Musical by Graz Opera

“Silk Stockings”: In love with a robot

Natalia Mateo and Michael Rotschopf as Steve Canfield and Ninotschka

(Bild: Werner Kmetitsch)

With Cole Porter's "Silk Stockings", Graz Opera attempts to build on the success of last year's musical production "Crazy For You". It only succeeds to a limited extent - the weaknesses of this evening are too great, despite some of the highlights.

Oh, how beautiful when it glitters: Cole Porter promises nostalgic musical charm, Broadway, the 1950s. After the bombastic "Crazy For You" by George Gershwin last season, the expectations of Graz audiences are rightly high. With "Silk Stockings", director Max Hopp has been given Porter's last musical to stage - a rarely performed love story between communism and capitalism.

Nina Yaschenko (Natalia Mateo), a rigid Stalinist, sets off for Paris to bring back the national composer Pyotr Ilyich Boroff (Michael Großschädl) and three renegade functionaries. Dapper, stern, in a pencil skirt and fur hat, she provides laughs in the strong dialog with her indoctrinated statements.

Nina Weiß as Janice Dayton with dancers from the opera ballet in "Silk Stockings"

(Bild: Werner Kmetitsch)

The stiff Russian
As soon as she arrives in Paris, "Ninotschka" falls for the silk stockings and the American artist agent Steve Canfield (Michael Rotschopf). While he shows off his full, strong voice in "Paris Loves Lovers", Mateo lacks a lot of volume.

"You came here as a carefully programmed robot," Canfield says to Ninotschka at one point. The singer does not succeed in becoming a lover: even in her pretty white petticoat (set: Marie Caroline Rössle), and even in the final number, her Ninotschka remains a stiff technocrat with a frozen face. "Practically everything leaves me absolutely cold", she sings in the duet "I Get A Kick Out Of You" (actually from "Anything Goes"). You can hear that even where you shouldn't: In the love duets with Canfield, from which Rotschopf tries to get so much out of, but grits her teeth.

Falk Witzurke (Brankow), Michael Großschädl (Boroff), Michael Rotschopf (Steve Canfield), Christian Scherler (Bibinski)

(Bild: Werner Kmetitsch)

Janice Dayton is a star
Whether the stereotype of the ditzy movie starlet is still up to date remains to be seen, but Nina Weiss is a ray of hope as Janice Dayton: From her first solo, "Stereophonic Sound", she seduces with vocal presence and charm, always on the verge of exaggeration, but dosed just right. She sings "Miss Otis Regrets", a song from 1934 added to the musical, splendidly with just guitar accompaniment, and has fun in "Silk and Satin".

Bibinski (Christian Scherler), Iwanow (Markus Murke) and Brankow (Falk Witzurke) are a bumbling trio who liven up the stage, especially with their dialog.

Wonderful 50s swing
The Graz Philharmonic Orchestra swings wonderfully under the musical direction of Koen Schoots. The ballet lets off steam with the Russian Kalinka and shows its skin and what it can do in "Josephine" - one of the big, colorful revue numbers with Nina Weiß.

Unfortunately, the sound system has difficulties on the premiere evening: Dialogue is sometimes difficult to understand, some voices too quiet against the sonic force of the orchestra. Overall, however, the evening falls short of the high expectations.