At a stand still .

More than ever I care for my radio, tv and laptop!
I had to slow down and  cancel all my trips! (Munich, Marseille, Paris).
But radio and TV live streams kept me  alive and aware ! And my friend in Munich managed  to resell the ticket I got from the Bayerische  Forum (I was so happy about it when I got it..), he also keeps me informed of all the runs either in Munich or Salzburg Osterfestspiele.
That Anja Harteros mastered both Madeleine de Coigny and Sieglinde was no doubt for me: I have followed her  and have felt, heard, seen, how she blossomed into  a dramatic soprano so all I listened to in these new roles was achievement of her art of singing. Where I was very surprised is to feel her acute sense of tragedy: she has now a deep feeling of tragic situations which make her singing and acting unique. Perhaps her Greek roots favour  her  interpretratation with  intensity and musicality much more than others?
Here's the paragraph from  'on line Merker' LINK
"Seine Schwester und Braut in der attraktiven Gestalt von Anja Harteros war jeder Zoll ein Götterkind. Mit ihrem noblen, leuchtkräftigen Sopran, der vokalen Ausdrucksintensität, in allen Lagen sattelfest und jedem Wort Bedeutung verleihend, wusste diese Sieglinde, wer sie war, und sie wusste auch sichtlich das Privileg zu schätzen, dem „leuchtenden Bruder“ in die Arme fallen zu dürfen, und die Aussicht, „den hehrsten Helden der Welt“ im Schoße zu tragen, tat sie mit ekstatischer Freude kund. Eine ganz  starke Persönlichkeit! "

Where it says she expresses feelings of ecstatic joy in her extraordinary "  O hehrstes Wunder! Herrliche Maid! espacially at 4...and 5... with also Anja Kampe as a very moving Brunehilde,  in this excerpt which can be enjoyed on youtube for the time being...
My Munich friend who is a true Harteros follower (he  attends each performance of hers either in Munich, Salzburg, Baden-Baden...) keeps me informed of all the critics : in France, USA or Germany, her new roles are celebrated with great success. It also seems she stole the show at the applause: for Tosca at Bastille I noticed it and at the TCE for André Chénier concert version she got tremendous applause.
She is now at her zenith!
Another artist makes me travel around: Karine Deshayes. ( I used to travel for another mezzo-soprano: Vesselina Kasarova, who now seems to perform far from my destinations.)
I missed Karine 's Romeo and I am sad about it because I was at the conference  in Marseille  at the

Alcazar (Karine is talking to the audience about her role alongside Nicolas Courjal and the conductor Fabrizio Maria CARMINATI before Capuleti e i Montecchi started, but at the last minute I had to stay at home. Even going to Marseille became hasardous! It is hard to have to miss such good harmonious duets, knowing what  Karine Deshayes and Parizia Ciofi  sound like together ! (Avignon, Marseille recent producions I attended are still memorable and somewhere on this blog). Karine Deshayes is facing also notorious achievement in belcantist roles but she is not seen as she used to  be on the Paris stage: that is incredible for me.
 Luckily France Musique did talk about this production.
  I am so pleased to be able to follow her on the Southern stage (Montpellier, Avignon, Marseille, Madrid...).
 She will be Alceste (Gluck) in Lyon soon and perhaps I will chance the journey if I can ? (She is of course part of my Spring outings). I should be at the Première on May the 2nd...
 I was at the ouverture of Aix Easter Festival with a very fine Monteverdi 's  Retorno d'Ulissse in patria'. I cannot miss a Monteverdi's work when it is just round the corner. Period instruments, the conductor, the whole cast and the very elegant stage (or semi-staged?) version contributed to a wonderful, very musical, evening. Applause!

Meanwhile "Times" are still very hard to cross here and it is sometimes difficult to be hopeful for the future, not mine,  but the younger ones' future. Terrorism, wars all around (difficult to apprehend and understand) the increasing pauperism in Europe, the kind of international blindness to real human problems because of economical interests of the very rich, make this world hardly bearable sometimes. (So going to 'expensive' opera outings does not help, does it?)