Francisco Negrín begins rehearsals for Salome by Richard Strauss, the inaugural opera of the III Mediterrani Festival
18.05.2010
Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund leads the cast, which includes big names from the German repertoire such as Albert Dohmen and Hanna Schwarz
Valencia (18.05.10).- Stage director Francisco Negrín has begun rehearsals for Salome by Richard Strauss, an opera that will inaugurate the III Festival del Mediterrani.
Francisco Negrín is one of the most innovative directors of our time. Over the past 20 years, he has forged a solid career in the world of opera, leading him to work in most of the major theaters and festivals in Europe and America, as well as with Opera Australia.
The audience at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía has witnessed some of Negrín's productions, such as the celebrated production of Handel's Orlando, which he made for Covent Garden in London, or the Valencian arts center's own productions of La corte de Faraón by Vicente Lleó and Una cosa rara by Vicente Martín i Soler.
Zubin Mehta, president of the Festival del Mediterrani, takes over the musical direction of this new production, which features a cast of great figures from the German repertoire.
Soprano Camilla Nylund, a regular in the casts of Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Milan, Munich, and Berlin, embodies the biblical Salome, one of the most iconic femme fatales in operatic history, to whom the Palau de les Arts pays tribute this year. Nylund has worked with conductors of the caliber of Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, and Daniel Barenboim. She recently performed Salome to great acclaim in Vienna, Dresden, Toulouse, and Paris.
Albert Dohmen sings the role of Jochanaan (John the Baptist), whose rejection of the spurned Salome leads to his death. The German baritone, who already gave a select recital of Lieder at the Palau de les Arts during the 2nd Festival del Mediterrani, is one of the most sought-after singers in the German repertoire by theaters such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Vienna State Opera. Considered the Wotan of his generation, he is a regular performer at the Bayreuth Festival.
Another grande dame of German opera, mezzo-soprano Hanna Schwarz, brings Herodias to life. Schwarz is one of Bayreuth's leading voices. Her performance as Fricka in Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez's legendary production of The Ring of the Nibelung, commemorating the centenary of the opera's premiere, remains legendary. Alongside her, in the role of Herod, is another of Wagner's most prominent interpreters, Siegfried Jerusalem. Tenor Tomislav Mužek, who has appeared in productions at La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Bayreuth Festival, and the Paris Opera, will sing the role of Narraboth.
Salome will premiere on June 10th. The Valencian arts center has scheduled additional performances on the 16th, 19th, 22nd, and 25th of that same month.
