Richard Wagner, Lohengrin - Deutsche Oper Berlin

Performance 14th February

It is always difficult to stage Lohengrin due to its hilariously pathetic plot. Some parts really seem totally inappropriate and totally over the top. So it is quite hard to create a production that really finds a way to make everything seems reasonable. Kaspar Holten definitely did a great job with his production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Together with Steffen Aarfing (stage and costumes) he created a production that shows Lohengrin as politician who proclaims to be a hero that is sent by god. In this interpretation Elsa is becoming the real hero by not trusting a man who just searches a way to the top. All this might sound difficult to convert into a proper production but Holten and Aarfing kept close to the libretto which sometimes really convincingly agrees to their interpretation. The great scenery and the costumes from several eras looked marvelously and supported the plot very well. This really is a production that shows intellect and appreciation by the creative team.
Musically Donald Runnicles also did a great job leading the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin. He found the perfect balance between delicate parts and dramatic outbursts. The orchestra was in top form and especially the interlude in the third act with trumpets and snares divided within the auditorium was incredibly impressive. What a huge wall of sound!!
The Chor (und Extra-Chor) der Deutschen Oper Berlin sometimes seemed to be not totally synchronous but gave a solid performance during the whole evening. Especially the final act was performed really well.
Vocally the cast was just magnificent. Bastiaan Everink sang the role of the Heerrufer and showed a very strong heroic but still youthful baritone voice. I'm pretty sure that he will sing some proper main roles very soon with this beautiful voice.
Albert Pesendorfer was called indisposed but sounded lovely. If that is how he sounds ill I really want to know how he sounds when he is totally healthy. Such a powerful dignified voice that sounds heroic without having a rough unfriendly timbre.
Thomas Johannes Mayer's Telramund is not new to me because I already heard him singing this role in Bayreuth in 2014. He still does a very good job though I personally would wish for a darker lower voice for this role. Anyway he is a marvelous singer and as I said he did a great job.
Due to the fact that Anna Smirnova had some issues at the airport Petra Lang (rehearsing Sieglinde in Dresden at the moment) jumped in as Ortrud. Also not new to me in this role she did not fail to impress me once again. I heard her as Brünnhilde in december which was not really her role in my opinion but her Ortrud is a force of nature. The power, the dramatic feeling and her stage presence are incredible and this role totally hers.
Nevertheless my personal highlight was Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Elsa. I was genuinely blown away by her flawless performance. Her soprano is very dark but shiny and bright in the top register. The power is immense and still she has an incredible beauty of tone. I really cannot name any deficits because her voice obviously was made to sing Elsa and other Wagner roles.
Another great performance was done by Michael Weinius as the title hero Lohengrin. He also has a powerful Wagnerian voice with a very heroic timbre but is still able to manage the very soft parts that Lohengrin also has to sing. Interestingly in his lower register his voice totally reminded me of Siegfried Jerusalem. His performance was really good, only some of the top notes could have been a little longer. Anyway he seems to be one of the best performers of this role nowadays I would say.
As I already wrote this whole performance was a real eye-(and ear-)opener and I was extremely happy that I decided to see it because it was totally worth it. And therefor I give full 10 stars to this great performance.
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Reviewed by Daniel Url

Ludwig van Beethoven, Missa Solemnis - Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Semperoper

Performance 13th February

As every year since 1951 the Staatskapelle Dresden is dedicating one of their symphonic concerts to the victims of the bombardment on Dresden in february 1943. This year Kapellmeister Christian Thielemann conducted Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in two concerts (one on the memorial day - 13th and another one the following day). I was lucky enough to attend the memorial concert which was a very touching experience. Neither before nor after the performance the audience applauded but stayed silent for a minute of silence and remembrance.
Thieleman conducted the Staatskapelle Dresden masterfully and shaped this epic work magnificently. The dynamic variations and accurate cues led to a marvelous performance of the orchestra which easily followed Thielemann's instructions. The Sächsische Staatsopernchor also gave a wonderful performance and convinced with a huge wall of sound on one hand and delicate calm parts on the other hand. Especially during the Benedictus (with an impressive violin solo by Matthias Wollong) everything matched just perfectly.
The solo parts were sung by Camilla Nylund, Elisabeth Kulman, Daniel Behle and Georg Zeppenfeld. Camilla Nylund's beautiful floating voice sounded great and powerful throughout the range. Especially her higher register sounded just heavenly smooth.
Elisabeth Kulman's dark mezzo voice on the other hand has a very attractive warm timbre and the sheer power of her voice is really impressive. It is really a pity that she decided not to sing opera onstage anymore.
Daniel Behle is definitely one of the most interesting tenor voices of the younger generation. His timbre is noble and youthful but at the same time powerful and flexible. I can't wait to see him singing Wagner (his Lohengrin would surely sound marvelously).
Georg Zeppenfeld always gives a solid performance with his dark bass voice. The timbre of his voice is very balanced and radiates dignity and warmth. He never disappoints and always manages to keep his üerformance standards high.
Alltogether I would give the touching performance 9 stars
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Reviewed by Daniel Url

Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio - Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater 

Performance 10th February 

Because the production of Fidelio at the Bavarian State Opera is more than five years old, this review should not be focused on the staging or the scenery, but I still feel like passing my opinion about it. Calixto Bieito’s concept is a very abstract one and even if there is no real prison on the stage, everybody is kind of trapped in a big maze of iron bars with horizontal and vertical fixed plates of glass between them at some places. Expect for Leonore and Florestan at the end of the opera, everybody has to stay in this huge scaffolding that was brought on the stage by Rebecca Ringst. The problem that I see in this attempt of bringing the basic principle of Beethovens opera, the ideals of freedom embodied by the revolting against despotism, in our time, is that the subject matter of Fidelio is shifted on a psychological level and the whole plot gets lost. Bieito’s concept that is too much focused on the individual unfreedom of every character in the opera sacrifices almost all interactions between them.
The two small male parts of Jaquino (Dean Power) and Don Fernando (Steven Humes) were delivered reliably. But even if Don Fernando’s arrival was staged quite spectacularly from a loge above the stage, where he appeared being dressed just like the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie, I felt like making Don Fernandos act of releasing Florestan to an anarchistic one (because that is what the Joker embodies in the movie) was far-fetched.
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller as Marzelline was one of the highlights of this throughout magnificent cast. She owns a beautiful lyric voice and always phrased her tones through all registers just perfectly while you could understand every single word very distinctly.
The sound of Franz-Josef Selig’s voice is very noble and while singing alone with the orchestra I really enjoyed his Rocco, but unfortunately he could not assert hisself during trios or quartets because of too less volume in his voice or just not singing loud enough.
Don Pizarro was performed very convincing by Tomasz Konieczny who made his status as the arbitrary ruling tyrant very clear by a mighty bass voice with a dark and unique timbre. Because of his vivid presence on the stage and the diversely presentation of his voice, whose strength surpassed all other voices of the evening in volume, he fitted the role of Don Pizarro in a complete way
It is just incredible that Peter Seiffert has still got such a strong voice and the power to perform Florestan like this. Right at the beginning of his big scene after the intermission his „Gott“ shout pervaded the air of the stage and the whole house with an amazing intensity. Over the ten minutes of his recitative and his aria he managed to increase the atmosphere of his performance by his clear tenor voice without any hearable struggle.
Anja Kampe is an outstanding soprano and she performed a solid Leonore in general, but she had some issues in the high register and was compelled to accelerate the very high tones. At parts like these she seemed kind of strained, even if it did not happen too often during the performance. She still raised the biggest cheer under the singers for her efforts.
The way how the audience welcomed Zubin Mehta, the former chief conductor of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, was thrilling. Even before the first performed bar of the opera the audience cheered for the incoming conductor. Through the evening it appeared that this loudly making known of trust in Mehta even before the opera by the audience happened correctly. He led the orchestra very sovereign and with a subtle intuition for the singers. The parts together with the choir in the prison and at the end of the opera in which the human liberty is extolled were performed greatly moving. The applause for the orchestra and especially Mehta at the end of the evening was tremendous.
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Reviewed by Lukas Leipfinger

Richard Strauss, Salome - Deutsche Oper Berlin

Performance 6th February

For the very first time I visited Germany's capital and one of the two big opera houses there. On the programme was Strauss' first really successful opera Salome. A piece that genuinely challenges the audience with brutality and music that reaches the borders of tonality. Nevertheless it is an incredible piece that contains much psychological issues in its plot.
The production's director Claus Guth transferred the plot into a custum tailoring shop led by Herodes and centered the whole story around Herodes and Salome showing that he maybe loved her a little too much (as said in the libretto). Basically it explores the almost pedophile relation between those two characters and introduces Jochanaan as imaginative better version of Herodes (and finally only as shop window mannequin). The whole idea was quite sophisticated but could have been a little clearer from the beginning. Anyway the staging and costumes by Muriel Gerstner were great and looked wonderful. Something I also liked a lot was the idea of having several younger versions of Salome (from very young age to adult) to show the different stages of Salome and her psychological condition.
Musically Alain Altinoglu showed the ravishing score skillfully and supported the singers extremely well. Sometimes I wished for more power from the orchestra (which sat quite low in the pit) but in total it was a very pleasing performance of the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin. Especially the Dance of the seven veils (which technically is really demanding and tricky) distinctly showed the high professionalism of the orchestra.
The number of named roles in this short opera is enormous even though many of them barely have more to sing than one sentence. Therefore I will skip these roles including the Jews, soldiers etc. and will start with Annika Schlicht as Page. She also does not have much to sing but sang the few lines of her part genuinely lovely with a very beautiful voice that has a warm and beautifully-sounding timbre. Thomas Blondelle's Narraboth also was very clear and beautifully sung. His tenor has a very light youthful timbre but is still powerful enough to be heard over the orchestra appropriately.
Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet sang an almost perfect Herodias with dramatic phrasing and great acting skills. She totally conveyed the weirdness and depravity of her role. Burkhard Ulrich as Herodes also showed great acting skills. Vocally he also did a wonderful job even though I sometimes felt that he does not feel 100% comfortable in this role. Nevertheless his performance was truly marvelous from the beginning to the very end.
Michael Volle probably gave the performance of the evening as Jochanaan. His powerful voice sounds dignified and heroic at the same time. The virile timbre and his solemn phrasing made his performance truly magnificent and really impressed me.
Due to illness Catherine Naglestad had to cancel her performance and soprano Allison Oakes jumped in. During her first line Oakes sounded very silently but soon showed that she definitely has the voice for this role. From the very low parts of the role to the very top (Salome has quite a range to handle) she sounded great and showed high musicality with her smart phrasing. Some of the top notes sometimes could have been a little softer but her overall performance was really great.
I totally enjoyed the whole performance and was really impressed by the work of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. I am happy to be visiting several other performances there during the next few months. The performance of Salome gets 9 stars for a really lovely evening.
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Reviewed by Daniel Url

Richard Wagner, Rienzi - Oper Leipzig

Performance 31st January

After a lovely night in Munich I travelled on to Leipzig to see Wagner's early work Rienzi, a marvelous example of french Grand opéra, just in German. This opera is definitely one of the reasons why I became a wagnerian and therefor I was looking forward to see it.
The production led by Nicolas Joel is not very inventive and sometimes so exaggerated that it seems like being over the top was the goal. Staging and costumes by Andreas Reinhardt looked magnificently and especially the map of Rome including the miniatures of famous monuments made a lovely impression. The whole mafia look was a nice idea even though it was not really worked through appropriately.
Anyway musically it was an evening with ambivalent performances. Matthias Foremny knew how to make the music sound solemnly and impressively. Everything sounded hugely, dramaticly and full of passion. The Gewandhausorchester gave a solid performance following his lead and realized the score very nicely. Also the Chor und Extrachor der Oper Leipzig (including Damen des Jugendchores) gave everyhing in the several bid choir scenes. Sometimes I wished for a little bit more volume but their performance was fine anyway.
Sandra Maxheimer gave a short but nice performance as Friedensbote with a lovely mezzo voice that has a warm and clear timbre. I liked Martin Petzold (Baroncelli) more when I saw him in Das Liebesverbot last year. This time he just seemed not to feel totally comfortable in his role even though he did not have any issues vocally. Ricardo Llamas Márquez on the other hand gave a nice performance as Cecco with a strong baritone voice that sounded very masculine and youthful timbre. Sejong Chang's Kardinal Orvieto was very dignified and honorable with his dark bass voice.
Paolo Orsini was sung by Jürgen Kurth who convinced with a very sustaining voice that had a very clear and light timbre and still enough power to be heard through the orchestra. Milcho Borovinov as Steffano Colonna also made a fine impression with a dark and threatingly bass.
Unfortunately Kathrin Göring who would have sung the role of Adriano was ill. I was really looking forward to hear her lovely voice again. Her replacement who obviously already sang the role in Leipzig seemed to have serious issues that evening. Chariklia Marvopoulou's voice did just not get going throughout the performance. While she sounded ok in the dramatic outbursts in the upper register she was not able to manage the lower parts and during the great aria "Gerechter Gott" she just managed to get through. Thankfully she jumped in for Göring but she obviously was not totally prepared for the performance.
My personal highlight of the evening was a role that actually is not really very outstanding in the plot but vocally just blew my mind: Vida Mikneviciute as Irene. Her appearance in the first scene literally made me stop breathing because I just did not expect such an enormous voice from such a little slim lady. Her voice is huge but still very clear and has a beautifully sounding timbre. It is a pity they cut the great duet in the final act between her and Rienzi because I would have loved to hear more of her!! It is really incredible that I have not heard of her before.
One of the main reasons I wanted to see this performance was Andreas Schager as Rienzi. I heard a lot those past few months about him and his magnificent voice. I do have to say that his voice truly is a proper wagnerian tenor voice but I did feel that it might already be a little to heavy for Rienzi. I would have preferred his singing to be lighter. Sometimes it seemed like that the tessitura of the role is just to high for it calls for a very light but powerful Heldentenor. Anyway Schager still did a marvelous job, it was just a matter of taste.
All together I enjoyed the performance despite the few deficits this evening. I would give the performance still 7 stars.
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Reviewed by Daniel Url

Charles Gounod, Faust – Aalto-Theater Essen

Performance 30th January

Again the Aalto-Theater staged a less common played opera. And the first night audience awarded this co-production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin of Charles Gounod’s Faust with massive applause. With good reason welcomed the audience Sébastien Rouland for his musical direction after the intermission with a big applause. He made the Essener Philharmoniker sound very softly and the dynamical arrangement between the orchestra and the singers functioned just perfectly.

But not just the musical performance worked nicely in its arrangement. In addition to it the staging by Philipp Stölz and co-director Mara Kurotschka acted also very harmonically. It was noticeable that every little symbole and gesture were well elaborated. Bassicaly the stage setting (Heike Vollmer) has not changed much through the whole opera. A big pillar in the middle of the stage functioned as a constant and not moving element in this dynamic story. All entrances (apart from one in the third act) were made from behind this pillar. Faust (Abdellah Lasri) appeared at the beginning as an old man, sitting in an electric wheelchair bound to ventilators. After Mephistophélès (Alexander Vinogadov) have made Faust into a young man, he was wearing the same glittery pink suit as the devil Mephistophélès. Both singers convinced with a great and strong voice as almost the whole cast. Abdellah Lasri was able to show a wide range of his tenor voice. When Faust was going to amuse himself with Mephistophélès, he showed the brightness in his voice. But with a touching feeling admitted he his love to Marguerite (Jessica Muirhead) and appealingly did he later try to get her out of the dungeon. This was implied by a smal fence, wall and door positioned semicircularly along the pillar. Jessica Muirhead embodied the two sites of Marguerite convincingly. The naive Marguerite of the first half was light footed and cheerful. Her space filling soprano voice gave the high notes great power and were filling the auditorium with easiness. The always merry Siébel (Karin Strobos) was dressed (costumes: Ursula Kudrna) into a rabbit costume due to the funfair in the first act. As a mezzo-soprano did she not have any problems with her high notes at all. They even sounded very clear and light. Important part of the funfair in this opera is the choir who represents the not nearer defined crowd. The choir was dressed pastell-coloured and reminded with their porcelain looking masks of dolls. Unfortunatly the choir (rehearsal: Patrick Jaskolka) had partly light rhythm problems but surely it will get better in the next performances. Martijn Cornet as Marguerite’s brother Valantin who got killed brutally on Mephistophélès’ instruction, portraied a strong, emotional and bellligerent young man. Until the last breathe did he demonstrate his specific rounded voice. The secret star of the evening was Alexander Vinogadov as Mephistophélès. The diabolical in his play came through his lightness and carelessness into effect. Vinogadov’s full, soft and flexible basso voice will surely profit him further on lucrative roles. In the third act did he show his dark side when he made fun of Marguerite. The Aalto-Theater trys to involve the whole theater into their play. So this time Mephistophélès had his entrance in the stalls and sang across the whole aditorium in direction to the stage. Very straight and with great volume in his voice did Vinogadov make the audience feeling frightened. The snowy scenery from the second half on, confirmed the glumnes atmosphere.

I really liked the fact that you could always draw a connection to what was happening on stage, thanks to the well elaborated production. When Marguerite get dressed in her new dress which she got from Mephistophélès, this was as magical as Cinderella’s story. Or the dungeon might have let think some people of the Berlin Wall. And the old caravan, Marguerite was living in, created an uncertain and dubios atmosphere.

For this great entertainment for ears and eyes I give nine out of ten stars.

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 Reviewed by Christine Arnold

Francois Poulenc, Dialogues des carmélites - Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater

Performance 30th January

The quarrel about the Munich production of Poulenc's most successful opera probably made it even more anticipated than it would have been anyway. The families of Poulenc and the librettist tried to stop the performance because director Dmitri Tcherniakov gave the finale a new twist that obviously was not approved by the descendents of the creators. All together I have to say that this quarrel was probably the most exciting thing about the production. Tcherniakov is neither progressive nor very creative and treated the work very unkindly. Already having some problematic lengths it would have needed some work of the director to keep the dramatic flow. Instead Tcherniakov shows amateur theatre with artificial emotions and horrible lead of the roles. Even the nice and atmospheric staging (also designed by Tcherniakov) and the elegant costumes by Elena Zaytseva were not able to keep up the dramatic flow of the opera throughtout the evening. Except of a few moments of dramatic action there was not much to look at (and not little enough to see it as concept.
Nevertheless musically the performance was better but also not as well as other evenings in the Nationaltheater. Bertrand de Billy led the Bayerisches Staatsorchester with elegance and a very sensitive technique. Only a few times he made use of the power of the big orchestra and kept the dynamics low for most of the evening. The Chor der bayerischen Staatsoper also stayed soberly and plainly during the whole evening and supported the plot well.
The many small roles of the opera were casted very well. Ulrich Reß (1er commissaire), Tim Kuypers (2ème commissaire), Igor Tsarkov (L'Officier), Andrea Borghini (Le geôlier), Johannes Kammler (Thierry) and Oscar Quezada (Monsieur Javelinot) all did a good job in their supporting roles.
Alexander Kaimbacher gave a very dignified and sympathetic L'aumônier with a strong voice with a warm and friendly timbre. He definitely seemed like someone who Blanche could rely on. Mère Jeanne and Soeur Mathilde were performed by Munich's universal weapon Heike Grötzinger and Rachael Wilson, both with powerful and controlled voices. Soeur Constance was nicely sung by Anna Christy who has a very slim and light voice which suited her character perfectly.
Blanche's father, Marquis de la force, was sung by Laurent Naouri and even with just a short appearance he was able to make a lasting impression with his dark and strict voice. Stanislas de Barbeyrac on the other hand convinced more by the beauty and ease of his voice. He did not seem to have problems with the high tessitura of the role and sang his part really beautifully.
One of the most exciting performances of the evening was Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo as Madame de Croissy. With her imperative strong alto voice she radiated superiority and her death scene was truly frightening!
Also a highlight was Susanne Resmark as Mère Marie. She impersonated her role so well that one would forget that one sits in a theatre. Also her powerful instrument was genuinely impressive and did not fail to convince.
Anne Schwanewilms on the other hand, who I was looking forward to see, seemed to have a bad day. Her voice sounded uncontrolled and just not totally in form. She managed to sing her part without any issues but it just did not feel appropriately. Hopefully she will be better during the other performances.
Christiane Karg however was the voice of the evening. Her portrayal was truly inspiring and showed not only a very beautiful gleaming voice but also very fine acting skills. Her light soprano convinces with sheer beauty and a very elegant silvery timbre. I would love to see her more often in Munich in some other main roles.
Finally I did enjoy the evening with Poulenc's beautiful music even though the production was not really that impressive. Nevertheless it was a solid performance with some small deficits that did not do too much harm. The performance gets 8 stars.
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Reviewed by Daniel Url