07.11.2024

ANTONELLO MANACORDA at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden

Antonello Manacorda's debuts at major theatres in Vienna, Munich, Paris and New York have put him in the spotlight. Now he returns to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Like his role model Claudio Abbado, he sees music-making as a two-way dialogue. He always strives to achieve transparency in the score and endeavours to bring the different levels to life. As the son of an Italian father and a French mother, Antonelle Manacorda grew up bilingual, which broadened his horizons from an early age. This is a great advantage, especially when it comes to the great works of French opera literature.

Most recently, he was highly praised for his interpretation of Bizet's Carmen, which he also conducted with great success at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden:

Antonello Manacorda's conducting is one of the great strengths of this evening. With his often calm percussion playing, the Italian conductor emphasises the deep sensuality of the work, which often gets lost in a uniformly fast paced performance. Manacorda also knows how to emphasise the counter-voices and reveal the richness of the score without ostentation. [...] The Chanson bohème, for example, begins with a rather slow, almost lascivious tempo, which gradually builds up to a frenetic pace. The more dramatic passages are also perfectly rendered, with a nervous orchestra (and all the more so in contrast), without the singers being drowned out in any way. All in all, a very fine realisation that allows us to discover this rich score in a new light.

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