The latest opera to be livestreamed by the Bavarian State Opera is Verdi's Macbeth. Conducted by Massimo Zanetti, it features Zeljko Lucic and Nadja Michael as Lord and Lady M.
Not for aficionados of the puffy short, Martin Kušej's unsettling production features topless bunny girls, dirty underpants and a mass public wee.
The live stream begins at 19:oo (6pm UK time) tomorrow, Saturday 11 May.
Production trailer:
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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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Unlike London's opera companies, the Bavarian State Opera respect their audience and value their custom.
Instead of emailing their 2013-14 season announcement a day and half after sharing it with an ungrateful press, ROH-style, it will be streamed live on their website for everyone to see.
Tune in to www.staatsoper.de on Tuesday 19 March at 10:00 CET (9am UK). You can even send in your questions for Intendant Nikolaus Bachler and music director Kirill Petrenko to answer live.
If you can't wait that long, here's a prediction or two:
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The Bavarian State Opera are live-streaming Saturday night's performance of Jenufa from their website, starting at 19:00 CET (6pm UK).
Barbara Frey's 2009 production features Karita Mattila in the title role, together with Stefan Margita and Gabriele Schnaut.
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The Bavarian State Opera recently ditched their notorious but memorable 'Planet of the Apes' Rigoletto for an altogether tamer version.
Arpád Schilling's new production, economically set in a stadium, has been dubbed a 'concert in costume' by some of the German critics. It features Joseph Calleja, Franco Vassallo and Patricia Petibon, with Marco Armiliato conducting.
You can see for yourself on Sunday 30 December when the opera is streamed live from Munich at 18:00 CET (5pm UK).
Here's a trailer:
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Those are just a couple of the things you can look forward to in Jörg Widmann's brand new opera Babylon, "the opaque love story of an exiled Jew, a Soul and a Babylonian priestess through seven scenes involving two conflicting versions of the Flood, human sacrifice, a jaunt to the underworld and seven singing planets. Ezekiel, Death, a Scorpion Man, several singing phalluses and vulvas, and a troupe of monkeys all put in an appearance."
It was premiered at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich last weekend in a production directed by Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus.
On Saturday, November 3, it becomes the first opera this season to be streamed live and free on www.staatsoper.de/tv. Subtitles in German and English will be available.
The stream starts at 19.00 CET (6pm UK) and includes an introduction and backstage interval features. It will not be available on demand afterwards.
The trailer above is just production clips; the one below features interview and explantory material (in German) as well.
For your diary, here are the rest of the planned live streams this season:
Continue reading "Human sacrifice and singing German genitals" »
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The heirs of Francis Poulenc are nun too pleased with Dmitri Tcherniakov's 2010 production of Dialogues des carmélites. They've taken the Bavarian State Opera to court, alleging the concept, in particular the final scene, misrepresents the 1957 opera.
A traditional synopsis will tell you the work is about 16 Carmelite nuns executed as martyrs for bravely defending their beliefs during the French Revolution. Tcherniakov's contemporary staging instead imagines a mass cult suicide prevented at the last moment by Sister Blanche's own self-sacrifice.
Poulenc's central message is that faith is worth dying for; Tcherniakov's that only human life merits the ultimate sacrifice. Clearly the two are diametrically opposed. Yet many who've seen the production (reviewers too) claim Tcherniakov's reading is profound and truthful - the word 'masterpiece' has even been bandied around.
Pending resolution of the lawsuit, scheduled performances on 1 and 4 November will take place. However the claimants have insisted that special programme notes are drawn up, distancing them from the production.
Make up your own mind - here's the production trailer:
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One of the many opera houses Evgeny Nikitin's career has taken him to is Munich. And the Intendant of the Bavarian State Opera, Nikolaus Bachler, can see no reason to cancel any of the singer's future appearances there, he tells the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Instead Bachler, whose house runs one of the most effective press/PR operations in the business, accuses the Wagner family of hypocrisy and poor incident management.
"I view the 'Nikitin Affair' primarily as a problem with Bayreuth and the Wagner family, not with the singer," he said. "I find it dishonest that the folly of a 16-year-old rock singer who has long since repented and tried to undo the problem should be punished by the Wagner family. People often point the finger at someone else when they have a problem with their own history."
Pointing out that Nikitin had apologised and shown remorse, Bachler added: "I have never heard the Wagner family regret anything in the last 50 years ."
Bachler criticized not only Nikitin's departure, but also the manner in which he left Bayreuth: "A joint press conference would have been more appropriate than making Nikitin withdraw and damaging his reputation. " He described the affair as an ugly tale that demonstrates "how the past is still present."
Another major German newspaper, FAZ, has run an editorial piece along similar lines.
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Here are some videos to go with the previous post on the Munich Ring cycle. All were shot at general rehearsals by the Bavarian State Opera. The first four are straight extracts; they're followed by compilation trailers that give a flavour of the production style for each opera.
If you're planning to watch the live stream of Götterdämmerung on 15 July, these will set the scene and give you a good idea of what to expect.
Das Rheingold prelude:
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The Ring Cycle - Nationaltheater Munich, 3-8 July 2012
"History is written by the victors" - and so too is myth. Andreas Kriegenburg's new Munich Ring inevitably focuses on the principal characters. But he also pulls in the original creators of the tales Wagner drew on, ordinary people living in thrall first to nature, then to the whims of the governing classes.
Hordes of extras are deployed as servants and workers, and more ingeniously as scenery holders and scenery substitutes. Depersonalised by their lookalike costumes and gestures and by their very numbers, they are miles away from the fussily individualised lower orders beloved of the likes of David McVicar.
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The Bavarian State Opera is capitalising on the vociferous disapproval that greets every new production (and some old ones too).
Online, you can buy a T shirt to tell the world that your boos are the best (sadly, ladies sizes only).
The Munich shop carries a few more options, including a straightforward 'Buh' for those confident in their opinion, and more equivocal 'Buh oder Bravo?' for anyone less sure.
Negativity doesn't come cheap though; the well-made but plain shirts retail at a Man U-esque 29 euros (£25).
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There were boos last night at the Bavarian State Opera's Die Walküre. But not at the end.
As at the production's recent premiere, a large section of the audience were quick to make their feelings known about director Andreas Kriegenburg's addition of a silent prologue to Act 3.
Continue reading "Staging the unstageable - Munich Ring horseplay" »
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The Bavarian State Opera are to stream Andreas Kriegenburg's new production of Götterdämmerung live on their website on 15 July. Free of course.
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The final instalment of Andreas Kriegenburg's Ring cycle opens tonight at the Bavarian State Opera with what looks suspiciously like a topical spin. Götterdämmerung features Stephen Gould as Siegfried and Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde. Kent Nagano conducts.
I'll be seeing it next week, and you can listen to it live on BR Klassik at 16:00 (3pm UK).
More photos and video trailer below.
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The Munich Opera Festival 2012 kicked off today at 3am when around 1,700 Germans whipped their kit off for photographer Spencer Tunick in the 13°C chill.
Tunick's latest installation 'The Ring' is inspired by Andreas Kriegenburg's new Ring cycle production for the Bavarian State Opera. The naked volunteers were body-painted in either red or gold. Shortly after dawn Tunick took his first photos on Ludwigstrasse, when hundreds of bodies formed a flame symbolic of Wagner's Nibelheim.
More photos below - don't look too closely or you'll never be able to eat Weisswurst again..
Continue reading "Knickers off! - Spencer Tunick pictures Munich naked" »
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It's time for the third round of the Bavarian State Opera's Ring cycle.
Siegfried premieres at 16:00 CET today (3pm UK ) and will be broadcast live on BR.
Kent Nagano conducts and Lance Ryan is Siegfried (Jedward failed the audition).
Production photos below.
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“When you look at this you feel like this is finally the ‘Ring’ that Wagner would have wanted all along” says Georges Nicholson, a 'Wagner historian' not found in Intermezzo's Big Book of Wagner Historians. His extravagant claim for Robert Lepage's Met Ring was made in Susan Froemke’s documentary film Wagner’s Dream. “We are actually having the vision that Wagner had when he was composing,” he adds for good measure.
What, a row of spinning planks controlled by a microchip? I'm more inclined to think Wagner would prefer the Bavarian State Opera's latest wheeze - filling downtown Munich with naked Germans and taking photos.
Artist Spencer Tunick has been invited to create one of his famous mass-nude installations on the opening weekend of the summer opera festival (no doubt clearing the top end of the Englischer Garten in the process). Sadly, the work will not be called Tunick in Munich, but The Ring. Why?
As Intendant Nikolaus Bachler puts it: "Andreas Kriegenburg primarily tells his version of The Ring of the Nibelung by means of the performers' stage and gesticulation movements in addition to their singing. This produces an interesting equivalence to Spencer Tunick's human body installations. That is why it was an obvious choice to show these two projects for the Opera Festival".
But of course! Mr Lepage must wish he had someone like Herr Bachler to spin those planks.
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On 19 May, the Bavarian State Opera website will be streaming I Capuleti e i Montecchi live - and free.
Vincent Boussard's stylish production, which I saw last year, features Vesselina Kasarova and Anna Netrebko as Romeo and Juliet. The sumptuous Christian Lacroix costumes are worth tuning in for all by themselves.
Streaming begins at 7pm CET (6pm UK).
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On Saturday 24 March the Bavarian State Opera are streaming Eugene Onegin live.
The infamous 2008 'Brokeback Mountain' production by Krzysztof Warlikowski imagines Onegin and Lensky as lovers. Much shirtlessness ensues.
And who better to pop those buttons than Simon Keenlyside and Pavol Breslik? They're joined by Ekaterina Scherbachenko, and Pietari Inkinen conducts.
Streaming begins at 7pm CET (6pm UK), and it's a once-only, live event.
This is the original 2008 trailer, with an earlier cast:
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So which house has the best 2012-13 season? The Bavarian State Opera is a strong contender. With many productions sprinkled lavishly with stars, and interesting (if not quite cutting-edge) directors, there's little on their schedule I wouldn't be thrilled to see.
For a start, there are productions of nearly all the major Wagner operas to celebrate Wagnerjahr 2013. The new Andreas Kriegenburg Ring cycle returns in January 2013. Peter Konwitschny's Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde and Der fliegende Holländer join Richard Jones's Lohengrin and David Alden's Tannhäuser to complete the list.
The season's premieres include two new operas. One is Babylon by Jörg Widmann, which will be produced by La Fura dels Baus. The other is George Benjamin's Written on Skin (also on the Covent Garden schedule).
Calixto Bieito's infamous 'maze' Fidelio returns, and he also directs a new production of Boris Godunov. Richard Jones's WNO/Met Hänsel und Gretel makes its Munich premiere in March after a final outing for the current production in December.
There's plenty to satisfy Jonas Kaufmann fans, starting with a new Olivier Py production of Il trovatore, where he's joined by Anja Harteros and Alexey Markov. He also turns up in revivals of the Luc Bondy Tosca, and with Rene Pape and Anja Harteros in Don Carlo.
Further starry highlights are a new production of Rigoletto starring Joseph Calleja, and Joyce DiDonato in I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
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