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

In a city that seems to have little use for realistic thinking, the first ever “Long Night of Opera and Theater”(Lange Nacht der Opern und Theater) that sprawled across the capital between the hours of 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. last night typified the manic energy that drives Berlin’s brilliant cultural scene.

In all 51 institutions participated in the marathon-like event, presenting full and truncated programs that ranged from African drumming to Verdi and Mozart to cabaret to political satire to clubbing.

(Below: A map of participating venues and how to get there)

Tickets for the evening were a meager 15 Euros, which included transportation via a fleet of shuttle buses that zipped from north to south and east to west - and were consistantly packed all evening long.

The mob in front of the KOB was even more impressive than at the Staatsoper. No one seemed to have much of an idea of what was in store for them. This turned out to be a selection of Verdi marches and arias performed in the foyer by a “Salon Orchestra” and KOB ensemble members.

The salon orchestra “Illusion” plays a light Verdi medley

 

The highly anticipated Staatsoper debut of Swiss director Jossi Wieler took place in late January. The work was Verdi’s crowd-pleasing, tuneful Un Ballo in Maschera, for which the house on Unter den Linden had assembled an impressive roster of vocal and dramatic talent (seen Jan. 20).

Although Wieler and his frequent collaborator Sergio Morabito set their Ballo in the ballroom of the “Arvidson Palace Hotel” — a setting that brought to mind some long-vanished Catskills resort — the original Boston character names were retained. The directors half-heartedly tried to infuse some couleur locale by casting black extras as the hotel staff and — tastelessly — as hanging victims during the gallows scene.

Wieler and Morabito directed the singers to exaggeratedly physical performances, including strenuous dancing and sometimes disquietingly violent sexual antics. But there was much in the way of dark comedy as well, such as having Amelia’s son playing jump rope with cord that had been Renato’s attempted murder weapon. During the ball itself, the focus was squarely on a wheeled-in bench that contained the assassins as well as the parting lovers. A pair of ballroom dancers was all but lost during the deliberate preparations for the killing, with the assassins passing a pistol back and forth while Oscar was drunkenly splayed across their laps. After Renato pulled the trigger, the killers sank back into their seats and waited with irritation for Riccardo to die.

The costume choices were equally baffling: Silvano’s men looked like Vietnam veterans, the children’s chorus wore hand-me-down pajamas, and the chorus in the Act II recognition scene wore bathrobes. Few people — not even Riccardo — came to the ball in costume, although the string orchestra on the ballroom stage showed up dressed like some kind of cowboy troubadours. Costume designer Anja Rabes shared in the vociferous boos that greeted the two directors as they took their bows.

Luckily, the hissing did not extend to conductor Philippe Jordan, who took special care with Verdi’s expansive and creative use of cello, harp, flute and English horn obbligatos. From the crisp and somewhat overripe overture, it was obvious that Jordan was equally attuned to the score’s sincere and ironic dimensions. Sardonic passages were charged by mocking strings; moments of dramatic intensity were given full-bodied orchestral force.

Leading the strong cast as Riccardo, the governor of Boston targeted for assassination, was tenor Piotr Beczala. His lyrical account of his opening aria, “La rivedrà nell’estasi,” marked him as a singer whose voice can seem both hefty and light simultaneously. He stayed in top form until evening’s end, giving a stirring account of Act III’s “Ma se m’è forza perderti” without overdoing the pathos.

As his friend and unlikely assassin Renato, the long-haired Dalibor Jenis sang with a creamy, agile baritone that was not so effortlessly powerful as Beczala’s but comparably durable. Ulrica, the “Creole” prophet whose predictions go unheeded, was sung by Larissa Diadkova. She made a commanding entrance with “Re dell’abisso, affrettati,” which she sang in a voice rich and smooth in all registers, while a heavy hotel key hovered in the air, levitating comically.

Initially, the Amelia of Catherine Naglestad paled in comparison. Despite some impressive moments of agility, her voice had some guttural low notes and a quivery breathiness that undermined her Act I interlude with Diadkova. Naglestad was at her vocal and emotive best in Act II’s “Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa,” which she delivered with equal parts nobility and desperation. She sang the heartrending “Morrò, ma prima in grazia,” with consistent intensity and pitch while being “strangled” by Renato.

The ravishing twenty-four-year-old soprano Anna Prohaska stepped in at the last moment for Sylvia Schwartz as Riccardo’s page, Oscar. Usually a “pants” role, Oscar was here portrayed out of drag. Her dynamite coloratura in “Volta la terrea” had dazzling speed and accuracy. She came to the ball dressed in a dead-swan costume (à la Björk at the 2001 Oscar ceremony) and sang her other show-stopping number, “Saper vorreste,” while lying supine.

A.J. GOLDMANN

Don Carlo
The Metropolitan Opera
Conductor: James Levine
Cast: John Botha, René Pape, Olga Borodina, Dimitri Hvorostovky, Patricia Racette, Samuel Ramey
Performances through December 23rd

 

Verdi’s Don Carlo returned to the Metropolitan Opera last week in the classic John Dexter production. The house has presented this production several times in recent memory, but not with a cast this strong. The crown in the jewel that is this current revival is the German bass René Pape, who sang King Phillip for the first time at the Met . It’s a role he’s presented all over Europe, including in a controversial and bloody 2004 production at the Berlin Staatsoper and he triumphed in this star-studded production. Almost his equal was the bright-voiced and clarion Johan Botha singing the title role. Botha, a South Aftrican tenor, was also debuting the role at the Met. He certainly had the strength and accuracy to carry the role and performed credibly better that the most recent Met incarnation, Richard Margison, who sang in last season’s revival and back in 2001. But despite a big and seemingly inexhaustible voice, Botha gave a performance that would certainly seem too bright and sweet for some tastes. But it works, since Carlo is somewhat of a neurotic and indecisive would-be-hero in the tradition of Hamlet. Judging by this performance, we have much to look forward to in Botha’s Walther in Die Meistersinger this spring.

Don Carlo is an ensemble piece, which means that the burden of a great performance is placed pretty much equally on all of the five leads. Two of them took the entire first act to warm up, but eventually did stunning work in the four – yes, four – subsequent acts. The Russian baritone Dimitri Hvoroskovsky and Patricia Racette both struggled to hold their own against Botha in the first act. In Racette’s case, the chemistry with Carlo seemed off. There seemed to be lack of communication in the first scene, where princess Elizabeth of France (Racette) – who is engaged to Don Carlo – comes upon him unawares in the forests of Fontainebleau. Racette also took deep breaths and just seemed generally out of sorts. Hvorostovsky – who stars in next month’s revival of Onegin – co-starring as the revolutionary Marquis of Posa, got off to a wobbly start in his first scene with Carlo as well. It was only in his lower range that the full richness of his voice could be discerned. In contrast, Olga Borodina, in the scene-chewing role of Princess Eboli, stared off on the right foot and stayed there all evening. Rounding out the cast was the inexhaustible Samuel Ramey as the Grand Inquisitor.
With such an impressive array of vocal talent, the evening proved a rich if uneven treasure trove of stunning musical moments. Borodina’s sassy and inspired interpretation of “Nei gardin” was assured and aristocratic. The pompous climax of the act two auto-da-fé, complete with a massive chorus (as well as heretics) looked and sounded terrific. Pape’s finest hour came in his deeply moving Study Scene aria “Ella giammai m’amo.” His deep, velvety and lulling voice underscored his character’s tragic sensibility. The subsequent confrontation with the Grand Inquisitor was a Don Giovanni-esque symbiosis of two darkly powerful voices. Borodina’s “O don fatale” was powerful and nuanced, while Hvoroskovsky bade Carlo farewell with his heroic “Per me giunto” and equally elegant death.
Few of the Met’s monumental stagings have stood the test of time as well as the 1979 John Dexter production, which is historically faithful without being overstuffed: a perfect companion to the sublime music. James Levine did full justice to Verdi’s best score with a deeply expressive and detailed interpretation.