wild cats on the palpitating love duets in Massenet’s Manon at the Royal Opera House, conducted by Antonio Pappano. Two beautiful, confident young voices, swelling through wonderful impassioned melody, supported by the throb of a great orchestra – opera at its most primally powerful and erotically charged. 

Best director

Yet again, Richard Jones, for a production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Welsh National Opera that was freshly original, quietly witty, warmly humane and deeply intelligent without any specious gimmickry or cliché. 

Best of Britten

Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and The Turn of the Screw at Opera North – two superbly cast, magnificently conducted and enthrallingly directed productions that proved again that Britten was the greatest opera composer of the second half of the 20th century.

Best light relief

Opera North, which whipped Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore and Lehar’s The Merry Widow into delightful soufflés and demonstrated that operetta needn’t be naff.

Best female performance

French soprano Natalie Dessay, touching, hilarious and enchanting as the waif Marie in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment at the Royal Opera House.

Best male performance

Bryn Terfel, for his wry, wise and warm portrayal of Wagner’s cobbler-poet Hans Sachs in WNO’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Best foreign import

The Bolshoi Opera for its surprising, challenging, infuriating and enthralling production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Best team-effort

Mid Wales Opera, for a modestly scaled but crisply executed and entertaining production of Verdi’s Falstaff – a work that even the most celebrated opera houses can’t pull off.

Best newcomer

Elizabeth Llewellyn, an enchanting Mimi, shining brightly through an otherwise routine revival of La Bohème at English National Opera.

Best revival

Christopher Alden’s poetic staging of The Makropoulos Case at ENO, conducted by Richard Armstrong, with Amanda Roocroft offering a tour de force as the 337-year-old Emilia Marty.


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## jflatter (Mar 31, 2010)

Herkku said:


> For me the operatic highlight of the year was finding this forum and all you wonderful guys! And I had thought that my interest in opera had died...


I would second that. The highlight in the forum was taking part in the 100 operas project. Unfortunately I missed some of the end thanks to flu. It was however admirable work by everyone involved, particularly Jar26.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

jflatter said:


> I would second that. The highlight in the forum was taking part in the 100 operas project. Unfortunately I missed some of the end thanks to flu. It was however admirable work by everyone involved, particularly Jar26.


Me too. I've loved all the opera discussion but also the OT levity and hilarious posts that have sometimes had me crying with laughter.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Me too. I've loved all the opera discussion but also the OT levity and hilarious posts that have sometimes had me crying with laughter.


Yep, it was lots of fun. I kind of miss it already.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

This was my first full year as an opera fan, after first getting into it late last year. So my highlights would be seeing so many operas for the first time and falling in love with them; buying my first opera dvds; listening to scores of singers and finding my favorites; and becoming obsessed with Natalie Dessay and procuring everything I can that features her. 
Fun year!


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

rgz said:


> and becoming obsessed with Natalie Dessay and procuring everything I can that features her.
> Fun year!


Do you have this? It's pretty good!


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> Do you have this? It's pretty good!


Yes!  Particularly love the Handel piece on that cd, Per Te Lasciai La Luce


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## Grosse Fugue (Mar 3, 2010)

Seeing Joyce Didonato and Laurance Brownlee in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala. SHe wasn't supposed to preform that night but because of a strike opening night(I know who ever heard of a strike in Italy  ) she did.


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