The Bavarian State Opera are streaming Der fliegende Holländer live from Munich tonight at 20:00 CET (7pm UK).
This is the notorious Peter Konwitschny production I saw a few years ago, which fills the second act with spinning bikes. Asher Fisch conducts a strong cast:
Daland
Peter Rose
Senta
Anja Kampe
Erik
Klaus Florian Vogt
Mary
Okka von der Damerau
Der Steuermann
Norbert Ernst
Der Holländer
Johan Reuter
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Der fliegende Holländer - Oper Zürich - Royal Festival Hall, 15 December 2012
As they've done a few times before, Zurich Opera interrupted their home schedule to bring a concert version of a current show to the Royal Festival Hall - orchestra, singers and all.
This time round, it was their new production of Der fliegende Holländer. Both London houses have tackled it recently. Neither managed, with all the costumes, curtains and furnishing items at their disposal, anything nearly as thrilling as Zurich gave us with a bare stage - and a few top-class singers.
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OK, it's only a fake one.
But as these rehearsal photos show, Bayreuth's replacement Dutchman Samuel Youn has been made up with a map-like tattoo on the side of his head. Has anybody checked his chest?
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Never mind the singers, what about the sets?
It looks as if director Jan Philipp Gloger has saved the Bayreuth Festival a few bob with those cardboard boxes. His new production of Der fliegende Holländer premieres today at 18.00 CET (5pm UK) - listen to it live here.
Continue reading "Bayreuth Flying Dutchman - first photos" »
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It seems not everyone cares for Evgeny Nikitin's tattoos, as pictured in the post below.
Just five days before the premiere of the new Bayreuth production of Der Fliegende Holländer, Festival management have sent him home after taking exception to an alleged Nazi symbol on his upper body.
Looking at a recent photo of Nikitin (above), it's hard to understand what the problem is.
But an older shot, taken during his days as a heavy metal drummer (below) gives a clue. Beneath what is now a colourful coat-of-arms lies something that looks like a swastika - in other words, an embarrassing mistake that he's now covered up.
Whether this is indicative of Nikitin's current or past political opinions is something only he himself could confirm.
But his tattoos have never been any secret. He has sung in all the world's major houses, including Covent Garden and the Met, and nobody to my knowledge has ever complained about them or suggested that he holds any unsavoury beliefs. Of course the tattoos are generally covered up for aesthetic reasons, but in some productions he has openly flaunted them. Thousands of people have seen them. No-one has said anything.
Bayreuth's sudden decision is bizarre. Not just because it appears to relate to a problem that no longer exists. And not just because the evidence was available long before they booked him. It's bizarre because Bayreuth have actively centred pre-production marketing around ....Nikitin's tattoos.
You can see the TV interview which allegedly alerted Festival management to the problem here. A brief section (lifted from this old video) shows the younger Nikitin barechested at the drums.
Nikitin's parting shot: "I did not realise how much irritation and injury such signs and symbols could cause, particularly at the Bayreuth Festival. I had these tattoos done when I was young. It was one of the great mistakes of my life and I wish I had never done it."
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Bayreuth's new Russian Dutchman Evgeny Nikitin nobly flashed his tats for today's Bild in the interests of PR.
To the relief of his choirmaster father, Nikitin's heavy metal days are over. But the ex-drummer revealed that he wouldn't say no to another tattoo or two.
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The Flying Dutchman - English National Opera, 28 April 2012 (first night)
It seems Jonathan Kent has been watching a few classic German opera DVDs. His new The Flying Dutchman (yes, it's sung in English) for ENO bravely departs from straightforward story telling -but only to recycle some of the weariest cliches in Wagner Oper. Slick West End-worthy production values and a few satisfying musical aspects do not entirely compensate.
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We've had street opera, pub opera and dinner opera - now there's bus opera.
For a single fare of 17.35 euros, the Pocket Opera Company offer New Year's Eve revellers a 35 minute bus ride through Nuremberg accompanied by a cut-down version of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. The journey, they promise, will be just like sailing on a ghost ship - presumably that's a coded hint to bring your own sick bag.
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Der fliegende Holländer - Royal Opera House, 10 March 2009 (final performance)
Is that a smile of pleasure or relief on Bryn Terfel's face? Whatever, his final performance was a considerable improvement vocally on the opening night - my assumption that he wasn't in perfect health then was perhaps right. He was sometimes underpowered, but the full range of colour had returned. His duet with Anja Kampe and the big final scene were the two high points of the night, but it's a pity this production demanded such an anonymous characterisation from a great actor who is capable of so much more.
The production remains as dreary as a wet weekend in Hull, but, curiously, looked a lot better from the right hand side of the auditorium than it had from the left. Something to do with the lighting perhaps? The noisy water effects and the party scene shouting were intrusive though - why bother with providing crude and unnecessary sound effects when all the detail is there in the score?
I found Marc Albrecht's opening night account fragmentary and unconvincing, flaunting the weaknesses in Wagner's patchwork scoring more obviously than the strengths. But clearly time had enabled him to join up some of the dots. The extended pauses and abrupt gear shifts were gone, replaced with neat seams that framed and reflected the episodic character of the score without butchering it at the joints. It was not the orchestra's finest night though, and he was let down more than once by shoddy ensemble.
A mini water fight at the curtain call proved the cast had retained their sense of humour, but I suspect Bryn may have a more personally rewarding experience with his forthcoming dates in Peter Konwitschny's Munich production. Real ships!
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Der fliegende Holländer - Royal Opera House, 23 February 2009 (opening night)
Oh dearie me. The Royal Opera House don't seem to have much luck with Wagner. And I had such high hopes for this new Der fliegende Holländer production. But I haven't sat through anything quite as tedious at Covent Garden since Iphigénie en Tauride a couple of years back. And a long sit it was too. Two and half hours non-stop is enough to give anyone a barnacled bottom.
It's the director's fault. Isn't it always?
Tim Albery's focus is Senta's daydreaming. And what she's escaping from is more important than what she's escaping to. She's not really bothered about the mysterious Dutchman, let alone redemption or any sort of spiritual enlightenment. She just wants to hop on his boat and get outta town. So she symbolically clutches a toy ship in place of the Dutchman's portrait that she sings about, looking predictably deranged.
Her mundane life is displayed in all its drabness. There's only one set, the weathered carcase of a giant ship. The lighting is dim. Welly-clad trawlermen and overalled factory girls stomp around in the gloom. An inch-deep puddle spreads apologetically across the front of the stage like a roof leak.
There are a couple of arresting visual moments when a bank of sewing machines drop from the sky for the spinning sequence and later when the Dutchman's sailors emerge from the hold tinted ghostly green. But otherwise it's relentlessly grim to watch, and the lack of light rapidly irritates.
A better musical performance might have minimised the damage, but only Anja Kampe's searingly bright and fearless Senta struggled through it with unqualified credit.
Bryn Terfel was not up to his best, uncharacteristically subdued and opaque. To some extent this is demanded in a production which focusses on Senta, but he seemed to have little to offer vocally between a shout and a whisper. I find it hard to believe his voice has declined that much in the year or so since I last heard him, so I hope it's just a short-term health problem. His diction was superb and words immaculately pointed though.
Hans-Peter König's Daland was robustly sung though under-characterised. Torsten Kerl's manic Erik sounded strangulated, and his bleached mullet hurt my eyes nearly as much as the lousy lighting.
But perhaps the best singing came from the well-drilled chorus, who also showed more enthusiasm than anyone else on stage for the dreary production.
Although the Royal Opera House orchestra played very well, Marc Albrecht sanded down and whitewashed every ounce of genuine drama from the music, substituting theatrical mannerism. Excessively slow passages jarred against sprightly songs in a way which did credit to neither. A neatly-constructed and stirring score became interminably long and unforgiveably tedious. And how could an overture played that fast sound that dull?
When at the end Senta lay down and expired in the middle of the empty stage (no redemption here), I knew how she felt.
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REVIEWS - a very mixed bag for this one
Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph - "unmissable"
Edward Seckerson in the Independent - "one of those rare evenings in the opera house that has you sitting so far forward in your seat that every muscle in your body is aching by close of play"
MusicOMH.com - "failed to live up to expectations"
George Hall in The Stage - "some thrilling playing and conductor Marc Albrecht does an impressive job"
Barry Millington in the Evening Standard - "a far cry from the thrilling productions seen in Germany in recent decades"
Musicalcriticism.com - "prevents us from engaging with the characters on a human level"
Richard Fairman in the FT - "The performances of the two central characters .... are so compelling that there is hardly time to focus on anything else"
Neil Fisher in the Times - "the strongest argument in favour of this unsentimental night at the opera comes from the pit"
Andrew Clements in the Guardian - "Tim Albery's staging is built around Bryn Terfel's haunted portrayal of the Dutchman, and the bass-baritone unquestionably delivers"
Production photos: Clive Barda
Curtain call photos: intermezzo.typepad.com
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“It was worse than singing any aria on stage here but I had to get up and sing my anthem".
While I was sitting in the Royal Opera House on Saturday afternoon watching Mark Elder put the orchestra through their paces in the first Capuleti rehearsal, Bryn teh Chin was in the pub round the corner watching the Welsh rugby team put England through theirs.
The ROH orchestra's performance may have improved as the afternoon went on, but the England team's didn't. This left Bryn - the only Welshman in the bar - to celebrate a rare national victory with a solo performance of the Welsh national anthem in front of a pub-full of lucky punters, as he told Karen Price of the Western Mail here.
Another reporter on the Brynterview bandwagon was the Independent's Christina Patterson:
"smouldering poses…..at ease in his own skin……it's like being dipped in the darkest, most expensive chocolate you can buy, and being rolled around in it….. purring…..our knees are almost touching…..a gaze that bores into your soul…..quite simply, magnetic…..almost overwhelming…..has me fumbling…..gentle smile…..too, too solid chest…..fainting with delight…..shrieking orgasmic approval....."
More moist impressions here.
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Last night I went to the Royal Opera House to find out about Tim Albery's new production of Der fliegende Holländer, which opens later this month. The ROH run these 'Insight Evenings' for most productions. There's no fixed format. Live music, talk, background, lectures, recordings - anything or anyone can appear, sometimes even the stars of the show. And that's exactly what we got here. Not just the lovely Anja Kampe (Senta) but the Welsh Dutchman himself, Bryn Terfel. Atoning for past absences maybe? No-one dared to probe that particular issue.
Instead, Bryn answered some more general questions.
He talked about how he prepares for a role, learning by repetition, singing wherever he can, at home or in the car "taking the kids to choir practice". What he sung when he was starting out, like Mozart, was easy to learn. But this is different - once a singer moves on to Wagner, there's no time for a social life. He'll just go straight to the music room when he gets home and open a bottle of red wine.
His first (and to date only) Dutchman was the WNO's 2006 production. But when he looked at the music again three months ago he could remember nothing. It was like looking at a new score. (Too much red wine perhaps? asked Anja Kampe. We all giggled.)
Studying the discography helps as well. He prefers what he called 'old fashioned' singing, because of the way with words. Diction is very important for Bryn. "The three boys think I'm absolutely crazy" he said (it was so touching how many times he sneaked his kids into the conversation.)
George London's widow gave Bryn some of the great man's marked-up scores, and Bryn was amazed to find he can "cut and paste" London's comments - he had "exactly the same problems" in the same places.
It was clear his feelings about David Pountney's WNO Dutchman were, er, 'mixed'. He prefers traditional productions, so he had to swallow his disappointment when he found out this one was set in outer space. He didn't like the raked stage either. That's partly for health reasons - two of his three back operations followed working on sloping stages.
He's already counted the steps behind the rake in Tim Albery's new set - fifteen, he announced disapprovingly. But he'll get on with it. That's not the only physical trial - he'll also have to tug a rope so heavy it floored a stagehand. (We looked at some design slides later - all wellies and scaffolding - very grim). But he sounded optimistic overall and claimed he's more prepared now than he was first time round. We shall see!
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David McVicar brings his chipolata-stuffed Rigoletto back to the Royal Opera House on 10 February. Star-power is limited to veterans Leo Nucci and Paolo Gavanelli sharing the title role but this is Verdi at his most unbreakable so that's all it needs. We wait eagerly to see what Francesco Meli and Ekaterina Siurina can make of the Duke and Gilda. More Ekaterina in recital at St John's Smith Square on 20 February.
George Benjamin's highly-praised shortie Into the Little Hill gets its long-awaited London premiere in the Linbury Studio on 14 February. It's coupled with Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood Side. Still no casting details on the ROH site, whatever that means.
But the major event of the month at Covent Garden is the premiere of Tim Albery's new production of Der fliegende Holländer on 23 February with Bryn 'teh Chin' Terfel as the Dutchman.
At ENO, Jonathan Miller's new La Bohème opens tomorrow. And you are duly warned that John Adams's irredeemably dim-witted Dr Atomic, which I saw in New York last autumn (well the first half anyway: I walked out at the interval) arrives on 25 February. On the plus side, it has a far better production and cast than the material deserves.
Opera Holland Park slip through the park gates and catch the 391 to Richmond Theatre where from 24 February the simple country folk can enjoy their brilliant Tosca from last summer. There are two casts - Amanda Echalaz, the best Tosca in town, sings on 25 and 27 February and 1 March.
The Barbican presents Handel's oratorio Samson on 12 February, for which The Sixteen are joined by a terrific line of of soloists including Mark Padmore, Gillian Keith, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Roderick Williams. And on 22 and 23 February, the LSO record Berlioz's Te Deum with Sir Colin Davis
Wigmore Hall's bargain-priced 4 o'clock Sunday song recitals continue with two artists on the brink of major careers - Jacques Imbrailo on 15 February and Lucy Crowe on 22 February.
On 21 February Gustavo Dudamel makes an eagerly-awaited return to London, where he conducts the Philharmonia in Mahler's 5th at the Royal Festival Hall.
And at the same place tomorrow night, 4 February Matthias Goerne joins Neeme Jarvi and the LPO for Mahler's Kindertotenlieder coupled with a purist-agitating rarity - Mahler's arrangement of Beethoven's 9th. There's a free talk at 6.15 for anyone who's interested in the background to this fascinating molestation. The photo below shows Mahler conducting Beethoven's 9th in Strasbourg in 1905.
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Barely a week into the new season at Covent Garden, and already we're being asked to whip out our Amexes again, this time for November to March productions. Booking opens this week for those who've paid for the privilege, and next month for the common herd.
Rolando Villazón fights through miles of curtain fabric to reprise his Covent Garden debut role in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Antonio Pappano conducts the elaborate John Schlesinger production, inching ever closer to its sell-by date. Ekaterina Lekhina (Olympia) is a new name to me, but Gidon Saks, Kristine Jepson and Christine Rice promise sturdy support (photo: Clive Barda).
Rolando also submits to a live interview on 10 November. Space is limited, so early booking advised.
The other star vehicle of the season is a new Tim Albery production of Der fliegende Holländer with (cancelitis permitting) Bryn Terfel in the title role. Anja Kampe makes an overdue ROH debut as Senta. Tickets will be restricted to two per customer for this one.
Britten's The Beggar's Opera pops up in the Linbury Studio. The new production by Justin Way (not by conductor Richard Hickox as the website currently claims - there are limits to his talents) is likely to be popular, so again, early booking advised. The excellent and underused Tom Randle is Macheath.
Also to the Linbury comes the long-overdue London debut of George Benjamin's highly-praised ("the most important new opera of the past 25 years") mini-opera Into the Little Hill , coupled with Harrison Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood Side. The cast includes Susan Bickley and Claire Booth.
The brilliant Willy Decker production of Korngold's Die tote Stadt that I caught in Vienna finally makes its way to London. Unfortunately Klaus Florian Vogt and Angela Denoke aren't coming with it, but Stephen Gould and Nadja Michael should be a more than passable substitute. And there's the bonus of Gerald Finley in the smaller role of Frank.
David McVicar's t1ts'n'todgers Rigoletto returns with indecent haste. Francesco Meli, Leo Nucci, Ekaterina Siurina and Kurt Rydl are amongst the few cast members who get to keep their clothes on.
Elektra isn't illuminated by Charles Edwards's jumbled production, but with Mark Elder in the pit and a cast that includes Susan Bullock, Anne Schwanewilms, Jane Henschel and Johan Reuter it should at least push some musical buttons.
Even I can't get excited about yet another Turandot revival, but include it for the sake of completeness.
On the ballet side, I have to recommend the triple bill The Seven Deadly Sins / Carmen / DGV: Danse à grande vitesse, especially for the first of these and its wonderful music. Chanteuse Martha Wainwright returns to sing Weill's evocative music, and Zenaida Yanowsky is her dancing doppelganger (photo: John Ross).
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Der Fliegende Holländer - Bayerische Staatsoper, Nationaltheater, Munich, 29 July 2007
(Münchner Opernfestspiele 2007)
This production ended with a bang loud and misplaced enough to make Wagner spin in his grave. Wagner's Fliegende Hollander ends with Senta sacrificing herself to save the Dutchman's soul, transfiguring both of them in the process by the power of her unconditional love. In Peter Konwitschny's traduction, she blows up the entire cast along with herself using a handy keg of gunpowder in the bierkeller-cum-arsenal of the last act's setting --The End.
Fortunately he didn't take quite as many liberties with the rest of the opera, so it was only the final minute that was ruined. It's a shame though that any of the audience seeing the opera for the first time will have walked away with a complete misconception of the story. Perhaps it was simply compensation for a lack of novel ideas elsewhere from a director probably hired on the basis of his reputation for innovation.
Konwitschny's other big innovation was rather more successful. He sets the second act girls' spinning scene in a gym spinning class (same pun in German), which fits both text and music perfectly, and provides a colourful visual break from the gloom of the first and last act. The execution of the concept isn't perfect though. The bikes fill the stage, so when Daland and the Dutchman enter the scene later, they're squeezing past them and tripping over. And the surroundings seem incongruous anyway once the spinning girls have exited. The production also made the redeeming angel of the Dutchman's thoughts into a real physical presence, a silent dancer. This worked until it became apparent that Senta could see her too, when I got confused about what she was supposed to represent.
The musical values which redeemed this production would have worked anywhere though. Now that I've seen Juha Uusitalo as the Dutchman, I'm going to find it hard to accept anyone else in the role. His enormous frame was clad as a dusty Van Dyck portrait in cloak and doublet. In voice and presence he was imposing and terrifying, and quite appropriately dominated every scene he was in.
Matti Salminen, who has possibly been playing this role for longer than some of the cast have been alive, was predictably superb, and captured the greed and curious naivete of Daland perfectly. Anja Kampe's powerful soprano retains the girlish edge that Senta needs. It was a touching performance, and if she sounded confused at the very end, I could only sympathise.
I'd been looking forward to seeing Klaus Florian Vogt as Erik, but his replacement, Kurt Streit, did a fine job. With a less idiosyncratic, more mature voice and presence than Vogt, he inevitably brought a different view of Erik, a more traditional interpretation that worked well. Kevin Connors brought some light relief as a fine comic Helmsman, with some neat little visual gags.
The early bars saw a few stumbles from the orchestra and some shabby ensemble from the wind section. It's probable many had also been playing for the morning performance of Il Turco in Italia, which makes it a little more excusable. They sorted themselves out fairly quickly, and Adam Fischer drew out a fine performance, where they actually sounded fresher after two and half hours of constant playing than they had done at the start.
This was a a fabulous production musically - such a shame it had to end in such a ridiculous fashion.
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I suppose I should be grateful that the Bavarian State Opera actually bother (unlike the Royal Opera House) to announce cast changes on their website a bit sooner than the day before the performance.
But it's disappointing nobody twigged earlier that Klaus Florian Vogt might have trouble following a six hour slog through the Bayreuth Meistersinger this Wednesday with a Fliegende Holländer in Munich the very next day. Not to mention co-ordinating rehearsal times. Quite understandably, he's pulled out of the Munich performance.
I was lucky enough to catch his weirdly fabulous Lohengrin in New York last year (surely the Met debut of the season). So I was looking forward to seeing what he'd make of Der Fliegende Holländer's Erik. But that will have to wait until next February, when he tackles it in Vienna.
At least he's still on the list for Munich's own Meistersinger next week. For now.
KFV reinvents Lohengrin on DVD:
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