They say that the creation of art is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. Conductor Teodor Currentzis clearly believes this to be so, or at the very least that they must come together. Because his forthcoming cycle of the three operas by Mozart and his greatest lyricist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, is marked out by the fact that the conductor insisted on the availability of "unlimited rehearsal time" until he felt the recordings were ready to be made.
These rehearsals took place in the city of Perm, a place that was an arms hub in U.S.S.R. days and is, according to the press release "formerly closed" (not quite sure what that means in practice). The singers had to be prepared to work unsociable and long hours. Think monks who do nothing but talk about and play music.
The conductor says that the result is an intense strictness in every tiny musical detail, and that from that discipline comes freedom. Which is a fascinating thought, that through control comes escape into another dimension on creativity. It's not new, but this may be--must be--one of the most extreme tests that theory has had.
The first release, Le Nozze di Figaro, comes out on March 25, 2014. The cast includes Simone Kermes, Andrei Bondarenko, Fanie Entonelou and Christian Van Horn. The orchestra is Currentzis' MusicAeterna.
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