Past Production Reviews
3The premiere of Henry Purcell's only opera Dido and Aeneas in 2022 will not take place in a girls' boarding school - as was the case for the London premiere in 1689. Nevertheless, the manageable number of premiere guests in the Aalto Musiktheater Essen gives the impression of being private. Chatting casually, shaking off the dust of the past year from your costume and suit, an exciting expectation hovers in the foyer. Will the Aalto protagonists and the opera-goers finally be able to expect more light in the pandemic-clouded sky this year? Purcell's one-hour tour de force through Greek mythology with the dramatic focus on the unhappy love of a woman for a man who carelessly spurns this love promises a musically ambitious, entertaining gallop into the second half of the 2021/22 season. The constellation between Dido , the queen of Carthage, who, despite her passion, sees herself as having state responsibility, and Aeneas , the Trojan hero who is destined by the gods to found a new Troy in Rome, combines happiness and sorrow into a tragedy . A material par excellence, made for a moving, inspired opera story. The libretto by Nahum Tate based on the 4th canto of Virgil 's Aeneid tells the story of the Roman odyssey of Aeneas after the Trojan War. He flees across the Mediterranean to Carthage with Jupiter's commission to found a new empire in Italy. Jupiter's will and claim to power become the fate of the burgeoning love between Aeneas and the widowed Queen Dido . The hero is ordered to sail to Italy immediately and follow divine destiny. Caught in self-doubt between divine mission and earthly love, he is caught by Mercury disguised as a witchunequivocally reminded of its mission. Aeneas sails to Rome to fulfill the founding myth - and sacrifices his love for a woman. Dido rejects his half-hearted offer to stay in Carthage anyway, pointing to infidelity as a punishment from heaven. She dies. Whether heartbroken or suicide is told differently in mythology. This romantically dazzling, tragically moving story is cast in colorless and powerless blackness in Essen. No sparkling sparks, no matter how hard Andrea Sanguineti tries with a chamber ensemble of the Essen Philharmonic to let these sparks jump onto the stage. Sometimes there is a leaden tiredness over Ben Baur 's uninspired production. The fact that one of the musicians repeatedly sinks into a nap in the long breaks between their performances and hardly resists the sleepiness does not make a good impression on the audience, who sits directly opposite the ensemble at eye level. In the long run, felt subliminally, an attention-braking eye-catcher that distracts from the music and what's happening on stage. If one considers that Dido and Aeneas is a semi-opera in the context of the courtly Singspiel of the 17th century, which has its (subordinate) place after the main program of theater and dance, questions arise logically: Can such a semi-opera work as an opera alone without the preludes? So must Baur 's attempt in Essen inevitably miss the mark? To approach Purcell’s semi-opera from a perspective of cultural-historical complexity or to approach it reflexively with a production, productions such as those by Sasha Waltz at the Berlin State Opera ( Strong Women Left Alone , November 6th, 2019) or those byDavid Marton as part of the Ruhrtriennale ( Martons Purcell- Kraftzentrale , August 31, 2019, both published here) with more convincing dramaturgy ( Christian Schreiber ) and staging stringency. A black-robed, often hooded opera choir from the Aalto Theater dominates the Essen stage . However , their harmoniously woven, atmospherically dense carpet of sound (rehearsed by Patrick Jaskolka ) does not succeed in anticipating light moments and possibilities beyond the dull gloom. For the audience, practiced in social distancing and connected to each other as masked fellow sufferers for two years, the negative darkness of the staging and equipment is very unconvincing. Looking at the solo vocal parts, it is noticeable that men tend to play more inconspicuous roles. Strong women dominate, left alone by men. Tobias Greenhalgh as Aeneas is the only man on the stage apart from the musically ungrateful marginal figure of the first sailor ( Ian Spinetti ). Purcell's composition gives Greenhalgh few opportunities to let the richly colored middle of his baritone shine. Even Jessica Muirhead in the role of Dido , contrary to the suggested expectation of the title, has relatively limited roles. Muirhead tops off with her Ah! Belinda I am prest after the overture at the beginning of the first act the field of action. Her silhouette, reflected on the bare stage background, evokes a cross image. Destiny takes its divine course. Dido's lament - When I am laid in earth - , one of the most famous baroque soprano arias, is performed with expressiveness that gets under your skin. Her silky, shimmering soprano proves the emotional power of music. Composer Purcell and librettist Tate give the acting and singing parts after Belinda ( Giulia Montanari ), Dido's confidante (also 1st witch and ghost) and the 2nd woman and 2nd witch ( Christina Clark) a greater plot presence overall. Her sopranos shine with a melancholic and powerful timbre. The applause for this premiere is more elegantly reserved than enthusiastically overflowing.
Musically, this premiere was also a great success. Especially in these pandemic-prone times, opera fans thirst for such large and elaborate productions. And apparently so did the ensemble of the Aalto Theater in the same way. Because the joy of playing of all participants was transferred to the audience at all times and increasingly inspired them. That's why first of all a collective big praise for the musical ensemble on the stage of Essen's Il Trittico! Of course, this also applies to the opera choir and the children's choir of the Aalto Theater ( directed by Patrick Jaskolka ) and to the extras of the house. Each of the three one-act plays was well cast, right down to the smallest parts. And there are quite a number of them in Puccini's work. And in the main parts of the three one-act plays there is also only positive things to report.Heiko Trinsinger as Michele (Il Tabarro) and as Gianni Schicchi equally, highly convincing in singing and expression. Two parts that could hardly be more different in design. His Michele was powerful and full of dramatic vocals, and his interpretation of Schicchi was playful and very pointed. The audience saw it that way too: at the end many cheers for this artistic achievement. As his wife Giorgetta, Annemarie Kremer also knew how to inspire. She played the inner turmoil of this woman very well and gave it great emphasis with her voice. Sergey Polyakov also played and sang the beloved Luigi convincingly and with a strong voice and complemented this vocal trio absolutely adequately. Mezzo-soprano Bettina Ranch made two brilliant role debuts that evening as La Frugola in Il Tabarro and as Fürstin in Suor Angelica. On the one hand there was the design of the rather cheeky La Frugola (ferret), who collects things from the Seine that she obviously needs and then there was the portrayal of the unapproachable princess in Suor Angelica, which gave the Bettina Ranch a cool and unsympathetic aura . Here the reviewer would have wished that Puccini had written more singing of this part into the score, the vocal interpretation of the mezzo-soprano from Berlin was too convincing.Jessica Muirhead was rightly and deservedly in the audience's applause. Her portrayal of the desperate Suor Angelica got under the skin. The design of her aria " Senza mamma... " was certainly one of the highlights of the entire premiere evening, actually only topped by Angelica's final dying scene when she asks the Virgin Mary for forgiveness. (" O Madonna, salvami! "). That's them. The moments when the opera fan knows why he loves this art so much. Well done to Jessica Muirhead! In the concluding GIANNI SCHICCHI there was an all-round inspiring ensemble performance. The portrayal of the title actor by Heiko Trinsinger has already been mentioned here. As Schicchi's daughter Lauretta, Lilian Farahani found the ideal tone, not only, but also, for one of the most famous opera arias of all, the " O mio babbino caro ", and then received spontaneous applause for the touching design of this gem. Her side was Carlos Cardoso as Rinuccio, who gave this young man in love an enormous amount of voice and really conjured up tenor moments of brilliance. Great performance by the Portuguese tenor! Roberto Rizzi Brignoli , a proven expert in Italian opera , conducted the brilliant Essen Philharmonic Orchestra . He let his musicians play and sound Puccini's rich scores with precisely these very special subtleties and nuances and set great accents in the musically dramatic moments, particularly in Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica. Of course, well-deserved applause for him and the Philharmoniker at the end of the evening!
Hilsdorf sharpens the victim's perspective. He tells the gloomy ballad of the curse, which is called family, with well-known constants of his work: Of course, table and bed are once again the pillars of the rise and fall of the characters. There is also carousing here: A nasty company, in which there is no room for being different, celebrates the festivals as the heroes fall right next to them.[...] The 'Lucia di Lammermoor' is one of the great successes of bel canto.And luck in itself is the excellent form of the food Philharmoniker act as advocates of the sometimes underestimated epoch. It is no less than exemplary how they illuminate the score down to the smallest angle under the baton of the Apulian Giuseppe Finzi. [...] The opera season has one more top-class act on the repertoire. Bravo!
