Intermezzo

Pop-up opera

Three enterprising Danish singers are about to introduce pop-up opera to Berlin. Anyone who leaves their email address with Home Opera will be sent details of the venue - a centrally-located apartment - a few hours before tomorrow evening's performance. Guests will be able to buy drinks in the kitchen before settling on the apartment's sofa to hear songs and arias accompanied by piano.  The admission charge of up to €15 varies depending on the ability to pay.

The artistes:

Herheim's Xerxes - the video evidence

Reviewers have been unanimously enthralled with this new production, which opened at the Komische Oper on Sunday. But then who can resist a dancing sheep?

Stefan Herheim's Xerxes opens in Berlin

Stefan Herheim's new production of Handel's Serse opens tonight at the Komische Oper Berlin (sung auf Deutsch as Xerxes). Designed in the now-familiar mix of periods and styles, it incorporates baroque style flat sets, neon signs, blokes dressed as sheep and possibly more cross-dressing than strictly required. Scroll down to see how he tackles Ombra mai fu.

Monteverdi remade

A new production of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo currently showing at HAU 1 in Berlin is performed on historic instruments by baroque specialist Olof Boman and the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop. That doesn't mean it's conventional though.

Most parts will be played by trained opera singers. But the title role is taken by Berlin-based singer and performance artist Peaches (whose act Lady Gaga washed, rinsed and ironed before recycling it), and parts of the work have been adapted specially for her. Instruments are amplified and distorted, Peaches raps, and Orfeo's exceptional vocal abilities are displayed using a vocoder.

Here's an interview with Olof Boman and some rehearsal excerpts - count me sold. Why do we never get anything like this in London?

Kasper Holten's Lohengrin opens in Berlin

Wings and nighties all present and correct. Tonight is the premiere of Kasper Holten's first production since he became Director of Opera at Covent Garden - but it's not in London.

The Deutsche Oper Berlin's Lohengrin features in the title role Klaus Florian Vogt, who stepped in at late notice to replace Marco Jentzsch. Ricarda Merbeth is Elsa, Petra Lang is Ortrud, Gordon Hawkins is Telramund and Albert Dohmen is Heinrich. More photos below.

 

Berlin Staatsoper 2012 - 2013 season unveiled

That's what your teeth could look like if you smoke cigars for 60 years, kids.

Generalmusikdirektor Daniel Barenboim and Intendant Jürgen Flimm today announced the 2012-13 programme for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden - or rather the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater, as it remains while the builders dally with refurbishments.

On top of the Ring cycles already announced, there are a few interesting premieres. 

Calixto Bieito directs Toshio Hosokawa's new one-act opera Hanjo. Claus Guth tackles Purcell's Fairy Queen, with Michael Boder conducting. A new libretto will be created for Hans Neunfels' La finta giardiniera, which Christopher Moulds will conduct. Philipp Stölzl's 2009 Theater Basel production of Der fliegende Holländer will be shown in Berlin for the first time, with Daniel Harding conducting. An extensive chamber opera selection with tickets at just €15 includes Der Kaiser von Atlantis and several contemporary works.

Anyone after star names should check out the concert programme instead of the operas. Thanks to Barenboim's glitzy address book, guests include Jonas Kaufmann, Placido Domingo, Anja Harteros and Rolando Villazon. 

How to save money on Covent Garden's Ring cycle

Simple - get your Wagner fix in Berlin instead.

Believe it or not, it's cheaper to fly to Berlin, stay in a 5 star hotel for a week and sit in central stalls seats for a whole Ring cycle than it is to buy the tickets alone for the Royal Opera House.

To see Daniel Barenboim, the Staatskapelle Berlin and a top-class international cast in the 4-10 April 2013 Ring Cycle at Berlin's Staatsoper, a ticket in row 13 of the Schiller Theatre stalls will cost you £238 (€286).

London-Berlin return by Easyjet, booked 6 months in advance, currently costs £53, including all fees.

7 nights at Circus Berlin, ranked #1 by TripAdvisor costs £163 each (7*€28) in a basic double hostel room.  Not posh enough? Book well in advance and £526 gets you a room in the 5 star Hotel nhow; or it's £300-£350 for a typical 4 star hotel. 

That comes to a total of £454 for the spartan option, or £817 for the 5 star.

To sit in the equivalent seat in row 13 of the stalls for Covent Garden's Ring will cost you £1,000 (if you can get a ticket). Even the Amphitheatre costs up to £424.

(Today's exchange rate of 1.20 is used throughout.)

Berlin Staatsoper 2013 Ring Cycle now booking

Orders opened today for next year's Berlin Staatsoper Ring cycles, and also their 2013 Easter Festival, or Festtage.

The Guy Cassiers production is conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and thanks to the maestro's top drawer contacts casting is impressive,  including Rene Pape as Wotan, Iréne Theorin as  Brünnhilde and Waltraud Meier as Sieglinde.

There are three cycles in all. The first one costs a bit more as it's part of the Festtage; other Festtage attractions for those in-between days include Mozart and Verdi Requiems and Maurizio Pollini recitals.

Dates and prices (for all four Ring operas):

• 23 -31 March, price €250 - 840 (9 nights)
• 4-10 April, price €186 - 572 (7 nights)
• 13-21 April, price €186 - 572 (9 nights)

The limited capacity of the Schiller Theatre makes it a good idea to get orders in as soon as possible (you don't have to pay anything at this stage).

Winners and losers in Berlin

2011 audience statistics are out for Berlin's state-funded arts venues. Although the overall picture is a healthy rise in audiences, not everywhere has been so lucky, especially the opera companies.

Daniel Barenboim's Staatsoper, in its temporary premises at the Schiller Theatre, was 7,000 down on last year, and occupancy fell from 85.3% to 75.8%. Some have speculated that the Schiller is less attractive or less convenient for audiences, but I have to wonder what part 2011's rather dull programming choices played.

The Komische Oper did nearly as poorly. Its total of 157,321 visitors is 5,500 less than in 2010, and utilization fell from 61.1% to 58.9%.

The Deutsche Oper was the only house to show growth. I personally contributed to their record-busting total by attending three performances in 2011, compared with one at the Komische Oper and zero at the Staatsoper. I wasn't the only one - 11,000 additional visitors boosted its total audience to 252,000. It may have the lowest risk production style of the three houses, but could it be any coincidence that it had the most interesting and varied programme? 

Sprechen Sie ausländisch?

Berlin's Komische Oper is to end its tradition of presenting all productions in German.

From next season, some (but not all) will be in the original language, depending on how they play in translation.  85 percent of next season's shows will still be sung in German, but that's partly because the house's repertoire (which includes operetta and musicals) is often written in German in the first place .

When Walter Felsenstein founded the Komische Oper in 1947 of course there were no surtitles. Nowadays tri-lingual translations on the back of each seat make it easy to follow an opera in any tongue.

A lesson for ENO perhaps?

Calixto Bieito's Freischutz in photos

"Anyone who expected a riot at the Komische Oper on Sunday night would have been disappointed. Although the production was recommended for over-16s only, the shock factor was limited. "

Calixto Bieito inspires German tenor to drop 50kg - and his pants

Those familiar with the oeuvre of Calixto Bieito will not be surprised to learn that the hero of his new Komische Oper production of Der Freischütz is required to bare some botty.

It's the first time Munich tenor Vincent Wolfsteiner (Max) has gone naked on stage. He applies sound artistic logic to his decision: "Max is expelled from the community, he flees into the forest and becomes a beast. Animals don't wear clothes. It would be silly if I played it in underpants."

But there's another reason he's happy to bare all for Bieito.

A few years ago Wolfsteiner was 50kg heavier. As a huge - really huge - fan of Bieito, he was keen to work with the director. But he knew he'd have to flash the flesh if he did. So he dropped the excess weight, using a picture of Bieito stuck to his fridge as inspiration. "Now", he says "at the age of 45 I'm fitter than I've ever been before in my life." 

The tautly-muscled Vincent Wolfsteiner (Max) is pictured above with Carsten Sabrowski (Kaspar) and below with Ina Kringelborn (Agathe) - and some of the five litres of fake blood ordered for each show.

Deutsche Oper Berlin cancel Hitler birthday celebration

Not before time, the Deutsche Oper Berlin have cancelled their planned performance of Rienzi - Hitler's favourite opera - on 20 April - Hitler's birthday.

In a country extraordinarily sensitive to the resonance of that particular date, it's astonishing that acting Intendant Christoph Seuferle scheduled it in the first place, effectively inviting neo-Nazis to gather and celebrate in the opera house he manages.

The decision to cancel was only made after 'in-house discussions with employees'  indicated that a performance would be 'difficult or impossible for personal reasons'- which may or may not mean that opera house staff threatened to strike.

The performance will be moved to 21 April, and Jenufa will be shown in its place.

Barenboim expands his repertoire

On Sunday 2 October Daniel Barenboim will - for the first time ever in his long career - conduct an opera by Rossini.

Ruth Berghaus's ancient and much-loved production of Il barbiere di Siviglia prefaces the Berlin Staatsoper's season in a special show modelled on the anteprima (=  remarketed dress rehearsal) successfully introduced at Barenboim's other house, La Scala.  It's open only to members of the patrons society and under-35s, who can buy seats for just 7 euros.

Anna is Erwin's woman (but she likes a bit of Jonas on the side)

Not nearly as toecurling as it could have been - bravo/a/i for trying.

That was perhaps the most experimental selection in the stream of greatest operatic hits at Anna and Erwin's blockbuster Waldbühne concert on Tuesday evening. Jonas Kaufmann joined them, and the entire highly-priced extravaganza was broadcast on the German channel ZDF.

You can watch the whole thing on ZDF's website (not all countries), or enjoy a few choice excerpts below.

Mortgage the garden shed and perhaps you too could catch them live in the Royal Albert Hall next year.

Instant Mozart - just add water

The fantasy:

The reality:

The stage is set (well, almost) for Seefestspiele Berlin, a new outdoor opera festival opening in a few days time on the shores of Lake Wannsee. The organisers originally envisioned a Bregenz-style aquatic extravaganza, with their Katarina Thalbach production of Die Zauberflöte set on a mid-lake pontoon. But after the Berlin council and local environmental protestors stuck their oar in, the venue was shifted to a lakeside parking lot with a watery view.

Construction of the vast set, a Masonic-style one-eyed pyramid, continues in parallel with rehearsals. Meanwhile the unforgiving Berlin rain lashes down on performers and construction workers alike.

Despite the fact that tickets are issued with an anorak advisory warning, the organisers claim to have shifted over 30,000 so far.

Festspielkrieg!

Who will win the Easter Festival wars?

The opening salvo came from the Salzburg Easter Festival's incoming team yesterday in the form of their initial 2013 plans. 

Now the outgoing Berlin Philharmonic fight back with a list of the operas their new Baden Baden Easter Festival will feature from 2013 to 2016: Zauberflöte, Manon Lescaut, Rosenkavalier and Tristan und Isolde.

Thielemann's 2013 arsenal also flaunts a big pianist, Evgeny Kissin. Will we see an equally impressive weapon in Sir Simon's hands?  The fight has barely started; expect more soon.

Simon Rattle's late niters

The Berlin Philharmonic are taking a leaf out of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's book next season.

In the spirit of the OAE and their after-hours Night Shift, the Berlin Philharmonic are trying out late evening concerts in 2011/12. Simon Rattle will conduct five hour-long sessions beginning at 22.30. These will follow regular subscription concerts. Admission will be free for visitors to the earlier concert, and 10 euros otherwise. With regular prices at the Philharmonie topping out at nearly ten times that amount, it's a real bargain.

Hair we go

Samson et Dalila - Deutsche Oper Berlin, 15 May 2011 (first night)

 

Patrick Kinmonth's pedigree as a set designer of flair and imagination is immediately obvious in this production, only the second opera he has directed. We find ourselves in the Merchant Ivory version of the late nineteenth century, where the frocks are exquisite, the draperies sumptuous, and the sets bathed in glowing penumbral lighting. But it's not as vacuous as it first looks - though it might have been better if it was. 

Dicking with Mozart

Idomeneo - Komische Oper Berlin, 14 May 2011 (first night)

Benedikt von Peter's new staging of Idomeneo avoids controversy in the usual sense - the cast are fully clothed and there are no drugs, guns, or bodily fluids on show. But, almost unnoticed, he does away with two of Mozart's lesser characters, Arbace and the Priest. Their music is reassigned to Elektra, here a vengeful voice in Idomeneo's head. He is not the victorious monarch returning to Crete in triumph, but a traumatised war veteran living between imagination and reality. His son Idamante is married to Ilia, and they now have their own small son. Instead of exploring the nature of rule and the consequences of rebelling against divine authority, Peter personalises the issues the opera raises to make it a timely examination of the price of victory in war.