Podcast
Momus Il caffè dell’opera / Rai Radio 3 (Italy) | Tamerlano a Ravenna
January 14th, 2023
“Ottavio Dantone presents the Accademia Bizantina’s new production of Vivaldi’s Il Tamerlano.”
Piazza Verdi / Rai Radio 3 (Italy) | January 21st, gennaio 2023
“One of the world’s most esteemed and awarded ensembles by the public, critics and academia, as well as one of the most creative and innovative centres in the use of visual, digital and cross-arts languages, now more necessary than ever to bring such a lively, vital, post-modern, free, rhythmic repertoire, the matrix of every improvisation from jazz to progressive rock, to the ears of the new millennium”
TV
Save The Date / Rai 5 (Italy) | Intervista a Ottavio Dantone e Stefano Monti
January 20th, 2023
“Il Tamerlano is one of those operas known as a pastiche. It was an opportunity to make an opera combining the skill of different composers; this provided a certain stylistic variety […]”
Studio Aperto / Italia 1 (Italy) | On Air
January 14th, 2023
“To the fast rhythm of Vivaldi, the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna inaugurates the new opera season, debuting Il Tamerlano, a rare opera, under the conduction of Ottavio Dantone.”
TGR / Rai News (Italy) | Tra barocco e futuro
January 15th, 2023
“Il Tamerlano opened the opera season at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. First performed in 1735, it is now brought up to date by an innovative staging that blends languages. In the report […] interviews with Ottavio Dantone, conductor of the Accademia Bizantina, and the director Stefano Monti”
Interviews
Corriere della Sera (Italy) | Il barocco? Oggi un fenomeno pop, ieri musica d’élite. Festa a Ravenna con «Tamerlano»
January 23rd, 2023
“Everyone is mad about baroque. Once an elite music, today a pop phenomenon capable of transcending genres and seducing the most diverse audiences. “The ‘swinging’ rhythm of baroque music, so strong, exciting, three-dimensional, has proved to be perfectly in tune with the sensibilities of our times”.”
La Repubblica (Italy) | Accademia Bizantina: quant’è cool il barocco, piace anche alle mucche
January 15, 2023
“A fine pastiche is Antonio Vivaldi’s Tamerlano, a melodrama with which the Accademia Bizantina celebrates an important anniversary: forty years of relentless activity in baroque music, between the global diffusion of their concerts and the local dimension of a workshop.”
Il Resto del Carlino (Italy) | Il ‘Tamerlano’, un’opera punk
January 12th, 2023
“The expressiveness of dance is also at play in the new staging of Vivaldi’s ‘Tamerlano’, almost 270 years after the first performance […] The choreographies are created by Marisa Ragazzo, together with Omid Ighani, for the DaCrlidiau Dance Company specialising in fusion dance, as an amplification of the characters’ moods.”
Corriere Romagna (Italy) | Una novità antica, anzi, barocca. Il “Tamerlano” di Vivaldi a Ravenna
January 13th, 2023
“A title that the audience has certainly never seen, but that comes from the past. In short, an ancient, baroque novelty: it is Antonio Vivaldi’s Tamerlano. A very rare score that only Ottavio Dantone together with Accademia Bizantina could choose and interpret”
Le Salon Musical (Italy) | Ottavio Dantone, Il Tamerlano di Vivaldi e la libertà nella filologia
January 19th, 2023
“The new journey of Tamerlano started at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. Here, Vivaldi’s opera […] was performed on the 14th and 15th of January to great acclaim in the packed Teatro Alighieri. […] On the occasion of the performances in Ravenna, we asked Ottavio Dantone a few questions.”
Il Giornale della Musica (Italy) | “Il Tamerlano”, nostro contemporaneo
January 8th, 2023
“Almost 270 years after its first performance, Il Tamerlano finds a new stage dimension, thanks to the musical reading by Ottavio Dantone and the directing vision of Stefano Monti, the creators of this new production, to whom we asked a few questions.”
Ravenna Notizie (Italy) | Parte da Ravenna “Il Tamerlano” di Vivaldi
January 11th, 2023
“The baroque opera – in this new staging cut down and streamlined to make it more in keeping with contemporary sensibilities – debuted almost 290 years ago […] but, says Maestro Dantone, ‘the emotions are the same as they were three centuries ago, you just need to know how to convey them’.”
La Cronaca di Ravenna (Italy) | “Tamerlano” di Vivaldi, un magnifico pasticcio barocco
January 14th, 2023
“The performers are among the most outstanding in this repertoire […] We asked the conductor a few questions about this rarely performed opera.”
Reviews
Corriere della Sera (Italy) | Vivaldi dark con il mago del cembalo
January 19th, 2023
“Dantone, a magician of the harpsichord, with a sculptural sense of phrasing and imaginative flourishes imparts an exemplary dramatic force to the recitatives; to the orchestra, a sound that is liquid gold and living energy […]”
La Stampa (Italy) | Se Vivaldi prende in prestito le “arie” di altri
January 23rd, 2023
“[…]Today, on the other hand, we go mad with pleasure, because the red priest’s mix-and-match works very well and the pastiche is very tasty. Ottavio Dantone and his Accademia Bizantina excel […] But the quality of the performances must be assessed: and this is indisputable.”
Il Giornale (Italy) | Il fondamentale lavoro di Dantone nei recitativi del Tamerlano
January 15th, 2023
“Even more important and admirable is the result Dantone achieved from the singers, starting with the fundamental work on the diction of the recitatives”
Il Resto del Carlino (Italy) | Il Tamerlano di Vivaldi, emozioni tra musica e danza
January 17th, 2023
“An enthralling and exciting performance with top-notch singers, striking costumes and the presence of dancers on stage […] Everything is passion in this opera: love, cruelty, hatred. And then the magic of live music with Accademia Bizantina.”
Quotidiano Nazionale (Italy) | Un Tamerlano pop: il barocco è già nel futuro
January 15th, 2023
“A confirmation that the Baroque can indeed be the musical theatre of the future ‘because it has an eternal emotional force,’ Monti adds. And precisely for this reason, today as three hundred years ago, it remains decidedly popular. Indeed, pop.”
OperaClick (Italy) | Ravenna, Teatro Alighieri, Tamerlano
January 15th, 2023
“Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina once again act as drivers and agents of the story, strengthened by such a solid orchestral framework that the sequence of arias flows smoothly and homogeneously, anticipating the emotions and keeping the tension high with ever-changing perspectives and colours”
Il Sussidiario.net (Italy) | “Tamerlano”, il “pasticcio di Vivaldi da non perdere
January 17th, 2023
“The musical theatre event of this early 2023 not to be missed is ‘Tamerlano’, a ‘pastiche’ by Antonio Vivaldi, which debuted in Verona in 1735 and is, for the first time in modern days, being performed on stage form by the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna.”
Online Merker (Austria) | Tamerlano oder der Tod des Bajazet von Antonio Vivaldi. Premiere
January 16th, 2023
“Begleitet wird sinnfällig von der Accademia Bizantina mit großteils Originalinstrumenten unter dem Dirigenten am Clavicembalo, Ottavio Dantone.”
Classical Music Daily (UK) | Not to be missed
January 17th, 2023
“The musical theatre event not to be missed at this beginning of 2023 is Tamerlano […] The performance was a great success; there was open stage applause after the most difficult arias, and there were accolades at the end.”
ForumOpera (France) | Les dures exigences d’un pasticcio
January 18th, 2023
“Néanmoins il faut reconnaître à l’Accademia Bizantina une habileté hors du commun pour allier finesse rythmique et couleurs harmoniques, et c’est le signe d’un grand chef de théâtre que de savoir adapter sa direction aux moyens de ses chanteurs.”
Early Music Review (UK) | Vivaldi’s Il Tamerlano in Ravenna
January 19th, 2023
“Ravenna’s production started with two considerable advantages: the first the presence in the orchestra pit of the local home team, the Accademia Bizantina under their director Ottavio Dantone, indisputably for some years Italy’s number one Baroque orchestra”
Connessi all’Opera (Italia) | Piacenza, Teatro Municipale, Il Tamerlano
January 23rd, 2023
“Merit also goes to the conducting of Ottavio Dantone, at the head of ‘his’ Accademia Bizantina in great form. […] Then there is his conducting, always precise, vibrant, with a quick theatrical pace that nevertheless does not sacrifice a savoury but never excessive virtuosity.”
OperaWire (USA) | Review: Tamerlano
January 25th, 2023
“This “Tamerlano” production was an unmitigated success, and the audience loved it. It now moves on to other cities across northern Italy. Catch it if you can. You will not be disappointed!”
Corriere dello Spettacolo (Italy) | Tamerlano, “pastiche” di Vivaldi
January 23rd, 2023
“Electrifying and scintillating conducting of a beloved and well-known score, which Maestro Dantone (also at the harpsichord), leading the Accademia Bizantina Orchestra, always holds firmly in his fist. Refined orchestral ensemble, with perfect pitch in the recitatives ”
Ravenna e Dintorni (Italy) | Un fulgido “Tamerlano” per voci liriche e musica, più discutibile la regia
January 23rd, 2023
“The gigantic performance of the Accademia Bizantina is no surprise. Adjectives begin to run out to define this orchestra, which, thanks also to the genius of its conductor, Ottavio Dantone (also author of the delicate diminutions), proves time and time again to be a world-class ensemble.”
Avanti (Italy) | Successo pieno e applausi per Vivaldi al teatro Valli
January 31st, 2023
“An exceptional cast made such a performance possible, where the voice with its extraordinary acrobatics takes centre stage, in baroque opera in general and in this version of Tamerlano in particular.”
