10
May
Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, reigning stars of opera, are also consummate interpreters of song. In early 2018, with master pianist Helmut Deutsch, they performed Hugo Wolf’s multi-faceted Italienisches Liederbuch in 12 cities around Europe. “One couldn’t ask for more,” wrote the Telegraph after their London concert, which took place two days before this live recording was made in the German city of Essen.
This album is available for pre-order via Amazon.de and will be released in Germany on January 11, and on Amazon.com on January 25, 2019.
Label: C Major Entertainment/Naxos
Diana Damrau, Carlos Álvarez, Golda Schultz, Markus Werba
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Frederic Wake-Walker, director
For the 225th anniversary of Mozart’s death, Teatro alla Scala presents a new production of Le nozze di Figaro, entrusted to the extraordinary director Frederic Wake-Walker. He focusses the action of the piece on the instability of love: Le nozze di Figaro presents us with the impossibility of a world where everyone is loving and forgiving. In charge of the musical direction is one of the finest Mozart conductors of our times, Franz Welser-Möst, who appears for the first time at La Scala. The main roles are played by Diana Damrau (Countess), Marianne Crebassa (Cherubino), Golda Schultz (Susanna), Markus Werba (Figaro) and Carlos Álvarez (Count).
Label: BelAir Classiques/Naxos
Diana Damrau, Javier Camarena, Ludovic Tézier, Nicolas Testé
Evelino Pidò, conductor
Emilio Sagi, director
Release date: November 3, 2017
A jewel of bel canto, and Bellini’s last masterpice, I Puritani encapsulates every major theme held dear by the Italian romantic generation: a love triangle, quid pro quos, a shattered love affair leading to madness, set in Cromwell’s England with its lot of political rivalries. It is also an ode to resistance and to freedom, echoing the political struggles that the Italian peninsula was facing in the 1830’s. But it is mainly a testament to Bellini’s unique musical brand, a genius combination of melodic brightness, post-rossinian ornaments, and a profound and melancolic lamento that owes much to traditional Neapolitan songs.
Apr 15, 2019
This spring, Diana Damrau joins her frequent collaborator Xavier de Maistre on another Liederabend tour, in which they interpret pieces by Mendelssohn, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Vlasov, Hahn, Ravel, Renié and Poulenc.
Tour dates
May 10 Baden-Baden
May 12 Oslo
May 14 Dortmund
May 18 Vienna
May 22 Barcelona
May 24 Bad Kissingen
Mar 15, 2019
Premiering in the US on Friday, April 5 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), with an encore on Sunday, April 7 at 12 p.m, season 13 of Great Performances at the Met comes to primetime with Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata. Conducted by new Metropolitan Opera music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the opera stars Diana Damrau in the pinnacle soprano role of Violetta alongside Juan Diego Flórez as her hapless lover Alfredo and Quinn Kelsey as his father Germont.
Jan 27, 2019
Diana Damrau makes her role debut as Ophélie in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet in two concert version performances on March 7 and 10 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
This unusual and much appreciated Hamlet, which features a semi-happy ending, is an excellent exponent of French lyric drama, whose works are midway between grand opéra and Romantic bel canto. Thomas has bequeathed us a score rich in nuances and dramatic plot developments, including a madness aria for Ophélie. Carlos Álvarez sings the title role, Nicolas Testé is Claudius and Celso Albelo is Laërte. Daniel Oren conducts Liceu’s orchestra and chorus.
The performance on March 7 is scheduled for broadcast via Catalunya Música and RNE.
“the leading coloratura soprano in the world”
– New York Sun
Soprano Diana Damrau has been performing on the world’s leading opera and concert stages for two decades. Her vast repertoire spans both lyric soprano and coloratura roles including the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor (La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House), Manon (Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera) and La Traviata (La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris and Bavarian State Opera) as well as Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House).
Invested as Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera (2007) and holder of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2010), Diana Damrau has forged close links with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich where she has been seen in new productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, Les contes d’Hoffmann (the four heroines), Ariadne auf Naxos (Zerbinetta), Die schweigsame Frau (Aminta), Die Zauberflöte (Queen of the Night) and Rigoletto (Gilda). Other high profile appearances have included La Traviata (Violetta Valéry), Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie) and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Konstanze).
