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OPERA NEWS, March 2003 |
HORST KOEGLER |
Fierrabras, Zürich, performance 22
November 2002
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Fierrabras
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Fierrabras
(from 1823, the period of Die Schöne Müllerin) is the third opera by
Schubert produced during Alexander Pereira's reign at Zurich's Opernhaus.
Heard November 22, the well-received production proved strikingly
intelligent, redeeming Fierrabras's much-criticized libretto (by Josef
Kupelwieser, Schubert's close friend) through a multi-layered staging that
placed Schubert himself at the center.
In a beautiful Biedermeier parlor (designed by Christian Schmidt), Schubert
is discovered at a huge fortepiano -- he is dwarfed by the music he is
composing. Fierrabras becomes an amateur performance, in which Schubert
distributes roles to his friends, depicted much as they are in Moritz von
Schwind's famous drawing of a Schubertiade.
Thus the conflicts of the plot become Schubert's private conflicts. This
approach permits smiling acceptance of the naïveté of the story, concerning
romantic entanglements during Charlemagne's war on a Saracen, Boland.
Boland's son, Fierrabras, loves Charlemagne's daughter, Emma, who tries to
escape with Eginhard, one of Charlemagne's knights; meanwhile, Roland,
Charlemagne's commander, loves Florinda, Boland's daughter. At last,
Fierrabras yields, then joins Charlemagne's Christian army -- suggesting
that a male community, based on comradeship, may be the alternative for
people like Schubert, always a loser in love.
Klaus Guth's sophisticated production emphasized the Romantic yearning for
friendship and love in the Age of Chivalry, contrasted with the stifling
petit-bourgeois reality of post-Napoleonic Vienna. Though Guth strictly
condensed the opera's spoken texts and drama, the music was given free rein
by conductor Franz Welser-Möst, an ardent Schubertian, and his superb
orchestra. Welser-Möst accompanied the soloists (mostly young singers) and
busy chorus with the loving care, grace and subtlety of a lieder-pianist,
without shying from the orchestral storms (in which Schubert clearly
anticipates Wagner). This reading had weight, grandeur and dramatic impact,
as well as heartwrenching lyrical outpourings.
As Fierrabras, Jonas Kaufmann delivered an entirely sympathetic
performance, utilizing his charisma, his warm, sizable and flexible tenor,
and intelligent, elegant delivery and bearing. As Schubert's
father/Charlemagne, Gregory Frank (replacing the indisposed Lászlo Pólgár)
displayed a voluminous bass voice and a commanding, truly imperial presence.
Rolf Haunstein squeezed the role of Boland for every drop of
bloodthirstiness and intransigence. Newcomer Christoph Strehl (Eginhard),
with a tenor of melting beauty, was wonderfully tender in his A-minor
serenade, while Michael Volle (Roland) proved himself once again the
full-blast baritone pillar of Zurich's ensemble.
Both leading ladies were somewhat less impressive. However, Liuba
Chuchrova's Florinda plucked the heartstrings while pouring out her
innermost feelings; Joanna Kozlowska was a touching Emma.
Wolfgang Beuschel, a respected actor and singing coach, played Schubert.
Though he spoke only rarely (texts drawn mostly from the libretto), he
remained present throughout the performance. Shy, completely absorbed in his
work, he was precisely as one imagines Schubert to have been. |
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