Opera Gazet - Operarecensies & Gebakkenluchtdetectie

Regietheater.

Regietheater. Intellectual terror through compelling prescription.

Regietheater. Intellectual terror through compelling prescription. The dictatorship of the director has turned the opera world into an ideological and aesthetic battlefield, in which the score and the creator’s original intent have been systematically sacrificed on the altar of the director’s narcissism for decades. What began in 1951 as an almost clinical aesthetic intervention by Wieland Wagner -who sought to “purify” the Bayreuth Festival with his minimalist and stripped-down productions and free it from its burdened traditions-degenerated in the 1970s into a destructive artistic totalitarianism: the unadulterated and radical Regietheater.

Regietheater.

Regietheater. Intellectuele terreur op dwingend recept.

Regietheater. Intellectuele terreur op dwingend recept. De regiedictatuur heeft van de operawereld een ideologisch en esthetisch slagveld gemaakt, waarin de partituur en de oorspronkelijke intentie van de schepper al decennialang stelselmatig worden geofferd op het altaar van het regisseursnarcisme. Wat in 1951 begon als een bijna klinische esthetische ingreep door Wieland Wagner -die de Festspiele in Bayreuth met zijn minimalistische en kaalgeslagen ensceneringen trachtte te “zuiveren” en te verlossen van de beladen tradities- ontaardde in de jaren 70 in een destructief artistiek totalitarisme: het onversneden en radicale Regietheater.

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Iconoclasm in Opera

Iconoclasm in Opera. The public is losing access to its own cultural and musical roots because the institutions tasked with protecting and nurturing those roots have opted for a permanent, subsidized iconoclasm. It is an insidious, institutional form of cultural cleansing.

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Beeldenstorm in de opera. Daarnaast getuigen beide fenomenen van een mateloze, stuitende arrogantie en agressie ten opzichte van het verleden. De beeldenstormers meenden dat zij, na eeuwen van vermeend dwalen, de enige ware interpretatie van de werkelijkheid in pacht hadden. De tradities van generaties kunstenaars, denkers en ambachtslieden werden in een oogwenk als waardeloos of schadelijk gecategoriseerd. Deze chronologische arrogantie viert ook in de hedendaagse operapraktijk hoogtij. Binnen de theatrale avant-garde heerst het hardnekkige, dictatoriale dogma dat een klassiek stuk pas \’relevant\’ (ook wel: ‘urgent’ of \’desoriënterend\’ kan zijn wanneer het door de mangel van de modernisering en deconstructie is gehaald.

Die Zauberflöte

Die Zauberflöte in Zürich

Die Zauberflöte. The Magic Flute often plays a special role in educational contexts. The disappointment is correspondingly greater when a stage performance has little to do with what one has come to understand in the work musically, dramatically and poetically. For us, the earlier Zurich Magic Flute productions by Martin Kušej and Tatjana Gürbaca belonged to that type of Regietheater which obscures a work rather than clarifying it. All the greater, then, was our pleasure that Zurich Opera, with Daniele Finzi Pasca’s new production, chose a wholly different course. For us, this new Magic Flute was an unqualified success – musically and scenically, imaginative and coherent, and remarkable for its sense of overall unity.

Macbeth

Macbeth in Liège

Macbeth. For me, this resulted in a sense of overload, a distraction from what really matters – from what is actually ‘unfolding’ and, above all, being sung. To give a small example: why were those men in thongs there to introduce the musically so crucial aria from *La Sonnambula*? The dance episodes struck me as long, almost self-contained interludes. What I was seeing prevented me from truly hearing what Verdi had intended to convey in his significant orchestral passages.

The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth

The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth

The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth. There is no one about, but soon a mother with her young boy will arrive, then a man, then villagers bringing folding IKEA chairs and tables on and off stage. The mother, as we will soon understand, is a street prostitute, kissing a client passionately precisely as the theme of Senta’s love-redemption sounds, only soon to be rejected not only by men, but also by the villagers. Shattered, she hangs herself, dangling from a window just above where her son is sitting. During the entire Overture, villagers come in and out, as if in an Alain Resnais film. The boy’s ‘Traumatic Memory Imprinting’ catches the facial features of someone we will meet later on in the opera: a then-young Daland, the merchant, and Senta’s soon-to-be father. The mother? No worries. Tcherniakov has turned Senta’s governess, Mary, into his wife.

Ik vertrek

Sophie doet een Esmah Lahlah’tje

Sophie doet een Esmah Lahlah’tje. Sophie de Lint vertrekt voorlopig niet van Amsterdam naar Salzburg. Hoewel er sterke geruchten waren en er intensief werd onderhandeld over een overstap, is de overstap definitief mislukt. Er circuleerden plannen om De Lint aan te stellen bij het prestigieuze festival in Oostenrijk vanaf het najaar van 2027. Hierdoor blijft Sophie de Lint gewoon verbonden aan De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam. Zoals Sophie de Lint vertrekt voorlopig niet van Amsterdam naar Salzburg. Zoals Esmah Lahlah na mislukte sollicitaties gewoon terug kon keren naar de Tweede Kamer en vervolgens naar de Gemeenteraad van Amsterdam.

Saint François d’Assise

Saint François d’Assise in Salzburg

Saint François d’Assise. To all this, the stage director Romeo Castellucci has added two perhaps not totally necessary scenes to the First Act: the saint’s renunciation of worldly possessions, striping naked to demonstrate his choice of a new existence; his encounter with the terrifying Wolf of Gubbio, uniting him with Nature. We will also encounter a strutting peacock and, as a final touch after the death of Saint François, a small flock of wandering sheep.

Opera Gazet

CORINNE’S COLUMN #24

Corinnes column. Aangezien ik sinds alweer 3 jaar als customer service agent voor de truck afdeling van Mercedes Benz werk, heb ik besloten dat mijn comeback column voor Opera Gazet over Mercedes moet gaan. Maar niet het automerk maar de rol van Mercedes, een van de vriendinnen van Carmen in de gelijknamige opera van G. Bizet.

Pagliacci

Pagliacci bij DNO

Pagliacci bij DNO. De setting in deze regie is de kleedkamer van het operatheater. Kaptafeltjes en verlichte spiegels vullen de zwarte ruimte. In deze omgeving kunnen wij Lucia als kleedster wel plaatsen, het is echter lastig de ruimte te zien als Lucia’s huis, waar Santuzza op de drempel blijft dralen, omdat zij geweerd wordt vanwege haar zonde. We gaan dan nadenken, of zij wegens ontucht ontslagen is uit het operakoor. Nadenken over de bedoeling van een voorstelling is een veeg teken. Het is natuurlijk wel onrechtvaardig dat zij verbannen is terwijl Lola, het sletje van het koor, het letterlijk met iedereen doet, inclusief de koordirigent.
Opera vraagt echter om een driedimensionale klank, drama en ontknoping. De scenes op het voortoneel kennen weliswaar schitterende harmonieën (met name de scenes met koor), maar de monologen en dialogen doen verticaal aan, als een ladder waar men op- en afklimt.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor at the Berkshire Opera

Lucia di Lammermoor at the Berkshire Opera. About six years ago, I discovered the Berkshire Opera (just re-named the Berkshire Opera Festival), an innovative, clever, and thoroughly professional company that operates out of the restored 123-year-old Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The charming theater seats 680; there is no orchestra pit. The opera was Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, and the 30-or-so musicians were in an upper corner of the stage, barely visible, but audibly well-balanced with the singers. The production was updated to the 20th century with no outrages: Norina, by the time she had taken over Pasquale’s household, was dressed as a dominatrix – not all that far from the text.

Kolja

Kolja. Als de opera beter is dan het boek.

Kolja. De regie van Jeroen Lopes Cardozo was briljant, een inventieve en sfeervolle verbeelding van het verhaal. Absoluut een van de beste regies die wij de laatste veertig jaar In Nederland mochten aanschouwen. Oneindig veel kudos voor Jeroen Lopes Cardozo.

Marina

“MARINA” (by Giordano) – ITS WORLD STAGE PREMIÈRE IN FOGGIA

“MARINA” (by Giordano) – ITS WORLD STAGE PREMIÈRE IN FOGGIA. The harmonic language of Marina in certain passages carries unmistakable traces of the late-Verdian chromatic idiom: the plangent inner-voice movement of the central duet, the dense harmonic fabric of the ensemble episodes, and an approach to orchestration -visible even in the piano reduction- in which solo instrumental colours are assigned an unusual prominence and purposefulness.

Rienzi

Rienzi. An Epochal Life of Images.

Rienzi. An Epochal Life of Images. The Second Act followed immediately with no break, and the huge screen flew upwards to reveal the same slow-motion clapping citizens seated upon a white bleacher-like section; frankly not one of the most attractive scenic elements, as it also will be over-used until the end of the opera, where it is out of place. Its sole purpose was to house the vast chorus center-stage, neatly arranging them unobtrusively it must be said. As to the length of Act One and Act Two joined for a total of two hours, there is little else to do if the Ballet is to included which it was here. Originally, a wise move by Wagner, opposed as he would be in being forced to insert a ballet into the Third Act of his Tannhauser 16 years later in Paris, which he spitefully did, but at the beginning of the First Act, causing a riot out of which grew his hate for Meyerbeer and his gang. Yet, to paint History rightfully, we must recall that Meyerbeer also helped Wagner produce his operas in Dresden.

VIOLETTA'S SECOND DEATH

VIOLETTA’S SECOND DEATH

Ileana Cotrubaș She believed that performers had the right, and sometimes the duty, to say no when the essence of a work was being violated. Her later book, Opernwahrheiten, provided a lasting expression of these convictions. It formed part of a broader argument for an opera theatre in which music, text, character and staging remained in dialogue with one another rather than being pitted in competition.

Faust

Faust

Faust. Piotr Beczała sang the title role with audible caution following a recent cold. At times, his voice sounded slightly congested and less free than usual. In the more dramatic passages, it lacked some of its customary brilliance. All the more impressive, therefore, was his performance of \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\”Salut! demeures chaste et pure,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\” characterized by refined phrasing, stylistic elegance, and admirable restraint.

Rigoletto

Rigoletto in Sydney – a four-star performance

Rigoletto in Sydney – a four-star performance. Gemma Nha is a star, plain and simple. Full vocal honors from start to finish… ravishing pianissimi, glittering acuto, and tasteful, measured pacing. Her “Caro nome” was positively transcendent.

The Maestro

The Maestro and the Olympic Athlete

The Maestro and the Olympic Athlete. A legendary example of an acoustic and physical nightmare is the “Scena delle maschere” (Don Giovanni): Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, and Donna Elvira sing the trio “Protegga il giusto cielo.” For this ball scene, Mozart composed three different on-stage ensembles that play simultaneously with the orchestra in the pit. Each group plays in a different time signature—namely, 2/4, 3/4, and 3/8. At the same time, the soloists walk among the partygoers while singing. \\\”Well, here\\\’s another nice mess you\\\’ve gotten us into!\\\”

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala

Lucia di Lammermoor. As Lucia, Rosa Feola lived fully through the gamut of emotions. She made use of every nuance in Kokkos’ staging, and every one of her appearances led logically to her sad demise. At every turn, vocally and theatrically, Feola’s Lucia remains a fragile figure, a victim of the manipulations of others causing her to doubt her lover’s fidelity. The Brünnhilde of Götterdämmerung comes to mind; both will sacrifice their lives through delusion. Observing Feola was a moving experience, made richer through the musical dissolution of her consciousness. The top notes were more than there, and delivered almost naturally, and in character with the crazed sad, desperate demise. An absolutely wonderful Lucia.

Among the endless drivel of directors, a sublime exposition of what opera is really about.

Regietheater.

Regietheater. Intellectual terror through compelling prescription.

Regietheater.

Regietheater. Intellectuele terreur op dwingend recept.

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Iconoclasm in Opera

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Beeldenstorm in de opera

Die Zauberflöte

Die Zauberflöte in Zürich

Macbeth

Macbeth in Liège

The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth

The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth

Ik vertrek

Sophie doet een Esmah Lahlah’tje

Saint François d’Assise

Saint François d’Assise in Salzburg

Opera Gazet

CORINNE’S COLUMN #24

Pagliacci

Pagliacci bij DNO

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor at the Berkshire Opera

Kolja

Kolja. Als de opera beter is dan het boek.

Marina

“MARINA” (by Giordano) – ITS WORLD STAGE PREMIÈRE IN FOGGIA

Rienzi

Rienzi. An Epochal Life of Images.

VIOLETTA'S SECOND DEATH

VIOLETTA’S SECOND DEATH

Faust

Faust

Rigoletto

Rigoletto in Sydney – a four-star performance

The Maestro

The Maestro and the Olympic Athlete

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala

Opera Gazet distinguishes itself as an online opera magazine by maintaining a critical and independent stance in its reviews and articles. Founded in 1999 by Guillaume Maijeur, it is one of the oldest opera review websites in Europe. The magazine focuses on covering significant new opera stagings throughout Europe, America and Australia, and is known for its editorial policy that often critiques modern productions that deviate significantly from the original libretto and composer’s intent. A key feature of Opera Gazet is its commitment to artistic integrity and its resistance to the excesses of "Regietheater", where directors make radical changes that make the operas in question recognizable only by the music. This position has put it at odds with the Dutch National Opera, which is the only opera house in the world that does not provide press facilities for Opera Gazet reviewers. Moreover, Opera Gazet prides itself on a diverse team of reviewers from various countries, bringing a wide range of perspectives to its content. This diversity allows the magazine to cover a broad spectrum of opera productions across different cultural contexts. For opera enthusiasts seeking detailed, independent, and often provocative insights into opera productions, Opera Gazet remains a valuable resource.