Intermezzo

Pick your own - Berliner version

Hot on the heels of the Met's new opera picker comes the Komische Oper's Oper-O-mat.

Let them know your companions and your expertise, share your preferences regarding nudity, corpse count and lavishness of costumery, and they'll tell you (via highlighted boxes in the lower right hand corner) which of their productions will suit you best.

Pick a suspect combination (anything involving minor children and unhappy endings), and like the good honest Germans they are, they'll suggest you stay at home.

Berlin waves a (NSFW) flag for Verdi

Hot on the heels of Dustin Hoffmann's gran-com Quartet comes another work inspired by the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti in Milan, the real-life opera singers' retirement home funded by Giuseppe Verdi and brought to international notice in the documentary film Il bacio di Tosca.

As in Quartet, the story centres around a gala organised to raise funds for the home.

But it's unlikely Dame Maggie Smith would sign up to perform in Villa Verdi, which opens at Berlin's Volksbühne tonight . In place of Hoffmann's gentle prostate jokes, 73 year old director Johann Kresnik has spiced up the geriatric goings-on with racy flashbacks and acres of bare flesh. Pictures below.

***WARNING***BOTTY ALERT****

 

Business is booming for Berlin Opera

Statistics just released show that all three of Berlin's main opera houses gained audiences in 2012.  The Deutsche Oper's occupancy rate rose to 75%, the Staatsoper's to 83% and the Komische Oper's to 75%.  That's not as impressive as the Royal Opera House's 92%, but better than the 71% that ENO managed - and in a city less than half the size of London, with fewer tourists.

Keen pricing helps.  The average Deutsche Oper ticket cost £32, with the Staatsoper coming in at £38 and the Komische Oper at a bargain £20. That's even more impressive when you take into account that, while some seats are obviously better than others, there are no bum-numbing benches or truly restricted views.

ENO by contrast charged an average of £43 last year (even with discounting).  The ROH don't reveal such figures, but a quick bit of maths reveals that for a typical main stage opera at the ROH with a top price of £165, the average ticket costs £90.

All the more reason to visit Berlin for your opera fix.

The case of the disappearing tenor

When the nice Berlin Staatsoper announcer shuffled sheepishly on stage before curtain up, the collective groan was loud and predictable. Who would be missing from this evening's Siegfried?

The answer was Siegfried himself - Lance Ryan. But the rider I've never heard before. "He's not in the house," he said, "and we don't know where he is."

Never mind. Up the road, Simon Rattle was due to present Die Zauberflöte in concert a couple of hours later. Just enough time for their First Armoured Man to sing the first act of Siegfried before dashing back to the Philharmonie.

The Staatsoper clearly have superior heldentenor emergency planning. Andreas Schager was ready to go just five minutes after the scheduled start. And he's one of the few working tenors who've actually sung the role before (to some acclaim). Of course he couldn't manage the staging as well at that notice, so one of the assistant directors walked the role while Schager sang from the wings. (Listen to him singing Rienzi).

Schager finished Act 1 to a true - and deserved - hero's ovation. Ryan, meanwhile, was still MIA. Finally, towards the end of the interval, I learned from front of house staff that Ryan had just turned up. No explanation. The Staatsoper announcer came on stage again to announce he would be singing the rest, leaving Schager just enough time to make his Berlin Philharmonic booking. Again no explanation.

Ryan, always a convincing actor, put on an extra-committed show. At the curtain call, he threw up his hands in apology. But still no explanation.

So what happened? Travel delays? (Ryan was in Vienna the previous night.) Possible, but you'd think he'd alert Berlin if he knew he'd be late. Did he just overlook the unusually early 4pm start? Or is there some exotic and fabulously embarrassing reason of the dog-swallowed-the-keys-to-the-handcuffs variety? Any clues welcome.

(If you're in Berlin and want to hear more of Andreas Schager's Siegfried, he's a late replacement for Ian Storey in Götterdämmerung on Wednesday.)

Sales bargain

One of the eyecatching ensembles snapped up at yesterday's Komische Oper costume sale in Berlin.

The happy purchaser was, apparently, looking for a pirate outfit for her husband when she chanced upon this versatile leftover from Das bronzene Pferd.

"Some men have been looking at me as if I was genuinely naked," she said.

Here's how it played in the house:

Wrong baby news

When the rumour was aired that Plácido Domingo would sing the baritone role of Luna in Il Trovatore, at the 2013 Salzburg Festival, most of us  suspected the Austrian press of slipping too much schnapps into their coffee.

But it turns out you can't keep an old baritenor down. Only the timing and location were wrong.

Plácido will sing his first Luna at the Staatsoper Berlin this November, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim.

At his side will be another debutant - Anna Netrebko, more predictably cast as Leonora.

Daniel Barenboim scores a €20m birthday present

The news that the German government are to fund the maestro to the tune of 20 million euros comes just a few days before his 70th birthday. But he can't blow it all on ping pong and cigars.

Instead, the cash, spread over four years, will support the activities of Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It's earmarked for the newly established Barenboim-Said-Akademie in Berlin, which aims to continue and extend the work of WEDO by offering musical training for up to 60 students from the Arab world.

The Academy, like Barenboim himself, is based in Berlin's Staatsoper, currently undergoing a €240m renovation. The grant will help create teaching and practice rooms. Also planned are a concert/rehearsal hall designed by Frank Gehry, who is providing his services pro bono, and a new chamber music hall which can be used by other artists when the Academy don't need it.

The cash injection is timely.  The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's current principal funder, the Andalusian Regional Government, is just as empty-pocketed as the rest of Spain. The German government in contrast have just increased next year's cultural budget by 8% to a total of 1.28 billion euros.

Anja Harteros - a cancellitis chronicle

The Berlin Staatsoper's season was supposed to launch last Saturday with Anja Harteros, a full orchestra, and a long-sold-out evening of Italian operatic arias.

It didn't.

On Friday afternoon, the Staatsoper sent out a curt press release - the concert was cancelled due to illness.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Not so. In fact, it proved a massive headache for Staatsoper staff, as well as a major disappointment for ticket holders, many of whom came from overseas. Volker Blech of the Berliner Morgenpost sets out the details. A fascinating glimpse at how many problems one little sick note can create:

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.