I had the good fortune this summer to visit Venice, Italy, one of the wonders of this world. Wandering through the canals and alleys of this amazing city, I happened upon La Fenice, the major opera house in Venice, and was surprised that a tour was available in the depths of August. La Fenice is most appropriately named; its name means "The Phoenix." Several times in its history it has been destroyed by fire, most recently in 1996, and has re-emerged more beautiful than before. La Fenice has been one of the most important opera houses for over two centuries. Donizetti, Bellini and numerous other composers were commissioned to write operas for this amazing house. Verdi alone wrote "Attila," "Rigoletto," "La Traviata" and "Simon Boccanegra" for La Fenice! Walking into its astonishing, ornate, albeit intimate, hall today, one cannot...
- 9/20/2010
- by Michael Kaiser
- Huffington Post
The Swiss architects bring their rough-edged, aggressive style to the Met as set designers for Attila.
Herzog and de Meuron might be rock stars abroad--their just-opened VitraHaus museum for the furniture company's Weil am Rhein, Germany campus is astonishing (thanks, in part, to Iwan Baan's insanely good photographs). But here in the States, they've had a rough few years. After their success with 40 Bond, their follow-up, 56 Leonard, stalled and their plan for the Parrish Art Museum had to be scaled back. Hear the fat lady singing? Their show's not over yet; in fact, it just got started.
Verdi's opera Attila debuted Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera with a set design by Herzog and de Meuron with Miuccia Prada. The set starts out as rubble and transforms to verdant marshland to show the collapse of the Roman Empire at the hands of Attila the Hun and the eventual settling of Venice.
Herzog and de Meuron might be rock stars abroad--their just-opened VitraHaus museum for the furniture company's Weil am Rhein, Germany campus is astonishing (thanks, in part, to Iwan Baan's insanely good photographs). But here in the States, they've had a rough few years. After their success with 40 Bond, their follow-up, 56 Leonard, stalled and their plan for the Parrish Art Museum had to be scaled back. Hear the fat lady singing? Their show's not over yet; in fact, it just got started.
Verdi's opera Attila debuted Tuesday night at the Metropolitan Opera with a set design by Herzog and de Meuron with Miuccia Prada. The set starts out as rubble and transforms to verdant marshland to show the collapse of the Roman Empire at the hands of Attila the Hun and the eventual settling of Venice.
- 2/25/2010
- by William Bostwick
- Fast Company
An early, little performed Verdi work, Attila, will premiere next week at the Met Opera, which continues its commendable outreach into the design and fashion communities for new perspectives on old works. This time, the team of director Pierre Audi, who founded the Alameida Theater in London and now is head of the Netherlands Opera; Riccardo Muti, making his Met conducting debut; Miuccia Prada, debuting also in opera costume design; and acclaimed architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, in their second operatic effort, are collaborating. Let's just hope the Verdi can live up to a creative team top heavy with so much talent. As part of our series of Off the C(h)uffs going behind the scenes at the Met this year, I had the chance to engage Herzog & deMeuron, a favorite design team, with some email...
- 2/19/2010
- by Patricia Zohn
- Huffington Post
Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).
- 2/10/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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