Intermezzo

Christoph Waltz to direct Renee Fleming's Covent Garden farewell

So, the rumour was true. Oscar winner and Kommissar Rex guest star Christoph Waltz will direct a new Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House in 2016. Renee Fleming is to play the Marschallin in her Covent Garden farewell, with Andris Nelsons conducting. Whether Waltz has secretly auditioned Placido Domingo for the role of Baron Ochs is not clear.

The production, Waltz's first, will debut at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp on 15 December 2013, where Dmitri Jurowski will conduct a cast that includes Christiane Karg as Sophie, Maria Bengtsson as the Marschallin, Stella Doufexis as Octavian and Albert Pesendorfer as Ochs.

Oscar winner to direct at Covent Garden?

Who'll be telling Renee Fleming what to do with her hands in her final Covent Garden performance?

The most intriguing rumour circulated in this month's Opera magazine is that Christoph Waltz is to direct a new Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House in 2016-17, where Renee will play the Marschallin in her Covent Garden farewell.

The Oscar-winning star of Inglourious Basterds doesn't appear to have directed anything before, apart from an obscure TV movie. But he studied singing and opera in his native Vienna before turning to acting, and he's a keen operagoer.

Years before his Oscar, Waltz proved himself as the finest of actors with a guest appearance in the finest of Austrian TV series, Kommissar Rex. His role as an evil doll-maker who dresses up women and moulds them to his will can only help with his Renee-wrangling. Watch him in the clip above, and check out the one below if you want to know how it ends (and catch a glimpse of Rex).

Stefan Herheim's dream Rosenkavalier in Stuttgart

Der Rosenkavalier - Staatsoper Stuttgart, 27 November 2009

You might think the last thing the lengthy Der Rosenkavalier needs is even more music, but Stefan Herheim cheekily pre-empts its prelude with disorientating electronica. In a star-pricked, lavishly draped boudoir, a fading Diana Dors figure contemplates her vanished looks in a dressing table mirror.

Just when I wondered if I'd come on the wrong night by mistake, she furiously thrust her fist through its mirror and Strauss's music began. Horned and hairy priapic satyrs erupt from a giant frieze depicting the rape of Europa. One Pan-like creature fashions a silver rose from the broken mirror shards. They ravish the Marschallin to the famous brassy calls until an Apollonian Octavian descends from the skies to rescue her from the clutches of Dionysian abandon.

This is, needless to say, not the usual comedy of manners - the opulent rococo costuming is deceptive. Herheim's Rosenkavalier employs the primal forms of myth and symbol to explore the Freudian world of unconscious desire revealed by dreams. The unfulfilled Marschallin, tied by social etiquette, seeks satisfaction of her innermost desires in the unbound and illogical realm of fantasy. In this ideal world, she doesn't even have to choose between sex and chocolate - the page boy Mohammed, revealed as another randy satyr, takes her from behind as he delivers her breakfast.

The action is played out beneath a giant version of the Marschallin's blue crinoline, and just to make that clear it's doubled in miniature puppet form in the first act. Sophie is the Marschallin's younger self, and Mariandel yet another side. The bull-horned and horny Ochs (Ochs is German for ox/bull) wreaks Dionysian disruption with his satyr servants and their flapping rubber genitals. The court too have an animal side, establishing character instantly and brilliantly. Faninal and Sophie's maid are preening poultry, the notary a poodle, Valzacchi and Annina a cockroach and a moth, and the servants turn round to reveal sheep's heads behind. The only creature which doesn't quite work is the occasionally interposed pun-too-far of Strauss himself as a pantomime ostrich (Strauss is German for ostrich).

Of course the opera is about more than the Marschallin. Strauss and Hofmannsthal viewed a Europe at the end of an era, on the brink of decay, mirrored in Ochs's unbridled excesses. The painting of the Rape of Europa hanging behind is a constant reminder. Can his third act lesson teach Ochs anything?  Guillotined heads on poles and Annina's uniformed gas-masked children bear witness to the savageries of Europe's past and the still worse carnage yet to come. Ochs tries and fails to strangle 'Strauss' the panto ostrich like Rod Hull grappling with Emu (the mostly German audience sat straight faced, enraptured; I was dying). But he is ultimately defeated - the golden stars beneath the Marschallin's blue skirt are echoed in her triumphant final deus-ex-machina entry as the incarnation of Europa and the end of the panto nonsense. Ochs disappears into the skies, rocket-propelled, discharged to outer space.

As Sophie and Octavian are finally united, the Marschallin and Faninal join the audience in the boxes wearing everyday costume. Now it's Pan who's weeping as he stuffs his face with the mirror-rose he made, expiring bloody and writhing as the reactionary and sentimental emerge victorious. Herheim may love the opera, but he's disappointed in Strauss.

If all this makes it sound as if Herheim has replaced Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with something of his own invention, nothing could be further from the truth. The action respects every turn of the music, and in many cases mimics it structurally. The most overt parody-waltzes are accompanied by knowing unison swaying. When it's time for the big numbers - the presentation of the rose, the final trio - he clears the stage and there's nothing to detract from clearly-presented motive and devastating emotional impact. The libretto may be used ingeniously, but it's never ignored. Neither is the emotional or physical direction that the music implies. Quite simply, it all rings true.

If there's one criticism which could be fairly levelled, it's that some of the smaller moments are not as touching as they might be. That's because Herheim chooses to expose the sentimentality rather than wallow in it - and it could be argued that because Strauss's sentimentality in Rosenkavalier is both conscious and intentional, it should be swallowed whole.

Manfred Honeck whipped up his excellent orchestra with an equal lack of saccharine fluff and a driving pace. Fantastically bold colouring, confidently varied dynamics and daring rubato complemented the hallucinatory visuals, detail swimming in and out of focus.

It's hard to pick a standout amongst the excellent cast, most of whom surpassed their bigger-name counterparts in the recent Covent Garden production. Mojca Erdmann was the only name I recognised. Her Sophie was beautifully-voiced though lacking in colour. Christiane Iven's blowsy Marschallin wasn't quite as elegant but she really held the stage, with even the second act scented by her presence. Marina Prudenskaja's darkly poised mezzo complemented a frighteningly convincing physical portrayal of Octavian, and she wasn't afraid to let rip and squawk her way through Mariandel. Lars Woldt's Ochs was strangely likeable despite his oafish excesses, and clearly a bumpkin (as the directions suggest) rather than a boor (as we usually get).

What a pity there were such a large number of technical problems on the night I visited. Curtains that wouldn't close, curtains that wouldn't open, drapes that snagged on ladders, failing lights, and assorted bumps, bangs and crashes all evening. It's a busy production that must make a lot of technical demands but these were basic issues.

*****   more photos on next page   *****

a faded rose

A bulging diary forces me to skip Covent Garden's nth revival of Der Rosenkavalier later this month, but I did find time for Friday's general rehearsal.

What a disappointment.

The tired old tinselled macaroon production is the least of the problems, even making allowances for the unfinished nature of the rehearsal product. I haven't heard the ROH orchestra play this badly all year. Scrappy ensemble, poor intonation, deranged brass - it would shame a school band. The curtain-down preludes were a real trial. Were there any orchestra rehearsals at all beforehand? It certainly didn't sound like it. Kirill Petrenko really has his work cut out to knock it into shape before Monday's opening.

And I was disappointed in Soile Isokoski's Marschallin. I can understand why she wanted to conserve her voice for most of the rehearsal, but charisma doesn't wear out if it's exercised. Her presence barely registered. And her makeup was positively unkind - couldn't they at least give her some brows?

Sophie Koch's Octavian too failed to sparkle, though at least she sang out. As to why a seventeen year old boy might be interested in knocking off a flour-faced gran (and vice versa) the production imparts no clues. It's rare that any of the characters even look at each other outside the comic knockabouts, and so the Marschallin's beautifully-written soul-searching passes unexplored.

So the sideshow became the star - the delightfully oafish Baron Ochs of Peter Rose, whose less than elegant singing works in this case to the character's advantage. Thomas Allen's Faninal too was wonderfully drawn in the few lines allotted.

But it was Lucy Crowe who left the most positive impression overall, a Sophie as defiant and spirited as Baron Ochs claims. Some of those top notes sounded dangerously squeezed, but the rest was liquid silver, and her stroppy charm made a long four and half hours pass less slowly.

 

the silent Rosenkavalier

Le Chevalier à la rose (Der Rosenkavalier): Orchestre National d'Île de France/Frank Strobel - Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, 14 November 2009

Many people accuse Richard Strauss's music of sounding like a film soundtrack. Not everyone realises that he did actually write one - albeit after a considerable amount of arm-twisting.

Largely based on his opera Der Rosenkavalier, it was created for live performance by orchestra (no singers) alongside the 1925 silent movie of the same name, which fleshes out the story line of the opera but still manages to come in at half the length.

The opera's librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal also wrote the film's script. But despite pleading he could whip up little enthusiasm in Strauss. There was much at stake for Strauss. If the film failed, he failed. But if on the other hand the film were successful, it might undermine the reputation of the opera in comparison, a risk to which Strauss was acutely sensitive. The politicking between film makers, financiers, publishers and the numerous other parties engaged in the making of a movie was another aspect of the process Strauss found distasteful. His doubts were salved by liberal applications of cash, and he took the job, but it wasn't a whole-hearted effort.

Much of the routine rearrangement was turned over to assistants. Where new music was required for new scenes, Strauss preferred to recycle old tunes. The limited amount of truly new material, principally a battle march, lacks inspiration. Once complete, Strauss tried his best to turn his back on it - Hofmannsthal had another battle persuading him to conduct the 1926 Dresden premiere. But eventually the score was delivered, the premiere conducted. 

The film's director was Robert Wiene, a hot property after his influential (and financially successful) 1920 film Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari. That cost 20,000 dollars to make. Ten times as much was raised for Rosenkavalier, enabling Wiene to stage a massive battle and an extravagant outdoor masked ball finale. Both are centred around the Marschallin's husband, who is of course unseen in the opera. In the film he's cipher-like and I suspect created merely for the purpose of these very scenes. Servants, guests, soldiers, peasants (some interesting 'real' faces) crowd the screen. More cash was splashed on opulent costumes and lavish sets from the designer of the opera's 1911 premiere, Alfred Roller.

In spite of all the money thrown at it, the film has little of Caligari's extraordinary originality. Perhaps it was all those interfering financiers or perhaps Wiene was simply running out of ideas. There is just one truly memorable image - the screen fills with what looks like a huge white fleece, which parts like a set of jigsaw pieces, revealing itself as the massed heads of a group of elderly periwigged gossips. But the pace is unflagging, and (within the confines of silent movie high style) Wiene draws excellent performances from all his actors, right down to the extras.

Sadly and despite initial acclaim, the original film did not survive intact. The version shown at the Châtelet was pieced together from what remains, using a selection of stills and brief clips to make up ten minutes missing from the end.

Silent movie specialist Frank Strobel has been conducting this version around Europe since 2006 - he visited Liverpool last year, but not, as yet, London. He was fortunate to have for this performance the services of the young and energetic Orchestre National d'Île de France, who make something of a specialism of work outside the mainstream classical repertoire. They played the technically challenging music tirelessly for nearly two hours, filling the lofty tiers of the Châtelet with great attention to detail and dynamics.

The score isn't Strauss's greatest, the movie isn't that special, but with the orchestra in the pit and the film projected on the Châtelet's enormous screen above them, somehow they compensated for each other's deficiencies. The many comic moments charmed, the Marschallin's sad surrender of Octavian drew a tear or two, the whole drama came alive. A packed and hugely varied audience - several small children included - gave orchestra and conductor a massive ovation.

Frank Strobel takes the stage:

 

The audience leaving: 

A promo video made by Houston Symphony Orchestra for their performance of the film earlier this year:

Royal Opera House - the Winter Season

Booking for Covent Garden's Winter Season (December to March) starts today for Friends, and 20 October for all you other people.

Not much is massively tempting, though the first of Plácido Domingo's appearances this season is a must-see. He's already sung in Madrid - and been immortalised on DVD - in this striking Graham Vick production of Handel's Tamerlano, conducted for the Royal Opera House by Handel specialist Ivor Bolton. 

Also worth catching - if there are any tickets left - is Plácido 'In Conversation' in the Linbury Studio on 26 February.

Kirill Petrenko is the conductor for Der Rosenkavalier, a dust down for the 1984 John Schlesinger production.  A promising cast is headed by Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Lucy Crowe and Thomas Allen.

Andris Nelsons makes his Royal Opera House debut in December conducting an even more ancient production, John Copley's 1974 La bohème, with Maurizio Benini and Paul Wynne Griffiths substituting in January. Though once should be enough for anyone. Mix'n'match casting includes Piotr Beczala, Hibla Gerzmava and Christopher Maltman. Yards of curtain fabric, acres of creaking boards, smocks akimbo, and even a spot of artistic nudity not mentioned on the ticket (in case you're taking granny).

Last year's disappointing Robert Lepage production of The Rake's Progress makes a swift and brilliantly-cast return. Toby Spence (the best Tom Rakewell in town - he was made for this role) is joined by Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen, and Stephanie Blythe as Baba the Turk.  Lovely Ingo Metzmacher conducts and tickets are a bit cheaper than usual, with a top price of £110.

Even cheaper, with a top price of £50, is Prokofiev's The Gambler. Covent Garden take a step into ENO territory with a new English language production by Richard Jones. The cast includes Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson, Jurgita Adamonyte and Kurt Streit, and Pappano conducts. No doubt intended to draw in a new audience, as is a half day education event An Introduction to Opera on 20 February.

It's hard to make Mozart dull, but Jonathan Miller's painfully misguided assault on Così Fan Tutte does the trick. Not half as happening as it thinks it is, and it's doubtful if Charles Castronovo, Troy Cook, Sally Matthews and Nino Surgaladze can salvage it. Julia Jones waves the baton for female conductors.

Royal Opera House 2009/10 season - all the details

Here first! - a full list of all the Royal Opera House's main stage productions for the 2009/10 season.

The 2009/10 Covent Garden season opens with neither bang nor whimper but with a credit-crunching concert performance on 7 September (repeated on 14 September). Makes a change from last year's Sun readers' special I suppose.

The opera in question is Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, and the conductor is bel canto genius Mark Elder. The cast includes potential Next Big Things Stephen Costello, Eglise Gutierrez and Luciano Botelho, plus the incomparable Alessandro Corbelli, the first of several welcome appearances this season.

The first staged opera of the season is Nicholas Hytner's lego-loving Don Carlo, with - OMG!- Jonas Kaufmann !!! in the title role. John Tomlinson joins him as the Grand Inquisitor, and the rest of the cast is lifted straight from the first run - Marina Poplavskaya, Simon Keenlyside, fans' favourite Ferruccio Furlanetto, Sonia Ganassi and Pumeza Matshikiza.The conductor is Semyon Bychkov.

This season's contribution to the 2013 Wagnerversary is a new Christof Loy production of Tristan und Isolde. Antonio Pappano conducts Ben Heppner, Nina Stemme, Matti Salminen, Michael Volle and Sophie Koch.

Neigh! Francesco Zambello's ghastly Carmen returns in October, with the latest Covent Garden favourite Elina Garanca back for the title role, fighting off Roberto Alagna, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, and a farmyard full of furry friends. Bertrand de Billy conducts. It's resuscitated again in June 2010 with a distinctly 'B' cast.

October also sees one of Richard Jones's more subtle and effective efforts back on stage - and attractively cast. The shouldn't-work-but-it-does double bill of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Christine Rice, Yann Beuron, Christopher Maltman, Andrew Shore and Bonaventura Bottone) and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (Thomas Allen, Maria Bengtsson and Stephen Costello) is conducted by Pappano.

Francesco Zambello steps into Tchaikovsky's The Slippers in November. The new production will be conducted by Alexander Polianichko and features some serious talent fresh from the Mariinsky - Olga Guryakova, Vsevolod Grivnov, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Matorin and Maxim Mikhailov.

John Schlesinger's elderly Der Rosenkavalier is dusted off in December. Kirill Petrenko conducts and the cast includes Soile Isokoski, Sophie Koch, Thomas Allen and Lucy Crowe.

Littering the December and January schedules is the inevitable La Bohème. This time Andris Nelsons conducts most of the double-cast performances, which begin with Piotr Beczala and Hibla Gerzmava and end with not a few tbc's.

Robert Lepage's intermittently effective Rake's Progress returns in January 2010. Ingo Metzmacher, Toby Spence (a Tom Rakewell tdf), Kate Royal, Kyle Ketelsen and Stephanie Blythe promise much on the musical side.

Female conductor alert! Top Lisboan Julia Jones wields the baton over Jonathan Miller's Cosi fan Tutte in January. The cast includes Charles Castronovo and Sally Matthews.

A new Richard Jones production of Prokofiev's The Gambler in February is conducted by Pappano, with a cast including Roberto Sacca, Angela Denoke, John Tomlinson and Jurgita Adamonyte.

Plácido Domingo's first appearance of the season is as a tenor. Graham Vick's acclaimed production of Handel's Tamerlano (recorded in Madrid and available on DVD con Plácido) makes its first visit to Covent Garden in March with Christianne Stoijn, Sara Mingardo and Christine Schäfer. Baroque specialist Ivor Bolton conducts.

Bill Bryden's family-friendly The Cunning Little Vixen returns in March with Emma Matthews, Christopher Maltman and Emma Bell, though the presence of Charles Mackerras on the podium has to be the main draw.

Caurier and Leiser's lovely Il Turco in Italia is back in April, with Maurizio Benini conducting, and Aleksandra Kursak, Colin Lee, Alessandro Corbelli, Thomas Allen and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo in the cast.

Aida is subjected to the David McVicar magic in April. His new production is conducted by Nicola Luisotti and features Micaela Carosi, Marcelo Alvarez and Luciana D'Intino. Bare naked elephants?

The last of the Big Three, Richard Eyre's subtly intelligent La Traviata, makes its annual appearance in May and July. This time her name's in the programme - Our first Lady of the Camellias is the fabulous former Netrebko sub Ermonela Jaho. Joining her in her long-awaited return to Covent Garden in May are Saimir Pirgu and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. July's 'B' Violetta is Angela Gheorghiu, who makes do with James Valenti and Zeljko Lucic. Yves Abel conducts.

Laurent Pelly's now-legendary La Fille du Régiment returns in May with the unbeatable original cast of Juan Diego Flórez, Natalie Dessay, Alessandro Corbelli and Felicity Palmer back in place. Bruno Campanella conducts.

What would tempt Sir Colin Davis back into the pit? How about David McVicar's Le Nozze di Figaro? Erwin Schrott, Camilla Tilling, Maruisz Kwiecen. Annette Dasch, Soile Isokoski and Christine Schäfer head the strong cast.

Antonio Pappano conducts Laurent Pelly's new Manon, coming to Covent Garden in June with the announced cast including Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. Anyone fancy a bet?

In one of those rare operatic fairy stories, June sees a baritone with less than a year's experience thrust into a leading role at Covent Garden. Yes, it's Plácido Domingo again, and this time he's Simon Boccanegra. Antonio Pappano conducts a strong cast including Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Joseph Calleja. It's the 1991 Elijah Moshinsky production by the way, not the Ian Judge one seen last year.

The season ends in July 2010 with the first revival of David McVicar's controversial Salome. Angela Denoke takes the central role, with Johan Reuter as Jokanaan. Hartmut Haenchen conducts.

No link yet, but more details expected on the Royal Opera House website sometime next week.

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*******UPDATE 22/4*******

The Royal Opera House's press releases are now available on their website. Go here for the summary, here for the opera details and here for the ballet.

Nina Stemme's refrigerated Rosenkavalier

Der Rosenkavalier - Zurich Opera - Royal Festival Hall, 12 April 2008

Tackling the intensely theatrical Der Rosenkavalier without a full staging is rather like doing Star Wars as a radio play. Disguises, asides, gestures are so integral to the drama. Setting the singers for this concert performance on a small platform behind the orchestra wasn't an entirely successful compromise. It gave them a few inches of space to act and interact, but left them stranded far from the audience. My cheapie stage side seat became an asset -- people seated further back in the main hall had difficulty hearing some of the singers. It may have been the reason a fair number left after the first act, depleting the already far from sellout crowd even further.

Or it may have been the turgid morning-after feeling of the first act. Despite Franz Welser-Möst's crisp pacing, it tended to drag. This arid account couldn't be accused of over-indulgence. Piotr Beczala's brief appearance as the Italian Singer was a welcome highspot, and Alfred Muff's splendid and wily Baron Ochs provided the vital vulgarity that Welser-Möst seemed to fear. Nina Stemme was a commanding Marschallin, but stony cold as a pillar in her white draped Grecian goddess gown. At least she had the sheer power to soar over the orchestra, something the tailcoated Michelle Breedt's otherwise sturdy Octavian lacked.

The second act began a huge improvement. Finally Welser-Möst came out of his shell and injected a little spunk and vitality. A few ensemble problems were a small price to pay. Laura Aikin's bright, pure-toned Sophie complemented Michelle Breedt's warm and mellow Octavian perfectly. The Pavarotti-shaped Rudolf Schasching and Kismara Pessatti manoeuvred perilously around the narrow platform, but provided more comic counterweight as Valzacchi and Annina.

Nina Stemme's switch to a burgundy brocade ensemble for her final act appearance signalled a slight increase in performance temperature. Or perhaps she'd just spilled her interval snack down the white frock, who knows. Her voice positively but there was still no vulnerability, no wistfulness or regret. All passion was left to Octavian and Sophie.

Although the orchestra was buffed to a sheen under Welser-Möst's tight control, and despite some fine individual performances, the evening  - all four hours of it - was an endurance test at times. The danger with sidestepping sentimentality and vulgarity is that sometimes engagement - and entertainment - gets left by the wayside too.