Frühere Produktionsrezensionen
6An allererster Stelle sei hier das Debut von Hanna-Elisabeth Müller als Arabella genannt. Was für eine wunderschöne facettenreiche Stimme. Auch schauspielerisch gestaltete sie ihre Partie sehr überzeugend. Gewiss wird Arabella eine ihrer Glanzpartien werden. Ein Genuss! Zum ersten Mal an diesem Hause hörte man in der Rolle der Zdenka die Sopranistin Anett Fritsch. Sie gestaltete diese Partie mit höhensicherer Stimme und viel Energie. Die fast unsingbare Rolle der Fiakermilli war mit der temperamentvollen Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk gut besetzt. Sie meisterte die Koloraturen souverän. Die Partie der besorgten Mutter Adelaide war bei Judith Schmid bestens aufgehoben. Die Kartenauflegerin gestaltete Irène Friedli.
In Gideon Davey's unified set - the lobby of a four-story Viennese hotel with balustrades - the colors red and black of the Reich, predominate. An art deco chandelier dangles from the stage tower, completing the evocation of the zeitgeist. Arabella's three suitors are dressed in the uniform of the SS. It makes perfect sense, then, to see in the closing bars a Nazi mob violently question the happy-ending of Strauss's opera, by pointing guns to Mandryka, the Croatian outsider and love rival of the officers. The zeitgeist will break into the play by three other occasions. Two banners with swastikas can be seen along either side of the stage during the ball of the second act. The Fiakermilli, mouthpiece of the vox populi, dressed in a folkish dirndl plays a pantomime with young peasants. Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk adds her yodeling coloratura effectively. The scenic highlight is reserved for the interlude that normally comments on Zdenka and Matteo's love night but is here enlivened by Philippe Giraudeau's choreography as a street fight between brown shirts and young peasants wearing lederhosen.
Sabine Mäder 's stage is mostly action-oriented. Only the abode of the four friends in the first picture - not an attic room, but a living container - has its acoustic and scenic pitfalls: the otherwise, in the middle to front stage area, excellent transparency and diction of all singers is in the small cubicle, although mostly wallless rear left, about 4 x 6 m in size, greatly reduced. To compensate for this somewhat remote location, a cameraman ( Oliver Lasch) close-ups of the container residents were made on stage, which are projected onto a surface in the right half of the stage, behind which the "Momus" counter is hidden. Not only is the cameraman's scurrying around annoying, but the transmission is also repeatedly chopped up by dropouts and pixelation. On the part of the leadership, the story is told very clearly and straightforwardly on the action and emotional level, and the latter level is also very carefully designed musically. This is the work of Markus Poschner , who lets the Bruckner Orchestra Linz play music precisely and transparently and of course also has the coordination between the pit and the stage perfectly under control.
Of course, one cannot compete on the same level with the Upper Italian “home” of this opera since 1913 and the luxurious, museum-like staging that has been established there over the last few decades. Hence the production team (staging by Sabine Hartmannshenn , stage by Stefan Heinrichs , costumes by Edith Kollath , light by Herbert Sachsenhofer , dramaturgy by Christoph Blitt) on the certainly not new idea of letting the evening pass in the guise of a theater rehearsal. The emotions and role identification of the performers become more intense and direct from act to act - in any case an expression of careful personal direction. This is framed by parts of the scenery that are eagerly pushed back and forth, only rarely showing their front side, which then gives clear references to the Veronese production mentioned. But here, too, the following applies: the further the evening progresses, the more the scenarios immerse themselves in the reality of the piece; the invocation of Ptah at the end of the first act is still a party, perhaps on the occasion of the first dress rehearsal, where the actress serving Amneris canapèes and the pharaoh's throne is decorated with colorful balloons, the triumphal march, at least its second half, much more serious to the point. Finally, the exit scene is kept in extreme reduction - black curtain border, no Egyptian folklore, Radames on the left, Aida on the right back on the stage, two downlights, and Amneris crouches desperately listening at the front of the ramp - but this again results in maximum concentration on the emotions the immured.
The leading team had already staged four Mozart operas in Linz in recent years. The jubilation and the expected standing ovations were mainly for the musical side. Already with the overture, Markus Poschner showed his unquestionable competence for Mozart - with a beaming face and animating gestures for the ladies and gentlemen of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, who for their part proved their professional quality right from the start. Already the first applause had frenetic quality. Poschner also understands how to accompany and reinforce the soloists to lead them to special performances. All roles could be satisfactorily to excellently cast by members of the ensemble.
