Movies of Bartoli singing the arie antiche I studied within the my voice classes led me to Netrebko serenading Scorsese on the Kennedy Heart, then to the promotional clips The Metropolitan Opera posted weekly, after which to older clips: Bumbry as Carmen, Corelli in Il trovatore, and extra. There have been hovering voices aplenty, matched by Cecile B. DeMille-style units and plenty of an ill-judged caftan. These clips had been my every day dose of the glamorous and grand. They had been a fantastical escape from the drudgery of being a center schooler in suburban New Jersey.
It was not till I stumbled upon the Bayerische Staatsoper and its channels, nevertheless, that I found that opera may very well be fascinating.
The productions they previewed in glossy trailers had been darkish, bizarre, and entrancing. Industrial wastelands and midcentury trendy interiors with moody lighting changed castles and pagodas. Supernumeraries stalked in regards to the stage in animal heads just like the characters in Instances Sq.. The diva didn’t swan about; she took a drag from her cigarette. I discovered regietheater. Even when I didn’t totally get it or agree with what I noticed, it sustained my curiosity within the artform alongside these classic clips. What I found on that channel made opera really feel not solely fantastical however important and evolving. (Take that, Towards Trendy Opera Productions!) So, when my buddy and fellow critic Emery Kerekes advised I be part of him on the Munich Opera Competition, I jumped on the alternative. It felt solely proper that I ought to transfer past my laptop computer and see the real article in individual.
I’ve already written about two performances I noticed on the competition, however my go to started with Richard Strauss’s Elektra. If I used to be slogging by means of a wave of jet lag going into the efficiency, the excellent high quality of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester beneath the baton of present Generalmusikdirektor Vladimir Jurowski saved me from succumbing to my dysregulated clock. Their taking part in was cohesive all through, capturing each the magisterial sweep and the piercing depth of the rating. Jurowski finessed every of Strauss’s motifs to form the dramatic thrust of the piece in direction of its blood-spattered conclusion. His strategy retained the stress in rating with out overwhelming the voices or leaning too closely into bombast. Sure music administrators may be taught a factor or two.
The late Herbert Wernicke’s manufacturing has actually served the Staatsoper nicely since its 1997 debut, mixing classicism with minimalism. The set consisted of a single raised platform at stage proper and a big staircase representing the palace that sits behind an imposing black scrim. The scrim, which pressured a lot of the motion to the apron of the stage, rotated inwards at a diagonal, a darkish gash towards the stark, scarlet-cast realm of the palace.
Likewise, the motion was stripped to its necessities. Elektra spent a lot of the night pinned down by a highlight upon the platform and cradling her axe as if to emphasise her ironic lack of company inside a narrative bearing her identify; she is, in spite of everything, fully depending on her siblings to do her bidding and fulfill her want for vengeance. The costuming underscored the opera’s gender politics: the largely passive ladies are clad in vaguely Grecian apparel, whereas the extra lively Orest and his tutor don noirish fits. There have been some metatheatrical touches too, corresponding to Klytaemnestra cloaking herself in a reproduction of the Nationwide Theatre’s crimson velvet curtains and Orest climbing out of the field closest to the stage to make his entrance. It was elegant and efficient, and its core directorial concepts have remained clear.
Possible because of how the manufacturing hems her in, Elena Pankratova was not probably the most dynamic Elektra, however her soprano was strong and safe throughout her register. Whereas she launched fairly a number of spectacular prime notes into the auditorium, she was at her greatest throughout the teasing sections of her encounters with Klytaemnestra and Aegisth, the place she infused a sardonic girlishness into her tone. Vida Miknevi?i?t? made for a very important Chrysothemis as her silvery, tightly wound vibrato sliced by means of the orchestra with ease. Her blazing cry of “Orest ist tot!” was among the many highlights of the night. As Klytaemnestra, their mom, Violetta Urmana, who appears to have been the competition’s resident hag whisperer, was a stately presence, sneering quite than snarling out her insults in direction of her daughter and lackeys. She approached her dream narration with delicacy, which allowed us to glimpse the frightened girl behind the regal veneer. Bass-baritone Károly Szemerédy was a steely Orest, whereas tenor John Daszak served ample bluster as Aegisth. Yajie Zhang stood out from the chattering refrain of maids, her mahogany mezzo-soprano curdling with vehemence.
To mark the centennial of Hungarian maverick György Ligeti, the Staatsoper introduced its premiere manufacturing of his sole opera Le Grande Macabre, an absurdist romp by means of an impending(?) apocalypse and the annals (and I imply that in its full anal sense) of operatic conference. The rating careens gaily from a automotive horn ode to Monteverdi to direct Offenbach and Stravinsky quotations, earlier than taking the piss out of bel canto, particularly in its dealing with of coloratura vocal writing. Former Generalmusikdirektor Kent Nagano capably guided the orchestra and singers by means of Ligeti’s swirling rhythmic net and shifting tonalities, plumbing appreciable dramatic depth and menace from the rating’s floor jokiness.
Krzysztof Warlikowski’s manufacturing mirrored Nagano’s strategy within the pit: his Breugelland was totally immersed within the apocalyptic if it had not already been dwelling there for a while. The set by frequent Warlikowski collaborator Malgorzata Szczcsniak fused the ready room in an Jap European prepare station with a Soviet gymnasium, replete with a pommel horse. Barbed wire-topped fencing rearranged itself to mark places modifications and caged the refrain in because the state of affairs grew direr. Supernumeraries in demon bunny balaclavas and flesh-toned prosthetics that remodeled them into uncanny cat-rodent hybrids promenaded as smoke poured out of the wings—a mark on my Bayerische Staatsoper bingo card.
The lovers Amanda and Amando, performed right here by Seonwoo Lee and Avery Amereau, had been portrayed as two feminine influencers coaching their selfie-stick in direction of their bandaged faces, suggesting that they had undergone some beauty process. A display screen above the stage livestreamed their ecstatic paeans to like, which had been directed at themselves quite than at one another, as they descended beneath the stage. Prince Go-Go preened in regards to the stage in spiffy English tailoring, evoking many a clumsy, self-interested politician. The blind decadence and self-importance of this world had introduced it to the brink as monsters spewed out of its fissures.
Regardless of its appreciable environment and the energy of its imagery, the manufacturing fell brief in honoring the humor of Ligeti and Michael Meschke’s libretto. There have been a number of lighthearted touches, corresponding to Venus’s showing in a Björk-style swan gown, however a way of self-seriousness undermined their impact. A couple of pc screensaver-esque projections of the incoming comet elicited some unintended guffaws. However even the opera’s many sexual escapades felt unfun. Nonetheless, a photograph montage projected above the sage of the younger Ligeti together with his members of the family, most of whom had been killed within the Holocaust, because the Passacaglia finale unfurled was a transferring tribute to the composer’s resilience and spirit.
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The singing was uniformly robust. French-Cypriot soprano and modern efficiency specialist Sarah Aristidou fearlessly tackled each Venus and Gepopo with precision, retaining consistency of tone and glorious diction whilst her roles introduced her into her vocal stratosphere. Benjamin Bruns introduced an interesting brightness alongside a wholesome dose of sleaze to the drunken Piet the Pot, executing his mock prayers and hiccupping rant within the first scene with aplomb. Because the perpetually emasculated Astramadors, Sam Carl dealt with the position’s frequent leaps into the falsetto nicely, even when his bass-baritone lacked distinctive coloring.
Enjoying his domineering spouse Mescalina, Lindsay Ammann laced her chestnut-hued mezzo-soprano with spite, infusing her efficiency with a degree of off-kilter camp the night sorely wanted. She delivered her plea to Venus for “one lascivious night time” with passionate sincerity. Countertenor John Vacation suffused his portrayal of Prince Go-Go together with a sprightly, engaging tone, providing some genuinely pretty singing amid the chaos. Baritone Michael Nagy as Nekrotzar, the embodiment the Macabre, began off sounding a tad lean however mustered sufficient energy to make his pronouncement of the Day of Judgement on the finish of Act II really startling.
The competition then transitioned from one story of a society staring down divine judgement and its imminent destruction to a different with Mozart’s Idomeneo, which premiered in Munich in 1781. English maestro Ivor Bolton, a foremost interpreter of Mozart, led the orchestra. For probably the most half, he saved the tempos lithe and bouncy, drawing a maritime swell from the rating in addition to some targeted taking part in from the orchestra. The concluding ballet music was a dynamic show of contrasting dynamics and moods. He did generally tend, nevertheless, to cowl the singers.
The manufacturing by Antú Romero Nuneswas was admirable try to reorient an opera that’s primarily involved with the foibles and divine entanglements of the ruling elite in direction of the communities they profess to steer. The manufacturing opened with the sound of rainfall as a mysterious voice intoned, “Prostatevi dinanzi a Dio”: a name for Idomeneo to relinquish his energy and satisfaction. The curtain rose to disclose the king listening to a string quintet taking part in excerpts from the larghetto motion of the ballet music from a regal if isolating distance. The refrain and even a number of of the principals wore brightly coloured jumpsuits and work boots and engaged in numerous welding and constructing tasks throughout Phyllida Barlow’s sculptural units, which evoked a group of wharves and piers that had been weather-beaten and storm-tossed into abstraction. We bought the sense of a group coming collectively within the wake of devastation to rebuild, solely to be confronted with yet one more catastrophe introduced on by their management. Misty lighting by Michael Bauer advised the storms behind and forward. Choreography by Dustin Klein emphasised looseness of type and had the dancers construct off one another’s actions to create a unified entire.
Having as soon as sung Idamante transposed for tenor on the Bayerische Staatsoper, Pavol Breslik graduated to the position of the titular father right here. His tenor has matured and darkened lately, however there’s nonetheless a freeness and freshness to the highest of his register. He displayed ample vocal dexterity alongside the tough tessitura of his first aria “Vedrommi intorno,” however “Fuor del mar” within the second act proved more difficult, as his tone and audibility diminished within the aria’s lower-lying reaches.
Emily D’Angelo returned to this manufacturing as Idamante. To my ears, it took some time for her mezzo-soprano to lock into place; her “Non ho colpa” sounded muffled all through, and her sound remained subdued till her prime notes had alternative to bloom in direction of the tip of “Il padre adorato.” From there, her voice started to heat steadily. Nonetheless, her dramatic presence usually compensated, and he or she imbued an adolescent anguish in her portrayal of the conflicted prince. She was riveting throughout the sacrifice scene, as her dramatic and vocal depth lastly got here into alignment.
Olga Kulchynska made for a captivating Ilia, spinning some luscious, floated strains “Zeffiretti lusinghieri.” Her voice blended seamlessly with D’Angelo’s throughout the ethereal duet “S’io non moro a questi accenti.” Hanna-Elisabeth Müller’s crystalline soprano navigated Elettra’s transitions between the viperous coloratura of “Tutte nel cor vi sento” and “D’Oreste, D’Ajace” and extra mild legato passages of “Idol mio” with ease and an attentiveness in direction of correct Mozartian type. Jonas Hacker impressed together with his strong tenor because the advisor Arbace—he has the makings of a first-class Idomeneo—whereas bass Alexander Köpeczi added gravity to the proceedings in his off-stage look of because the Oracle of Neptune.
Particular point out goes to the Refrain of the Bayerische Staatsoper beneath the course of Christoph Heil for his or her robust performances throughout these three operas, however particularly in Idomeneo, the place they evoked a variety of colours to amplify the rating’s shifting dramatic moods.
Pictures: Wilfried Hoesl
