conductor
Figaro in the City is a modern-day retelling of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro: “la folle journée” is full of playful and hurtful intrigues that lead up to one of the most moving final scenes in opera history. Opera Fuoco’s young singers step into a staging that takes them away from the confines of a stage and into the city of Paris’ quirky ateliers, streets and gardens. Filmed in playback to allow for theatrical intimacy and the safety of the cast during the Covid-19 pandemic, the camera itself becomes a character, reacting to each turn of the plot. As the instrumentalists and conductor disappear, the characters move fluidly from the opening opera rehearsal atmosphere to a real-life scenario. (more…)
ITHINK Financial Amphitheatre
February 19th 7:30 PM / February 24th 7:30 PM
In February of 2021, Stern will lead performances of La Bohème and the Magic Flute in a 5000 seat open air arena, as part of the first Palm Beach Opera Festival. This innovative project will be key to bringing back live performance in the 20-21 season.
February 21st – 2:00 PM/ February 26th – 7:30 PM
Known for its enduring story and infectious score, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte captures the imaginations of young and old.
Start date: 18th April 2021
End date: 19th April 2021
Time: 11:00 and 19:30
Location: Lübeck Theater
More info
2020/21
Cancelled due to covid19 crisis
Program :
C.P.E. BACH – Symphony in D major 183/1
F. CLEMENT – Violin concerto n° 1 in D major
P. MONTAN BERTON l’AINE – Nouvelle Chaconne in E minor
F. J. HAYDN – Symphony n°104 in D major
Violin – Mirijam Contzen
Musical direction – David Stern
Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra
Date: 7th May 2021
Time: 20:00
Location: Salle Ravel de Levallois
Soloists of Opera Fuoco Young Artist Program
Actor – François Macherey, Niels Ohlund
Piano – Karolos Zouganelis
Stage direction – Catherine Vrignaud-Cohen
Date: 22nd May 2021
Location: Osaka Symphony Hall
BERG – Violin concerto
DVORAK – Symphony n°7
Violin – Augustin Dumay
Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra
David Stern's musical leadership is spread across three continents. Whether conducting a major symphony orchestra, baroque opera, teaching vocal master classes or defending cultural activities, Stern keeps his musicians, students and audiences riveted by sharing his strong musical convictions, his flexibility of approach and his belief that music is relevant and indeed essential in today's world. He is the founder and director of the Paris-based opera studio and period-instrument ensemble Opera Fuoco, as well as artistic adviser and chief conductor of the Shanghai Baroque Festival and chief conductor of the Palm Beach Opera in Florida.
David Stern‘s musical life spans three continents, and the pandemic hasn’t slowed him down. As founder and director of Opera Fuoco, a Paris-based international opera company and young artist program, he helms Figaro in the City, a modern-day video retelling of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. It’s available in easily digestible segments of 15 minutes or so at Marquee TV. Stern is also chief conductor of the Palm Beach Opera in Florida, which last month presented its Outdoor Opera Festival, the first large-scale, multi-opera performances (with an audience) in America since the start of the pandemic.
Maestro Stern was kind enough to talk to us about reimagining opera for a young video-obsessed generation while managing the restrictions of physical distancing during the pandemic, and about the challenges and rewards of getting back to live staged opera with an audience while COVID-19 is still assailing the U.S.
Find the full interview here:
https://blogcritics.org/exclusive-interview-maestro-david-stern-opera-fuoco-figaro-city-palm-beach-operas-live-audience-return/
“A young cast, imaginative filming – how the project came about. Watch the first episode for free”
When I had the initial idea to salvage a concert version of the Marriage of Figaro, Paris was just coming out of its first confinement period. Springtime was bursting out, we no longer needed to fill out forms to leave our homes and while all performing venues were closed, the prevalent feeling in the streets was that the time had come to find imaginative ways to keep music alive.
To read all the post:
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/blogs/article/figaro-in-the-city-mozart-as-a-television-series
“Stern drew out Puccini’s singing phrases adroitly, providing strong, coherent support for the singers. Without a curtain coming down to produce premature applause, it was great, for once, to hear the final soft harp lines following the Mimi-Rodolfo duet in Act I and the final quiet brass chords at the conclusion. Standing to the rear of the orchestra, the small chorus sang vigorously as holiday revelers at the Café Momus and workers awaiting to enter the city’s gates on a fridged morning.”
Lawrence Budmen – South Florida Classical Review.
Read the full review here
Florian Leopold Gassmann – Ah, ingrato Amor (Opera arias & sinfonias) – CPO, 2020
Ania Vegry / David Stern & NDR Radiophilharmonie
`New releaseOPERA FUOCO – APARTÉ
Opera Fuoco’s latest recording features three former members of the Opera Fuoco studio, Lea Desandré, Natalie Perez, Chantal Santon and the Opera Fuoco orchestra conducted by David Stern. Berenice, che fai? is a compilation of late Baroque and early Classical works based principally on Metastasio’s famous 18th-century opera scene « Ah Berenice » from his opera Antigono.
Not only was the scene set to music by such composers as Haydn and Hasse, but also by Antonio Maria Mazzoni and Marianna Martinez, a composer of Spanish descent who was widely connected to the Viennese music scene and, for a time, lived in the same noble house as Metastasio and Haydn at Grosse Michelstrasse. The young Mozart’s concert aria « Berenice » and Johann Christian Bach’s aria « Confusa, smarrita» from the composer’s lost pasticcio opera, Berenice, as well as Hasse’s Antigono overture complement the program.
Cherubini, Boisselot, Hérold
Karine Deshayes / Opera Fuoco