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4Wild and whacky seem inadequate words to describe the intoxicating mash-up of contemporary cultural references layered over Strauss’s 1874 operetta Die Fledermaus. The outrageous mix of ideas in some ways shouldn’t have worked, yet this ambitious production from Bergen National Opera, in collaboration with the city’s national theatre, was a triumph.
Magnificent musical performances and a visually seductive production cannot disguise Tan Dun’s opera’s flaws Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/cddd26b0-c3a8-11e2-aa5b-00144feab7de Tan Dun’s opera Marco Polo has had a chequered history. Originally commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival in the late 1980s, by the time it was completed, directors had moved on and it was not premiered until 1996 in Munich. It has had only a handful of performances since, so kudos to Mary Miller, Bergen National Opera’s director, for selecting such a challenging work to launch the city’s annual arts festival. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/cddd26b0-c3a8-11e2-aa5b-00144feab7de Tan Dun demands incredible vocal dexterity from his singers, who whoop and yelp with alacrity. Nina Warren is superb as Scheherazade in an overly bustled dress, more Alice in Wonderland than Arabian Nights, while the rich bass of Dong-Jian Gong’s Kublai Khan emerges from a hot bundle of fur. The chorus, strung across the stage in monk-like hoodies, seemed to have the most fun with the vocalised effects.
It is not difficult to understand why “The Magic Flute” is the most frequently played of all operas. The play is full of adventurous moments and features some of operatic literature’s most iconic characters. The arias to the Queen of the Night and Papageno are also in the public domain. Nevertheless, it is difficult to get away from the fact that “The Magic Flute” is close to a disaster from a theatrical point of view. “The Magic Flute” An opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812). Called “Die Zauberflöte” in German. Premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791. Combines recitative (song-like speech) with spoken dialogue between the song sequences. It is also originally in German, and was intended for a more popular audience than the Italian operas. The opera is among the most performed in the world. Source: Wikipedia Saved by the director The plot borders on the absurd and incomprehensible, the message of exalted male wisdom struggles with credibility, to say the least, and the jokes cannot always be said to have stood the test of time. If you look at artistically ambitious productions from the last decade, you get the impression that “The Magic Flute” is an opera that must be saved from its own embarrassments through extensive directing. British Simon McBurney’s strategy is to let a virtuosic idiom draw attention away from the weaknesses of the opera’s content. Something he succeeds in, at least a good distance on the way. Clear from the start McBurney’s ambition is clear even before the performance begins. When the audience enters the hall, the conductor is already seated in front of the orchestra, in an orchestra pit that is only partially submerged. The overture starts brusquely already while the light in the hall is on. When the light is gradually lowered in the hall, the performance’s stage space emerges more clearly. It consists mainly of a black open stage containing only a wide platform attached to scaffolding with wires in each corner. DARK: The scenography mainly consists of a wide platform. Photo: Magnus Skrede / BNO The platform functions in a number of ways throughout the performance: as a defined stage floor at different heights, as a steep sloping plane, as a roof or back wall, or as a separation between scenic height levels. Enchanting stagecraft But McBurney has more to offer. On each outer edge of the stage, he places designers who, via microphones and video cameras, create much of the show’s visual and aural expression in real time. For example, the huge snake that chases Prince Tamino in the opening scene is drawn with chalk. This is the first of many examples of how McBurney turns practical embarrassments into striking stage effects. The enchantment of the performance therefore lies to a large extent in the stage craft itself. LEVEL DIFFERENCE: McBurney takes parts of the show to new heights. Photo: Magnus Berg Dark men and sorceresses What story McBurney wants to tell, however, is more unclear. The scenography gives the performance a dark feel. It is not obvious that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, although the end apparently brings peace and reconciliation between all parties. The queen of the night sings partly sitting in a wheelchair. Her power is obviously not what it once was. Whether she is a tried and tested woman with a legitimate agenda or an evil sorceress with exhaustion syndrome is hard to say. WEAKENED: The Queen of the Night (Rainelle Krause) sings most of her vocal parts sitting in a wheelchair. Photo: Magnus Berg Sarastro and his male-dominated community do not appear as apostles of light either. The associations go in the direction of a kind of Illuminati-like organization that steers the world towards the apocalypse, with Sarastro as both a charismatic and authoritarian leader. The heart skips a beat The fact that Prince Tamino trusts these people blindly does not speak in his favour. He should have run for his life already when he saw what kind of brutal band of robbers Sarastro has on his payroll (Monostatos and the rest of the slaves). To get to the point: For natural reasons, McBurney wants to shake up the opera’s simple distinction between good and evil forces. Then, at the same time, the beating heart of the opera slips away: the touching love story between Tamino and Pamina, two admirable young people who grow internally through external trials. Both come across as excessively stupid and naive in this direction. NAIVE LOVE: Prince Tamino (Linard Vrielink) and Pamina (Mari Eriksmoen). Photo: Magnus Berg / BNO If I had bought a used car from any of these people, the choice would have fallen on the opera’s immortal anti-hero: the bird catcher Papageno. He looks like an honest guy as he trudges around with paint stains on his clothes and a curtain rod over his shoulder. Perhaps this is McBurney’s point. In an “enlightened” world that is really ruled by money and power, Papageno, the jovial guy who redecorates your kitchen, is really the only one you can trust. Star cast of singers On the soloist side, this performance is a delight from end to end. Linard Vrielink sings Tamino’s arias effortlessly and with youthful fervor. Soprano Mari Eriksmoen shows once again that she is one of the really good Paminas of our time. American Rainelle Krause has the necessary mix of power and acrobatics needed for the Queen of the Night’s arias to really take off. Dane Stephen Miling’s sonorous bass voice makes Sarastro a frighteningly current charismatic leader. Most impressive, however, is the Dutch Thomas Oliemans, who manages to create a Papageno for our time, even with a lot of original text (in German!). BRILLIANT: Baritone Thomas Oliemans impresses in the role of Papageno. Here together with Papagena (Renate Ekerhovd). Photo: Magnus Berg Oliemans is simply a brilliant singer-actor with impeccable comic timing. But it actually has to be that way for a production of “The Magic Flute” to hit the mark. Conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen leads the choir and orchestra with a steady hand, although I experienced some of his tempos as excessively hectic, especially in the first act. A modern success McBurney’s production of “The Magic Flute” premiered at the English National Opera as early as 2013, and has subsequently been played in several rounds both in London and Aix-de-Provence. In the spring, it will be staged at The Met. It is therefore not surprising that opera director Eivind Gullberg Jensen wants to present the production in Grieghallen. For McBurney, that piece of art actually manages to give “The Magic Flute” a modern idiom without sacrificing too much of its simple charm and joys. At the same time, he shows that little is more enchanting than opera when everything clicks. news reviewer Photo: BNO Title: “The Magic Flute” Location: Grieghallen, Bergen Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto: Emanuel Schikaneder Conductor: Eivind Gullberg Jensen Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Choir: Edvard Grieg Choir, singers from the Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Collegium Musicum and the Grieg Academy Director: Simon McBurney Director in Bergen: Rachael Hewer Scenographer: Michael Levine Costume Designer: Nicky Gillibrand Lighting Designer: Jean Kalman Video Designer: Finn Ross Sound Designer: Gareth Fry Josie Daxter: Movement Instructor Håkon Matti Skrede: Choir Master Cast: Linard Vrielink (Tamino), Mari Eriksmoen ( Pamina), Stephen Milling (Sarastro), Rainelle Krause (Queen of the Night), Ann-Helen Moen (1st lady), Rosanne van Sandwijk (2nd lady), Astrid Nordstad (3rd lady), Thomas Oliemans (Papageno), Renate Ekerhovd (Papagena), Mark Omvlee (Monostatos), Håvard Stensvold (The Speaker), Ludvig Lindström (1st priest/2nd soldier), Eirik Grøtvedt (2nd priest/1st soldier), Olav Frøyen Sandvik (1st boy), Benjamin Win ter (2. boy), Markus Sollesnes (3rd boy). Date: 5–11 November 2022
Double-bound, semi-current, harmless, satirical entertainment theater at the Opera in Copenhagen with "Den glade Enke 2.0". Or have I been wrong and it is a life-threatening image of the eternal prostitution of cultural life? But as always: a chapel playing, as far as the survival of art was concerned. "The Happy Widow" from 1907 was then placed in a ridiculous diplomatic environment, which has now moved up to an equally old-fashioned theater environment. In an updated version, the story now takes place in a theater that lacks money and is in the clutches of busy officials, while politicians' demands for popularity, breadth and earnings torment everyone. On top of an overly reverent bow to the grotesque demands of the time for diversity in gender, body, etc. The many questions Art must ask questions! A mantra that is often said. And it's undeniably what Kasper Holten and Adam Price's new version do. The more pampered opera and operetta audience is probably a big question mark, but not by life's big fundamental question, (to be or not to be), but rather by everything else: Droit morale towards the composer and author Frans Lehár Obligations of the Opera Department The use of opera singers / actors in operettas The need for entertainment of the time Today's absurd demands for diversity in gender, appearance, ethnicity, but just not age! Aesthetics / functionality It may sound dry, but "the happy Widow 2.0" requires a closer health check: Moral right The seasoned folk high school and theater man Arne Skovhus once said in the rebellious 1970s, when the theaters had a hard time selling tickets: "If the churches were full every Sunday, there would be something to think about". As chief executive of the Royal Theater with an accounting balance of more than DKK 1 billion, Kasper Holten has something to ponder. So he would rather resort to a full house than to the opposite. Together with the handyman Adam Price, he has therefore created the new widow version so that the theater can fulfill several of its obligations: Large production at the opera, entertainment and happy ending, catchy music, easy-to-understand sales material etc. and hopefully subsequent positive reflection in ticket sales . But what about Franz Lehár, who in 1907 wrote a coherent piece of music over a novel from the middle of the 19th century? I'm neither an operetta fan nor crazy about stories of loose, younger women marrying old, fat, rich men to escape the clutter of the underclass. Such stories abound as fungal growth within the lighter opera and operetta literature: La Boheme, La Traviata and thus The Happy Widow. It is uninteresting, old-fashioned and sexist. Therefore ok from here to make the story about and also to write a new libretto, which unfortunately is sometimes grumpy with pressure in the wrong places, so it becomes fatal to the enjoyment. But nice with Danish subtitles for the Danish-singing actors. Then we understand the action! But the music in "The Happy Widow 2.0" stops many times, not least in the first part. There is too much talk with loud shrillness and artificial opera voices. It is a shame. In the second part, Lehár's score is supplemented by Aretha Franklin's top number: "Respect", originally written by Otis Redding in 1965 - here sung by a formidable Lise Baastrup. The hall boiled, the biggest applause of the evening and so afterwards. But a little too smart, right? And is it legal against Lehár's thoroughly composed score? Obligations of the Opera Department What does the Royal Theatre's opera department need? Of course sell tickets, but also play the great classics and newer works! During the short work of the Englishman John Fulljames, the opera department has been lively, although there are only a few soloists left and many other productions purchased. With a new political agreement, the repertoire must be more "user-friendly", social democratic, etc. Here a rewritten operetta fits well - and otherwise the theater must now also play musicals and thus enter into unequal competition with the private producers who often put houses and cottages in. as security every time a new product is produced. Uses of opera singers / actors With "The Happy Widow 2.0", Holten and co. lucky to have Morten Staugaard, who today is a baritone / bass at the Royal Theater, but originally trained as an actor. Therefore, it is plausible and extremely well-functioning with him as the theater director running around and looking like a strange relic of the past with checkered trousers, goat goatee and hairstyle a la Einstein. Unfortunately, there is not much music left in his role. Opposite this are especially the sopranos and tenors with problems in the many speech scenes. Both Gisela Stille, as the widow, and Denice Beck, the director's wife, are fine as singers in the two supporting parties, while their retort treatment sets us back decades. The baritone Palle Knudsen, in the role of Danni or Danilo, is in turn a joy to listen to and watch. Everything is in order and he is allowed to sing out. Likewise with Gert Henning-Jensen's figure, With the actress Lise Baastrup in an extra role as the DJ in the theater, the distance to good acting becomes significant. She knows her stuff, fills the stage when, as a busy official, she has to save the threads and also gets her own "moment of fame" with the song "Respect". Not without reason, she became the darling of the premiere audience. A little unfair to the others, because they struggled with the heavy lyrics and the many stairs, while they also had to have control of song and music. Conclusion It will not be me who reports the performance to either the operetta police or kvinfo. For "The Happy Widow 2.0", the theatre's huge machinery is set in motion with a well-playing chapel in the orchestra pit and the entire opera's keyboard in operation. But the question of the national stage's intentions hangs in the air: is there seriousness in the jokes, or does the theater just hope that the cheerful music and the "funny" yellow poster can attract the audience?
