Mira Alkhovik / Reviews

The last music theater premiere of the season traditionally takes place in Solothurn. And again the TOBS can score with baroque opera. Musically, the production is outstanding. The Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra, under the musical direction of Francis Benichou (standing in for Jan Tomasz Adamus, who was ill), indulges in historically informed Gluck's score. The tempos are well graded, as is the volume. The passages in the score, which were unusually modern for their time, are particularly successful. In the intimate setting of the Stadttheater Solothurn, not only are the individual instruments perfectly audible, but also their specific timbres. The TOBS chorus (prepared by Valentin Vassilev ) is also outstanding . Rhythmically extremely precise and with a compact sound, he usually acts behind the stage. Once again, TOBS has succeeded in hiring excellent soloists who harmonize perfectly. Juan Sancho gives the Orphée with his bright, powerful, slightly metallic tenor. Height security is a matter of course for him and so he is an ideal cast for this role written for a Haute Contre. He does an exemplary job of “ J'ai perdu mon Euridice ”, the opera's hit. Marion Grange is an Euridice with outstanding stage presence and inspires with her full, round, sovereign soprano. Mira Alkhovik as L'Amour completes the trio and offers a good contrast with her slim, youthfully fresh soprano. The scene (stage and costumes: Tatyana Ivschina), the curtain is open from the start and the overture is staged, offers furniture store chic in the old building. kitchen, bathroom, bed and TV. What to expect in an apartment. Orphée and Euridice, both properly dressed, which is no longer the norm these days, are coming home from a social event and can hardly wait. At the end of the overture, they disappear together under the covers. After a long break, the alarm clock suddenly rang. Orphée brews coffee and squeezes oranges. Everything changed overnight and Euridice became severely depressed. Orpheus as her husband takes care of her, L'Amour comes from the Spitex (hospital external help, Helvetism for outpatient nursing service). Not much happens scenically now, apart from the fact that with increasing stress on Orphée, for the purpose of visualizing it, quite unexpectedly, the ceiling begins to fall. Orphée and Euridice stay on stage until the end. According to Anna Drescher (director) in the programme, the central theme of the play is loss. The ancient myth has to be translated into the present, and this raises the question of what form the loss takes, whether it only exists in death or also in life. For Drescher it also exists in life and so Eurydice does not die but instead slips into a deep depression. That is the crux of the staging, because here Drescher equates a final loss with a temporary one and immediately relativizes the equating with the belief in the "power of love" ("It is the belief in love that they return to life together leaves»). If she equated death with an incurable mental illness, things would be different. One would assume that it is well known that with appropriate treatment and medication, people with depression can take control of their lives and not become a loss to those around them. However, the postulated visualization of the social topic becomes trivialized. Orphée's role as his wife's carer and her constant presence on stage generate numerous avoidable discrepancies. So Orphée Euridice does not lose and the fatal looking back does not take place either. The lonely highlight is then peeling onions together to start a new life in love (“ It is the belief in love that lets them return to life together... ”). Peeling onions will never be the same again...