Opera: tops & flops
Music theater 2024: Great idiots & empty stage
Juhu 2024: How a rediscovery ensures the greatest operatic happiness, a rarity not only makes the Pope blissful thanks to a world conductor and a new opera is a complete delight
TOP I. "The Idiot" by Mieczysław Weinberg, Salzburg Festival: Mieczysław Weinberg has achieved what spoken theater tends to fail at: compressing three hours of fascinating musical theater from Dostoyevsky's novel "The Idiot". We have the Salzburg Festival to thank for recognizing this in all its quality. They succeeded in making the rarely performed "The Idiot" a reference performance.
A great achievement, which is particularly due to Bogdan Volkov in the title role. Rarely have the role and the actor been so well covered, for example when Volkov/Myshkin suffers an epileptic seizure that sends shivers down your spine.
Krzysztof Warlikowski staged the production with unfussy precision, building up to the gripping finale, with ingenious design by Małgorzata Szczęśniak. Conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla made the score sparkle and shine darkly with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Opera could hardly be more to the point.
TOP II. "Palestrina" by Hans Pfitzner, Vienna State Opera: A triumph with cheers and ovations! Christian Thielemann conducted the revival of Herbert Wernicke's ascetically sparse production of Hans Pfitzner's "Palestrina" from 1999, which had become somewhat unspectacular in its standardized stage design.
The splendid colors with which he animates the state opera orchestra and the intensity with which he depicts the brutal power struggles of the princes of the church during the Council of Trent are wonderful. The casting of the 44 roles was perfectly coordinated.
Michael Spyres' noble tenor portrays an impressive composer Palestrina in his will to reform and as a do-gooder. A great ensemble evening. It is incomprehensible that this fascinating work has become a rarely performed rarity in the repertoire.
TOP III "Alma" by Ella Milch-Sheriff, Volksoper Wien: A touching homage to Alma Mahler-Werfel, the society icon of Vienna around 1900. The Israeli Ella Milch-Sheriff composed "Alma" on behalf of the Volksoper: modernity that you need not be afraid of, with effective waltzes, marches and tangos.
Ruth Brauer-Kvam staged the production with great effects in mind, with a feeling for the turbulent life of the "muse of four arts", for her dramatic fate as a mother against her will. At the end, the monster Alma, a sphinx who has grown old, terrifies the audience. Annette Dasch is a delight in the title role. Confident on the podium: Omer Meir Wellber.
Appendix - The lake stages between Mörbisch and Ried am Wolfgangsee: the open-air summer brought musical successes. Both the new "Wolf" mystical on the purpose-built lake stage in the Salzkammergut and the classic "My Fair Lady" in Burgenland, cheekily relocated to modern-day London, were particularly popular with audiences.
Oh dear 2024: When Verdi dies in costume splendour, Carmen no longer recognizes herself from today and you spontaneously realize that the stage technology doesn't work after all
FLOP I. "Das Phantom des MusikTheaters", Theater an der Wien: When Stefan Herheim took over from founding artistic director Roland Geyer, the Theater an der Wien, which had established itself as Vienna's third opera house, was given a funny "music" in its title. A gimmick with visionary potential!
After two mixed seasons with a few successes in the unloved alternative venue MQ, the newly renovated Theater an der Wien was to reopen on October 12 with Mozart's "Idomeneo" under Herheim's direction.
In the end, however, all that remained of the "theater" was the "music". On September 9 - by which time the "Idomeneo" rehearsals should have been in full swing - the baffled subscribers received an email with explosive content: all staged performances had to be canceled until the end of the year because the stage technology was not ready in time! A summer water ingress was also cited as the reason.
Slow start with a not at all festive "Idomeneo "
Nevertheless, the opening went ahead. With an "Idomeneo" concert of a quality that was not a credit to the venerable house.
Real music theater will only be available from 18 January with "Das Spitzentuch der Königin" by Johann Strauss - incidentally as a co-production with the Strauss Year, for which former director Roland Geyer was responsible.
FLOP II. Verdi's "Don Carlo", Vienna State Opera: wild booing and shouts of protest even during the performance. "What a load of rubbish", grumbled the audience at the premiere of this "Don Carlo", which Kirill Serebrennikov, the Russian star director persecuted by Putin for years, moved to an institute for costume design. He doubled the main characters with living dress puppets.
Verdi's opera became an endgame in gray dreariness: Elisabeth, Carlos, PhilippI, Eboli and Rodrigo wither away in concrete rooms next to garbage containers. At least Philippe Jordan on the podium tried to bring the production out of its blandness. At the center: the magnificent Asmik Grigorian as Elisabetta, surrounded by a cast of middle-class gentlemen.
FLOP III "Carmen" by Bizet, Volksoper Vienna: a bad omen? Volksoper director Lotte de Beer had already confessed in advance that she had not found anyone to direct "Carmen". So she bravely took on the task of staging the production herself, even though she had already failed quite badly once before. So much openness, unknown to us, honors the likeable Dutchwoman.
Nevertheless, her new "Carmen" was once again unsuccessful. It was too much of a deliberate attempt, too much of a fumble in the attempt to "modernize" this archetype of a strong woman who remains true to herself until death. Even the magnificent Katia Ledoux in the title role fell somewhat by the wayside.
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