If Verdi had spent too many summers sipping rosé wine on the French riviera he might very well had composed Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Quintessentially gallic, this work weaves beautifully melodies into the infamous tale and evokes the melancholy aspects of the story more than the heroic.
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There is a reason that Verdi’s rendering of “la Dame aux Camélias” is immensely popular today: it is a perfect opera. The story, the music, the poignancy and the romance never fade or diminish. L’amor è palpito, per sempre.
Mozart’s last opera was by no means a return to an earlier style. This Opera Seria displays all the sensibility and colors of the composer’s late period. The relationship between the singers and the orchestra is nothing short of revolutionary.
This innovative program takes selections from a wide variety of Bach’s cantatas to underline the composer’s affinity to nature. The wind, the rain and the snow all become apparent through orchestrations that paint the texts, offering us the Leipzig master’s version of the 4 seasons.
Tosca is a violent and turbulent story that exposes the kind of raw emotional content that defines verismo, the style that urges opera to connect completely to credible, real life situations.
The Tales of Hoffman bears well the name of its genre: opéra fantastique. The last work of the famed operetta composer, Jacques Offenbach, Hoffman transcends many labels and pre-conceived notions: it is serious as it is comic, dark as it is light, popular as it is introspective and abstract
Opera Fuoco celebrates its 20th anniversary ! To celebrate this anniversary David Stern has invited soloists from 4 generations of the Opera Fuoco Young Artists Program. For two decades, the company has been committed to the training and integration of young talents who have become great talents.
David Stern leads this concertante performance of Giovanni Simone Mayr’s L’amor conjugale at the Theater an def Wien, which brings together Opera Fuoco’s period instrument orchestra and four generations of its Young Artist Program. The evening presents Mayr’s charming one-act opera based on Nicolas Brouilly’s Leonora (same as Beethoven’s Fidelio) written in the late classical and early bel canto styles, resulting in a quirky combination of German and Italian opera traditions.
David Stern leads this Opera Fuoco production of Nozze di Figaro with the newest members of the Opera Fuoco Young Artists Program in a staging by Alexander Camerlo. It is a pocket-size version of Mozart’s masterpiece, bringing out its youthful and chamber music qualities all while giving the young singers the opportunity to learn these important roles at the highest musical level.
Returning to China for the first time since the pandemic, David Stern joins the MISA festival to conduct the wonderful Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and present Rino Yoshimoro, a new talent and one of the six finalists of the 2020/22 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violon Competition.
For the third program with NDR Hannover, David Stern will conduct the rarely produced gem of Adolph Hasse, Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, with two of the most innovative singers of today, Sarah Hershkowitz and Fleur Barron.
Lorenzo da Ponte finally takes his long overdue place as the center of attention in the world of opera. Opera Fuoco presents a musical tour from Venice to New York through the odyssey of da Ponte’s life.
Ariodante is one of Handel’s most intriguing operas, this time with the talented singers of the Curtis Institute’s opera division - a dramma per musica staged by Omer ben Seadia and featuring Philadelphia’s Tempesta di Mare.
David Stern returns to the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston for an evening with world class fortepianist Andreas Staier, and Mendelssohn rarely performed “Reformation Symphony”.
New production touring the Netherlands: November 12th – December 12th 2022 During the run of Lady in the Dark in the early 1940s in New York, Kurt Weill was admired by the entire American musical community. The dramatist Moss Hart and the librettist Ira Gershwin opened up the world of […]
The Palm Beach Opera presents Mozart’s most enigmatic opera, Cosi Fan Tutte, where love and friendship are intertwined and put to their greatest tests.
Since live performances in China will still not be possible in 2022, the competition committee of the SISIVC has decided to name all six finalists as the 2020 competition Scholarship winners. I am very proud of the imaginative solution that the SISIVC has put in place in order to bring […]
August 13th and 14th – 8:30 PM La Grange aux Pianos festival (Chassignolles, France) Opera Fuoco presents Puccini’s La Bohème in France at La Grange aux Pianos Festival on August 13th and 14th, 2022. Staged by Elsa Rooke, this festive production will feature the young talents of the Opera Fuoco […]
May 19th – 8 PM – Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Paris) This recital caters to Spyers’ exceptional range and features composers such as Mozart, Verdi and Lehar who knew to exploit the vast color palette of the barytenor for their most striking roles. Michael Spyers collaborates with David Stern and the […]
Lübeck – Musik und Kongresshalle, Konzertsaal April 24th – 11 AM and 25th – 7:30 PM David Stern’s program with Lübeck’s Philharmonic Orchestra is “all classical” and contains several surprises. A rarely heard “Chaconne”, Haydn and CPE Bach symphonies and the completely unknown Clement violin concerto with the renowned soloist […]
“Après une ouverture aux phrasés dramatiques à propos, contrastés sans exagération et agréablement élancés, grâce à la direction très engagée de David Stern Avec cette œuvre qui se finit bien, par ce chœur joyeux “Scenda Amor, scenda Imeneo” qui clame l’amour, la loyauté et le sacrifice, c’est un message d’espoir […]
“The American conductor [David Stern]… infuses an energy, or even more, a vital élan and a dramatic imagination at every moment.” Mehdi Mahdavi – Opéra Magazine n°180 – March 2022
“(…) And throughout Friday’s performance, the duets, trios and other ensemble numbers were a pleasure to hear, as the fine singers blended together with the well-drilled orchestra under chief conductor David Stern. (…) The orchestra gave vibrant support to the singers without overwhelming them. Focused, buoyant string playing and jewel-like […]
Levallois – Salle Ravel – March 26th – 8:30 PM Châtellerault – Théâtre Blossac – April 8th – 8 PM and April 10th – 3 PM Opera Fuoco’s production of the Marriage of Figaro was conceived and imagined within the context of the pandemic. Between the first two lockdowns, the […]
Massy – Opéra de Massy – March 11th – 8 PM and the 13th at 4 PM After the success of the first performances in Metz, David Stern will conduct this early Mozart masterpiece at the Opéra de Massy, near Paris, for the two last performances. David Stern – Conductor […]
“Direction éruptive de l’inventif David Stern, qui rend la vie au dramma per musica, en avive les couleurs et restitue toute la puissance des ensembles – superbe finale du deuxième acte.” Didier Van Moere
“À la tête de l’Orchestre national de Metz, aux pupitres répartis un peu hors de la fosse, à l’avant du parterre, pour répondre aux impératifs sanitaires du moment, David Stern fait respirer la vitalité des couleurs et des inflexions de la partition, avec un éclairage ductile sur les interventions instrumentales, […]
“Il faut dire que la direction de David Stern, grand découvreur d’œuvres baroques et classiques, fondateur et animateur d’Opera Fuoco, connaît son sujet. La direction qu’il imprime n’appelle que des éloges : la dynamique, l’attention portée au chant comme à chacun des pupitres nous valent un Idomeneo exemplaire de style. L’urgence dramatique s’y mêle […]
The French musical magazine Avant-Scène Opéra has awarded Mayr’s L’amor conjugale recording with the “Révérence” “Porté par la direction sensible et nuancée de David Stern à la tête de son ensemble Opera Fuoco dont brillent singulièrement les pupitres de vents et qui offre à la musique de Mayr toute la […]