I often get asked the question 'how do you cope?' concerning all the travelling I do. Easy....I really enjoy it even if sometimes it doesn't look like it! (See photo.)! It's so good to be back home though even if it is only for a short while.
Orphée et Euridice? Spring feeling down by Lac Léman and spring flowers in the 'pre Alps'. Still some good skiing to be had though!
Tonight is the opening of Orphée here in Geneva. After a successful dress rehearsal there was a welcome day off - spent in the mountains. Despite the Alpine glaciers spring is in the air thank goodness.
Rehearsals for Orphée et Euridice are well underway - we open on the 9th of March - and Geneva and the lake look splendid. It will be a beautiful production in all ways I'm sure. If you're in the area....?
The wonderful Clemenza production is now over and Geneva's Orphée rehearsals have already started. It's always difficult saying farewell to Vancouver - not for nothing is it usually voted Nr. 1 on the best places to live list! This was my last look at the city for a while...
Already the second performance done and dusted. Look at the VOA website www.vancouveropera.ca for some nice reviews. Between performances, masterclasses, fundraising lunches etc.. I've been trying out some "hot yoga". Sweating buckets for and hour and a half. It's very strenuous but wonderful - especially if it's followed by a 'Rolfing massage'. Meanwhile the ski season continues...
Today we get into the theatre for the first time for the piano dress rehearsal of La Clemenza di Tito - Mozart's last opera. It should be a great show - fine director and a wonderful all Canadian cast. For more info check out the Vancouver Opera website with a clip of interviews and rehearsal www.vancouveropera.ca
The carnival of the animals is out: perfect as a New Year's gift for children and adults alike. A new text by Marie Pohl and original drawings by Otmar Alt together with a CD with Anna Thalbach reading the stories. Though I say it myself it really is very beautiful. Happy New Year.
Incrdibly it's already just over a week since coming back from Vancouver. Time to catch up with the family and prepare for Christmas excesses! The weather has lent it's helping hand - building snowmen is very cathartic!
Well Lucia finished as it started with a standing ovation and many curtain calls. A job well done you might say. Check out the reviews on the Vancouver Opera website http://www.vancouveropera.ca
www.jonathan-darlington.com
www.jonathan-darlington.de
- Music director of the Duisburger Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Opera; graduate of Durham University and the Royal Academy of Music; conducting debut in 1984 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, with Francesco Cavalli’s baroque opera “Ormindo”; and in 1991 assistant to the Music Director Myung-Whun Chung at the Paris Opéra with “Le nozze di Figaro”.
- Regular guest at the Orchestre National de France, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica del San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the English National Opera, and Sydney Opera.
- Recent operatic successes include the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s “La Grande Magia” with the Dresden Staatskapelle, “Le Nozze di Figaro” with Norwegian Opera, “Fidelio” for Opera Australia as well as Stravinsky’s “The Nightingale and other short fables” – a conception by the stage director Robert Lepage for the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto. - - Most recent live recordings are Debussy’s “La Mer” and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”, Wagner’s “Symphonic Ring” (arr. Dressler) and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Susanna Yoko-Henkel.
- Awards and disticntions: Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, 'Fellow' of the Royal Academy of Music, London (FRAM).
