IN THE PRESS

First Winterreise in Austria

Ferruccio Furlanetto sang his first “Winterreise” in Austria. The highly successful performance during the Carinthischer Sommer in the Collegiate Church of Ossiach was praised by the public and the press.

The Ossiach church dates back to the 11th century. The church allows more than 600 seats and has a perfect acoustics. The fact that there was the last concert of the festival in Ossiach and the dark atmosphere of the Schubert Lieder were a good combination as Friedrich Harald wrote in the KTZ: “Opera legend Ferruccio Furlanetto offered his very impressive interpretation of “Winterreise”. Furlanetto knows to describe the sadness, the darkness which he expresses in the bass register, and is very sensitively accompanied by Igor Tchetuev who provides every nuance of the score in a very nuanced and sensitive play.

Willi Rainer in the “Kleine Zeitung” wrote: Ferruccio Furlanetto, acclaimed bass on the world operas stages, travelled in the darkened country of the soul, full of grief, pain, depression , longing for death. With sonorous voice despite of its fullness and dark timbre, he did justice to the fragile architecture of the Schubert’s work with the deep and concentrated interpretation. The review also points that the excellent articulation and technique of the singer underline the whole cycle with a real personal identification

A real support came also from the excellent piano of the Ukrainian Igor Tchetuev :he played sensitively in the background but leading the illustrative accents very seriously. The public was captivated from the first note until the last Lied. After a small break of silence allowing the tension to lay down, came a long applause”

Read the review in Kleine Zeitung in German

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Looking forward for Winterreise

The upcoming Ferruccio Furlanetto’s Recital with Winterreise during Carintishe Sommer in Ossiah is very much anticipated. On August 17 a big feature in Der Standard appeared devoted to the upcoming event. The recording of Winterreise released by Prestige Classics Vienna was already praised by Austrian press. In the conversation with the famed opera star the Viennese newspaper correspondent Stefan Ender tryes to find out deeper meaning of Schubert’s circle for the Italian bass.

Why it appeared on this late stage of his career in his repertoire?

Furlanetto would already have remembered 20 years ago for the first time to sing the work. "I have studied it, has looked for the right moods. Then, however, in the end, I have noticed that I am not ready yet for it. Last year the right moment had come."

In his interpretation he follows not obvious choices (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau for instance), but Hans Hotter: "His voice is very similar to mine, he has influenced me what concerns the mixture of the vocal colors."

The "Winterreise", according to Furlanetto further, is less challenge for the voice than for the mind: "I am completely exhausted mentally and emotionally afterwards."

Does he know as a famed singer, actually, such situations of the loneliness, the desperation, the being an outsider, the same as songwriter Wilhelm Muller here? "Of course. Everybody knows such situations, maybe not in so extreme form. Feelings and living conditions change like the weather and the seasons..."

Is his song companions to him more servants or partners? "One of my first pianists with which I have made song was Alexis Weissenberg - certainly no servant's type. With him I have made the songs of Rahmaninov and Mussorgsky which I will also sing in my Recital at the Vienna State Opera in May, 2013. The young Russian pianist Igor Tchetuev with whom I go on with the 'Winterreise' is a sensitive, deeply feeling artist. Two personalities must become one with the song, only that way a persuasive experience comes about."

Read the whole article in German

 

Great Boris Godunov in Palermo: Press Report

The performances of "Boris Godunov" in Teatro Massimo (Palermo) became a great success of Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role.

La Repubblica wrote that great Boris of Ferruccio Furlanetto was "rich in timbre and powerful, interpreted with a very modern theatrical sensitiveness". As Sicilia press reports Ferruccio Furlanetto received a true ovation from the public “His performance was perfect, supported by a rare ability to dominate the stage”. "Perfect Furlanetto in the title role, - points Il Sole, - Boris here magnificent hero, absolutely, thanks to the strongly theatrical interpretation of Ferruccio Furlanetto: sweet with two children, ferocious in public, raving when he is alone..."

The Mussorgsky opera returned to Teatro Massimo after 25 years in 1872 Lamm version in the colorful staging of Hugo de Ana.

To the Press, Photo report and Video extracts