February 2007: Il Barbiere in Oslo (2007-02-23)

Day 1: Friday 2007-02-23 Oslo
Thursday we decided that I should take fly to Oslo instead of bus. More expensive but less stress in Oslo. We could meet and eat something before going to the opera. And I could work 2 more hours. My parents and I met in Oslo and went to the Al Dente restaurant in Oslo City. And then we went to the opera. We even got the introduction about Barbiere and Gioacchino Rossini's Life. Very interesting introduction by a very energetic lady.

Il Barbiere in Siviglia (G. Rossini), Den Norske Opera

Musikalsk ledelse: Tobias Ringberg
Regi: Francois de Carpentries
Dramaturg: Karine van Hercke
Scenografi: Emmanuel Clolus
Kostymer: Karine van Hercke
Lysdesign: Pierre Berthomé
Kormester: Steffen Kammler


Almaviva = Juan José Lopera
Rosina = Virginia Tola
Figaro = Tom Erik Lie
Dr. Bartolo = Jonathan Veira
Don Basilio = Carsten Stabell
Berta = Toril Carlsen

Den Norske Operas kor
Den Norske Operas orkester

Co-production: Norwegian National Opera & Opéra National de Lorraine et Nancy

The very famous ouverture beautifully played by the orchestra. At more than one occasion the orchestra stopped for so many seconds that a new listened would have thought the overture suddenly died. The conductor played the hammer-piano in the rezitatives, althought the singers were lively, the accompaniative made so many extra thrills that it seemed to take forever until a new aria broke out and we could start enjoying ourselves again. But luckily the drama strong and very good comedy it was too.

Juan Jose Lopera was a wonderful Almaviva, wonderfully sung, acted. Tom Erik Lie was a very young Figaro, very enjoyable and humourous and a great voice. Dottor Bartolo was fully embodied with Jonathan Viera, a great singer and actor. Don Basilio was also wonderfully played and sung by Carsten Harboe Stabell. It was very sad that role of Berta has so little to sing but Toril Carlson sang Berta's aria wonderfully, what a wonderful warm soprano voice she has. Virginia Tola sang Rosina as mezzo soprano, beautiful sung and acted but she seemed to have a little voice compared to the other singers. Maybe she did not dare sing out too much.

The opera started at 1900 and ended at approx. 2200. And so my parents took the 2250 bus home. If we had come to late for that one, we would have to wait until 0050, 2 more hours.

The second act of il Barbiere was such a lot of fun, that I used many more muscles in my face than usuall. "pace e gioia" . Juan Jose Lopera as the munk Don Alonso, hilarious...

January 2007: Tosca in Zurich (2007-01-13)

Day 1: Saturday 2007-01-13 Oslo - Zurich
Friday was a day with many planes being grounded. One question was should I take the night bus so that I was sure to be in Oslo by the
time the flight to Zurich was due. No, I decided. If my flight to Oslo was not going due weather conditions I would just take it on my insurance, even if it meant my expensive opera ticket as an expense was lost.

But the weather was better on Saturday, clear sky. So I just took the flight to Oslo. And luckily the Norwegian flight to Zurich was on time. When the schedule says landing in Zurich at 1800 and opera starts at 1930 one really have no time to loose. Staying at Hotel Opera was a great choice that meant losing no time since the hotel is
just 5 minutes from the opera house (or really 2). Just as I remembered the trains to Zurich HB was frequent enough and does not take long so there was really no stress. And then I could just calmly put my luggage in my hotel room and go to the opera house. I had naturally traveled with just hand luggage otherwise it might not have gone as smoothly.

Afternoon flight from Oslo to Zurich. Short time before the opera.

Tosca (Puccini), Opernhaus Zurich

Tosca = Norma Fantini
Cavaradossi = Marcelo Alvarez
Scarpia = Ruggero Raimondi
Angelotti = Tomasz Slawinski
Mesner = Giuseppe Scorsin
Spoletta = Andreas Winkler
Sciarrone = Rolf Haunstein

It was a wonderful opera evening. Ruggero Raimondi was a great Scarpia, Marcelo Alvarez was wonderful as Cavaradossi and so was Norma Fantini as Tosca.

The disappointment was the conductor Nello Santi who was almost killing the beautiful music, Tosca was mostly played painfully slow with sudden unreasoned faster parts. The Regie by Gilbert Deflo was not helping, as awkward moments in act 1. And deciding that Tosca
would shoot herself rather that leaping from the Castello was really bad. Especially since both the shooting of Cavaradossi and later by Tosca was really too quiet. Not that one could not hear it but it didn't even hit our nerves. The scenography by Ezio Frigerio was probably one reason it was sometimes hard to hear the singers. The glass walls was just not reflecting the sound but it was giving reflects of the singers and the monitors which was a bit disturbing. And then there so not a huge or even big painting of Maria Magdalen, just some painters papers which really make the acting much more harder to do realistically.

After the opera, no Ruggero Raimondi in sight but delightful Marcelo Alvarez and the nicest soprano of all, Norma Fantini made the evening perfect. Marcelo Alvarez was most generous tenor meeting his fans and making everybody enjoy it deeply. And Norma Fantini was the warmest and nicest person you could meet. At the stage door a huge success for
the fans. And I could go to the hotel with a big smile in my face.

NORMA FANTINI, the power of nice!!!!

Day 2: Sunday 2007-01-14 Zurich - Oslo
Flight from Zurich to Oslo via Copenhagen. The flight Zurich to Copenhagen went normally with a bit more turbulence than usual. The Flight to Oslo was a bit delayed due to the strong winds. But I got lucky and came away. And in Oslo, a bit delayed I could just take the bus (7 hours) home and was lucky that the weather conditions was not too bad for us. A bit over midnight and I was home.