Europe remains a very lively place for Italian and German opera. Copenhagen was the center of attention in May for several reasons: its fabulous new opera house, and the lively new Ring cycle to open it.
Kasper Bech Holten directed a Ring cycle that was quite lively and interesting, though traditionalists would not have liked it. This was a very feminist Ring—with Brünnhilde having a child at the end of the Immolation Scene. Holten ignored most of Wagner’s stage directions, but this is usual in Europe these days. Still he produced some very exciting theater in the process.
This Ring cycle zipped by, helped by Michael Schonwandt’s rhythmic and intense conducting and the quality of his orchestra. The Siegfried was particularly successful, with a very comic approach, and Mime (played by Bengt-Ola Morgny) as a comic nag. The production had some technical glitches, alas, during the first act of “Walküre” and during the last act of Götterdämmerung, but the positives outweighed the negatives.
Vocally, Tina Kiberg’s Brünnhilde captivated the public, because of her committed and lively acting and her fine singing, though some of her lower notes did not project well. Stig Andersen succeeded as well, as both Siegmund and Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, acting with conviction and singing accurately. Stephen Milling impressed as Hunding, always a dominating and menacing presence—as he should be.
In Germany in June, Italian opera and the World Cup soccer matches were the obsessions. Berlin had two very interesting productions of La traviata, both quite expressionistic and dream-like. The Staatsoper unter den Linden did an all black “Traviata” with Violetta on stage, dreaming the whole time, who does not die at the end—all performed in a mesmerizing way by Christine Schäfer. The Komische Opera set a La traviata in the sewers of Paris, with Violetta dying alone and fantasizing about Alfredo returning to her—but the production suggested that the bourgeoisie are not concerned with dying prostitutes. Here an American, Sandra Ford, handled the title role carefully but successfully.
The Staatsoper also did a very funny production of L’elisir d’amore—set in modern Italy during Carnevale. The singers were great clowns and actors in a very successful production by Frank Schlossman. Tenor Pavol Breslik, who earlier this year replaced the ailing Rolando Villazón in the Staatsoper’s “L’elisir,” played Nemorino as a randy teenager with his first crush. Adina, played by Anna Samuil, became quite shrewish but
still sympathetic.
In Dresden, a Das Rheingold impressed because of its concept of the Ring as a theater piece, as directed by Willy Decker. The production presented the waves of the Rhine as undulating rows of audience seats, and the Rhinemaidens appeared in a small, moveable stage. Jukka Rasilainen’s Wotan and Franz-Josef Kappellmann’s Alberich dominated this show, as Wagner intended.
In Munich, Roberto Devereux suffered from a weird production by Christof Loy set in contemporary London, with Queen Elizabeth costumed to look like Margaret Thatcher and looking quite silly indeed. But Edita Gruberova sang the part with dramatic fervor, though with some inaccurate low notes, plus some of her singing was sharp. Tenor Zoran Todorovich impressed more, because of his youthful and secure singing. Also at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, a truly gorgeous “Rosenkavalier” directed by Otto Schenk, with Adrianne Pieczonka as a ravishing Marschallin, still youthful but definitely melancholic, yet with a creamy tone. Marlis Petersen became a quite hysterical and fearful Sophie, and Daniela Sindram sang Octavian well, though with rather
bland acting.
Apparently, not everybody in Germany was going to the soccer matches, since the opera performances were sold out.
