Peter Christian Feigel / Recensioni

Paul Abraham 's operettas have been experiencing a renaissance in Germany since 2013. The trigger was the staging of his operetta "Ball im Savoy" at the Komische Oper Berlin. In 2017, the "Märchen im Grand-Hotel " followed there as a concert performance, which was performed in its entirety in 2018 at the Staatstheater Mainz and in 2019 at the Staatsoper Hannover and the Staatstheater Meiningen. The comedy operetta based on Alfred Savoir with a libretto by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda, premiered in 1934 in the Theater an der Wien, has now been premiered at the Dresden State Operetta in the version of the Komische Oper Berlin as the first premiere of the new season with two acts and a prologue - and Nachspiel brought to the stage, with which the directing team under Cornelia Poppe with Esther Dandini , set design, Mandy Garbrecht , choreography and Alexei C. Bernard , tap dance, immediately achieved a "big hit" that only honestly meant audiences were enthusiastic about There was applause (and no "boos"!). "To set the mood", the foyer was "transformed" into a "hotel lobby" with posters from the past of the big stars and music as a reminder of the heyday of operetta, including talk shows and live music, which, however, is reflected in the spacious foyer with its raw , in this house very unsightly, brick walls lost. The stage design, with its perfectly painted, illusionistic backdrop and large sweeping staircase, carried us off all the more coherently into a "real grand hotel" of bygone times. Before that, the orchestra of the state operetta, placed with the necessary distances, took up the middle part of the stage and, under the direction of Peter Christian Feigel , left nothing to be desired. It offered the singers a secure foundation and created a rousing atmosphere and verve, without which an operetta is not an operetta. The new, so-called "practical stage reconstruction" by H. Hagedorn and M. Grimminger, based on the original score that was believed lost and rediscovered, made it possible to experience a sound pattern typical of the time of its origin using the means of a theater orchestra today, without appearing antiquated. In the varied music with partly Hungarian coloring (Abraham was German-Hungarian) from waltz to tango, from foxtrot to jazz, the “German Gershwin” sounds here, as in the other musically reconstructed Abraham operettas, in which also contemporary Experiments, especially in the instrumentation, are not lacking. The operetta thrives on the sparkling melodies and the dance, which runs through the entire evening, penetrating, supplementing and "commenting" on the action in a constant flow, perfectly performed by the ballet of the State Operetta , but also by the singers, the amazing showed. Andreas Sauerzapf was in his element as narrator (conferencier), room waiter Albert and hotel heir-to-be. He was able to concentrate on his vital game, movement and easy-to-understand language (which unfortunately is no longer a matter of course) and also cover up some things. As Prince Andreas Stephan, Gero Wendorff also enthralled more with his amusing portrayal and dance interludes than with melting singing. Bryan Rotfuss as Sam Makintosh, Marcus Günzel as M. Chamoix, imitating the caretaker or – much to the delight of the audience – a countess with high heels, and the men's quartet with Friedemann Condé , Georg Güldner , Michael Kuhn and Andreas Pester focused mainly on dance and humorous representation, which is not a mistake in the operetta. As a modern female personality, the singing and dancing Laila Salome Fischer appeared as Marylou/Mable. Beate Korntner gave the Infanta Isabella the necessary operetta glamor with real operetta singing, good diction and reliable high notes as well as the appropriate composure. They all cavorted in front of the orchestra on the action area, furnished in modern abstraction, and ensured a varied and fast-paced plot that the librettists created as a parody of the operetta genre with its conflicts and misunderstandings resulting from differences in status and changes of identity. Only Isabella and the prince, who should become a dream couple, appear at the beginning like in a beautiful operetta dream in the background against the backdrop of the "Grand Hotel" and dance the "minuet" until they move forward into the confusing events which the prince didn't lose his head, but his inflated headdress - even small theatrical mishaps must be! As in all Abraham operettas, the "twist" here is that the couples find each other crosswise and not - as was previously the case - everyone on their own social level - a reminiscence of the new, different time. Here the "dethroned" Spanish infanta meets the room waiter and a film crew from Hollywood, with both ultimately bringing the "rescue" and the happy ending. This operetta from the 1930s offers enough fuel between the conventional and the modern, so that a fundamental "modernization" was dispensed with for good reason. There was only one currently conditional "Corona" adjustment due to regulations such as the performance duration of 90 minutes. With so much dynamic and humor on stage, one would have liked to have watched longer, but the greatest praise for a performance is when it is closed appears briefly. The new, very effective stage design and direction practiced here as a combination of modern director's theater and traditional splendor and glamor in memory of the former heyday of operetta, which can only be realized so effectively on the new stage of the house, should meet all requirements and bringing to everyone what he hopes for.

Applause fountains after each dance number and loud ovations at the end. The audience at the premiere liked the semi- to full-stage installation of Paul Abraham's comedy operetta "Märchen im Grand-Hotel", in which the version of the Komische Oper Berlin was used at the Dresden State Operetta: something pleasing for the eyes and ears ended the coronal Lent in the Mitte power plant. In terms of dance and orchestra, the evening had a remarkable format. Gero Wendorff as the Austrian Prince Andreas Stephan outshone everything with that combination of personality and skill that is part of the DNA of contemporary operetta.It's late autumn in Infanta Isabella's money box, but despite the hardship and hardship, this autumn is just barely showing itself in mild colors. The service team of the grand hotel in Cannes, decked out in smart green, hovers around the emigrated sovereignty like leaves in free fall. According to the libretto, midsummer is hot and tempting for princely mating. But from that overheating caused by what is called "emotional sensation" here, hardly anything vibrates in the auditorium, which by no means seems empty. “Distance” is the word of the times. Mouth and respiratory protection are part of the equipment on flights from Broadway to the Côte d'Azur. At least the change from the damsat of the princely suite to the iron-hard star catwalks of Hollywood takes place without bruises for the blue blood. If Paul Abraham didn't make a compositional difference between the social spheres, then that doesn't need to be reflected on the scene either, director Cornelia Poppe must have thought. That's why you see little of the swan song to an era that Paul Abraham, Albert Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda foamed up in and for Vienna in 1934 - i.e. after the seizure of power - as a self-deceptively exaggerated mixture of nobility, business and fashion. The neglect of this bitter work background blossoms into a lively show in the optimally used spatial conditions of the state operetta. On the huge proscenium there is dancing, tap-tapping (perfectly supervised by Alexei C. Bernard), dialogue and champagne. However, drinking from a goblet is taboo for the princess and the supposed waiter, not because of the difference in status, but because of hygiene regulations. On the main stage, the orchestra is enthroned in front of the lovingly detailed painted prospect of the entrance hall - as a hotel band with a full staff, it is even scenically required with applauding, clicking and sighing. Such jokes fit better than the contrast blur between the prologue and epilogue to the two main acts. The shifts in motor skills between the office of film magnate Sam Makintosh (Bryan Rothfuss), who is under pressure from the pressure of competition, and the Grand Hotel, where the motor skills of modern times pause, are only peripheral. Abraham's melodies and America-loving sounds celebrate once again everything that was loved in the late Weimar Republic and forbidden in the dark years up to 1945. "Märchen im Grand-Hotel" is the operetta discovery of the hour in a short production sequence (last Meiningen, Hanover, Hamburg), because it shows the death of old privileges and the social acceleration as in a burning mirror with a spicy joke: Everything like today, only without social media. Abraham's rhythmic hodgepodge seems like the fleet-footed, “Distance” remains the concept word of the evening until Infanta Isabella of Spain and Prince Andreas Stephan of Austria break their engagement, play themselves in a feature film to restructure their accounts and find other happiness alongside new partners from the financially strong entrepreneurial nobility. A handicap of this rehearsal is that Laila Salome Fischer as the mastermind Marylou, who repeatedly wears the star diadem of the (economic) statue of liberty, seems to freeze next to the motoric sovereign elegance. In addition, Marcus Günzel, as an archetype, runs normative quota travesty for several princesses who understand. Otherwise: women, cocktails, flirt! The prince rags without class-specific reservations with women who are demure by day and willing by night. With the rare combination of a fine, striking tenor and talented dancer, Gero Wendorff has that passion and lightness that only makes Abraham's songs ironic. Andreas Sauerzapf is in the central role of the hotel heir, who is supposed to acquire the spurs to managerial competence incognito as a waiter. Next to him, Beate Korntner shows the successfully depersonalized result of aristocratic training. With somnambulistic delicacy, she floats through the emotional arid zone of the Dresden Grand Hotel. Where there is little erotic crackling of sparks, there is no passionate conflagration! Director Cornelia Poppe agreed with choreographer Mandy Garbrecht and set designer Esther Dandani that they would at least turn a blind eye to all the gender clichés that Abraham, Grünwald and Löhner-Beda placed somewhere between irony and confirmation. In the remaining smoothness of economic and emotional mechanics, music is the main trump card next to the happy ending at any price. This time the orchestra and the ballet on site always have the fine capacities for subtle shades between 'straight' and 'queer'. The vocal quartet (Friedemann Condé, Georg Güldner, Michael Kuhn, Andreas Pester) favors more aseptic musicality than dry wit. Nevertheless, Peter Christian Feigel mills, saws, drills and knocks Abraham's many catchy tunes into all auditory canals with the sound body he is very familiar with.