Ruggero Leoncavallo: Zaza

With Ruggero Leoncavallo’s rarity Zazá, the Theater an der Wien scored a coup with the grandiose house debutante Svetlana Aksenova in the title role. Christof Loy delivers a striking staging of the Verismo drama and conductor Stefan Soltez spiritedly leads the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien through the highly acclaimed evening. ‘It would take a whole newspaper page to praise all the performers appropriately’, praises Der Standard. Of particular note is Svetlana Aksenova as Zazá who ‘suffers the whole spectrum from intimate affection to raging jealousy and mute despair’, Nikolai Schukoff (Milio) ‘shows himself as a daredevil and a depressed mourner’, Christopher Maltman as Cascart ‘leads energetically and touchingly his already lost fight for his beloved.’ An evening worth seeing and hearing!