Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts-Opera House
Dates: April 15 – 18, 2009 19:30
Price: VIP 680 480 280 180 100 RMB
Programme Introduction
Tosca is a representative work of opera master Puccini. Its graphic description of the social reality, deep analysis of human nature and vivid interpretation of love and hatred made it an eternal classic in the history of opera.
The NCPA invited famous Chinese and foreign artists to jointly create the new opera Tosca as a giant gift for the first Opera Festival of NCPA. It is a harmonious blending of traditional classics and modern elements as well as a good combination of Chinese and Western culture.
The new opera boasts a lot of experts who had served the Beijing Olympics, including Chen Yan, the Chief Stage Designer for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, Sha Xiaolan, the Chief Lighting Designer and Guo Pei, the designer for costume for prize-presenter. The performing team gathers both world-level opera stars such as Marcello Giordani, Natalia Ushakova, Liping Zhang and Dai Yuqiang and young conductor like Li Xincao. They will jointly stage an opera audio and video feast for the audience.
Synopsis
This is a story about love, politics, hatred and conspiracy…
Painter Cavaradossi is arrested in covering a political criminal. To rescue her lover, opera singer Tosca gives herself to the Chief of Police Scarpia. Scarpia promises Tosca to conduct a mock execution. After getting the pass, Tosca kills Scarpia when he is not prepared. In the morning, Cavaradossi is taken to the execution ground. Unfortunately, the gun is equipped with a real bullet. The soldiers fire, and Mario falls. Cavaradossi is so despaired that she jumps from the rampart and falls to her death…
Performers
Marcello Giordani as Cavaradossi
Hailed as an extraordinarily versatile artist, and in demand by the world’s major opera houses and symphony orchestras, Marcello Giordani has a repertory which encompasses a wide and diverse range of roles, running the gamut from the Bel Canto heroes of Donizetti and Bellini to the more dramatic roles of
Verdi and Puccini, and, more recently, the great vocal works of Berlioz such as La damnation de Faust and Les Troyens.
Marcello Giordani made his professional stage debut as the Duke in Rigoletto in Spoleto, Italy in 1986, his American debut as Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Portland Opera during their 1988-89 season, his La Scala debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in 1988, and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore in 1993.
Earlier career highlights include the title role in the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere production of Bellini’s Il Pirata, a new production of Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Opéra National de Paris, and a highly acclaimed performance as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur with Opera Orchestra of New York. In 2001 he became the first Italian in the history of the Metropolitan Opera to sing the role of Lenski in Eugene Onegin in Russian. That same season he sang Verdi’s Requiem under the direction of James Levine in Carnegie Hall.
In August, Marcello Giordani participated in what has been described as one of the most important programs in “Meet in Beijing 2008 Cultural Events”: a series of Global Harmony concerts in Beijing during the Olympic Games entitled “Divas in Beijing”, featuring some of the world’s leading opera singers. Also in August, Giordani appeared in recital at the Centro de Bellas Artes in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The recital, presented by CulturArte de Puerto Rico was part of a prestigious Recital Series in which have participated some of the most renowned personalities of the opera world, including Pavarotti, Domingo, and Freni, among others.
Natalia Ushakova as Tosca
The young soprano Natalia Ushakova was brought up by her grandparents in Tashkent and began to study singing at the “Rimsky-Korsakov-Conservatory” in St. Petersburg in 1991.She continued her studies in the master class at the University of Munich in 1998, and won another scholarship to the “Accademia di perfezionamento” of the Teatro alla Scala (Milan), where she studied with the famous sopranos Leyla Gencer,Mieta Sieghele and Virginia Zeani.
In 1999 Natalia Ushakova made her debut as Maria in Tschaikovsky’s “Mazeppa” (Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich) at la Scala,Milan. After this successful debut she took the advice of the artistic director and studied the Italian operas at the “Accademia di perfezionamento della Scala”.
Natalia Ushakova took part in various tours with the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg (Conductor: Valery Gergiev), which brought her to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Festival Hall in Baden-Baden.
Natalia Ushakova made her USA debut at the Washington Opera House as Liu in Puccini’s “Turandot” in 2001, followed in 2002 by Lisa in “The Queen of Spades” with Placido Domingo as Hermann, and appeared as Donna Anna in a new production of “Don Giovanni” in 2003.
In 2004 Ms.Ushakova made her debut in the “Teatro Real”in Madrid to great public acclaim and received spectacular reviews singing Lisa in “The Queen of Spades” alongside Placido Domingo and Elena Obraszova as the Countess, with Jesus Lopez Cobus conducting.
In 2006 Natalia Ushakova appeared in Abbado’s new production of “Don Giovanni” in Verona as Donna Anna, and made her debut in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall in New York to standing ovations.
Dai Yuqiang as Cavaradossi
Dai is a famous Chinese tenor with outstanding music talent. He had learned from masters Yan Keting, Han Dezhang, Ma Qiuhua, Jin Tielin and Wu Qihui, etc.
Famous agent Tibor Rudas, the Three Tenors agent, highly praised Dai’s singing, so did famous tenor Pavarotti, who was glad to admit Dai as his first Asian disciple.
Friends in Japanese opera circles acclaimed him as “the pride of Chinese opera”, and famous experts in domestic opera circles commented him as a “rare well-rounded opera talent”.
He used to perform Tosca in the Royal Opera House together with famous international singers Maria Guleghina and Samuel Ramey, and was widely received and praised by local media as “the sole shining star among all performers”.
Liping Zhang as Tosca
Zhang, a world-famous Chinese soprano, has acted the leading role in over 20 operas across the whole world and was highly praised where she performed. Thanks to her outstanding achievements, she was employed as a professor of Central Conservatory of Music, and assumed the Chair of the Voice and Opera Department.
In March 2004, she was the first Chinese woman to enter the world top theatre as the first heroine, the Metropolitan Opera. The Madama Butterfly starred by her achieved a great success. The whole audience stood up and acclaimed for 20 minutes, a rare event in the history of the Metropolitan Opera.
In the meantime, she is also the first and sole Chinese singer to enter another world top theatre, the Royal Opera House, as a leading role. In the House, she starred in opera Turandot, Madama Butterfly and extremely difficult Lucia di Lammermoor.
(Source: ebeijing.gov.cn)
Step-by-step process