On July 5, the Bayerische Staatsoper will present its new production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" on their Staatsoper.tv.
The production by Olvier Py stars leading tenor Jonas Kaufmann and German soprano Anja Harteros. Elena Mantistina, Kwangchul Youn, and Alexey Markov round out the cast.
The production is part of the Munich summer festival and part of the company's Verdi Bicentennial celebration.
The production also marks the highly anticipated role debut of Jonas Kaufmann as Manrico. In a recent interview, Kaufmann spoke of the joy of singing the new role. He stated, "I'm not so much attracted to one-dimensional characters like 'the romantic lover' or 'the hero who rescues the maiden in distress.' Compared to those typical Italian tenor parts, Manrico is different. He is a lover, he is a fighter and he is a victim of a difficult mother-son relationship and of a tragic family story."
Of the production Kaufmann said, "I'd say the overall theme of the production is that none of the four principals could escape their family history. Everything they say, they do and they feel is a result of those awful things which happened in the past, therefore they don't have a chance to live their own lives."
Py's new production was received with mixed reviews and was called controversial because it featured "a blind heroine, a burning cross, a baby plucked from its mother's womb, clergy wearing conical white hats suggesting the Inquisition, a stage-within-the-stage, spinning mechanical gears and doubles who enact their own back stories in pantomime."
Kaufmann was recently seen on the Bayerische live stream series in Verdi's "Don Carlo" as well as Beethoven "Fidelio." He is scheduled to appear on the series in December when he performs another role debut in Verdi's "La Forza del Destino.
The new production is the one of the last live streams of the season and will give audiences all over the world the chance to see the sold out production.
START TIME: 1 PM EST
TO WATCH LIVE STREAM CLICK HERE.