This year the Salzburger Festspiele offers six new opera productions: Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Salome (R. Strauss), Pique Dame (Tsjaikovski), L'Italiana in Algeri (Rossini), L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi), The Bassarids (Henze), plus two operas in concert form Der Prozess (von Einem), Les Pêcheures de Perles (Bizet) and a children's opera: an adaptation of Mozart's Zauberflöte.
Die Zauberflöte concludes: "Die Strahlen der Sonne vertreiben die Nacht"
It was since 2012 that Die Zauberflöte had last been on the programme of the Festspiele of the Mozart city, then in a production by Jens-Daniel Herzog and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. That only lasted one season, unlike other productions which were usually repeated more than once. The absolute record was achieved by the magnificent and by now legendary production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle in the Felsenreitschule which was on the programme annually from 1978 to 1986, conducted by James Levine.
It is Ponnelle who, according to his own account, somewhat inspired the young American Lydia Steier, although she treads quite different paths. She chose to actualize the story somewhat and let the audience look in a mirror without scaring them away. She has the opera, during the overture, begin in a bourgeois apartment in Vienna around 1913 where a grandfather reads a story to his three grandchildren before bedtime: Die Zauberflöte.
Most of the characters that appear in it are in some sense fantasy beings inspired by the members of the family and the staff: the mother transforms into the Queen of the Night, the servant who visits the cook becomes Papageno, the maids become the three ladies and the grandchildren become the Drei Knaben, the three boys who accompany Tamino and Papageno and here in this version play a very active role.
Where the idea comes from to move Sarastro's realm to the world of curiosities and circus of Barnum is unclear, unless to make Sarastro's principles more universally human and more women-friendly and to point out that people can look different, but ultimately are all people and deserve the same respect. For this a fragment from The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is paraphrased and inserted into the spoken text. The spoken dialogues were moreover completely reworked and shortened by Ina Karr and Lydia Steier who have removed almost all philosophical explanations and references to freemasonry.
The contrasts between the noble, purposeful Tamino and the pleasure-loving, less steadfast natural human Papageno are eliminated, the various confrontations with Papagena greatly reduced and the motivation for certain arias, e.g. Pamina's "Ach, ich fühl's" or the Queen of the Night's "Der Hölle Rache", barely clear. There is plenty of spectacle, however, with moving sets, acrobats and projections. No water and fire trials for Tamino and Pamina but images of war suffering from WWI.
It is ultimately the grandfather who speaks the conclusion "Die Strahlen der Sonne vertreiben die Nacht". So we have returned to the bedroom of the boys who are tucked in once more affectionately by the grandfather. The fairy tale is told. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, this happened with a production that was much too busy (set Katharina Schlipf, costumes Ursula Kudrna, lighting Olaf Freese, video fettFilm) in which the story and the characters were short-changed and especially the musical side was neglected.
Nevertheless, Constantinos Carydis with the Wiener Philharmoniker provided a lively orchestral performance with fresh tempos and good vocal accompaniment. They could not hide that Matthias Goerne as Sarastro was a wrong casting. It was painful to hear how this excellent singer struggled with a role that was far too low for his voice while his Barnum character received little relief or authority. Mauro Peter was a solid Tamino with somewhat laboured high notes and Chrsitiane Karg a doll-like but sensitively singing Pamina with a crystal-clear soprano. Albina Shagimuratova (Queen of the Night) sang all the notes but lacked dramatic vocal power.
The three ladies were well defended by the Flemish Ilse Eerens (soon to be heard at the Munt as Pamina), Paula Murrihy and Geneviève King. Adam Plachetka was a Papageno somewhat abandoned by the direction but sang decently. Maria Nazarova did what she could with her limited appearance as Papagena and Michael Porter was a fairly insignificant Monostatos. Solid minor roles and good contributions from the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor.
I must certainly not fail to mention that the young Ghent soprano Emma Posman was the saving angel in the performance of Die Zauberflöte on August 4. Albina Shagimuratova, the interpreter of the Queen of the Night, reported sick and a replacement could hardly be found in a few hours. So they asked, in dire need, Emma Posman, who had performed this role in the performances of the children's version of Die Zauberflöte, to also do it in the production at the Grosses Festspielhaus. After some hesitation, she agreed and did it successfully. Proficiat!
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L'Italiana in Algeri in better production
Also lots of hustle and bustle, but better directed, entirely in the spirit of the work and not at the expense of the musical performance in L'Italiana in Algeri, the production of the Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele (artistic direction Cecilia Bartoli) which was taken over at the summer festival.
Here the Belgian-French director duo Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier were responsible for a colorful action transposed to our time in a rather shabby Oriental setting without postcard orientalism (a picturesque camel excepted!) in a set by Christian Fenouillat, with costumes by Agostino Cavalca, lighting by Christophe Forey and video by Ettienne Guiol. The direction with plenty of gags and winks provided a (sometimes rather too) whirling action carried by a fully engaged cast, but also plenty of merriment for the audience.
Cecilia Bartoli was Isabella, the Italian beauty who comes to search for her beloved Lindoro in Algiers where Mustafà, tired of his wife Elvira, holds sway and sees Isabella as an easy prey. He will be sorely deceived, for Isabella, resourceful and determined, will turn the situation to her advantage and return home with her Lindoro. A task after the heart of Cecilia Bartoli, fresh and seductive in a flowered summer dress, who resolutely sets about the action and in doing so lets her supple voice be tempted as usual and strings together colors and coloraturas, and at her cavatina "Per lui che adoro" makes you melt away through the lovely legato phrases and the sometimes almost ethereal sound.
Her beloved Lindoro, in knee breeches, sandals and long hair, had the supple, light but somewhat dry tenor of Edgardo Rocha, a virtuoso singer and solid interpreter. Ildar Abdrazakov was Mustafa, a handsome man, though with an extra round belly, who is convinced that he is irresistible and will conquer Isabella without problems. Abdrazakov visibly enjoyed the comic part which he gave extra color and served admirably with his sonorous, warmly colored bass and virtuosic singing.
Alessandro Corbelli proved once again as Taddeo that he is one of the best Rossini interpreters both vocally and scenically. Rebeca Olvera gave her fresh soprano to Elvira, the spurned wife of Mustafa. Good performances also from Rosa Bove (Zulma), José Coca Loza (Haly) and the Philharmonia Chor Wien. In the orchestra pit sat the Ensemble Matheus under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi, perhaps not the ideal combination for Rossini especially as regards the sound. However beautiful and surprising the contributions of individual wind instruments may be and the dynamic accents unexpected and engaging, one often wishes for a fuller and more muscular overall sound, less in the old music style. That said, Spinosi and his musicians did give the performance the necessary pace and freshness.
- WHAT: Salzburger Festspiele: Die Zauberflöte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) and L'Italiana in Algeri (Giacomo Rossini)
- WHERE & WHEN: Salzburg 7 and 8 August 2018
- IMAGE MATERIAL: © Salzburger Festspiele
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