Der fliegende Holländer from Bayreuth

 

Mary, Erik, Senta

Conductor: Oksana Lyniv

Director: Dmitri Tcherniakov

 

Daland:  Georg Zeppenfeld

Senta: Asmik Grigorian

Erik: Eric Cutler

Mary: Marina Prudenskaya

Der Steuermann: Attilio Glaser

Der Holländer: John Lundgren

Richard Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer streamed from Bayreuth this summer on July 25.  It's regie, of course.  That means that the staging is modernized.  During the overture a mother hangs herself.  It's rather wildly realistic looking.  This doesn't seem to be the traditional plot about a sailor.  I'm here for Asmik Geigorian.

The sailors sit around drinking in a bar and never go to sea.  The girls don't spin, but instead practice the spinning chorus.  Senta smokes.  Erik comes in and chases the other girls away.  He warns Senta that her father wants to find her a husband.  Erik and Senta are exes and fight like it.  

Asmik is 40 but here passes for younger.  She is good looking, her voice is strong and her acting good.  The sound of her voice does not particularly appeal to me.  For me it is the feeling in the music.

Daland brings the Dutchman home and introduces him to his daughter as her bridegroom.  She swears to be faithful until death.  This takes place around the dining room table.  She gets excited over him for no apparent reason.  The ho hum everydayness of the staging takes all the fizz out of it.  Asmik tries to make up for it, but it's too much to ask.

In Act III everyone is outside eating and drinking except the sailors who sit glumly.  The townspeople ridicule them until the Dutchman takes out his gun and shoots a few.  Ugh.  Everyone but Senta runs off.  Erik complains to Senta who sits staring.  They sing about eternity on the sea, but there is no sea.  The Dutchman throws Senta on the floor.  Mom comes in and shoots him.  Senta laughs and tries to comfort her.  That's it.  I'll probably never watch this again.  The chorus is excellent.

Tannhäuser from Bayreuth 👍🏻

Conductor: Valery Gergiev 
Director: Tobias Kratzer

Tannhäuser: Stephen Gould
Landgraf Hermann: Stephen Milleing
Elisabeth: Lise Davidsen
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Markus Eiche
Walther von der Vogelweide: Daniel Behle
Venus:  Elena Zhidkova
Shepard:  Katharina Konradi

Tannhäuser from Bayreuth from 2019, which can be found in Opera on Video, is a confusing mix of images.  The first scene suggests that we add it to the caravan series, since we see Tannhäuser, Venus and her troop wandering around in an RV in the guise of a carnival.  Venus drives.  They live outside the law.  When the vehicle runs out of gas, they siphon some from a nearby vehicle.  They go through the Burger King drive through and steal their food.  This is not realistic since you always have to pay before they give you anything.  A policeman tries to stop them and Venus runs him down, making Tannhäuser uninterested in going on with her.

In the second scene the curtain opens on an exterior shot of the Bayreuther Festspielhaus.  He is met by a bunch of guys in black outfits drinking beer out of the bottle.  They recognize him in his clown outfit and welcome him back.  At the end of the scene Venus arrives in her RV.

Lise Davidsen is utterly magnificent.  I adore her "Dich teure Halle."  Our boy is back in normal clothes.  Or at least the clothes suitable for the singing contest that is to come.  People begin to enter.  Outside Venus and her gang are trying to get inside.  This must play like a film inside the hall.  Venus steals a suitable outfit from one of the dressing rooms and participates in the ceremony.  This whole thing is like a movie with cameras behind the scenes.  Is that the trend of the future?

The contestants sing about love back and forth until Tannhäuser tells the crowd that he has been in Venusberg.  The women in the crowd all escape except for Elisabeth, Venus removes her disguise, and her group all appear together with Tannhäuser.  Elisabeth prevents the men from killing him, and he thanks her.  The scene is strange.  While Tannhäuser thanks Elisabeth, he is also happy to see Venus.  Someone calls the police.  The Landgraf curses Tannhäuser for admitting he was with Venus.

I am enjoying the idea that the teure Halle is the Festspieshaus itself.  A song contest with pieces that are more like songs would have been nice.  The story is concerned with salvation, and the music is a bit droning.   Tannhäuser chooses to go to Rome with the pilgrims and the giant black man in drag drapes a rainbow flag over the harp that accompanied the singers.

This is almost the Tannhäuser as comedy version. Frei im Wollen! Frei im Thun! Frei im Geniessen!  R.W. [Free in the wanting! Free in the doing! Free to enjoy!]  This seems to be the opposing of two life views that make up the struggle of modern life:  The path of individual freedom represented by Venus and the path of adhering to social norms represented by Elisabeth.  The sign outside the Festspielhaus seems to place Wagner on the side of freedom.  Our hero vacillates back and forth between them.  One gives him a life of earthly pleasure and the other brings salvation to his soul.  He seems to want both.

It ends horribly.  In the libretto first Elisabeth dies, and then he sees her body borne past him, and Tannhäuser dies.  In this version Tannhäuser goes off with Venus, Wolfram sees his opportunity and dresses up in Tannhäuser's clown outfit so Elisabeth will think he is the man she loves.  He seduces her in this disguise, and later we see her covered in blood.  She seems to have killed herself.  This is truly hideous.  

_____________________________________________

 P.S

I watched the film of Tannhäuser from Bayreuth in 2019 again because it is now playing again in Bayreuth in 2021 and I cannot go. Ekaterina Gubanova is Venus in the current version, and this may be an improvement.  I had already seen all the shocking parts, and was content to watch the whole opera.

I noticed the part where it is indeed Katarina Wagner who calls the cops, as a joke, I assume.  I saw that Wolfram puts on Heinrich's clown outfit, but isn't actually trying to fool Elisabeth.  She laughs and draws him into the van.  That puts a completely different spin on it.  It's too bad she doesn't love Wolfram who is quite charming.

The more I see and hear of Lise Davidsen, the more I admire, enjoy, respect and indeed love her.  She is very well suited to this role.  I am a long distance from having too much of her.  Es lebe die Lise.

 

Lise in Die Walküre at BSO 👍🏻

 

Lise Davidsen sang Act I of Die Walküre at the Bayerische Staatsoper today with Jonas Kaufmann, Georg Zeppenfeld, and Asher Fisch .  I broke down crying it was so wonderful.  How can I pretend to review this?  

We were stomping our feet at home along with the distanced live audience.  Orchestra, conductor and soloists were all outstanding.  Lise is the fiercest Sieglinde I've ever seen.

__________________

I originally posted this on May 13 this year.  I have just finished listening to it for the third time.  It's absolutely wonderful, with two of my great operatic loves singing.  There is a Die Walküre series at Bayreuth this summer with Lise but not Jonas.  It's not being streamed.  But how could I possibly love it as much as this?  Wagner has never gone so deep into my heart.

Die tote Stadt, Munich

 

Conductor: Kirill Petrenko 
Production: Simon Stone 

Paul (tenor):   Jonas Kaufmann
Marie/Marietta (soprano):   Marlis Petersen
Juliette (soprano):  Mirjam Mezak
Brigitta (mezzo-soprano): Jennifer Johnston
Frank-Fritz (baritone):  Andrzej Filonczyk

This performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt, 2019, finally came to me from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.  I've been wishing for it.  It's a reminder that the current management disappears in the fall of 2021.  Goodbye to Petrenko.

We begin with Paul returning home where he has been away.  He removes sheets covering the furniture and throws everything to Brigitta.  Paul's young wife has recently died, and he has become obsessed with another young woman who looks like his dead wife.  Paul appears to be a screamer role.  I love Jonas but prefer him not screaming.  When he's not screaming, Jonas is glorious.  You know that.  He's a wonderful singer and actor with spectacular diction and a fabulous legato.  The rotating stage set seems to work well.

A blond woman comes in on a bicycle.  She enters the house through the window.  He appears to have invited her for dinner since the table is set.  She puts on one of his wife's dresses, and he calls her Marie.  She reminds him that her name is Marietta.  They sing Mariettas Lied.  It's very beautiful and intense.  It's Jonas.  What else would it be?  I like the production a lot so far.  [My favorite]

Very quickly we move to a flashback with a bald woman who must be his wife who died, and she must have died of cancer.  What a fast change, for this is also Marlis Petersen.  No hair, bare feet, hospital gown.

At the beginning of Act II we see Brigitta in a nun's uniform with other nuns.  She says this is her life now.  Marietta is having fun with a group of friends.  Paul drags her away and initiates sex.  Marlis Petersen may be just the right singing actress for her role.  She wears the unfeminine shoes throughout, except when she's barefoot, to protect her feet in this very athletic role.  The plot becomes confused, especially for me whose copy has no titles.

In Act III we still have the rotating building, but in each act the configuration has changed. A chorus of children appears and disappears without explanation.  And here we have Marie and Marietta in the same scene.  Then there are a crowd of bald Maries.  I have a feeling this is brilliant.  Jonas is having such a great career.  Both of these roles are bears.  That's reason enough not to perform it.  She's dancing around in his dead wife's wig, and he strangles her with it.  "Now you're just like her."  Just when we think she's dead, she comes out, gets on her bicycle and rides away.  I think I love it.

We return to the beginning with the return of Brigitta and Fritz.  Marietta returns for her roses.  Paul burns stuff including Marie's wig.  This is the best part of the regie.  Marie wore a wig because of her cancer treatments.  Jonas sings Marietta's Lied, and there is still ein Auferstehen.  I'm so glad I returned to see this.

Starry Heavens Concert

Selfie

All the music on this concert is by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Programm

Ludwig van Beethoven
Irish Songs

 Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and piano trio.

1. Since grey beards inform us (WoO153, Nr. 4)
2. The Pulse of an Irishman (WoO154, Nr. 4

Ludwig van Beethoven
Schottische Lieder op. 108

 Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer and piano trio.

1. The Shepherd’s Song
2. O sweet were the hours
3. Come fill, fill, my good fellow
4. O Mary, at thy window be
5. Faithfu’ Johnie
6. Sunset
7. Bonny Laddie, Highland Laddie

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sechs Lieder von Gellert, op. 48

Soprano Lise Davidsen with Sophie Raynaud on piano.

1. Bitten
2. Die Liebe des Nächsten
3. Vom Tode
4. Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur  "The heavens declare the glory of Gott"
5. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung
6. Bußlied

Ludwig van Beethoven
Heiligenstädter Testament (Brief des Komponisten Ludwig van Beethoven an seine Brüder Kaspar Karl und Johann von 1802) 

Nikolaus Bachler, reader.  There is no music.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett a-Moll, op. 132, 3. Satz
Canzona di ringraziamento. Molto adagio 

Musicians from the orchestra of the Bayerische Staatsoper

One knows from hanging around in libraries that these songs exist.  They're in the complete works, after all.  But one never hears them performed.  Schubert seems to have kicked other people's songs out of the way.   The Scottish songs are in Scottish dialect, and Lise sings only in German.  She hits just the right religious note.  I wish I was seeing more of her.  I noticed that both singers rushed on to the next song with no pause between.  Just because songs appear together on the same opus doesn't mean it is all one piece.  It was possible to tell how many songs had been sung only by looking at the program.  A small separation would have worked better for me.  One wishes to characterize each song individually.

For the speaking there are no titles.  Nikolaus Bachlere has a lot of confidence in his diction. 

This virtual concert comes with a sound machine in case you were missing the normal noises of a concert.  It includes booing.

Der Freischütz

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda 
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov 

 

Ottokar, Prince: Boris Prýgl (baritone)
Kuno, forrester: Bálint Szabó (bass)
Agathe, Kuno's daughter: Golda Schultz (soprano)
Ännchen: Anna Prohaska  (soprano)
Kaspar / Samiel: Kyle Ketelsen (bass)
Max: Pavel Černoch (tenor)
Ein Eremit: Tareq Nazmi (bass)
Kilian: Milan Siljanov  (baritone)

 

Der Freischütz, 1821, by Carl Maria von Weber streamed from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  It's a Singspiel, which means there is spoken dialog just as in Fidelio.  I remember it was covered in school as an historically significant event, though performances are rare.  Once long ago I was in Vienna when it was playing, and I thought not to miss it.  It is my only previous experience of this opera.

You can tell from the picture that it's regie.  These are business men in an office tower.  In the front is a man in a blue suit with brown shoes.  He has not been properly raised.  Blue suits go with black shoes.  I am not buying Freischütz in an office.  Waiters come in wearing pandemic masks.  The contest isn't about marksmanship, it's about being willing to shoot someone.  So the cops don't show up if you shoot someone through the window of an office building?  I'm not buying it.

I love the music in this opera.  I suppose it's the most like Beethoven.  The arias are nice.  Ok.  Alles gute.  So no one is really shooting anyone.  The waiters tell us that it's all fake.  The scenes end entirely without applause.

Max is told he must go to the Wolf's Glen, but in this single set production it looks just like the other scenes.  Max must shoot his fiance.  The music leads us to a happy ending, but then there is a twist.  I won't give it away.  The music is pretty good.  This is the same director that put Les Troyens in a mental hospital.  If you've never seen the opera, this will give you a rough idea.  It streams for 30 days.

La Boheme from Munich 👍🏻

Conductor: Asher Fisch
Production: Otto Schenk 

Mimì: Rachel Willis-Sørensen 
Musetta: Mirjam Mesak 
Rodolfo: Jonas Kaufmann 
Marcello: Andrei Zhilikhovsky 
Schaunard: Sean Michael Plumb 
Colline: Tareq Nazmi 
Parpignol: Andres Agudelo 
Benoît: Christian Rieg

 

La Boheme is streaming live from the Bayerische  Staatsoper just to make me happy.  And it is succeeding.  This is fabulous. I hardly know what to say.  The waiter in Cafe Momas is wearing a mask.  This is the opera for our time.  This is the performance for our time.  Thank you.

The quality of complete ensemble is rare in all music, but rarer still in opera.  It's as though they had been together all their lives.  I am moved more by love and kindness than by cruelty.

The production is truly perfect.  All is as it should be.  My favorite Boheme.

Footnote.  This was a performance without an audience.  The usually crowded Momas scene had only the identified characters in the cast.  In a scene where usually one hardly notices that Mimi has any lines, we have a fully realized conversation.  She comments revealingly to Rodolfo about his friends.

The entire performance was played for the cameras.  I read social media, and people complain loudly that a singer might be performing for the camera.  So here everyone is singing to the camera.  The audience is in the closeups and not the back row of the balcony.  The intimacy of every word, every line, brought the opera to life.  I loved them all separately and together.

Die Vögel

 

Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher
Production: Frank Castorf

Prometheus: Wolfgang Koch (baritone)
Wiedhopf, einstens ein Mensch, nun König der Vögel [hoopoe; once a person, now king of the birds]  Günter Papendell (baritone)
Nachtigall [nightingale] Caroline Wettergreen (soprano)
Zaunschlüpfer [wren] Emily Pogorelc (soprano)
1. Drossel [thrush] Yajie Zhang (soprano)
2. Drossel [thrush] Eliza Boom (soprano)
Adler [eagle] Bálint Szabó (bass)
Rabe [raven] Theodore Platt (bass)
Flamingo [] George Vîrban (tenor)
Hoffegut [Good Hope] Charles Workman (tenor)
Ratefreund [Loyal Friend] Michael Nagy (bass)

Die Vögel [The Birds], 1920, by Walter Braunfels, after Aristophanes, comes to me from the Bayerische Staatsoper München, Germany, from this year.  It's 100 years old and was popular in its day. 

This opera appears to be about politics.  Two human guys, Hoffegut and Ratefreund, come looking for the king of the birds, Wiedhopf, to talk him into overthrowing the gods by building a city in the sky.  He was once a human and probably carries some of this desire for dominance with him from the human state.   The humans wear their regie uniforms of black suits.  The birds all have fancy feathers, including Wiedhopf.  The sets only suggest human life and never bird life.  It looks like a construction site, perhaps suggesting that building a city in the sky is already under way.

Spoiler Alert!  Aristophanes writes that the birds replace Zeus and become rulers of the world.  This band of birds fail in their quest.

I liked everything about the Nightingale, her voice, her costume, the music for her character, and so forth.  She is a modern day coloratura soprano.  Hoffegut courts her in an extended scene, but I don't think she's buying it.  Alfred Hitchcock makes an appearance.  You remember he had a movie called The Birds.  It's a horror film which this is not.  Briefly scenes from the movie appear.  Another reference is to a rock group called THE BYRDS poster in English.

A man enters in a NAZI uniform.  This appears to be Ratefreund.  There are long stretches with no singing which are filled up with political activities.  Two pigeons are to get married.  Clearly the opera allows for much range of interpretations, and this one is dark.  Perhaps birds and humans cannot cheerfully mix.

Finally a man with a gray beard is announced.  This at last is Prometheus.  Wolfgang Koch is magnificent in this role.  The dream fails.  They praise Zeus once again and return to the city.

The music is rather heavy neo-romanticism.  Only the nightingale brought lightness of feeling.  She returns at the end.

Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane

Conductor: Marc Albrecht 
Stage director:  Christof Loy  

Heliane: Sara Jakubiak
The Ruler, her husband: Josef Wagner
The Stranger: Brian Jagde
The Messenger: Okka Von der Damerau
The Doorman: Derek Welton
The Blind Judge: Burkhard Ulrich
The Young Man: Gideon Poppe

From Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2018 on Medici.tv we have Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane, 1927.  I am watching it because Lotte Lehmann said Heliane was her favorite role.  It is the outer extreme of post Romanticism.

In Act I there are three characters:  The Stranger, the Ruler and his wife Heliane.  She is the only one with an actual name.  The Ruler is pissed because his wife doesn't love him.  So he kills anyone who seems happy, including The Stranger who wanders into town and cheers people up.  While he is in jail awaiting his execution, Heliane comes in to comfort him.  She announces herself as the Queen.  This is one of the wildest scenes in opera.  At The Stranger's request she first takes down her hair, then takes off her shoes, and finally takes off everything else.  Is this part of comforting?  So did Lotte like the nudity?  Husband comes back and things go from bad to worse.  The music is very intense.

In Act II Heliane is tried for being unfaithful to her husband.  The blind Judge enters, and both The Ruler and Heliane call him Father.  He speaks to Heliane as though she were a child, so I presume that he is her father.  She testifies in a long amazing aria "Ich ging zu ihm."



The Stranger comes into the courtroom and asks to be left alone for a moment with Heliane.  The King and the Judge allow this.  Our Stranger is very persuasive and gets Heliane to kiss him "for the first and last time."  She does, and he stabs himself and dies.

The chorus enters complaining that The Stranger has been taken from them.  She tells her husband she is pure and he decides that if she is pure she will bring The Stranger back to life.  The act ends with her swearing that she will.

The ending in Act III is complex.  The Stranger rises from the dead, but this only enrages the King who stabs his wife.  You should know it has a happy ending.  What is one to make of such a thing?  They played it very low key, but the music is large and soaring.  I'm glad I took the time to see it.

Bayerische Staatsoper 2019-20 plus stream selections

The pandemic has changed much of this.

The first list is premiers.  Only one is a world premier.  The rest are production premiers.  I would like to see all of them, even the opera studio.  You can see that I almost got my wish.  The only one I didn't get is the one I wanted most.  Can we please have tote Stadt?  Please?  It plays more in the summer.  You can see I got my wish finally.  See performance calendar for dates.

++ = selected for streaming

Premiers pre Korngold:  Die tote Stadt ++ Jonas Kaufmann, Marlis Petersen pre Abrahamsen: The Snow Queen ++ Barbara Hannigan, Peter Rose pre Bartok: Duke Bluebeard's Castle ++ Nina Stemme, John Lundgren pre Verdi: I Masnadieri ++ Diana Damrau, Charles Castronovo pre Abramovic:7 Deaths of Maria Callas++ 7 different women-world premier pre Rameau: Castor et Pollux ++ ? don't know these people pre Verdi: Falstaff++ Wolfgang Koch, Okka von der Dammerau pre Thomas: Mignon Opera studio

 Here is the rest of the opera repertoire.  Dates in front signify when this opera was streamed before.

 

	Beethoven:  Fidelio:	Adrianne Pieczonka, Günther Groissböck, Klaus Florian Vogt
	Berg:  Wozzeck: ++	Christian Gerhaher
	Bizet:  Carmen	Matthew Polenzani
2015	Donizetti:  L’elisir d’amore:	Pretty Yende, Mariusz Kwiecien, Ambrogio Maestri
2015	Donizetti:  Lucia di Lammermoor	Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Quinn Kelsey
	Gluck:  Alceste	Dorothea Röschmann,
	Haydn:  Orlando Paladino	Mathias Vidal, Tara Erraught
	Humperdinck:  Hänsel und Gretel:	Tara Erraught
	Johann Strauß:   Die Fledermaus:
2019	Krenek:  Karl V.	Bo Skovhus
	Mozart:  Cosi fan Tutte	Tara Erraught
	Mozart:  Die Zauberfloete	Pavol Breslik
	Mozart:  Don Giovanni	Erwin Schrott, Luca Pisaroni, Carmen Giannattasio
	Mussorgsky:  Boris Godunow:	Dimitry Ulyanov
	Offenbach:  Les Contes d’Hoffmann	Michael Spyres
	Puccini:  La bohème:
2019	Puccini:  La fanciulla del West	Anja Kampe, Brandon Jovanovich
	Puccini:  Tosca:	Anja Harteros
	Puccini:  Turandot:	Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov
	Rossini:  Guillaume Tell:	Gerald Finley, Michael Spyres
	Rossini:  Il barbiere di Siviglia
	Rossini:  La Cenerentola	Teresa Iervolino
2019	Smetana:  Die Verkaufte Braut
	Strauss:  Salome	Marlis Petersen, Wolfgang Koch
	Strauss:  Die sweigsame Frau
	Tchaikovsky:  Eugen Onegin:	Pavol Breslik
	Verdi:  Don Carlo	Charles Castronovo, Ludovic Tézier, Ildar Abdrazakov, Anja Harteros
2013	Verdi:  Il Trovatore	Anja Harteros
	Verdi:  Nabucco:	Placido Domingo, Liudmyla Monastyrska
2018	Verdi:  Otello:	Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros
	Verdi:  Rigoletto:	Ludovic Tezier, Erin Morley
	Verdi:  La traviata:	multiple
	Wagner:  Der fliegende Holländer:	Michael Volle
2018	Wagner:  Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg:	Wolfgang Koch, Jonas Kaufmann,
	Wagner:  Lohengrin:	Klaus Florian Vogt, Anja Harteros
2018	Wagner:  Parsifal:	Anja Kampe

I would like to see Netrebko's Turandot and anything with Anja Harteros.  We have been promised over and over Die Meistersinger with Jonas Kaufmann.  Could we finally see it, please?

Judith live from Munich

Conductor Oksana Lyniv
Production Katie Mitchell

Duke Bluebeard John Lundgren
Judith Nina Stemme

Judith:  Concerto for Orchestra in five movements / Duke Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók streamed from Munich.

And now for something completely different.  Bluebeard is now a full length opera.  All the music is by Bartok, and I loved him more than ever.  We begin with a silent movie accompanied by the Bartok concerto for orchestra, where Detective Nina investigates a stalker who kidnaps women off the streets.  We have cell phones, cameras, computers, all the modern devices of criminology.  We have Bluebeard vaping.  This is followed immediately by the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle.  She tracks him down and frees his three prisoner wives.  I was surprised at how well the story fit this treatment.  It explains why she so aggressively insists on seeing all of the rooms.

I loved it.  When was an opera this exciting?  Except for Bluebeard himself, it was an all female production with a female conductor and director.  He gets it in the end.

I was completely drawn in to this concept and was happy to see the woman triumph in the end.  This could be the new wave.  I need to look into this.  It will be available on demand for the next month.

The Snow Queen

Conductor Cornelius Meister
Production Andreas Kriegenburg 

Gerda Barbara Hannigan
Kay Rachael Wilson
Kay Thomas Gräßle
Grandmother/Old Lady/Finn Woman Katarina Dalayman
Snow Queen/Reindeer/Clock Peter Rose
Princess Caroline Wettergreen
Prince Dean Power
Forest Crow Kevin Conners
Castle Crow Owen Wil
  
The Snow Queen by Hans Abrahamsen from Denmark was written for Barbara Hannigan.  This is her Fach.  It is more of a sound scape than an opera, though the singing, in English, is reasonably pleasant.  Hannigan can sing anything.  It is dated 2019 and premiered in Copenhagen.  Here it streamed live on Saturday from the Bayerische Staatsoper.

As soon as two nurses appear, we know we are in a hospital of some kind.  There is snow everywhere, even inside.   To begin an older woman is reading to children about a queen bee in the snow.  Then the story shifts to people.  Gerda is trying to rescue her husband Kay.  The Snow Queen is a baritone.  Just go with it.

The star here is the orchestra who create a rather fascinating mixture of sounds that never settle into anything tonal.  It's very heavy on percussion.

We move into the forest where Gerda meets two crows, a Prince and a Princess.  They tell her they will help her, but she must rest.  This music is very pleasing.  Gerda is looking for Kay who lies quietly and stares.  Gerda and Kay have known one another since childhood.  This is communicated by showing younger people at different ages dressed in the same outfits.  One of the younger Kay characters sings but the adult Kay so far only stares.  Where did they find someone who could go so long without blinking?  There is an uncanny Barbara Hannigan look alike who says nothing.

Each character has multiple incarnations, but only one of each sings.  That means that most of the story telling comes from the production.  You could stage this completely differently.

Did I like it?  It's rather like a long tone poem.  I wouldn't need to do it again.  Barbara Hannigan was her usual magnificent self.

The Bassarids

In honor of World Opera Day I have chosen to watch Henze's The Bassarids from the Komische Oper Berlin.  It both is and is supposed to be in English.

Conductor Vladimir Jurowski
Director Barrie Kosky

Dionysus, god-- Sean Panikkar, tenor
Pentheus, present king-- Günter Papendell, baritone
Cadmos, founder and former king-- Jens Larsen, bass
Tiresias, old blind prophet-- Ivan Turšić , tenor
Captain of the Royal Guard-- Tom Erik Lie, baritone
Agave, daughter of Cadmos-- Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, mezzo
Autonoe, daughter of Cadmos-- Vera-Lotte Böcker, soprano
Beroe, old slave-- Margarita Nekrasova, contralto

I've never actually seen an opera by Henze, so this seemed suitable.  We are in Thebes.  Semele is buried here, and a flame is kept burning for her.  While opera purports to be based on Greek theater, the plots generally come from other ancient sources.  This however is based on Euripides.  Imagine that.  It turns out to be a revenge opera.

The plot is hard to follow, at least at first.  Dionysus wishes to be worshiped, but the new young King Pentheus thinks this is childish.  Everyone runs off to the mountains when they hear Dionysus is coming.  Pentheus puts out the flame of Semele.  The king opposes the revelry that happens on the mountain and swears not to eat, drink or lie with women.  But then he has never been there, and knows nothing of what happens.

What makes this hard to follow is that we are not given much in the way of visual clues.  Tiresias must be identified by the fact that he wears dark glasses.  Everything else is the usual black and white regie costuming.  In the photo above the people in vivid outfits are ballet.  When Pentheus asks who leads the singing and dancing, a beautiful black man in a black suit stands up. This is my first time to see Sean Panikkar, an American.  He brings true expression to this angular modernist music.

To entertain themselves the Thebans perform The Judgement of Calliope.  This is the myth of Adonis.  Don't make me explain it.  And suddenly they're tearing off their clothes and running off.

We are immediately back to Pentheus and Dionysus fighting.  Dionysus persuades Pentheus to dress up like a woman.  He's having trouble with the high heels.  Dionysus uses his god power to control Pentheus.

Komische Oper Berlin is the right context for this work.  It is a small theater with a portion of the stage in front of the orchestra.  The pit is too small, so parts of the orchestra are at the sides of the stage. The music is like background music to a movie.  If viewed in this way, it works well.  It gets very intense to the end.  It ends with some beautiful music for Agave who kills her son while under the influence of Dionysus.  It is a kind of universal tragedy.  I thought worshiping Dionysus would be more fun.

Salome from Munich

Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski

Herodes Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Herodias Michaela Schuster
Salome Marlis Petersen
Jochanaan Wolfgang Koch
Narraboth Pavol Breslik
Ein Page der Herodias Rachael Wilson

Salome by Richard Strauss streamed today from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  This was an extraordinary production with great depth of imagination.  It was performed in German by the best company for German diction.  A commenter on FB said, "They dock your pay if you make mistakes in your German."  One of the results of this is that while the orchestra is spectacularly musical (Kirill Petrenko), the singers don't bring us the best of all possible Strauss phrasing.  This shifts the focus away from the singing onto the theatrical presentation.  Usually your attention is distracted from the story by either the striptease or the intense lyrical singing of the soprano.  We had neither distraction.

The biggest surprise came when the curtain opened to a countertenor singing the opening song of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.  Perhaps this is an entertainment for the party.  Or perhaps it is to tell us that whatever we may be seeing, this is an opera about children.

It was Regie, of course, which means there were clothing designs from around 1950, plus something intended to be a swimming pool that is visible when the center of the stage opens up to show Jochanaan's cell.  The singers mention frequently that it's cold, and they would like to go inside.  However, we seem to be in a library.

People smoke, including Salome.  When the opera begins, Narraboth sings about how beautiful the princess Salome is this evening.  Nothing about the women on the stage suggests that one of them is Salome.  The Page is usually a trouser role, but here it is staged as a woman who is in love with Narraboth and jealous of Salome.  Maybe I'm explaining too much.  When she finally sings, we see Salome is the woman in the red dress.

Why is one so fascinated?  Salome herself is clearly too old to be a child.  This is the main problem with this opera in general.  Salome is a teenager who sings like a fully mature spinto soprano.  Maria Ewing destroyed her voice singing it because she made a perfect stripper in the dance scene.  This is a problem without a solution.  Our Salome is not a teenager and also not a spinto.  I'd call her a full lyric.

Herodes is something of a pedophile and wants to see his wife's daughter dance.  Throughout the opera the stage shows a young girl with long dark hair sitting and observing.  She moves from place, has a mother who occasionally approaches her, but does not interact with anyone else.  She sees everything without reacting.  Maybe she's a Salome alter ego.

The dialog clearly states that Jochanaan is young, yet when we see him he is late middle aged.  Why she loves him we do not know.  But does anyone know the why of love?

For her dance Salome dresses as a bride and dances with a man made up as a skeleton:  Death.  It is relatively pleasing.  Animation appears on the wall behind.  They show afterward when the cast goes outside to greet the onlookers in the platz, that the box she is singing to actually has a head inside.  It couldn't be seen on the stream.

Narraboth comes back to life, and so does everyone else.  What is that about?  One is fascinated but not sure exactly why.

Gluck's Alceste from Munich

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda
Director, Choreographer: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

King Admète: Charles Castronovo
Queen Alceste: Dorothea Röschmann
High priest of Apollo: Michael Nagy
Évandre: Manuel Günther
Ein Waffenherold: Sean Michael Plumb
Hercule: Michael Nagy
Coryphée(s): Noa Beinart, Anna El-Khashem, Frederic Jost, Caspar Singh
Apollon: Sean Michael Plumb
Das Orakel: Callum Thorpe
Ein Gott der Unterwelt: Callum Thorpe

This version of Gluck's Alceste comes live from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  I understand it to be a regie production, so we'll see.  This is the French version.

Act I

Well, this isn't regietheater to me.  It's more like a Rameau opera ballet.  I think the costumes are intended to look at least semi-Greek.  There is constant dancing in a style with a lot of arm waving, apparently so the singers can participate.  Alceste and the priest of Apollo are the main characters.  The king is ill, and Alceste volunteers to die instead of him.  This is an excellent role for Dorothea Röschmann.  At the end of the act she sings the hit tune for this opera:  "Divinites du Styx."  It might be a bit heavy for her.

Act II

Children are picking up what appear to be plates of food and handing them into the prompter's box.  This will give you a flavor of the dancing.

 

At last the King makes his first entrance not looking at all ill. Husband and wife are happy to see each other.  Neither one is dead.  Then he finds out Alceste will die and wishes it was him.

Intermission

Act III

Admète follows Alceste to hell.  They sing together without benefit of ballet.  People on stilts appear.  A man dressed all in white appears, and I assume he is Apollo.  He blesses everyone, grants immortality to Hercules, etc.  The family is united, including the children.  This part is the most like regie, but I think the original is also confusing.  The dancers are back.  And that's the end.

This was mysterious.  They tried very hard to make it interesting, but it won't make my favorites list.

Fanciulla from Munich

Conductor: James Gaffigan
Production: Andreas Dresen

Minnie: Anja Kampe
Jack Rance: John Lundgren
Dick Johnson: Brandon Jovanovich
Nick: Kevin Conners
Ashby: Bálint Szabó
Sonora: Tim Kuypers

This is Puccini's La Fanciulla del West live streamed from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  I confess I love this opera very much.  This is the most Wagnerian of any Puccini opera.  There is lots of big singing and orchestration, but very little of what we would call arias.  At the end Dick Johnson sings a short aria just before they are about to hang him.  We are told Caruso insisted on this.

The production could also be counted as regie, but at least there are no balloons.  After proceeding in a more or less contemporary look, it just suddenly ends.  The curtain goes down with Minnie and Dick standing in front of it.  We proceed with the bows.  There were also no horses.  I missed them.

It looked consistently rough and drab.  The point of the story is that we are in an entirely masculine environment with only one woman:  Minnie.  There is an Indian woman who keeps house, but she doesn't come to the saloon.  So the time displacement didn't bother me since nothing definite was suggested.

This time the Sheriff Jack Rance is ugly and nasty.  This changes the dynamic.  It's no wonder Minnie rejects him. Dick would be more handsome with less facial hair.  This Minnie is the woman for all seasons.  She teaches the bible, cheats at cards, shoots, fantasizes a long term love, etc.  She projects toughness and treats each man as he deserves.

This piece is very hard to sing but worked successfully almost all of the time.  I enjoyed it. 

Die verkaufte Braut from Munich

Marie and Hans

👍🏻
Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Staging: David Bösch

Selene Zanetti (Marie)
Pavol Breslik (Hans)
Günther Groissböck (Kezal)

I was in Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut long ago.  I played Marie's mother. We did it in German exactly as it is here in this live stream from the Bayerische Staatsoper. I even have my old score here near the computer.  Since I began blogging, I have only seen this in London and on DVD.  It is a sentimental favorite. In English we call it The Bartered Bride.

The plot concerns itself with love, of course.  Marie was promised in a contract with Kezal to marry only "Toby Mischa's son."  Who is an idiot who stutters and has a pet pig.  She likes Hans, played by one of the sexiest men on the opera stage.  They give away the plot in the credits which may explain why people think there is no plot.  This is sort of the male version of Cinderella.

My heart leaps at the familiar overture.  The music is lovely, the singing is terrific and Günther Groissböck is a hoot, the best possible Kezal. It's wonderful to see this now and then.  I hated the set.

Die Fledermaus from Dresden

Franz Welser-Möst (conductor) –

Jonas Kaufmann (Eisenstein),
Elisabeth Kulman (Prince Orlofsky),
Andreas Schager (Alfred)
Rachel Willis-Sørensen (Rosalinde)
Nicola Hillebrand (Adele)
and the Staatskapelle Dresden


I'd guess we did about 40 performances of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, so I pretty much know the whole thing by heart auf Deutsch.  No need for subtitles.  It's not really my Fledermaus in English.  So Jonas Kaufmann's first Eisenstein is a present to me via medici.tv.

An early favorite is the ensemble where they pretend to be sad and completely fail.  "Oh yeh, oh yeh."  This Orlofsky is something else.  She/he doesn't take no for an answer.  (If they cast a man as Orlofsky, I leave.)  The substitute Adele is excellent.

I was underwhelmed by the Rosalinde until she started into the Csárdás which was just right.  The soloists get champagne but the chorus doesn't.  We would never have stood for that.  It's also nice to hear such excellent German diction.  I miss Germany.

Jonas is fine as Eisenstein who is actually a high baritone, but the music for him isn't the focus of attention.  It's mainly an acting role, which we know he is also quite good at.

Thank you all for a happy new years eve performance.  Alles gute.

Otello is Here

👍🏻
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production Amélie Niermeyer

Otello Jonas Kaufmann
Jago Gerald Finley
Cassio Evan Leroy Johnson
Roderigo Galeano Salas
Lodovico Bálint Szabó
Montano Milan Siljanov
Ein Herold Markus Suihkonen
Desdemona Anja Harteros
Emilia Rachael Wilson

This performance of Verdi's Otello from Munich is unquestionably a masterpiece. We have here the ultimate domestic violence story.  It was a simple regie production in modern dress with many pictures to be seen here.  There are a few plot alterations.  Normally Otello and Desdemona are married before the opera starts, but here they marry shortly after he returns from war, after the love duet.  People enter and cover their bed with flowers.

In the past I have doubted that this opera was exactly right for Jonas Kaufmann, but now I may have to reconsider.  He refrained from pushing, as do many tenors here, and won me over.  This Otello is not black but he is also not beautiful.  This is why it is so easy for him to believe that this particular woman doesn't love him.  He believes in himself as a warrior but not as a lover.  Jonas has created this character in the manner of the great performer he certainly is.  We are lucky to live in his time.

The sets and staging focus on the couple and their relationship, and who better to play this couple than the great opera stage couple of our own era:  Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros.  Anja is a stage creature.  To come to her greatest triumphs requires the stage where she can show voice, movement, beauty, expression and I think perhaps most of all acting.  In my mind I think of Desdemona as a light, relatively insignificant role.  With Anja we have the greatest depths of tragedy.  We have love and fear together in abundance.  Like many others before and after, she prepares for her own death and does not think of escaping.  It was a triumph.

And as if that were not enough we have the dream Iago of Gerald Finley, one of the greatest singing actors in opera.  You need to overlook the outfit where he wears baggy pants and Adidas.  He approaches Otello rather more intimately than one would generally expect, creating a new dimension to the opera.  Our imaginations immediately leap to lovers.  Could it be jealousy that motivates all this mayhem?

Petrenko was marvelous, as usual.  In my group people complained that he is seen rather more during the drama than they would prefer.  At the start they jumped immediately to film of Anja, which meant no shots of Petrenko.

This was a genuinely great thing.  I'm going to watch it again tomorrow.

P.S.  I did.  It was wonderful the second time, too.

Lohengrin from Bayreuth -- the Blue Lohengrin

Conductor:  Christian Thielemann
Production:  Yuval Sharon

King Heinrich:  Georg Zeppenfeld
Lohengrin:  Piotr Beczala
Elsa von Brabant:  Anja Harteros
Friedrich von Telramund:  Tomasz Konieczny
Ortrud:  Waltraud Meier
Heerrufer:  Egils Silins

The complete Lohengrin from Bayreuth has been posted on YouTube.  Piotr replaced Roberto Alagna in the title role, probably because Christian Thielemann had worked with him in his debut in the role in Dresden.  Piotr is quite successful in this role.  Lohengrin doesn't take on the Heldentenor tone seen in later Wagner.  Anja Harteros is making her Bayreuth debut here.  In her interview she says that Thielemann never does anything the same way twice.

At the beginning of the opera Elsa is already bound as a prisoner.  You will note please that the wings some of the characters wear only appear on the ruling classes.  King Heinrich has them, as do Friedrich and Ortrud, and of course Elsa.  This makes them symbols of position?  When the duel begins, the fighters fly up into the air, which makes the ropes defining the fighting ring irrelevant.  Lohengrin steals Friedrich's wings and is awarded his own set to adorn his costume when he wins the battle.