Bored and yearning.

The way things look now, this winter seems to be getting as mild and worthless as the last, wich really worries me, we had a fiew lovely, heart-stoppingly cold days around christmas and new years, although scarcely any snow and the little that did come just dripped away and the thermometer now shows +6 C, so depressing! I would so much love a little winter...i'd go out flattening bastardly car's tires if it would help!


But i am so excited about the 2009 season at Drottningholm! They haven't presented any details yet, but they will be giving us Handel's "Ariodante" and Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione de Poppea" -part of their Monteverdi series - last year was "Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria" and the year before that "l'Orfeo".
-Below is a beautiful duet from "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" with Anne-Sofie von Otter and Mireille Delunsch in the roles of Nerone and Poppea respectively, with Marc Minkowski conducting:



But foremost i am an avid Handelian and severely hope that Christophe Rousset will return for "Ariodante", -in 2000 he conducted Handel's "Tamerlano" wich returned in 2002 and wich i unfortunately didn't see. In 2003 it was "Alcina" wich is one of my favourites...and it was a fabulous performance. Christine Schäfer was Alcina, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Ruggiero -though Von Otter was in surprisingly bad shape... The director was Pierre Audi, set/costume designer, Patric Kinmonth, and in 2005 they and Rousset returned, and this time - to my immense joy - with something in Sweden so rare as french baroque! -"Zoroastre" by Rameau wich i went seing with my mother...it ran again in the following year - when it was also filmed and made into a formidable dvd - a fiew years ago the performances at Drottningholm were traditionally broadcast on national television, something i really miss...i don't know why they stopped. -Below is the final scene from Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" filmed at Drottningholm in 1987.



the "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" will probably be an all-swedish production, like the two previous ones by Monteverdi but for "Ariodante" i ferociously hope for a return of Christophe Rousset, and in the title-role i'd like to see Ann Hallenberg - one of my favorite singers, a fabulous mezzo. She's swedish but rarely ever performs here, but is very much in demand everywhere else and has fortunately made several fabulous recordings.

I was so excited last year when she was up to sing the role of Penelope in "il ritorno di Ulisse", though i sadly missed it, and then made a fiew appearances in Stockholm in December, she sang in Mozart's Mass in C-minor at the Nobel prize concert, in Bach's "Christmas oratorio" and songs by Chausson with no less than Marc Minkowski conducting! Follow this link to hear Ann Hallenberg sing Judith's aria "Parto inerme, e non pavento" from "La Betulia Liberata" by Mozart, the conductor is Christophe Rousset.


This is the woman i'm hoping to see and hear.