Past Production Reviews
12'James Roser gave with astonishingly beautiful baritone-voice the Marker never a farcical nature.
Salzburg born Gustav Kuhn and his team introduce Don Giovanni, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts dramma giocoso to the audience in their typical minimalistic and estetic style.They design this cruel, women condemning playboy as a sophisticated, elegent gentlemen. The stage remains rather empty. Some bands in dark brown colour are hanging down, somehow continuing the inner design of the festival hall. A big white ball in a square construction is overruling the center of the stage, its meaning is kept secret. Light gets important and dims the scenery in bright daylight, mystical evening or night. The story lacks action, malice and sexappeal and the terror of Don Giovanni appears like boyish escapades. Only his ends develops into a dramatic spectacles with fire when he is swollowed by open earth to death.
On the other hand, Erda, raised on the box spring bed, sings magnificently, full of sensual and dramatic depth, which was performed by Marvic Monreal (standing in for Zanda Švēde). With a negligee and Marilyn Monroe demeanor, she lies lasciviously next to Wotan, of course with a champagne glass. Großartig hingegen, voll sinnlicher und darstellerischer Tiefe singt die auf dem Boxspringbett emporgefahrene Erda, die Marvic Monreal (eingesprungen für Zanda Švēde) gab. Mit Negligé und Marilyn-Monroe-Gebaren liegt sie lasziv neben Wotan, natürlich mit Sektflöte.
Nach sechs Jahren kehrt der Tannhäuser endlich wieder zurück auf die Tiroler Festspielbühne und wird vom Publikum begeistert aufgenommen. Zum einen liegt dies an der hervorragenden musikalischen Leistung des Orchesters sowie der Sängerinnen und Sänger, zum anderen aber auch an der zeitgerechten Interpretation des Werkes. Die Erler Inszenierung problematisiert nicht nur die Seelenqualen des Tannhäuser, die aus der scheinbar unauflösbaren Dissonanz des Frauenbildes zwischen Heiliger und Geliebter resultiert, sondern lenkt auch den Blick auf die Rolle der Frau, die gesellschaftliche Perspektive auf sie und ihre eigenen Bedürfnisse. So kann das Stück auch als eine Hommage an die Komplexität der menschlichen Bedürfnisse betrachtet werden. Vom ersten Ton an überzeugt das Orchester der Tiroler Festspiele Erl unter der musikalischen Leitung von Gustav Kuhn. Während der Ouvertüre treten die Nymphen in eine Burka gehüllt auf. Zunächst zurückhaltend schreitend, dann sich entfesselnder bewegend, legen sie die schwarze Verschleierung ab und zum Vorschein kommen gold-silbern schimmernde Kopf- und Oberkörperbedeckungen, die an Hidschabs erinnern. Schließlich tanzen die Nymphen immer lasziver, entledigen sich auch diesem kulturellen Stigma, und so kommen ihre facettenreiche Individualität und Weiblichkeit zum Vorschein, was durch schwarze hautenge und durchsichtige Spitzen-Overalls betont wird. Erst als der Chor die Nymphen auffordert, sich vom Venusberg zur irdischen Welt zu begeben, verschleiern sie sich erneut, und ihre individuelle Vielfalt ist nicht mehr erkennbar. Dieser Ansatz entspricht dem kulturell patriarchal geprägten Bild der Frau, die ihre Weiblichkeit und Sinnlichkeit verstecken muss oder andernfalls als Hure degradiert wird.
Over a decade ago, a musical director Gustav Kuhn created a music festival for a few weeks in the summer and the winter in an Austrian town of Erl, on the border with Germany. Surrounded by mountains and farmland with cows, the festival halls, now in two buildings, one white and one black, are a striking sight with breathtaking scenery as backdrop as one approaches the town by train. This summer, the Erl Music Festival is presenting Wagner’s Ring cycle twice, once over two weekends in July, and another time over the course of a weekend. On Friday evening at the beginning of the “weekend” Ring, the hall was packed with well-dressed Wagner enthusiasts from all over Germany and other European countries. The performance is semi-staged, as the orchestra is on the back of stage on terraced platforms, and a transparent scrim separates the orchestra from front of the stage where the action takes place. It is awe inspiring to see six harps lined up high on the bleachers, with the brass and woodwinds right below and strings further down. The screen on the back of the orchestra lights up in various colours, purple during the Rhinemaiden scene, red and orange in the entrance of Gods to Valhalla etc. The props are simple as the opera begins; one sees three tall towers of ladders, supported and moved around by men in black, from where the Rhinemaidens sing and tease Alberich. The gold is represented by a geometric light fixture that descends from the ceiling. The Gods are seen as a family of wealthy Americans lounging around with their cocktails on beach chairs. Fasolt is dressed as an American football player, Fafner as a hockey player with a stick. Donner sports a golfing outfit, and Froh is a hammer thrower. Wotan is a successful businessman, Loge his assistant with a smartphone which he uses to find Nibelheim. In the Nibelheim scene, five long pieces of metal on each side of the stage, somewhat reminiscent of the Met’s “machine,” move onto the stage noiselessly to provide scenery. A group of local youngsters was recruited as Nibelungs, with flashlights, and slink around from the side of the stage, carry the gold, and disperse noiselessly when threatened by Alberich. There is no grand entrance of the Gods to Valhalla, but the final scene shows the Rheinemaidens singing their lament standing among the orchestra, with Wotan and Loge singing on a podium from the back. The musical performance was of high quality, with the orchestra playing Wagner’s music often as gentle and lyrical chamber music with fine details in the strings and woodwinds, rather than as voluminous show of sound that could drown out the singers. While one misses some of the dynamic and emphatic rhythm of Wagner’s music, especially in the last scene where more bombastic power may have been welcome, the conductor kept the pace at a good clip, and there was no lull in the musical action. The subsequent three operas would demand more colour and varying emphasis from the orchestra, however. Except for Franz Hawlata as Fasolt and Andrea Silvestrelli as Fafner, none of the soloists are well-known internationally, but they were more than adequate, and some were quite impressive. All three Rhinemaidens were Japanese (Yukiko Aragaki, Michiko Watanabe, and Misaki Ono), and while some of their singing and German diction left a bit to be desired, they negotiated the music reasonably well. Hermine Haselböck, as Fricka, is tall and elegant, with a voice to match. The Wotan of Michael Kupfer has a moderately sized bass-baritone and sang and acted the part of a callous businessman/tycoon with style. The two veterans singing the giants strutted around on their platform shoes. The three spoiled siblings, Freia (Joo-Anne Bitter) Donner (Frederik Baldus) and Froh (Ferdinand von Bothmer) were youthful in voice and appearance. Giorgio Valenta sang the brief role of Mime, but made little impression. Elena Suvorova’s Erda possesses an earthy mezzo and sang Erda’s warning with appropriate pensive mood. The most satisfying singing of the evening came from Johannes Chum as Loge and Thomas Gazheli as Alberich. Chum has a clear and bright tenor voice that makes one sit up and pay attention as soon as he appears on the scene. While he could perhaps have done more with his text, his singing is clean, witty, seemingly effortless, and his lower notes are also impressive. He deservedly received the loudest ovation among the singers. Gazheli portrayed Alberich not as a conniving and heartless villain but as a rather pathetic creature seeking love and acceptance. While he seemed to tire towards the end, his dialogue with Loge in the Nibelheim scene was well sung and acted. A Das Rheingold that is not well played and sung could be an exercise in patience as it is performed with no intermission over two and a half hours. At Erl, the well rehearsed orchestra and the fine ensemble of singers made the experience a great pleasure. The excellent acoustics of the hall and the simple, uncluttered staging proved to be a perfect setting for the magic of Wagner’s music. As the performance ended and the audience filed out of the theatre, the idyllic scenes of mountains and meadows were just beginning to turn from dusk to evening, a truly dream like end of a special evening.
"At the dress rehearsal of" Rusalka ", the first impression is of the all-encompassing beauty of the sound-world of the music. (...) Alexander Prior savors the yearning and poetry in the opera, but also the huge dramatic surges, the festival orchestra follows him with great ease (...) Klepper tells the story of being foreign very cleverly. Rusalka cannot arrive in the smooth, golfing world of the prince, she is not part of it. Oh, and how Karen Vuong plays this despair, it is terrific and touching timbre, her fine vibrato carries the voice wonderfully. " "Bei der Generalprobe der "Rusalka" ist der erste Eindruck erst einmal die umfassende Klangschönheit der Musik. (...) Alexander Prior kostet die Sehnsucht und die Poesie, aber auch die ganz großen dramatischen Aufwallungen aus, das Festspielorchester folgt ihm mit größter Souveränität. (...) Klepper erzählt die Geschichte des Fremdseins sehr geschickt. Rusalka kann in der glatten, golfspielenden Welt des Prinzen nicht ankommen, sie gehört nicht dazu. Ach, und wie Karen Vuong diese Verzweiflung spielt, das ist grandios. Sie verfügt über ein berührendes Timbre, ihr feines Vibrato trägt die Stimme wundervoll. "
“Accompanying these images (stage: Martina Segna) are brilliant sounds from the orchestra pit: The 27-year-old Alexander Prior confirmed his reputation as an insider-tip. With subtle small gestures he submerged the music down to invisibility, and then ignited storms of sound with furious large gestures. The orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiel followed: there was playful natural magic from the harp and woodwinds to reveling in the choir’s proud trumpeting (rehearsal: Olga Yanum) simultaneous to calls to damnation for Rusalka, who roared like a “dies irae” doomsday, thoughtfully planned and musically gripping.” "Zu diesen bitteren, klar verfolgbaren Bildern (Bühne: Martina Segna) tönt aus dem Orchestergraben Fulminantes: Der 27-jährige Alexander Prior bestätigte seinen Ruf als Geheimtipp. Mit feiner Kleinzeichnung tauchte er bis zur Unsichtbarkeit ab, um dann mit furioser Großgestik Klangstürme zu entfachen. Das Orchester der Tiroler Festspiele folgte: Da waren spielerischer Naturzauber von Harfe und Holzbläsern über selbstgefälliges Chor-Auftrumpfen (Einstudierung: Olga Yanum) hin zu den Verdammungsrufen für Rusalka, die wie ein „Dies-irae“-Weltgericht tosten überlegt disponiert und packend ausmusiziert."
Bairisch-tirolische Kraftausdrücke und bizarre Szenen-Momente machen die zweistündige Partitur kurzweilig. Aus dem Ensemble ragen der Bariton Frederik Baldus (Oberstabswachtmeister „Schleif“), der Tenor Sascha Zarrabi (Soldat Bernd Fröhlich) und der Countertenor Thomas Lichtenecker (Fähnrich Michael von Bene) heraus. Am meisten beeindrucken jene Szenen, die sich vom dokumentarischen Realismus befreien und auf eine visionäre Ebene springen.
Theo Lebow kommt kein bisschen in Atemnot in dessen furiosen Koloraturketten, während denen Contareno zu Bianca sogar handgreiflich wird. Dabei ist er nicht der einzige cholerische Koloratur-Tenor in Rossinis Schaffen, wohl aber einer von denen mit den längsten Gesangsphrasen. Lebow mischt Weichheit und Energie, gestaltet eigentlich nicht viril attackierend und überzeugt mit bemerkenswerter Kondition.
Non si potrebbe desiderare una compagnia di canto migliore di quella che appare sul palcoscenico del teatro del Tiroler Festspiele: sembra che il magnifico sestetto sia nato per rappresentare i sei personaggi. Ogni artista offre una generosa prestazione canora e attoriale, tuttavia Barbara Massaro primeggia. La giovane cantante, piccoletta e un pochino formosetta, se così si piò dire, crea un personaggio credibile e indimenticabile, disegna una giovane donna onesta e dal carattere forte. Canta parecchio nella burletta, la bella Berenice, e Barbara Massaro sostiene una lunga ed impegnativa parte senza fare una piega. La voce, non dal volume enorme, è cristallina, pulitissima, perfettamente proiettata.
“Anyone who thinks that masterpieces will find their way into the collective memory of posterity over time, in order to ultimately experience the appreciation they deserve, is wrong. To be forgotten is probably the bitterest form of reception that can happen to a work of art. Of the many examples in music history, Italian opera has a particularly tragic fate: that of Pietro Mascagni's idyllic masterpiece 'L'amico Fritz'. This overlooked gem shines with rich timbres and hides Italy's most beautiful musical pearls almost undiscovered. ”
Die Entdeckung des Gesamtrings in Erl aber war Thomas Gazheli, der neben dem Wanderer auch den Alberich in "Rheingold" und "Götterdämmerung" gesungen hatte: Der deutsche Bassbariton vermochte in beiden Partien wunderbare Gestaltungskraft, Flexibilität und Ausdruck miteinzubringen. Jeder Ton saß präzise, das Timbre klingt herrlich balsamisch und Duett mit der Erda von Rena Kleifeld sorgt er für knisternde Spannung vor einem Orchester in Höchstform.
