Thanks to a sponsorship from Rolex, Medici.tv has streamed all 2013 Verbier Festival concerts, live and free. Now that the festival is over, Medici.tv is making films of all 30 events available, again for free, through October.
"Free" is not absolute, but still fairly close to the actual meaning of the word. One-time registration is required, after which you will have access to Verbier concerts and hundreds of other music films — at the reasonable cost of receiving polite exhortations from time to time to subscribe. Even a paid subscription, at $12.90 or $19.90 a month, without term commitment, is not too bad, considering the site's 1,200 films and 90+ live streamings annually.
Meanwhile, behold and enjoy the Medici-Verbier freebie: recitals and concerts with Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Jan Lisiecki, Daniil Trifonov, Denis Matsuev, Khatia Buniatishvili, Lars Vogt, Evgeny Kissin, and many more.
The festival's wondrous celebration of the Verdi-Wagner bicentennials is among the free programs. The concert offers the first act of Otello (Aleksandrs Antonenko, Anna Netrebko, and Alexey Markov) and the third act of Die Walküre, with Bryn Terfel, Eva Maria Westbroek and Iréne Theorin. Valery Gergiev conducts the Verbier Festival Orchestra.
Another Medici-Rolex gift is coming up on Aug. 16, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time: live and free streaming of Verdi's Don Carlo from Salzburg.
Antonio Pappano conducts the Vienna Philharmonic, the cast features Matti Salminen (Philip II), Jonas Kaufmann (Don Carlo), Anja Harteros (Elisabetta), Thomas Hampson (Rodrigo), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Eboli), and Eric Halfvarson (Grand Inquisitor).