The new edition of Antonín Dvořák's masterwork presents not a “new” Rusalka – conductors, performers, and audiences will find the same Czech masterpiece that has been enjoyed for over 100 years but the opera in its definitive form, with all practical and musicological issues considered, well-documented, and clearly presented.

It is astonishing that there is still no reliable edition of the opera buffa par excellence, Cimarosa’ “Il matrimonio segreto”, that takes all sources into account. Guido Olivieri's and Federico Gon's critical new edition from the series "Masterpieces of Italian Opera" closes this gap. Its premiere is announced for 11 November 2022 at the Schlosstheater im Neuen Palais as a production of the Potsdam Winter Opera, followed by seven further performances until the end of the month. The Italian early music specialist Attilio Cremonesi conducts the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and Adriana Altaras had been entrusted for the stage diretion.
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“La Jolie Fille de Perth” has been published by Fishergate Music as volume 3 of the series “Bizet's Other Operas”. The editor is Hugh Macdonald. Like “Carmen” and “Les Pêcheurs de perles”, the opera is full of brilliance and ingenuity. This new edition of “La Jolie” has removed all later additions, thus offering a reliable basis for performances.

The premiere in 1749 was a failure, but the second version of 1756 was highly acclaimed. Jean-Philippe Despite optimal production conditions and context, the premiere in 1749 was not a success. Only with the second fundamentally revised version of his “Zoroastre” did Jean-Philippe Rameau win the affections of the public. The theme of Louis de Cahusac’s libretto, drawn from ancient Persian sources, is the battle between good and evil, fought out here by the religious reformer Zoroastre and his adversary, the ambitious sorcerer Abramane. This drastic dualistic juxtaposition enabled the librettist to introduce elements of ritual and belief from Freemasonry. With Graham Sadler’s new edition of the second version, published as part of the “Opera Omnia Rameau”, and the performance material available on hire, this successful performance tradition can now be continued.

The Staatstheater Kassel is staging a revival of a very special version of Verdi’s masterpiece from October: “L’ultimo sogno — Un’immagine di Traviata” by Carlo Ciceri was premiered in the corona year of 2020, conducted by Francesco Angelico, who also commissioned the work. The Italian composer and conductor Ciceri, who died at a young age in March 2022, created much more than simply a chamber version of the opera. He placed Verdi’s work under a magnifying glass: opera as a temporally stretched-out dying in one act. As in Verdi’s score, his title figure Violetta Valéry is doomed not only musically, but also dramatically from the very first second, as she experiences the events of the opera in flashback as a feverish dream. Violetta, dying of lung disease, dreams her last, the dream of her own life. The Staatstheater Kassel presents four performances on 22 and 29.10, 26.11. and 22.12.2023.

The Emperor Napoleon, like Hernán Cortés, saw himself as the conqueror of great empires. Gaspare Spontini was intended to bring the fame of Cortés to the operatic stage. Hence the genesis of the opera “Fernand Cortez”. But when the Emperor was defeated, a complicated series of reworkings of the opera began. Theater Dortmund is now staging the third version of 1824 on 7 April 2022.

The idea of composing the opera “Fernand Cortez” was thanks to a commission from Emperor Napoleon I following the successful premiere of Gaspare Spontini’s “La Vestale” (1807). The intention was to pave the way for Napoleon’s Spanish campaign through a propaganda piece. The libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy was based on various historical and dramatic sources and took as its subject the conquest of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire, by the Spanish commander Hernán Cortés. The autograph, which is preserved in Paris, reveals that Spontini first set the libretto in its original version. But shortly before rehearsals began, the interior minister demanded a reworking of the text, which was carried out in collaboration with Joseph-Alphonse d’Esménard, eliminating in particular the character of Montezuma as originally envisaged.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” is probably the most frequently-performed Russian opera. But its success was not assured from the outset. Now this stagework is being published by Bärenreiter in an edition reflecting the latest state of research, taking into consideration the somewhat complicated history of its composition. The new edition finally clears up the many mistakes and inconsistencies in the previous editions of the score. It follows the 1885 St Petersburg version which can be regarded as the final authorised version since Tchaikovsky prepared it for the second edition of the score published by Jürgenson in 1891.