Coming Soon, Diana Damrau releases for 2017

We hear that next year will be a bountiful one for fans of the German coloratura soprano Diana Damrau, with an operatic recital-disc kicking things off in the spring and three complete operas to follow on DVD. First up, in March, is a collection of Meyerbeer arias (surely a marvellous showcase for a voice of such agility and colour) - exact repertoire to be confirmed, but there may be a few clues in Damrau's concert schedule for that month, which includes arias from Les Huguenots and Dinorah (including the famous 'shadow song', Ombre légère) as well as rarities such as Emma di Resburgo.

Also in the pipeline are DVDs of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, filmed at The Met this January in a 'sensitive and insightful' (The New York Times) production by Penny Woolcock, with Damrau as the Brahmin priestess Leïla and Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecień as the rivals for her affections; The Huffington Post described Damrau as being 'in exquisite voice' throughout, whilst The Wall Street Journal praised her 'exciting, multi-faceted' interpretation of the role. Further off the beaten track (and from a little further back in the archives), there's also Salieri's Europa Riconosciuta from La Scala, filmed back in 2004 with Riccardo Muti in the pit and a cast which also includes Genia Kühmeier, Desirée Rancatore and Daniela Barcellona; Europa was the first opera ever performed at La Scala (in 1778) but was never revived until the re-opening of the theatre in 2004. One of Europa's stratospheric arias (the role includes a written high G!) makes an appearance on Damrau's Arie di Bravura disc, and certainly whets the appetite for more!

Finally, towards the end of the year there's the DVD release of Katie Mitchell's controversial new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened at the Royal Opera House in April with Damrau in the title-role, Charles Castronovo as her lover Edgardo and Ludovic Tezier as her manipulative brother Enrico; I've had numerous enquiries about this from customers over the past few months and it's now scheduled for release in October. I won't drop any spoilers about the production here, but interested parties can view the 90-minute video of the Insight Evening which the Opera House hosted prior to opening night below…

You can watch the Royal Opera House's Insight Evening on Lucia di Lammermoor (with contributions from Damrau and Katie Mitchell) in full here

A short excerpt of Damrau singing Leïla's Act I aria from The Met's production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles is available here

Recent and related recordings from Diana Damrau

Also available on Blu-ray.