Comments (0)

By pfuetz, September 3, 2023 17:27

First, again, the obvious (In German):

Musikalische Leitung: Pablo Heras-Casado
Regie: Jay Scheib
Bühne: Mimi Lien
Kostüm: Meentje Nielsen
Licht: Rainer Casper
Video: Joshua Higgason
Dramaturgie: Marlene Schleicher
Chorleitung: Eberhard Friedrich

Amfortas: Derek Welton
Titurel: Tobias Kehrer
Gurnemanz: Georg Zeppenfeld
Parsifal: Andreas Schager
Klingsor: Jordan Shanahan
Kundry: Ekaterina Gubanova
1. Gralsritter: Siyabonga Maqungo
2. Gralsritter: Jens-Erik Aasbø
1. Knappe: Betsy Horne
2. Knappe: Margaret Plummer
3. Knappe: Jorge Rodríguez-Norton
4. Knappe: Garrie Davislim
Klingsors Zaubermädchen: Evelin Novak, Camille Schnoor, Margaret Plummer, Julia Grüter, Betsy Horne, Marie Henriette Reinhold
Altsolo: Marie Henriette Reinhold

This is the new staging in 2023, and it was highly interesting, as for the first time in a large opera house and a large festival it used Augmented Reality (AR) (sadly, only for approx. 300 people from the close to 2000 in the audience) as an artistic addition. As I had been studying Computer graphics in the mid 1980’ies, and as I did so at the best location in Europe (University of Darmstadt with Prof. Encarnacao), I was also very interested in seeing and experiencing, what the 40 years of development now allow.

So, the first part here will be on technical aspects, and less on artistic aspects. Later I will try to put that artistic aspect also into perspective of the overall experience.

So, let’s start with technology.
It’s been the first time for me with AR (VR I did use even 40 years ago, like a roller-coaster ride through the human intestine (sitting on a moving chair with VR glasses on), or being in a car wholly virtually in a so-called 5-sided projecting cave, before that car even had been build as a model. So, I know, how complex technology is, what needs to be done to create virtual worlds, etc.

And as I am shortsighted, and as the AR-glasses are not that lightweight, I decided for the first time in my life to get eye-lenses fitted for me for that experience to reduce the weight (no additional lenses in the AR-glasses), which was a very good approach. The NReal Air glasses (now XREAL) are very nice, but the nose-pads did not sit (although fitted to me) as nice as my regular glasses, but I did use the AR glasses the whole time. Also the “heat” (yes, you have two different TV-sets right in front of your head!) was not to bad.

The things, that I noticed, are not necessarily related to the glasses, but to the technical aspects of the overall approach.

1.) The human view-angle is much larger than the area covered by the AR screens, so turning the head sometimes introduced new objects at locations, which the eye could normally see (extrem left, or extrem right, same with the bottom (or also even top), but that was not as surprising as at the sides). So, to the developpers of the AR glasses: Make the screens wider!

2.) What was annoying for someone who studied CG 40 years ago, is that fact, that the objects didn’t really act like objects. So, when objects “moved” close to each other, they just “morphed” into each other (snake winding around the fingers of a hand simply had the finger or the snake disappear because they were at the exact same location in space. This is something, that I can not really except, as at a different place, two snakes were fighting, and yes, they inflicted “damage” to one-another. So, sometimes it was just “pixel-objects floating in free space”, sometimes it were objects in virtual reality added to reality via AR. Either confusing, or simply not really “modelled” to the end. If it should have been an artistic freedom, then it was not obvious, when things were just pixels or objects. Very disappointing.

3.) As the glasses take away some light, it is required to have more light on stage, so that one can see all things at the same time, especially, as at some times, there were so many objects in the glasses, that it was really difficult to see, what’s happening on stage (due to light in glasses), also due to the fact, that the objects in the glasses did hide the objects on the stage at some cases.

So, it seemed to me, that the CG-modeler didn’t have enough time to “create” the virtual world as real objects, it seemed they just let some simple objects float freely through space.

With that we’re now entering the artistic aspect.

An acquaintance mentioned to me in the second break, that he thinks, that the esthetic appearance of the VR-worlds feels like a Windows 95 screensaver (you all most probaly remember the famous flying toasters), and I have to agree, he’s right. Yes, there were way too many objects floating around (and yes, they also covered the view to the stage), and just having 3 swans falling from the sky instead of just one does not add any additional artistic value.

At the end of act two, when the empire of Klingsor breaks down, we experienced the Festspielhaus falling together around us. A really shocking/surprising element, which was good.

But, there also were some interactive aspects also: Once there was a fox (should it have been a wolfe?) and two sheep grasing on a meadow, and when you looked into the flowers of the meadow, you could “kill” the flowers, or move them aside. Sadly, even if you removed all flowers around the fox (wolfe?) or the sheep, that had no influence on the animals. And, what fox and sheep have to do with parsifal is an still open question to Jay Scheib.

What I also did like was the end: There was a dove flying in a fire-ring, and you could direct it with your viewpoint/eyes. When “Erlösung dem Erlöser” came, I placed the dove on the head of Andreas Schager (aka: Parsifal). Nice gimmick, but did it add to the artistic approach?

So, sometimes I had the feeling, the overall experience might have been something to be seen while high on drugs (aka: Flower Power), and sometimes I simply thought to myself: Jay Scheib didn’r have any suitable idea for making use of the technology options at hand from an artistic point of view. He said, that he wanted to make us aware on how we as humans destroy the nature by showing us plastic bags, batteries (aka: flying toasters… :-) ), plastic waste on glaciers, etc. Yes, that was there, but the connection to the opera Parsifal was not working. It was more “random” and less “planned” or “fitting”.

As Jay Scheib now also in retrospect mentioned, is, what might have been best to adopt right from the start of this project: The Bauhaus stated prominently as an artistic approach for them: “Less is more”. And, yes, I also think, less would have been much better. There was so much in AR happening, that it really distracted from the music, the singers on stage. Coupled with the fact, that Jay Scheib didn’t have any useful ideas for the two main sentences of the opera (“Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit” and “Erlösung dem Erlöser”), I hope, as Jay Scheib also already mentioned, that the “Werkstatt Bayreuth” will help him in refining the AR-elements to better suite the opera.

But: After all: I loved the experience, and I’m also eager to see that staging again in two or three or even four years to see, how it will be changed and adopted over time. Having been asked to do this AR experiment for the first time in such a demanding surrunding with such a complex opera is a challenge. Not everything can work, but I’m glad, that Katharina Wagner is actively trying to advance artistic options and even allowing such experiments to happen. After all: Wagner only did 10 operas which he wanted to be shown in this house, so for us to not get bored over years, decades and centuries, change has to be embraced. And, yes, I have not been bored a single minute during that longest of his operas, and enjoyed experiencing augmented realities.

Let’s hope, this will not be the last time, these things will have been used, I can imaging great things coming from them for example in the ride down into Alberich’s world of the Nibelungen or Siegfried entering the cave of the dragon.

So, thanks for the entertaining and enjoyable experience, even if it didn’t add much to the questions asked by Parsifal. But that can come over time.

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, September 3, 2023 16:08

First, again, the obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Nathalie Stutzmann
Regie: Tobias Kratzer
Bühne und Kostüm: Rainer Sellmaier
Licht: Reinhard Traub
Video: Manuel Braun
Dramaturgie: Konrad Kuhn
Chorleitung: Eberhard Friedrich

Landgraf Hermann: Günther Groissböck
Tannhäuser: Klaus Florian Vogt
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Markus Eiche
Biterolf: Olafur Sigurdarson
Reinmar von Zweter: Jens-Erik Aasbø
Elisabeth, Nichte des Landgrafen: Elisabeth Teige
Venus: Ekaterina Gubanova
Ein junger Hirt: Julia Grüter
Le Gateau Chocolat: Le Gateau Chocolat
Oskar: Manni Laudenbach
Edelknaben: Cornelia Heil, Ekaterina Gubanova, Laura Margaret Smith, Karolin Zeinert

This has been the second time, that we saw this staging, and we will not regret it. This IS currently the best staging in Bayreuth, and I’m quite sure, that I can say, that for me, it’s the most convincing staging of a Tannhäuser, that I have seen so far. We saw it the first time, when it premiered in 2019, and instantly fell in love with it, so as it was sopposed to be the last year to be seen, we decided to go again. Luckily, for all those, who did not yet have the chance to see it, Katharina Wagner announced that it will be also shown next year (aka: 2024) again.

So, what Is it, that makes me love this staging?

First: This staging does NOT try to picture the libretto, it tries to provide answers to questions asked by the libretto, like: What role does an artist have in socienty? How can an artist (Wagner states in 1849: “frei im Wollen, frei im Thun, frei im Genießen”) solve his being drawn between being an artist and still belonging to the “normal” society? What role does the audience of an artist play? And more specifically even: What role does the audience in Bayreuth play? And: How shall a staging of an opera happen?

Let’s start with the last question: The whole second act is “staged” in a illuminated frame: The whole singing contest takes place inside that frame. But the artists group doesn’ feel well inside that frame, because the rules of that frame are way to conventional, not liberal or free. But it takes them a long time to break out of that frame (whereas breaking into that frame was quite easy, and shown in Manuel Braun’s great video just above that frame (the stage opening in Bayreuth is a square, and here singing took place in the lower part, the screen for the video is the upper part), and we can see, how they break into the Festspielhaus to disrupt the conventional singing contest in black and white video. But then breaking out of that frame is difficult, and I specifically love the cautios move, that Venus does to “test” the world outside that conventional order and its frame in stepping out of the frame to the front.

Or the audience of the Festspiele: In the first act, we see the Festspielhaus, and the pilgrims choir is just the regular audience coming to the Bayreuth Festspiele and they pilgrim up to the Festspielhaus, including those, coming to late and hurrying up, and those being early and already reading the program book, and also those being well prepared and having their fans used against the hot air.

Or in the third act, where we experience the sadness of a fallen art hero and see the sadness just below an huge ad of one of the successful artists from their group.

So, here, we can experience the whole spectrum of human emotions, put into an entertaining concept, reflecting so many of the questions raised by Wagner in his opera Tannhäuser, which he believed not to have really finished (“Ich bin der Welt noch einen Tannhäuser schuldig”).

And, with a cast like listed above, and with the so-called “Tümpelshow” in the first break, this is really time well spend and time, and an experience, which one will not forget.

Much has been written elsewhere about this staging, let me simply state: I’m happy, that I could see it already two times, with such great detail and love to details from all involved.

Go, if you have time in 2024, it’s more than worth it!

Comments (1)

By pfuetz, April 19, 2022 21:00

First, again, the obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Philippe Jordan
Inszenierung: Calixto Bieito
Bühne: Rebecca Ringst
Kostüme: Ingo Krügler
Licht: Michael Bauer

Tristan: Andreas Schager
König Marke: René Pape
Isolde: Martina Serafin
Kurwenal: Iain Paterson
Brangäne: Ekaterina Gubanova
Melot: Clemens Unterreiner
Hirt: Daniel Jenz
Steuermann: Martin Häßler
Stimme des Seemanns: Josh Lovell

With Bieito, and specifically when in Vienna, you can expect something. That’s why we choose to visit the Premiere. And expectations were fulfilled. Both: “Performance-wise” as well as “Spectator-wise”. Many of the conservative traditional Spectators of the Vienna State Opera felt disturbed. But that was to be expected. So, the performance ended with a fight between “Boo-ers” and “Bravo-ers”. We were Bravo-ers.

Bieito has been doing stagings of operas for decades now. This is his 5th Wagner, after Holländer, Parsifal (both in Stuttgart), Tannhäuser (Gent/Antwerpen, Vienna (we saw it in Bern), Leipzig) and Lohengrin (Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin, premiered due to Covid via Stream). So, one could have known, what was to be expected, and that’s exactly, why we went. Stagings of Bieito are intense (if they work) due to the full participation of all singers. And this includes acting and staging.

Here now we had/have a cast, that loves to work with Bieito:

1.) Andreas Schager did this now for the 3rd time, he was also part of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin.

2.) Martina Serafin mentioned that in an interview, which can be read on the WebPage of the Vienna State Opera: https://www.wiener-staatsoper.at/die-staatsoper/medien/detail/news/die-wahrhaftigkeit-des-moments/ This interview also confirms Andreas Schager’s position to Calixto Bieito.

3.) Ekaterina Gubanova mentioned it on Facebook to me. She wrote, when asked, how she considers the work with Bieito: “Awesome and highly rewarding”.

4.) I don’t know about Ian Paterson, but judging by the result, it seems, he also loves to work with him.

5.) René Pape seemed to be less engaged, I don’t know, if that needs to be attributed to him, or Bieito’s ideas about the role of King Marke.

Bieito here again choose to not put Images to the Libretto, but wanted to present the internal fights/emotions of the main characters to be presented on stage.

For that he started with a beautiful allegoric image, children with blindfolded eyes on swings, softly swinging over a lake/sea of water. We can not see, we move, we are moved by water, water is part of our life. Later Tristan rises from that water and Isolde and Tristan hug each other long before the love potion is supposed to do its magic. Why? Because the music and the libretto tell us so:

Mir erkoren,
mir verloren,
hehr und heil,
kühn und feig!
Todgeweihtes Haupt!
Todgeweihtes Herz!

This is more than obvious. Tristan is meant to be hers. And even much earlier she states:

Zerschlag es dies trotzige Schiff,
des zerschellten Trümmer verschling’s!
Und was auf ihm lebt,
den wehenden Atem,
den lass ich euch Winden zum Lohn!

So, that implies: Early on (first scene, first act!) Isolde wants to die together with Tristan. So, it’s more than straight forward to put that into things happening on stage. Therefore Isolde hugs Tristan during her “Tantris narration”.

It’s also more than obvious, that Tristan in the second act “kills himself” instead of being killed by Melot. But in order to be able to do so, Isolde and Tristan need to break free from the conventions and the burdens laid upon their shoulders (“Frag die Sitte”), by tearing down the walls of their cages floating in free air. These are strong images, strong actions, and also performed with the needed will-power by Schager and Serafin.

The third act then happens in the leftovers of the furniture of their caves, and here Kurwenal is also as intense as can be in his dedication to Tristan. I’ve never before enjoyed that part of the 3rd act so immensely as here, because besides waiting for Isolde we also experience dedication to one’s master.

Sadly, Marke is/seems more than annoyed, so his parts in the second as well as the third act do not transmit his love to his adopted son and most beloved warrior and hero. Is this something, Bieito wanted, to just focus on the title-giving characters? If so, then Kurwenal would have needed to also be annoyed.

The final scene (the “Liebestod”) is an intense rendering of dedication of Isolde to Tristan. She places him onto the left-over table, drapes herself so, that she can touch his hand and die. Such a small gesture, so much emotion pouring out of that small movement.

Moving, intensely moving staging.

And luckily the orchestra followed suite. Philippe Jordan was taking it slowly, but not so slow. All phrases kept their tension, it never became boring.

So, double intense: Staging and music created one of the most intense Tristan and Isolde experiences, I had so far.

Thanks!

And you can check it yourself, it will be streamed on April 27: https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/1249fb43-f49b-4786-b9a5-5e06aed38833

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, March 31, 2018 14:57

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Sylvain Cambreling
Regie: Calixto Bieito
Bühne: Susanne Gschwender
Kostüme: Mercè Paloma
Licht: Reinhard Traub
Chor und Kinderchor: Christoph Heil, Johannes Knecht
Dramaturgie: Xavier Zuber

Amfortas: Markus Marquardt
Gurnemanz: Attila Jun
Parsifal: Daniel Kirch
Klingsor: Tobias Schabel
Kundry: Christiane Libor
Titurel: Matthias Hölle
1. Gralsritter: Heinz Göhrig
2. Gralsritter: Michael Nagl
1. Knappe: Josefin Feiler
2. Knappe: Esther Dierkes
3. Knappe: Torsten Hofmann
4. Knappe: Moritz Kallenberg
1.1. Blumenmädchen: Josefin Feiler
1.2. Blumenmädchen: Esther Dierkes
1.3. Blumenmädchen: Fiorella Hincapié
2.1. Blumenmädchen: Mirella Bunoaica
2.2. Blumenmädchen: Aoife Gibney
2.3. Blumenmädchen / Stimme aus der Höhe: Stine Marie Fischer
Mit: Staatsopernchor Stuttgart, Zusatzchor, Kinderchor der Oper Stuttgart, Staatsorchester Stuttgart

This was my fifth visit to this staging, I was there 8 years and 2 days ago (March 28th, 2010), when it premiered, again in April 2010, March 2011 and May 2013. and I will be there most probably, when the Staatsoper in Stuttgart will put it on their schedule again in the future. This for me is a must see, as it casts a different view on how to perceive Parsifal. I’ve written about that elsewhere, so I will not repeat that. Important for me w.r.t. this specific performance:

Klingsor didn’t act as brutally with the flame-thrower as the Premiere-Cast.
Gurnemanz is way more static in his movements then the Premiere-Cast.
Parsifal lacks breath and a bit of humor, but still acts good.

All in all, Bieito’s intensions and powerful message is still available, even after 8 years.

Musically it didn’t stand Manfred Honeck’s Premiere, but this might not be attributed to Sylvain Cambreling. The Brass-Section during the last years in Stuttgart developed some “independence” from the director, they simply do NOT follow, what the director is indicating in their direction. And Cambreling does indicate a lot and easily consumable (I was sitting in Row 1, middle place, so directly behind him, and I could clearly see, what he did!). Also the Brass-section can NOT start pianissimo without an introductory “Pfft”. They are professionals, they should be able to do so. What a difference it was to hear that from the Berliner under Sir Simon less than a week ago. Also Jun was mainly loud, he lacked differentiation, and Kirch, as mentioned above, lacks some breath.

So in total, staging still stunning and a must see, musically less convincing. Still, I’ve seen and heard worse, so overall a time well spent.

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, March 29, 2018 22:07

First: The obvious (in German):

Inszenierung: Calixto Bieito
Musikalische Leitung: Kevin John Edusei
Bühnenbild: Susanne Gschwender
Kostüme: Anja Rabes
Licht: Franck Evin
Dramaturgie: Janina Zell
Chor: Eberhard Friedrich
Sopran: Maria Bengtsson
Mezzosopran: Nadezhda Karyazina
Tenor: Dmytro Popov
Bass: Gábor Bretz
Orchester: Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Chor: Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper

Then, some impressions: https://youtu.be/y7cYktDec9Y
Some more under: https://www.staatsoper-hamburg.de/de/spielplan/stueck.php?AuffNr=146681#pagenav
And: In the journal you can also find impressions and ideas: https://www.staatsoper-hamburg.de/downloads/1718/journal/Journal_2017-18_4.pdf?m=1520254437&

The fact, that I do add more links and external information might give you an indication, that this is something more important to me.

Before going to Hamburg, I did have the chance to watch the production, staged by Christian Spuck, from Zürich, which is also available on DVD/BluRay (https://www.opernhaus.ch/service/shop/dvd-verdi-requiem/) from the 3Sat Mediathek. I also again (as usual) did prepare myself by listening to the opus itself in advance a couple times, here I was using https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00D6UV0V4/.

Contrary to many other of Bieito’s stagings (this is my 17th of his stagings, so I guess, I can compare… :-) ), this was a very silent staging with slow action on stage, which suited very well with the opus itself, as it allowed the singers to still intensely sing. Also the contrast of some happily playing children in the background of the stage and the mourning adults in the front was intensifying the experince. And Bieito’s usage of the quadratic blocks, which we can also see on graveyards more in the south suited very well with the theme of the Messa.

When the curtain rises, we see a wall of quadrats in the front, open, and each quadrat big enough, that it can hold a person cowering in such a quadrat. Still, there is nothing in, also not any urns, but we can see through onto the colorful back wall of the stage. This gives an impression of the color-glass windows of a modern church.

Later these quadratic walls are moved to the back and the side-walls (also such quadratic blocks) are moved around to open up the space for the chorus, and the children.

As the messa is not really an opera, Bieito, contrary to what Spuck did in Zürich, where there is a huge and very movement-ful Ballett taking place, created a theme of a family with a child. So, we for example, see the Soprano and the child playing soccer, or also even just passing the ball between the two/three of them. All in all, Bieito did find well suiting movements to the music, and also the chorus was included in that stage-action.

For the “Libera me” the quadratic wall from the back comes down very slowly and is laid onto the stage. The chorus starts hiding in the quadratic places, and sings from there, just their heads viewable.

All in all, after close to 80 minutes, I found myself in the chair hoping for a “once again, once again”. Sadly, they didn’t fulfill my wish…

Highly recommended!

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, March 26, 2018 20:34

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Marcus Bosch
Inszenierung: Peter Konwitschny
Bühne und Kostüme: Helmut Brade
Chor: Tarmo Vaask
Dramaturgie: Kai Weßler

Tilmann Rönnebeck (Wesener)
Susanne Elmark (Marie)
Solgerd Isalv (Charlotte)
Helena Köhne (Weseners alte Mutter)
Jochen Kupfer (Stolzius)
Leila Pfister (Stolzius´ Mutter)
Alexey Birkus (Obrist)
Uwe Stickert (Desportes)
Hans Kittelmann (Pirzel)
Antonio Yang (Eisenhardt)
Tim Kuypers (Haudy)
Ludwig Mittelhammer (Mary)
Yongseung Song (Drei junge Offiziere)
Chang Liu (Drei junge Offiziere)
Chool Seomun (Drei junge Offiziere)
Sharon Kempton (Gräfin de la Roche)
Martin Platz (Der junge Graf)
Richard Kindley (Bedienter der Gräfin de la Roche)
Johannes Budelmann (Der junge Fähnrich)
Klaus Brummer (Der betrunkene Offizier)
Manuel Krauß (Drei Hauptleute)
Alexander de Paula (Drei Hauptleute)
Petro Ostapenko (Drei Hauptleute)
Monika Schrödel-Hecht (Mdme. Roux)
Cem Aydin (Drei Fähnriche)
Jona Bergander (Drei Fähnriche)
Nazzareno Putzolu (Drei Fähnriche)
Gabriela Rufino (Andalusierin)
Elena Laros (Zwei Kinder)
Simon Holland (Zwei Kinder)
Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, Chor des Staatstheater Nürnberg

Wow! Just Wow! If that will not become a candidate for the staging of the year, then…

After Cherubini’s Medea, another great staging by Peter Konwitschny. And with a cast, that has been singing and playing some of the roles in some other stagings already, liberating them from the problems of dealing with modern 12-tone music and all their specialties. The often changes in the stage setting take place by having them come down from the above, or being pulled up again. And having the orchestra pausing for some moments, so that these changes can be executed completely. All this together with a clear and precise guiding of the actors, and many details in the acting lead to a very convincing experience of this complex modern opera. The fourth (and last) act then has the audience on stage, elaving the theater-audience places empty, which are then used also for staging. Some other parts still happen among the audience on stage, which in total leads to a very intense experience.

Highly recommended!

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, March 25, 2018 12:40

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Sir Simon Rattle
Inszenierung: Dieter Dorn
Bühnenbild: Magdalena Gut
Kostüme: Monika Staykova
Choreographie: Martin Gruber
Licht: Tobias Löffler

Berliner Philharmoniker

Parsifal: Stephen Gould
Kundry: Ruxandra Donose
Gurnemanz: Franz-Josef Selig
Amfortas: Gerald Finley
Klingsor: Evgeny Nikitin
Titurel: Robert Lloyd
Gralsritter: Neal Cooper
Gralsritter: Guido Jentjens
Blumenmädchen: Iwona Sobotka
Blumenmädchen: Kiandra Howarth
Blumenmädchen: Elisabeth Jansson
Blumenmädchen: Mari Eriksmoen
Blumenmädchen: Ingeborg Gillebo
Blumenmädchen: Kismara Pessatti
Knappe: Ingeborg Gillebo
Knappe: Elisabeth Jansson
Knappe: Neal Cooper
Knappe: Iurie Ciobanu
Stimme aus der Höhe: Kismara Pessatti

Philharmonia Chor Wien, Einstudierung: Walter Zeh

You visit Baden-Baden for the musicians, not for the stagings. This was no exception, although I was hoping for something more interesting from Dieter Dorn. Sadly, my hope was not fulfilled. I guess, that’s all that can be said, loved Sir Simon and the Berliner, the singers all were good to very good (no exception). So it was a very nice good-bye to Sir Simon with the Berliner from the orchestra pit of an opera house.

Comments (0)

By pfuetz, March 13, 2018 10:07

First: The obvious (in German):

Musikalische Leitung: Antonello Manacorda
Regie: Tobias Kratzer
Bühnenbild und Kostüme: Rainer Sellmaier
Licht: Jan Hartmann
Video: Manuel Braun
Chor, Extrachor: Tilman Michael
Dramaturgie: Konrad Kuhn

Vasco da Gama: Michael Spyres
Selika: Claudia Mahnke
Nelusko: Brian Mulligan
Ines: Kirsten MacKinnon
Don Pedro: Andreas Bauer
Don Diego: Thomas Faulkner
Der Großinquisitor von Lissabon: Magnús Baldvinsson
Der Oberpriester des Brahma: Magnús Baldvinsson
Don Alvar: Michael McCown
Anna: Bianca Andrew

This was my first Meyerbeer and my second staging by Tobias Kratzer (his Meisteringer in Karlsruhe were my first, his Götterdämmerung in Karlsruhe will be my third), and I have to say, that this is a staging, everybody should go and see!

What Kratzer did together with his dramatic advisor Konrad Kuhn, who also gave a splendid introduction before the opera, was solving the problem of space and time (the l’Africaine should be an Indian, and the Manzanilla-tree is officially located in the Bahamas (but none of those facts were known during da Gama’s period, but they were know 300 hundred years later, when Meyerbeer took these pieces to construct a setting), so time and location are wrong in the original script!) by moving the stage into outer space and into the future. People here know, that I love Ruth Berghaus’ Tristan staging in Hamburg for exactly that: Intelligent (but still oriented and based on facts from the libretto) transformation of the opera, so that we today can learn and experience, what such old things still can tell and teach us today.

And Tobias Kratzer did that splendidly. His Meistersinger in Karlsruhe were a very traditionally but humorous setting, still based in Nürnberg, because Wagner did not create as ludicrous deviations from such a traditional setting into his script. Whereas Meyerbeer did in his last grand opera. So, Tobias Kratzer solves as an example in his staging of l’Africaine – Vasco da Gama the problem of women on board of expedition ships by “beaming” them into the scene via Video-Conferencing. There are much more such beautiful ideas, and the audience can laugh happily about many of them during the five hours (Kuhn and Kratzer still removed around 40 minutes (according to Kuhn during his introduction) from the original plot!).

This is a staging, everyone should visit, it’s funny, the singers/actors are splendid, their french is easily understandable, they do act on stage.

At the end there were standing ovations for all.

Highly recommended!

Comments (0)

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.

Comments (0)

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!