The Painted Tape Logs

My first Wagnerian Experience

The Flying Dutchman, February 15, 2008 Wiener Staatsoper
Ok....so hate to admit it, but I pretty much know nothing about Wagner operas. Let me rephrase, I know a lot about Wagner and his style and the elements in his operas, but play Brunhilde singing and I probably wouldn't run for my Norsk set of horns.  That's why it was such an event for me to see "Der Fliegende Hollaender". 

Most people respond with, "Well??  Was it just incredible? Did it not just blow you away?"...uh...not really. I mean, there were definitely moments of greatness!  When Senta and the Dutchman are making their vows together everyone is at full power and it kinda just blows you over, but as usual, my main issue with opera is that everyone just takes too long to get their feelings out!! 

I suppose you could wonder how an opera singer could actually say that, but I am a big fan of short and sweet arias..."Nessun dorma", "Quando m'en vo", "Un aura amorosa"...  Right to the point and we're moving on!  So, if you know anything about Wagner, you know that the phrase "short and sweet" was not in his musical vocabulary.  First of all, the opera was actually played as Wagner originally intended, without intermission.  It is scarcely longer than a movie (130 minutes -- and this is one of his shortest!), but in the oven-esque standing room it feels like a "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I think Wagner, maybe for once, was NOT thinking about the people when he thought up his "endless melodies".

However, what I remember most of all -- besides training my opera glasses on the Watchman cutey pie tenor Cosmin Ifrim (on whom I was totally crushing) --was what my pianist friend expressed well when he said, "Wagner can leave you feeling a bit cold."  Because there really are no arias or memorable tunes to take with you in the end.  It could just be attributed to the fact that I've never heard this music before, however, I beg to argue that when I left the productions of "La fille du regiment" and "Manon" I wasn't humming the soprano arias I already knew, but rather other arias I had not previously known.  And it's true, you do acquire a certain feeling of warmth from those haunting melodies....but ask me to sing a piece of the Dutchman and....yeah, I got nothin. 

Romeo et Juliette, Staatsoper, Nov. 25, 2007

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing the super-duper Ramon Vargas as Romeo at the Staatsoper, which to my surprise -- now don't drop dead here -- was a MODERN production!!!!!!!  Yes, yes!  This Verona was set in a disco type world where Juliette played a spoiled, Britney Spears-ish singer complete with flashing disco lights and karaoke microphone.  The fight scene was more along the lines of the Jets and the Sharks -- Mercutio was a rough and tough guy clothed in leather and gel-ed up hair while Tybalt was a pansy in a Hawaiian style shirt....hahahahaha....but they did use real blood packets when they died, which was a nice touch.

The whole concept seemed to work well, although they struggled to keep the 90's atmosphere as the opera progressed.  The set was minimal -- very few props -- but relied heavily on lighting effects.  There were huge columns hung with various spots similar to a rock concert.  These columns moved seamlessly across the stage to create various effects.  They also were very creative with a very large, half-crescent moon "thing" that rose up out of the stage floor -- used as balcony in second act; actual moon in night scenes; bed during love scene; symbol of heaven in the end where you see Juliette and Romeo's silhouettes dancing across it after they have died.  Very cool!!!

But I digress...while the staging and set were fantastic, let's talk about how Vargas and the Chorus had to save the opera from assuredly going into the crap bin.   Numero uno...why would you pair Vargas with an almost no-name soprano??   Dina Kuznetsova, while a fine full lyric soprano, really lacked the innocent youth that I prefer Juliette to have.  "Je veux vivre" was slow and fairly boring.  She seemed to have no energy until her final aria ("Dieu! Quel frisson"), and even then, she seemed tired out.  And this is why Vargas had to save the entire first half of the opera with his work in the balcony scene.  Somehow, I really don't mind that he doesn't put a lot of supercilious movement into his staging, because he's so friggin genuine in his singing and in his emotional intentions.  He's so natural on stage, you never feel uncomfortable with his movements or his singing. 

And the poor Chorus, for once they seemed to have a good time on stage because they weren't stuck in dusty, stuffy, 50 pounds of 19th century costume!!  Somehow they managed to keep some very difficult choral music together even while dancing and prancing around the stage. 

Surprisingly, the one thing that really pushed my buttons had nothing to do with the production!  What was happening with the audience!!?!??!!!  Their applause was sluggish and weak and they seemed to not appreciate the exciting new production.  They only woke up with Vargas sang "O nuit divine".  What's my theory??  Austrians, like the Italians, are very peculiar about their operatic experiences -- basically, if it ain't traditional, we don't like it....even if it was a fantabulous and enjoying performance. 

(Friend Janith enjoying his second opera)

Un ballo in maschera -- Vienna Staatsoper 15/11/2007

  For some reason I never think of Verdi as being drab and dark, so I'm always surprised when I see productions of Verdi operas with set and costumes in a monochromatic color scheme.  I thought I was in for yet another such production at the Staatsoper -- however, barring the usually dark and damp graveyard scene, the production ended strong with a burst of color and creative carnival style paper-macheed costumes and dancers.   

All the singers, across the board, got off to a rough start -- perhaps the newly fallen snow and below freezing temperatures in Vienna had something to do with it -- but in any case, they ended the night in good voice.  Kudos to baritone Lado Ataneli in the role of Renato, a surprising case where the baritone actually outshone the soprano and tenore!!!  Next to Hui He's poorly over-dramatic Amelia, he could be credited to saving many scenes from her under-supported acting skills, and occasionally, her voice.  It seems she could have made more use of the support she used in her exquisite high pianissimo's when she was down in middle voice.  The result was a non-legato, choppy line whenever she dropped below E's and F's, despite her fairly pleasant creamy voice.

(Ataneli, above) (He, below)

 

The tenore for the evening was Italian extraordinaire Massimiliano Pisapia...whose Italian was absolutely a thing to be admired (which makes more sense now that I googled him and found him to be Italian).  He gave an impressively convincing performance as the King of Sweden and had a quite nice warmth in the upper ranges of his voice that I wished he would have extended into his middle voice -- which often turned out to be a little grating on the ears. His paige, Oscar (Ileana Tonca), was vocally strong but, as usual, lacked the mastery of male mannerisms and for my part, played the role too vanilla -- where were the nutty fudge chunks of character that a teenage boy in the service of a Giovanni'esque king is bound to have?  She was positively SOBER during "Saper vorreste".

(Pisapia)

The honor of best performance was a toss up for me between Ataneli and mezzo Nadia Krasteva as Ulrica.  I find it rare that I truly enjoy the richness of a mezzo's voice mostly because the mezzo either has top or bottom, not both....but Krasteva's voice is smooth throughout, never losing focus or color throughout her range...and she had the character of crazy, devil woman down pat.

Having seen "Un ballo" once before I was expecting to be thinking more about my standing-room induced backache than the performance -- but I was pleasantly surprised by the production -- even though the Vienna Staatsoper seems to be plagued by insufficient lighting (Are we still in the 19th century using candles to light the stage?) and bad stage direction (what is going on with the use of the "park and bark" staging?). I have to say that it seems to be more about the singing than acting or physical good looks of singers at the Staatsoper....and I say WELL DONE to that!!  It's about time we get back to the music!