Thielemann Rosenkavalier with Fleming, Damrau, Koch and Kaufmann

Rosenkavalier. DVD. Baden-Baden 2009. Production: Conductor: Christian Thielemann. Cast: Renée Fleming (Marschallin), Sophie Koch (Octavian), Diana Damrau (Sophie), Franz Hawlata (Ochs), Jonas Kaufmann (A Singer).

This production has so many things going for it and yet somehow it narrowly misses the mark.
First of all, Herbert Wernicke´s production is wonderful: First seen in Salzburg 1995 and later in Paris, it is visually superfluous and sumptuous making use of a back wall of rotating mirrors. Traditional in outlook, Wernicke simply tells the story in a seemingly timeless manner.
Renée Fleming is the Marschallin. Or as I originally intended to write: Renée Fleming is Renée Fleming. There is too much Renée Fleming in her Marschallin or perhaps too little Marschallin in Renée Fleming. Word games apart, this is not among her best roles in my opinion. Somehow she seems to artificial, too mannered and not sophisticated enough in her portrait. There is a subtle balance to the Marschallin and she does not nail it. Disappointing, since I have seen her give wonderfully committed performances in this repertoire. But extra points to Ms Fleming for giving interviews in German.

Sophie Koch, somewhat miscast being too feminine in both expression and singing and with too much vibrato especially in the higher register, her weakest, where a lot of the notes are. A wonderful Charlotte is rarely a wonderful Octavian. Diana Damrau sings beautifully, but she has really moved on from Sophie. Quite a few sopranos aged below 30 could have pulled of the same in addition to portraying a young and innocent Sophie, which Damrau does not.
And Franz Hawlata, in his second Rosenkavalier DVD lacks the crudeness and (most importantly) the deep notes.

Not to forget to mention Jonas Kaufmann´s brief appearance as the tenor.

Christian Thieleman is a superb Straussian Thielemann, but he conducts Rosenkavalier as he does Die Frau Ohne Schatten: Grandious, serious, transporting. Where are the bubbliness and the walz rhythms?

Renée Fleming and Sophie Koch in Act 1:

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Renée Fleming: 4
Sophie Koch: 3-4
Diana Damrau: 3-4
Franz Hawlata: 3

Wernicke´s staging: 5
Christian Thielemann: 4

Overall impression: 4

The Anna Netrebko show hits Copenhagen

Anna Netrebko and Massimo Giordano in Copenhagen. September 19th, 2009. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

As part of a minor tour, Anna Netrebko and Massimor Giordano visited Copenhagen, complete with pre-printed programme. Netrebko´s first-ever visit in Copenhagen.

The exact happenings of the concert is described in detail here, suffice to say that this was an Anna Netrebko show, in the best sense of the word. Yes, and Massimo Giordano was also there, and he made a great contribution, both with fine individual singing and as a convincing partner to Anna Netrebko. However, most people had bought their exorbitantly priced tickets expecting a solo Anna Netrebko concert as Massimo Giordani was only listed at a later point. However, these things hardly mattered as both were rather entertaining on stage, jumping in and out, Anna Netrebko trying to play the harp etc. And, being Anna Netrebko´s birthday, the orchestra played her a birthday song and champagne was opened.

On top of this, she was in fine voice as well, which seems to get bigger and bigger. No, she may not always be exactly on pitch, and no, I really am not to bothered with it, as she has a direct expression to her singing which is rather extraordinary. That said, I still do not think Lucia di Lammermoor shows her at what I imagine would be her best. Nor does the operetta excerpt. But as Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) I would imagine her to excel.

An Anna Netrebko show for the people. In the best meaning of the word.

Overall impression:

5


Program:

Gounod: Overture from Roméo et Juliette
"Va! Je t´ai pardonné... Nuit d'hyménée" from Roméo et Juliette, Netrebko/Giordano
Verdi: Overture from Nabucco
Donizetti: "Regnava nel silenzio" from Lucia di Lammermoor, Anna Netrebko
Donizetti: "Una furtiva lagrima" from "L´Elisir d´Amore", Massimo Giordano
Donizetti: "Caro elisir!" from L'Elisir d'Amore",Netrebko/Giordano

Intemission

Arditi: "Il bacio", Anna Netrebko
Tosti: "L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra", Massimo Giordano
Tchaikovsky: "Polonaise" from Eugene Onegin
Piotr I. Tchaikovsky: "Kuda, Kuda" from Eugene Onegine, Massimo Giordano
Dvorak: "Song to the moon" from Rusalka, Anna Netrebko
Puccini: "Intermezzo" from Manon Lescaut
Puccini: "Che gelida manina" from La Bohème, Massimo Giordano
Puccini: "Si, mi chiamamo Mimi" from La Bohème, Anna Netrebko
Puccini: "O soave fanciulla" from La Bohème, Netrebko/Giordano

Extras
Franz Lehar: "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss", Anna Netrebko
"Core'ngrato", Massimo Giordano
"Brindisi" from La Traviata, Anna Netrebko and Massimo Giordano

Verbier Don Giovanni with Quasthoff, Terfel, Pape

A better casting for the male leads of Don Giovanni is hard to imagine. Unfortunately the ladies did not quite live up to their male counterparts. According to himself, this was Bryn Terfel´s last performance of Don Giovanni as the Don.

Manfred Honeck conducted the Verbier Festival Orchestra for this concert performance on July 20th 2009.

Salzburg 2009: Claus Guth with Cosí fan tutte

Cosi Fan Tutte. Salzburg Festival 2009. Production: Claus Guth. Conductor: Adam Fischer with the Vienna Philharmonics. Cast: Miah Persson (Fiordiligi), Isabel Leonard (Dorabella), Topi Lehtipuu (Ferrando), Florian Boesch (Guglielmo), Bo Skovhus (Don Alfonso), Patricia Petibon (Despina)

German director Claus Guth´s Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy was concluded at the 2009 Salzburg Festival with Cosí fan tutte featuring a starry cast including Miah Persson, Bo Skovhus, Isabel Leonard as well as Patricia Petibon. Adam Fischer conducts the Vienna Philharmonics.

Those familiar with Claus Guth´s previous work such as the psychoanalytic Nozze di Figaro, the Don Giovanni set amongst junkies in a wood in the middle of the night, the Ariadne who commits suicide on Naxos, Richard Wagners Tristan in love with Mathilde Wesendonck and a Walküre set in a miniature dolls house will know better than to expect a bubbly Mozartian comedy.

We are at the end of a party at the girls rather fancy loft apartment - all in white with the occasional African mask. Bo Skovhus´ menacing Don Alfonso sets the tone immediately: This is not comedy, but rather Claus Guth shows us the personal consequences of the partner swapping resulting in four disoriented people at the end and as the action gets darker a certain recycling of the 2008 Don Giovanni forest, which progressively enter the house.

Essential to the success of this production, singer-actors are cast in all parts, with not even one weak link. The girls take centre stage and both girls look and act fabulously with a genuine interaction not always seen. The velvety sound of Isabel Leonard mixes well with Miah Perssons elegant soprano. The boys are more anonymous, but still competent. Bo Skovhus neurotic style and commanding presence is just right for Don Alfonso combined with Patricia Petibon´s in every way excellent Despina completes an outstanding cast.

Adam Fischer conducts the Vienna Philharmonics and as always we are far from the period-inspired performances some (not me though) may prefer.

Report from New York Times.

Miah Persson and Isabel Leonard "Ah, guarda sorella":

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Miah Persson: 5
Isabel Leonard: 5
Bo Skovhus: 5
Topi Lehtipuu: 4
Florian Boesch: 4

Adam Fischer: 4
Claus Guth: 5

Overall impression: 5

Jonas Kaufmann liederabend: Unforgettable

Jonas Kaufmann, tenor. Helmut Deutsch, piano. Glyptoteket, Copenhagen. May 8th 2008.

This liederabend in the context of the series of Helge Jacobsen concerts marked German tenor Jonas Kaufmann´s first performance in Denmark, which took place in the intimate venue all of the New Carlsberg Glypotek.

Jonas Kaufmann is naturally confindent and authoritative on stage. He clearly commands the language, emphasizing expression over beauty, telling the stories, not just singing the songs. Vocally, he has never been better. A dark tenor, but fully in command of the high registers, often sung in piano or with added sprechgesang when required.

As an interpretist, Jonas Kaufmann is of the straight-forward as opposed to the wringing-sentimental type. And thanks for that. Not that he does not add to or give of himself in this selection of songs starting out with Schuberts rather long drama "Die Bürgschaft" to be followed by a completely superb Dichterliebe. Superbly suited to Richard Strauss´songs, already proven on his earlier (read: before he became famous) highly acclaimed disc of Richard Strauss lieder, he delievered completely smashing interpretations, culminating with Cäcilie. Can these songs be performed better? I really do not think so.

Malicious voices have it that Jonas Kaufmann is about looks rather than substance. Do not believe them. He has everything. Is Jonas Kaufmann not the preeminent tenor on stage today? Does these things matter? Of course they don´t. But really he is.

My only quibbles on this rather superb evening included free drinks in the New Carlsberg wintergarden are directed towards a couple of practical issues, such as having the audience loudly scrabbling through endless pages of text and the omission of the world-class accompanist Helmut Deutsch from the programme. Who by the way with his incisive playing was a major contributor to this rather unforgettable evening, which I believe will be one of the performances I will tell my grandchildren about 50 years from now: When I heard the great Jonas Kaufmann in his absolute prime. And they will answer: Ah, but why are there no tenors around like him today?

And why was this concert not sold out? Well, perhaps because it was hardly advertised anywhere? However, already now rumours has it Jonas Kaufmann will be back in Copenhagen in 2010. Do not miss it.

Programme:

Schubert: Die Bürgschaft
Schumann: Dichterliebe

Intermission

Richard Strauss:
Fünf lieder op. 21:
All mein Gedanken..
Du mein herzens krönelein
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden
Ach weh mir unglückhaften Mann
Die Frauen sind oft fromm un still

Vier ausgewählte lieder:
Sehnsucht
Nachtgang
Freundliche Vision
Ich liebe dich

Vier lieder op. 27:
Heimliche aufforderung
Ruhe meine Seele
Morgen
Cäcilie

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

6

Anna Russell: The Nibelungen Ring

Classical comedian Anna Russell´s analysis of the Nibelungen Ring has become almost legendary. Here from her (first) farewell tour in 1984:

Posted on YouTube by YvonneDesire

The Nibelungen Ring in 45 seconds

Waltraud Meier as Carmen

Waltraud Meier´s performance of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera 1997 is by many, perhaps also by herself, considered one of the low points of her career. Waltraud Meier said of the experience: "I have enormous respect for Zeffirelli, but our two styles just didn't match..The staging was folkloristic, with horses on stage and that sort of thing. It was the most horrible time, but I don't think about it any more. A mistake? Well, my philosophy is that there are no faults, only errors. You learn from your mistakes and come through knowing more."

The production was also infamous for the "that wig goes on stage with or without you"-comment to Angela Gheorghiu´s initial refusal to wear a blonde wig as Micaëla. In the end, she went on with the wig. Plácido Domingo was Don José. James Levine conducted. The whole ting was filmed, but will it also be released on DVD? Maybe not.

But what was it like? Two video excerpts are provided with Waltraud Meier´s Carmen.

Habanera:

Seguidilla:

And the wig with Angela Gheorghiu:

Posted by BullLee2 and Gabba02 on YouTube

So zieht das Unheil in dies Haus (or: The Berlin Barenboim Herheim Lohengrin)

Lohengrin, Berlin State Opera, April 12th 2009. Production: Stefan Herheim. Cast: Klaus Florian Vogt (Lohengrin), Dorothea Röschmann (Elsa), Michaela Schuster (Ortrud), Gerd Grochowski (Telramund), Markus Brück (Herald), Kwangchul Youn (Heinrich). Conductor: Daniel Barenboim. Further information here.

Norwegian director Stefan Herheim has become one of the most sought-after directors after his staging of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival last year. Some thought Herheim created a masterpiece. Others, me among them, did not. Though I have greatly admired Stefan Herheim´s stagings of the past, such as the brilliant deconstruction of Entführung in Salzburg 2003, the Parsifal was quite simply to overly-intellectual and disorganized as I saw it.
Which also applies to this new Lohengrin production, though this time to a degree that I actually find Stefan Herheim more or less has ruined the piece.
The short version of this review is that I do not recall any new staging of any Wagnerian opera, which appealed so little to me than this Lohengrin. Daniel Barenboim, on the other hand, was sensational.
In fact I have pondered for two days on how to put this on paper in a both civilized and fair manner. And to start with the fairness, I may add that though the general opinions in the German press on Herheim´s staging were only luke-warm, this review is firmly rooted in the very negative end of the specter. Not to forget, that others found this staging to be a masterpiece.
To the point: I simply didn´t understand the concept. It was a confusing, un-dramatic as well as highly intellectual mish-mash which brought me nothing. And worst of all: It took all the attention away from the music.

It started well: A Richard Wagner puppet dances on a tree-trunk during the prelude. A feather drops down and he apparently starts to compose. We then move on to Act 1, opening in present time with groups of people waving banners displaying the three opera houses in Berlin, apparently an allegory of Brabant with The Herald starting out as the Berlin bear:

All main characters, Ortrud (and possibly Lohengrin) excepted, are puppeteers with a medieval puppet version of their character, which they control. Around the time the horn and helmet clad Lohengrin arrives, the action moves into the medieval times. Still with puppets.
And with the additional twist of all characters wearing naked-body suits with strategically placed figleaves, which they change into at various points, running around the stage.

The explanation? According to the programme booklet, Stefan Herheim explains that the sin of Eve (eating the forbidden apple thus rebelling against God) in Eden is central to the drama of Lohengrin. Who am I to say he is not right? However, as engaging theater, in my opinion it fails completely. And has very little connection to the music drama Lohengrin.

Though the puppet-puppeteer concept does seem rather appropriate for a static piece like Lohengrin, Stefan Herheim, as I see it, fails to ask (or answer) the central questions of Lohengrin, such as: Where does this man come from? Why must we not know his name etc.? Questions Peter Konwitschny actually does both ask and answer in his famous Hamburg production, a major inspirational source for Stefan Herheim.
Readers who admire Konwitschny´s Lohengrin, certainly stand a rather good chance of at least reacting more positively to Herheim´s as I do.

The working relationship between Daniel Barenboim and Stefan Herheim was not the best, with Herheim publicly accusing Daniel Barenboim, among other things, for extended abscence during rehearsals (probably rightly). Daniel Barenboim, on the other hand, publicly disagreed with Herheim´s decision to stage the prelude, a decision it was "too late to change" as he put it. A rather strange statement, as one may argue he could have thought about participating in the rehearsals at a point before it became "too late" for changing anything, including the director...

Being the third, and last, performance of this run, the orchestra was simply sensational. Somewhat unusual for Daniel Barenboim, his tempi were rather brisk. But with an energy and inner sense of the dramatic structures making this easily the best conducted Lohengrin I have heard.
Of the singers, Dorothea Röschmann stood out as a simply wonderful and very touching Elsa. With her old-fashioned way of singing, much like that of Elisabeth Grümmer, the dark colouring of her voice combined with superb, stylish phrasing made for a very moving experience. Unlike her Eva in last years Meistersinger, Elsa seems to suit her well. She does reach the limit of her voice, but she doesn´t exceed it.
Klaus Florian Vogt´s Lohengrin has spurred starkly contrasting opinions: Admirers point to his ringing, effortless topnotes. Detractors point to his monotonous singing. Both sides are right as I see it: Vogt´s Lohengrin is monotonously sung and acted with the added benefit (?) of an indifferent psychopathic air to his presentation. Though he really does hit those notes, piercing effortlessly through Barenboim´s orchestra. But contributing to any degree of interpersonal drama he does not. Neither does Stefan Herheim. At least not on stage..

Beauty of voice or expression is not what Michaela Schuster offers. However, her over-all portrait of Ortrud was superb: She clearly inhabited both the comic and desperate sides to the character and delivered a very effective, vocally as well, performance. Accompanied by Gerd Grochowski´s character barytone, singing rather well as Telramund, but having a hard time to penetrate through Barenboim´s orchestra.

How would René Pape have looked running around in a naked-body suit with figleaves and a wooden stick chasing Elsa´s bridemaids? Fortunately (for him), his illness (he has now recovered) prevented us from finding out and Kwangchul Youn delivered a fine performance.
In summary, if you ask how much action and how many intellectual concepts one may put into one Wagner opera, I´d say Stefan Herheim is the man with the answers. And if anyone should still ask who is the pre-eminent Wagnerian conductor alive, it is Daniel Barenboim.

Links to most German and international reviews of the production .

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Klaus Florian Vogt: 4
Dorothea Röschmann: 4-5
Michaela Schuster: 4
Gerd Grochowski: 4
Kwangchul Youn: 4

Stefan Herheim´s production: 1-2

Daniel Barenboim: 5

Overall impression: ?

Munich: Eva-Maria Westbroek shines in Jenufa

Jenufa. Bavarian State Opera, April 11th 2009. Production: Barbara Frey. Cast: Eva-Maria Westbroek (Jenufa), Deborah Polaski (Kostelnicka), Stefan Margita (Laca), Joseph Kaiser (Steva), Helga Dernesch (Burya). Conductor: Kirill Petrenko. Further information here.

That Eva-Maria Westbroek (born 1971) spend the initial years of her career with endless and futile auditions leading her nowhere must make one or another opera administrator reflect just a bit as she is now establishing herself as the probably finest jugendlich-dramatische soprano of today. With a wonderful blooming quality of her voice, Eva-Maria Westbroek furthermore is a terrific actress, making it virtually impossible to not be deeply moved by this Jenufa´s fate.

Equally convincing were both leading gentlemen, particularly Stefan Margita´s superbly sung Laca, but also Joseph Kaiser as Steva. While Deborah Polaski may have more voice for the part of Kostelnicka that many of those who sing it today, a stronger stage presence (never her main asset) would have made a major difference, particularly in a character part like this. Curiously, Helga Dernesch, whom I thought belonged to the past, took the part as the Old Burya.

As the entire cast were excellent actors, it was rather disappointing how little use Barbara Frey made of them, with a rather uninteresting personenregie. She has updated Jenufa until present day, but provides little more than a traditional static theatric setting without the true interpersonal drama, which Janacek´s opera seems so full of.

Massive applause to conductor Kirill Petrenko, though I fail to see entirely why. The orchestra sounded both transparent and beautiful, but way too passive and bloodless, at least to my taste. In fact, the style of playing reminds very much of Kent Nagano, hardly a coincidence, as he is music director of the house. Why this sort of bloodless playing is so admired in Munich, is rather strange, at least to me. And even more so when Kent Nagano conducts Parsifal. But that is another topic altogether.

The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Eva-Maria Westbroek: 5
Stefan Margita: 5
Joseph Kaiser: 4-5
Deborah Polaski: 3

Barbara Frey: 3

Kirill Petrenko: 4

Overall impression: 4