The three opera houses here made their upcoming seasons public in late April. As much as I’d like to believe that the opera scene is impervious to the worldwide financial fiasco, the scaled-down nature of the upcoming seasons gives pretty strong evidence to the contrary. Both the Staatsoper unter den Linden and the Deutsche Oper Berlin will be presenting four new productions, down from six and seven respectively this season. Ironically - or at least unexpectedly - the Komische Oper Berlin, which receives the fewest subsidies of the three houses, has seven premieres planned for the 2009 / 2010 season…an audacious move in this economic climate. Further to that, I just discovered on the KOB’s website that they’ll be upgrading the seats in the baroque auditorium to become Berlin’s first opera house with individual subtitles. Interested parties can purchase the old opera seats for 50 Euros a piece (discount available for bulk orders). Here’s your chance to own a piece of opera history! Contact  rausdamit@komische-oper-berlin.de to place an order…today!

The Staatsoper will be undergoing a thorough renovation in 2011 that’s set to last at least three years. This fact might explain why their final full season pre-renovation is so “light.”Among the premieres, Federico Tiezzi’s production of Simon Boccanegra with Placido Domingo in the title role seems the some promising, as well as Dale Duesing’s staging of Chabrier’s L’Etoile, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and starring Magdalena Kozena.

Many productions from the 2008/2009 season will appear in rep. None of the revivals seems overly exciting, except a dream Tristan with Waltraud Meier, Peter Sieffert and Rene Pape.

At the DOB, what seems most intriguing at this point is Intendantin Kirsten Harms’ new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, which arrives in late September with Manuela Uhl, Doris Soffel and Robert Brubaker, Johan Reuter and Eva Johansson. News of this production is especially welcome after the Met decided to scrap their FroSch from next season’s schedule for financial reasons.

I’m also excited for the new Rienzi by Philipp Stölzl that will be presented during the Richard Wagner Festival Weeks during the winter (Nov - Feb), which will feature all of Wagner’s 10 other biggies - including yet another revival of Götz Friedrich’s weathered production of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

I guess that leaves the KOB, whose season includes a new Rigoletto by Barrie Kosky and Aribert Riemann’s Lear in a production by Hans Neuenfels.

Below is a list of all the new productions at each house (concert perfs not included):

-Deutsche Oper Berlin-

Die Frau ohne Schatten - R. Strauss

Barbiere di Siviglia - Rossini

Rienzi - Wagner

Otello - Verdi

-Deutsche Staatsoper unter den Linden-

Simon Boccanegra - Verdi

Fledermaus - J. Strauss

Agrippina - Handel

L’etoile - Chabrier

- Komische Oper Berlin -

Rigoletto - Verdi

Der Rote Zora - Naske

Lear - Riemann

Don Pasquale - Donizetti

Fidelio  - Beethoven

Orlando - Handel

La Périchole - Offenbach

From Operanews.com

At the behest of René Jacobs, the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden mounted a fully staged production of Handel’s oratorio Belshazzar (seen June 1). Jacobs, a frequent guest at the Staatsoper, was most recently here to conduct the Telemann rarity, Der Geduldige Socrates, a finely nuanced production. As in that Socrates, Jacobs conducted the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the early-music ensemble that plays on period instruments, as well as the RIAS Kammerchor, a superlative vocal ensemble whose repertoire includes both ancient and contemporary works.

Belshazzar, which dates from 1745, represents the composer’s turn away from opera and his dissatisfaction with the rigidity of Italian practices. The musical heart and soul of Belshazzar is its expansive choral writing, which provides the work with fierce dramatic momentum. Handel’s favoring of the chorus over the soloists is a deliberate reaction against the star system of his day, further seen in the comparative modesty of his solo writing: Belshazzar contains only two da capo arias and few opportunities for singers to dazzle the audience with their virtuosity. The work’s subtlety is furthered by many accompanied recitatives, which often give the oratorio a more modern, through-composed feel. All these elements suggest that Handel strove to achieve balance between the drama and music. Jacobs ha an excellent command of the theatricality inherent in the music. Too bad this intuitive grasp was not shared by director Christof Nel, whose static and minimal staging was distracting and unfocused.

The single set consisted of large blocks stacked together like a staircase, with pegs jutting out from the walls for the singers and dancers to climb, but for the most part they remained under-utilized. Very little of the actual action — which concerns itself with the sacrilegious Babylonian king Belshazzar and his violent overthrow by Cyrus the Great — was suggested: blocking was unimaginative, and sets and costumes were sparse. Most of the drama was confined to the orchestra pit. Nel’s staging, inert, self-conscious and stifling — the Staatsoper is pretty airless during the summer — proved an inhospitable showcase for the production’s impressive roster of talent.

The RIAS Kammerchor was justly applauded for its collective work, although Nel seemed at a loss as to how they should best be deployed. At various points in the opera, the chorus is meant to represent a group of Persians, Babylonians, Jews and even a prototype of a Greek chorus. This issue was only half addressed. The chorus wore skullcaps when they sang as Jews; a profusion of vines signaled their switch to becoming Babylonians.

The biggest applause of the evening went deservedly to Bejun Mehta, the American countertenor who sang the role of Cyrus the Great, Belshazzar’s assassin and liberator of the Jewish captives. It is a role that demands stamina and control, rather than brief bravura displays of vocal ability. Mehta sounded fresh as spring and projected his agile voice with confidence and ease. Other standouts from the mostly Anglo-American cast included the Nitocris of soprano Rosemary Joshua and mezzo Kristina Hammarström as the prophet Daniel. Nitocris — mother of Belshazzar — is by far the work’s most sympathetic character. Joshua’s controlled vibrato and careful enunciation lent her performance healthy doses of nobility and piety. Hammarström’s darker shadings and sharply hewn phrasings were effective, even if her Daniel registered as a bit too severe.

In the title role, tenor Kenneth Tarver was something of a disappointment. He looked the part in a tall golden crown, wielding an ax and staring about him all wild-eyed, but for much of the evening he sounded underpowered, especially in comparison to the other soloists and the chamber choir.

Jacobs, a long-time advocate of underrepresented works in need of rediscovery, has worked closely with the Staatsoper for more than a decade in planning their series Barocktage (Baroque Days). There were reports that he spent all six weeks of rehearsal time with the ensemble. The musicians, playing on period instruments, were exceptionally disciplined and attentive to the nuances of the score.

A. J. GOLDMANN

I had a very musical time last week, starting off with the Staatoper’s new production of Telemann’s rarely-seen (or heard of) Der Geduldige Sokrates, and ending last night with the Komische Oper’s striking and messy vision for Handel’s Orestes. In between these Baroque bookends was a visit from Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Modern Orchestra on Wednesday for a program at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

As much as I would like to tell about Sokrates, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till my review appears in Opera News Magazine. So let me start with Wednesday’s concert.

Boulez / Varèse / Boulez 

 

It’s not that often that four out of five composers represented on a concert program are on hand to introduce their work. But that’s precisely what happened when Pierre Boulez led a program of entirely modern and contemporary music at the Konzerthaus Berlin. The one absent composer was Edgard Varèse, whose “Amériques,” the evening’s second piece, was the closest thing to the standard repertoire. 

The concert was well-attended, but many of the seats were sold at the Abendkasse, where tickets were still available right up until showtime. The massive force of the Ensemble Modern Orchestra was youthful and casually-dressed. The first piece was Mark Andre’s “…auf…” II, the second part in a trilogy about the resurrection (Auferstehung) of Jesus (the first part was premiered by Hans Zender). It opens with banging on the uppermost register of a grand piano with a sustained pedal, producing a sound that is hollow and dead. Eventually, harmonic and dissonent pattern emerge and are echoed by another grand piano. Section by section, the entire orchestra joins in with much rumbling and wheezing, as if awaking from a deep slumber. Basses and cellos snapped their bows back inelegantly and violins played a shill high C in unison, producing a sonic quality similar to Penderecki. The ambitious work gathered moment throughout a rather cacophonous development replete with ear-splitting typany and sheet-metal, playing the harp of a grand piano, and a frustrated bit of communication between the first and second violins. At the end, the young and shy Mr. Andre assumed the stage to make an awkward bow.

The musicians did a little shifting around before Amériques could get underway. Boulez, a maestro known for his clean, mathematical precision, seemed to let his hair down a little for the piece and conducted a colorful, jazzy and festive account of this wonderfully inventive work. Cellos sounded like engines revving up, trumpets did bebop riffs and sirens wailed, all in a careful prepared and well-timed fashion.

While the sound was very immediate (especially for the staid accoustics of the Konzerthaus) and the musicians plowed on through the piece with minial conducting from Boulez, there was a like watch-like precision that came at the expense of spontineity. Boulez switched tempi elegantly and sharply and reined the wild percussion in during the fitful coda, but it sounded a bit too polished for Varèse; the orchestra’s springs where showing slightly.  

After intermission came the “Obst,” a four-movement work by Enno Poppe that opened with Webern-like tone rows and ended with an oddly vacant, mournful Ligeti-esque sound. The piece was alternately playful and sinister and featured elements of serialism, minimalism and neo-romanticism, often changing mood dramatically from movement to movement.  

Matthia Pintscher’s “Towards Osiris,” which follows, had more a sense of controlled chaos in its darting strings and inventive, unpredicable percussion. It shared with the Poppe, however, a feeling of ultimate incompleteness and unresolvedness.

The evening ended with a glowing account of Boulez’s own Notations, I-IV and VII.

Iphigenie in Berlin

In the past decade or so that Handel’s operas have been rediscovered and mounted afresh by opera houses world-wide,  directors have sought solutions to the difficulties posed by opera seria, a medium where the arias have not so much dramatic content as emotional power. How to keep the evening from becoming one long boring succession of da capo arias?

Sebastian Baumgarten, who designed the Komische Oper’s current revival of Handel’s Orestes (Orest in German) opts to liven things up not only with scenic and dramaturgical innovations, but musical ones as well. Accompanying the recitatives was a continuo of mandolin and accordian, played by musicians in sailor garb, who sat at a table for the bulk of the performance. Naturally, there was plenty of Berlinish experiment and excess: from the dreamy video art to the obnoxious mid-90’s filmed confessions; from the back-projection of Plattenbauen to Hermione’s cheesy wedding album. There was a fair amount of sadism, slapstick, punk-dykishness and even cannibalism.

 The singing was serviceable, with Kristina Hammarström (as Orest) leading an energetic cast. In this production, the matricide Orest is driven to alcohol and pills. Hammarström portrayed his destructive personality with an intensity that boardered on parody. Christina Clark’s Hermione was brazen and even uppish. Andrian Stooper was a wimpy but affecting Pylades. As the villians Philoktet and Thoas, Maria Streijffert and Peteris Eglitis were suitably rough and ragged and met their ends very creatively.

The focus of my attention during the two-hour-long performance was Christopher Moulds and the orchestra of the Komische Oper, who performed a subtle, multicolored and lively account of the glistening Handel score. Even with a production that tires itself out by trying to be radical, this 300-year old-score remains fresh and surprising.