The Royal Ballet and Opera has released a cover version of Catalan singer-songwriter Rosalía’s hit song Berghain with soprano Jacquelyn Stucker, conductor/violinist Stefano Montanari and pianist Hannah Quinn.
Rosalía has had huge acclaim for her new album Lux, which has breathtaking scope and a clash of styles into a new kind of art-pop. Now Royal Ballet and Opera have stripped back Berghain to its “raw operatic form.”
They have released a video of the cover filmed in the Royal Opera House.
Jacquelyn Stucker said, “Opera has always been an inspiration for other genres of music and it has been amazing to explore Rosalía’s song in the operatic tradition. In fact, there is so much in Berghain that mirrors the baroque music in Handel’s Ariodante that we’re rehearsing at the moment: the drama, the virtuosic violin riffs, the improvisation as an ensemble, the conductor leading from the violin and the constant movement of the music.
I hope people enjoy this cover as much as we enjoyed recording it – come and see us perform Ariodante on the Royal Opera House stage!”On the album, Berghain features vocals from Björk whose distinctive tone appears between the orchestral arrangement and Rosalía’s own operatic vocals and clashing genres, demonstrating opera’s enduring ability to inspire other styles of music.”
Rosalía also sings in 13 languages including Italian, German, Ukrainian and her native Spanish, mirroring the myriad of different languages opera singers, including Jacquelyn, sing in regularly.
According to Royal Baller and Opera, since Lux was released on 7 November, the RBO has seen a 19 per cent rise in traffic to the RBO website, compared to the same period last year, and 140 per cent surge in Google searches for our recent production of The Makropulos Case. This demonstrates a potential link between Rosalía’s music raising the profile of opera and interest in the artform more widely.
Jacquelyn Stucker and Stefan Montanari are currently starring in the new production of Handel’s Ariodante which runs on the Main Stage 9 – 21 December; tickets start at £11. https://www.rbo.org.uk/
