Pietro Mascagni: Zanetto Yajie Zhang, Narine Yeghiyan, Chor und Orchestra der Berliner Operngruppe & Felix Krieger

• Pietro Mascagni (1863 - 1945): Zanetto:
• 1 Mascagni: Zanetto: Introduzione 03:24
• 2 Mascagni: Zanetto: Scena I, "Maledetto l'amor!" 04:15
• 3 Mascagni: Zanetto: Cuore, come in fiore 01:53
• 4 Mascagni: Zanetto: Dolce è la melodia 05:10
• 5 Mascagni: Zanetto: Silvia, si buona! 02:30
• 6 Mascagni: Zanetto: Firenze è la tue meta? 04:23
• 7 Mascagni: Zanetto: Io qui potrei forse restare. 05:13
• 8 Mascagni: Zanetto: Poi che vani furono i preghi miei 02:34
• 9 Mascagni: Zanetto: Senti bambino! 05:52
• 10 Mascagni: Zanetto: Io partirò, portando meco 03:43
• 11 Mascagni: Zanetto: O madonna, di grazia 03:45
• Total Runtime 42:42

Info for Pietro Mascagni: Zanetto

Since its foundation in 2013, the Berlin Opera Group has made a name for itself with Berlin premieres that include Donizetti's Deux hommes et une femme and Betly, together with other operatic rarities. This album is a Deutschlandfunk Kultur recording of the 2021 performance of Pietro Mascagni's Zanetto from the Konzerthaus Berlin. Yajie Zhang can also be heard in the role of Ugo d'Asti in Donizetti's Dalinda (OC989). The orchestra of the Berlin Opera Group plays under the direction of Felix Krieger.

"Pietro Mascagni is really remembered for only one opera; the one act Cavalleria Rusticana, which was sufficiently successful for its composer to be considered for a while a probable successor to Puccini as the next “great Italian opera composer”. That didn’t happen of course and the only other of his works to get even occasional stagings are L’amico Fritz. and Iris though he wrote a total of fifteen. Now there’s a recording of his one act opera Zanetto which was made at a live, semi-staged performance in Berlin in June 2022.

It’s rather unusual. It’s only 42 minutes long and has only two characters; Zanetto – a young itinerant musician sung by a mezzo-soprano, and Silvia – a slightly older wealthy woman sung by a soprano. It’s a very gentle tale of unrequited young love; Silvia really thinks Zanetto is too young for her despite being attracted, and there’s none of the drama one might expect of the verismo era. In effect it’s a pastoral. It’s tuneful and pleasant enough though with a couple of “songs” for Zanetto where he’s accompanied by harp standing in for his lute. Silvia, the more complex character, gets somewhat more chromatic music expressing her struggles with the morality of the situation but there’s nothing remotely dissonant.

The performance is pretty good with Chinese mezzo Yagie Zhang as Zanetto and the Armenian lyric soprano Narine Yeghiyan singing Silvia. The orchestra and chorus are supplied by the Berliner Operngruppe and their founder/conductor Felix Krieger. Basically they exist to do semi-staged versions of neglected works so this is well in their wheelhouse." (operaramblings.blog)

Yajie Zhang, mezzosoprano (Zanetto)
Narine Yeghiyan, soprano (Silvia)
Orchester der Berliner Operngruppe
Felix Krieger, conductor

Yajie Zhang
"Strikingly attractive voice of ebony colour" (Abendzeitung) - "Standing out in opera, concert and song recitals alike with her colourful timbre, flawless voice, and remarkable receptivity, the young mezzo-soprano is critically acclaimed as a "voice that is something to look out for.” (Operawire).

Born in Anhui, Yajie Zhang began her vocal studies in Shanghai, where she was simultaneously a member of the Zhou Xiao Yan Opera Center. In 2020, she completed her education with a master's degree in Hannover. She was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and a member of the ensemble at the Leipzig Opera from 2022-2024, where she could be heard as Angelina in "La Cenerentola," Hänsel in Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel," and as Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The 2025/26 season sees Yajie Zhang returning to Zurich, where she sings Maddalena in Verdi´s “Rigoletto”. Later in the season, she can be heard as Wellgunde in Wagner's opera “Rheingold” at the Salzburg Easter Festival under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. Furthermore, she can be heard in Hadyn´s “Nelson Mass” under the musical direction of Adam Fischer at Vienna´s Musikverein and with Berio´s “Folk Songs” together with the Musikkollegium Winterthur.

Highlights from recent years include her debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Nancy Tang in “Nixon in China”, Flower Maiden in “Parsifal” and Flosshilde in Tobias Kratzer´s new staging of Wagner´s “Rheingold” at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as well as the title role in “Carmen” with the Wuhan Philharmonic. Furthermore, she performed Nicklausse/Muse in Offenbach's “The Tales of Hoffmann” under Pinchas Steinberg, Cherubino in Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro”, and Stefano in Gounod's opera “Roméo et Juliette” at the NCPA in Beijing.

“Yajie Zhang's personality and her richly facetted mezzo-soprano were captivating from the very beginning.” (RBB Kultur).

In 2019, she sang Beethoven's “Symphony No. 9” with the China Philharmonic Orchestra under Yu Long at the Beijing Music Festival, followed by a spectacular last-minute appearance with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste performing Mahler's “Rückert-Lieder”. She also performed at the Shanghai Baroque Festival with the Shanghai Camerata under David Stern and Verdi´s “Messa da Requiem” at the Berlin Philharmonie with DSO Berlin and Eva Ollikainen and could be heard in Mahler´s “8th Symphony” at the Musikverein in Vienna under Yutaka Sado.

Yajie Zhang has also appeared in song recitals, accompanied by pianist Hartmut Höll, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, the Redpath Hall in Montreal or the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2018 DEBUT Classical Singing Competition, the 2019 "Das Lied" competition in Heidelberg, the Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, and the International Opera Competition in Portofino. As early as 2017, she gained significant attention as the youngest participant in the International Vocal Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch, where she won the Grand Prix, the Opera Prize, and the Junior Jury Prize. Yajie was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Foundation and the Song Academy of the Heidelberger Frühling.

Berliner Operngruppe
The Berliner Operngruppe e.V. was founded in 2010 by the conductor Felix Krieger in order to present operas in Berlin that stand outside the usual opera repertoire and have either never been heard here or have not been heard for many decades. After the first performances in Radialsystem V, the Berliner Operngruppe has been performing in the Konzerthaus Berlin with its project choir and orchestra since 2013. The highly regarded semi-staged productions by the Berliner Operngruppe include the German premiere of Donizetti’s Betly and the Berlin premiere of Verdi’s Stiffelio and Puccini’s Edgar.

In February 2020 the Berliner Operngruppe celebrated its 10th anniversary with this Iris.

Felix Krieger
studied conducting in Hamburg and with Carlo Maria Giulini in Fiesole, Italy. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Philharmonic. Since then, he has conducted numerous major orchestras such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, the State Orchestra in Berlin and the London Sinfonietta. Since his debut at the State Opera in Berlin in September 2003, he has been a regular guest conductor there. Recently, he has conducted at the Semper Opera in Dresden, at the Opéra National in Paris and at the Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Felix Krieger is the founder and artistic director of the Berlin Opera Group. In 2018, Sony Classical released his CD with works by the contemporary Spanish composer Benet Casablancas, performed by the London Sinfonietta.

Booklet for Pietro Mascagni: Zanetto