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By pfuetz, February 15, 2018 22:24

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Patrick Lange
Inszenierung: Uwe Eric Laufenberg
Bühne: Rolf Glittenberg
Kostüme: Marianne Glittenberg
Video: Gérard Naziri
Chor: Albert Horne
Licht: Andreas Frank
Dramaturgie: Regine Palmai

Hermann, Landgraf von Thüringen: Young Doo Park
Tannhäuser: Lance Ryan
Elisabeth: Sabina Cvilak
Venus: Jordanka Milkova
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Benjamin Russell
Walther von der Vogelweide: Aaron Cawley
Biterolf: Thomas de Vries
Heinrich der Schreiber: Joel Scott
Reinmar von Zweter: Alexander Knight
Ein junger Hirt: Stella An
Nymphen und Grazien: Charlotte Dambach, Viviana Defazio, Laurin Thomas, Rouven Pabst, Nicholas Bruder
Vier Edelknaben: Eunshil Jung, Hyerim Park, Isolde Ehinger, Daniela Rücker
Chor & Extrachor des Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Statisterie des Hessischen Staatstheaters Wiesbaden, Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden

First of all: I don’t like Laufenberg, what he did to Parsifal in Bayreuth is a sacrileg. Second: This Tannhäuser isn’t as bad. Third: It need not be Christian Gerhaher to sing a great Wolfram.

Uwe Eric Laufenberg is a director, who has some good ideas, but always fails in making these ideas “round” and consistent in a staging. So his stagings jump from one idea to the next, always leaving us in a stage of “what the fuck does he now want to tell us?”

Tannhäuser is all about the conflict between “true love” and “pure sex”. That alone is something, that would need more than just some naked bodies dancing across the stage. Calixto’s approach (as in his staging, which I saw in Bern, and which will soon be re-staged in Leipzig) was to make this “conflict” visible by having the people, who represent one side of the coin (Wolfram: “true love”, Tannhäuser: “pure sex”) really fight each other on stage. Laufenberg just tried to display the torn emotions by using symbols (“naked girls” and “longing gestures”). This “more clinical” approach then conflicts with the nakedness of the dancers, so it leaves us in a stage of “WTF?.

Lance Ryan also added to this problematic staging. Yes, he’s a powerful actor, but his voice…

But then there was Benjamin Russell, who made us long for his “Ode an den Abendstern” from the first momement he opened his mouth. Thanks for that!

Luckily, Patrick Lange also made a great leader of the orchestra, so in total it was an evening worth spending.

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By pfuetz, February 15, 2018 22:04

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Alejo Pérez
Inszenierung: Peter Konwitschny
Bühne und Kostüme: Johannes Leiacker
Licht: Reinhard Traub
Chor: Christoph Heil
Dramaturgie: Bettina Bartz

Medea: Cornelia Ptassek
Iason: Sebastian Kohlhepp
Kreon: Shigeo Ishino
Kreusa: Josefin Feiler
Neris: Helene Schneiderman
1. Brautjungfer: Aoife Gibney
2. Brautjungfer: Fiorella Hincapié
Mit: Staatsopernchor Stuttgart, Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Peter Konwitschny is one of those, who have a distinct hand in doing their stagings. This has been my 10th staging from him, and I liked it!

Peter, like Calixto, is one of those, who know, how to make singers act and perform. And in an opera, which has the topic of a split marriage and the children as topics of battle between ex-wife and husband, and them being sacrificed on the altar of this marriage-gone-wrong is a topic, which needs a guiding hand in staging.

Peter places the first two acts into a kitchen placed onto the beach of greece. This kitchen becomes cluttered with debris over time, just like humanity uses this planet as a resource, that we all assume as granted, and nothing worth caring about. This attitude of neglect also transpires into the actions of all acting people, there’s none, who really cares. In act three, the back-walls of the kitchen are removed, and we see the sea cluttered in plastic debris, just like the characters have been “just using” all living items for their own pleasure and benefit.

It’s a strong staging in using this child-murder theme to make us think about how we murder our planet. A typical Konwitschny, and a very good one!

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By pfuetz, February 15, 2018 21:50

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Stefan Soltész
Inszenierung: Calixto Bieito
Bühnenbild: Rebecca Ringst
Kostüme: Ingo Krügler
Dramaturgie: Simon Berger
Chöre: David Cavelius
Licht: Franck Evin
Video: Sarah Derendinger

Herzog Antoniotto Adorno: Joachim Goltz
Graf Andrae Vitelozzo Tamare: Michael Nagy
Lodovico Nardi, Podestà der Stadt Genua: Jens Larsen
Carlotta Nardi, seine Tochter: Ausrine Stundyte
Alviano Salvago, ein genuesischer Edelmann: Peter Hoare
Guidobald Usodimare: Adrian Strooper
Menaldo Negroni: Ivan Turšić
Michelotto Cibo: Tom Erik Lie
Gonsalvo Fieschi: Johnathan McCullough
Julian Pinelli: Önay Köse
Paolo Calvi: Samuli Taskinen
Il Capitaneo di Giustizia: Joachim Goltz
Ginevra Scotti: Katarzyna Włodarczyk
Martuccia, Haushälterin bei Salvago: Christiane Oertel
Pietro: Christoph Späth
Ein Mädchen: Mirka Wagner
Ein Jüngling: Emil Ławecki
Chorsolisten der Komischen Oper Berlin, Vocalconsort Berlin

This has been my 17th staging by Calixto, and sadly, I have to admit, it’s not been his best.

But, let’s start at the beginning.

Schreker’s opus is an opus, which has a difficult topic, especially, when it comes close to what one might have experienced oneself. Calixto mentioned, that he has also experienced abuse as a child, so I did assume, that this opera might be one of those, in which he would be at his best. Sadly, there were only a couple elements/pictures, which were so good and strong, that they convinced me. The “painting”, that Carlotta does of Alviano performed as a stagging of a wall with a knife is one of those pictures, that stuck. Her breaking free at the end of Act 2 in kicking the last piece of that painting through the wall, and vanishing with Alviano into the dark behind the stage, is part of that. The intensity of Carlotta murdering Tamare at the end of Act 3 is another one of these rare intense moments, that we all long for, when going to a Bieito staging.

These moments were made possible by the outstanding performances of Ausrine Stundyte, Peter Hoare and Michael Nagy. These three alone made it worth visiting this staging, with all its shortcomings.

So, what are these shortcomings?

Calixto mentioned (in the comments from him in the booklet to this staging), that he took the theme of robbing young girls and putting them into the Elysium “playground” a step further by also using boys, and by making this Elysium like Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Huge Teddy Bears and other child pets were on display in Act three. So, trying to make Alviano and Tamare and the other Grandes into unknowing, never-to-be-getting-adult-children is a good idea, but it would have needed some more convincing flow of this theme in the overall staging. Having also videos of the abusers’ faces displayed on the stage’s back in act 1 and 2 also were a topic of his interpretation. Sadly, the monotonous video-display (two full acts) and the boys didn’t really hold for the length they were on display.

But again, still worth visiting, even the not-so-good stagings from Calixto are still something to keep in mind and to continue to think about. And with the orchestra and its director in such good shape, that also makes a visit a thing to remember.