The Opera Tattler
Reviews of Performances and their Audiences
Category: Bayerische Staatsoper
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The English National Opera presented Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time this season, and the last performance was yesterday. The adorable Anna Christy made her British debut in the title role, despite recently suffering bronchitis. She has a sweet, warbling sort of voice, and from the reviews, it sounds like she was adequate, not…
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* Notes * Peter Mussbach’s production of Fidelio, which premiered at Bayerische Staatsoper in 1999, is infuriating and yet strangely dull. The set is boring, despite the many scene changes. It was also rather loud, the scrims made all sorts of sounds as they banged against the stage and a certain metal door squealed when…
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* Notes * Paper was the main motif in Peter Konwitschny’s production of Parsifal currently at Bayerische Staatsoper. The set was first hidden by a scrim covered with pieces of paper reading, in various languages, "Erlösung dem Erlöser," the last line of the opera. Act I featured a stage littered with white sheets of paper,…
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Yesterday I attended a performance of Richard Strauss’s Elektra at the Bavarian State Opera. Peter Schneider conducted well, as usual, and the orchestra seemed very much together. Herbert Wernicke’s production was uninspired. It involved a huge black square door that would open to various degrees, but on a diagonal. They also utilized one of the…
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The Münchner Festspiele and the 2002-2003 opera season at the Bayerische Staatsoper ended with a performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. August Everding’s production from 1979 was undoubtedly the best I have seen with this opera company, and naturally, they are getting a new one for next time. Peter Schneider conducted impeccably. The music…
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The David Alden production of Rinaldo at the Bavarian State Opera was not particularly well-attended, and at each intermission, people left. This was more pronounced for this production than for Rodelinda. Part of the problem was the singers. None of them were particularly stunning. The lead, Ann Murray, has a voice that lacks substance and…
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The Bavarian State Opera production of La Traviata was impressive as far as the principal singers. Anna Netrebko sang Violetta, and she was simply perfect. Her voice is supple and nearly angelic. This part showed her abilities off more than in others I have heard, she was Nannetta in Falstaff at San Francisco and Natasha…
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Bayerische Staatoper’s production of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria had almost no redeeming qualities. If they find Baroque operas so boring they shouldn’t bother putting them on. It shows very little respect to be making Monteverdi’s opera into a farce. It was so bad that even I could not sit through it twice, though I…
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Tickets to yesterday evening’s performance of Lucia di Lammermoor completely sold-out, presumably because Edita Gruberova was singing the title role. She is in her 25th year of singing Lucia, and she is quite remarkable. Her voice can be the very embodiment of icy perfection. The audience screamed and clapped after "Quando rapito in estasi" for…
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I had the dubious pleasure of seeing David Alden’s new production of Rodelinda twice within a fortnight. It was more tame than I expected, no giant robot lab rats, no walking dentures. Thankfully, there was plenty of cigarette smoking, a little drunken staggering, and naturally, things were thrown. Also, five shots were fired from a…
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