Reopening

Theater an der Wien serves up gentle winds in spicy style

Attempts at Mozart: the "Idomeneo" ensemble at the Theater an der Wien

(Bild: Theater an der Wien / Karl Schöndorfer)

For the mock reopening, the Theater an der Wien plays Mozart's "Idomeneo" in concert. A few more stress tests before the reopening would have done the rebuilt and renovated theater a lot of good.

The opera house of the city of Vienna has finally arrived in balconies! The Theater an der Wien has been given a terrace on pencil pillars above a banal entrance.

And in the entrance area, the audience is now greeted by a black hole of stairs. Just like at Vienna Airport, you have to go down them to get to the toilet. It also leads to the upper floor. Just like a stainless steel elevator, which gives you a vulgar grin in the now more spacious foyer.

New canopy thanks to the terrace

(Bild: Theater an der Wien / Peter M. Mayr)

Aesthetically, you somehow feel somewhere between Raimundtheater, Theater Akzent and Urania. There are also new buffets upstairs, which failed the first stress test with flying colors. January will show how the checkrooms work in bad weather.

As a reminder: due to spontaneous delays, all staged performances had to be canceled this year. The curtain will not actually rise on the Johann Strauss rarity "Das Spitzentuch der Königin" until 18 January. Idomeneo", planned as the first premiere, has now had to serve as the opening concert spectacle.

The "Eiserne" at the Theater an der Wien - remains iron-clad for staged performances until 18 January.

(Bild: Theater an der Wien / Peter Mayr)

Fortunately only once. Because the performance did not even come close to any of the glorious Mozart moments that the theater has experienced to date, from the legendary post-war Mozart to the great moments under Muti, Harnoncourt, Jacobs & Co.

Now, a group of singers on the ramp is shouting into the carpeted auditorium. Slávka Zámečníková, who is well known from the State Opera ensemble and stepped in at short notice, stands out with her Ilia as a melodious solitaire, while Elena Tsallagova's Elettra serves Mozart's gentle winds ("Soavi zeffiri") as harsh breezes, but scores points with the audience with her hysterically outrageous furious calls.

Far from a stylistically acceptable Idamante is the piercingly shrill and sometimes noticeably clattering Emily Sierra. The throaty, pale Attilio Glaser naturally sings the simpler Viennese version of Idomeneo's "Fuor del mar" aria due to his lack of fluency. Ya-Chung Huang squeezes Arbace and the High Priest out of his tenor voice.

Behind the singers, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which does not always play precisely, sits in a very unfavorable acoustic position. In front of them, yet with his back to the singers, conductor David Bates fidgets and rushes through the score, unable to decide between historically informed and strangely lacking in contours.

Once again, the wonderful Arnold Schoenberg Choir remains as a safe bank of quality. Reassuring in any case: from now on, things can only go uphill!