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CBS News, August 6, 2012 |
George Jahn |
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Puccini: La Boheme, Salzburger Festspiele, 4. August 2012 |
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Strauss' 'Ariadne,' Puccini's 'Boheme' both please
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SALZBURG, Austria — Opera-goers attending Salzburg Festival's new production
of Puccini's "La Boheme" expected the worst when the man with the microphone
stepped out, shortly before show-time — but then came the good news. Piotr
Beczala, who had received rave reviews at last week's premiere, had lost his
voice, they were told, but instead of the show being stripped of its star
performer, his voice would be replaced by one of the hottest names in opera
today.
Enter Jonas Kaufmann, and Saturday's audience settled
into a mode of gleeful anticipation of a special evening to come,
particularly after the decision to let Bezcala act and Kaufmann provide the
singing from the sidelines.
They were not disappointed. Kaufmann
performed brilliantly between chews of what appeared to be a hastily
organized sandwich and gulps of mineral water — an indication that he got
the call to perform just ahead of his dinner.
He was supposed to be
"only" the voice, with Bezcala miming the words and action — but the
audience was hard put to keep its eyes on the stage.
Formally,
Kaufmann is at the Salzburg Festival this year to sing in another role and
on Saturday he was supposed to be resting up for a performance on Sunday.
But more of that later.
As he threw himself into the role of the poor
poet in love with the consumptive seamstress Mimi, Kaufmann accented his
broad, full-throated and awe-inspiring Wagnerian tenor with gestures and
facial expressions reflecting his total identification with the role of a
man tossed and turned by the forces of love and despair.
Though that
wasn't the plan, Kaufmann essentially reduced Beczala to window-dressing. He
even occasionally verged on upstaging Mimi — no small feat, considering that
she was portrayed by Anna Netrebko, the Russian diva who imbues any role
with star presence worthy more of Hollywood than the opera stage.
Netrebko's lush voice, perfect intonation, masterful control and
passionate interpretations are always a treat, and she again lived up to
expectations as Mimi, particularly considering that the opera — one of the
world's most popular — has never been performed at the Salzburg Festival
before this year. Previous high-brow festival directors had considered it
trashy.
"Anna is really good tonight," an audience member was
overheard exclaiming as the curtain came down on the first scene.
OK,
it WAS Erwin Schrott, the star baritone who happens to be married to
Netrebko. But he wasn't exaggerating.
Also good: Massimo Cavalletti
as Marcello; Nino Machaidze as Musetta; Alessio Arduini, Schaunard; Carlo
Colombara, Colline; Davide Fersini, Benoit; Peter Kalman, Alcindoro, and one
other standout who was more heard than seen — conductor Daniele Gati.
Under his baton, members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra delivered
a masterful interpretation of Puccini's rich score, from the first exuberant
bars depicting the passions of youthful life in an artists' garret, to the
final hesitant and somber musical fragments that document Mimi's last heart
beats.
Director Damiano Michieletto was restrained but effective in a
production that moved the action from 19th century Paris to the French
capital of today and the characters from bohemians to modern-day dropouts.
_______
But back to Kaufmann — and forward to Richard Strauss'
"Ariadne auf Naxos," an opera written only a few decades later than La
Boheme but as different as day and night.
While La Boheme tells the
story straight, Ariadne is an opera within a play.
The prologue
depicting backstage preparations for the performance of an opera is then
followed by that opera — a work based on Greek mythology exploring the
purity of real love. But the rich burgher who commissioned the work suddenly
decides to combine it with a farcical musical comedy. It is a prescription
for chaos that instead turns into delightful musical theater created only as
Strauss could have done.
It all isn't complicated enough, however,
for director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, who has added yet another layer to the
Salzburg production.
He weaves in the love story of librettist Hugo
von Hoffmannsthal and Ottonie von Degenfeld-Schonburg, a young widow. She is
said to have been the model for Ariadne, who longs for death after being
abandoned by her lover — and finds love in the arms of Bacchus, played by
Kaufmann.
Kaufmann on Sunday was in brilliant voice, just a
day after his impromptu La Boheme stint — and Bechtolf's conceit works
brilliantly, with the curtain going down on three couples arm-in-arm:
Bacchus and Ariadne; the rich burgher and Zerbinetta, the leader of the
comic troupe; and Hugo and Ottonie.
Bechtolf's creative work
is what makes this production really outstanding. But any opera rests and
falls on the music, and the principals did not let him down.
The
audience was told that she was in poor voice, but Elena Mosuc delivered
amazing coloratura fireworks that not even the highest note could withstand,
accompanied by endearing theatrics that nailed the role of the coquettish
Zerbinetta. As Ariadne, Emily Magee was Mosuc's perfect foil, her soprano
clear and pure, her demeanor somber, as befits a tragic heroine. And the
supporting roles were good as well, among them; Eva Libau, Marie-Claude
Chappuis, Eleonora Buratto, Gabriel Bermudez, Michael Laurenz and Tobias
Kehrer.
Daniel Harding, conducting members of the Vienna
Philharmonic, conjured up a musical tapestry that sparkled in all its
variations. Costumes and staging by Rolf and Marianne Glittenberg were vivid
but not overbearing.
Ariadne flopped at its premiere almost 100 years
ago, leading Strauss to truncate the original version and to lament that "an
audience going to see a piece of spoken theater doesn't want to hear an
opera and vice versa.
"There simply was no cultural understanding for
this lovely 'hybrid,'" wrote Strauss back then.
Tell that to
Bechtolf.
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