It seems like Richard Jones concept evolves around an ironic interpretation of the bourgeois dream, of a traditional living and family, with Elsa and Lohengrin quite literally building a house together dressed as carpenters. A house, which Lohengrin eventually sets on fire when he leaves.
Unanimous praise for Anja Harteros, divided for Jonas Kaufmann as expected (pro: Wonderful expression, great acting; con: strained high notes, barytonal coloring). As the former intendant apparently found the originally contracted Waltraud Meier too old for the part, Michaela Schuster was hired instead in what may hardly be called a wise judgement. Predictably (after all it is a premiere of a central repertoire work) booing for Richard Jones.
Video excerpts of the performance:
12 comments:
Unfortunately we only heard the last act, but it would appear that the judgment on both Harteros and Kaufmann is correct. One would still he hard pressed to find a better exponent than the latter.
Schuster over Meier: absolutely insane. Meier looks plenty good for her age and it is absurd not to take her if she is available. (Even a Lioba Braun would have been better.)
The production team must have enjoyed the lusty booing.
It looks like another reductive, ugly and pointless RJ production. Horribly ugly as well. Yawn....
I heard some of Act 2 which sounded isastrous at points from a conducting point of view (chorus way out at times). Harteros sounded gorgeous, Schuster ok but not great, Telramund small scale, Heinrich small scale AND shouty. I didn't hear enough of Kaufman to judge but what I did hear was certainly quite baritonal.
All in all it sounded well below the standard one would expect from the Bayerisches Oper. The recent ROH revival was far better (apart from the Elsa) and (though old fashioned) looked a good deal better!
Terrible that ageism in opera has reached Munich - it is a worse 'ism' than sizeism.
Meier/Schuster/Braun - perhaps the best current Ortrud based on those recent Lohengrins in London is Petra Lang.
To me this sounded great, and the show looked lovely and exhilarating. Why do all these stuffy people waste their time getting cross endlessly? They make fussy-fool remarks like wine tasters: Wine is for getting drunk on; ditto Opera.'Post scriptum': Regietheater is the Tradition! If the production has too many ideas for you to cope with, then do please run along and play in the sandpit. Leave the adults to their own stuff and play with your dolls.
Sally Watts you are entitled to your view but what you are definitely not entitled to do is to rubbish other peoples views in an insulting and, if I may say so, very childish way. If you want to do that there are plenty of sites where "trolls" are welcomed. This site is not one of them.
Your analogy relating opera to wine is bizarre - If wine is merely a means for becoming inebriated then opera might as well be relgated to bite sized easy listening chunks preferably performed by such luminaries as Bocelli, Jenkins, Watson and Il divo!!
By the way disagreeing with ideas does not mean one is too thick to absorb them!
Want to boss everybody about Curzon? Then go start your own blog: Believe me, I won't read it. If the authoress of this present blog disapproves of my comments, let her say and I'll surely listen. And you watch out who you call a troll: My views are sincerely held.
Hmm. This from someone who finshes their first post "If the production has too many ideas for you to cope with, then do please run along and play in the sandpit. Leave the adults to their own stuff and play with your dolls."?! Is that not both bossy and insulting to people whom you know virtually nothing about? Pardon me if I reserve the right to snipe back at you!
However from now on I'll do my best to ignore you....
Seb, Cut out you prick.
Good to see that the era of intelligent debate is not over!!
Aren't you supposed to be ignoring me Seb?
I attended the performance on Sunday 12 July. Orchestra pretty good, conducting also IMO. Kaufmann with very constricted voice, Harteros very good technically but otherwise her singing left me cold. Schuster surprisingly good. Fischesser lousy, Nikitin very good. Koch quite good, too.
I had the impression to attend two different pieces at once: I saw one and heard the other. The production has nothing to do with Lohengrin, the opera by R. Wagner. There is also too much distraction by the ongoing running around in the background (and between the singers) from the main action. Even in this performance much boooh-ing for the production.
Unfortunately your description of the production (and others'accounts)sounds like almost every other Jones production of recent years. His Macbeth and Queen of Spades were both horrible. It's a pity really as he did some amazing work early on (His Into the Woods remains by far the best production of that work I have seen) but he seems to have lost his way. His Glyndebourne Falstaff got very mixed reviews form the opera press who, until recently, have seemed under his spell.
I am dreading his WNO Meistersinger but can't pass up on Bryn's first Sachs...
Post a Comment