Intermezzo

der Freischütz comes to der Bigscreen

Want to know how Rene Pape spent his last summer hols? Starring in a movie, that's how. Of course der Superbass is already a screen veteran, having been the only thing worth watching in Kenneth Branagh's excruciating Magic Flute a few years ago.

Now he plays the Hermit in a new film version of Der Freischütz, shot last year and shortly to be released under the title Hunter's Bride.

The film promises a treat for lovers of 'realistic' opera. Set during the Napoleonic wars, the publicity shots suggest neither corsetry nor cavalry have been scrimped on. The cast is rounded out with an unbeatable group of singing actors - Juliane Banse as Agathe, Michael König as Max, Michael Volle as Kaspar and Olaf Bär as Kilian. And while they were singing on the battlefields of Saxony, Daniel Harding conducted the LSO at Abbey Road.

The Dresden premiere on 4 September promises to be a special event. Instead of herding a gaggle of micro-slebs into a cinema, the movie will be shown on the banks of the Elbe, open air and open to all, with just a few prime spots held back for sale at €15 each. It goes on general release in Germany later this year, but there's no word as yet about the UK (where, to be fair, Der Freischütz has never exactly taken off).

Here's the trailer:

Don Carlo in Munich

Don Carlo - National Theatre Munich, 22 July 2010

A sound production, a spectacular cast, a few roast heretics for supper - this could have been the greatest Don Carlo ever. If only they'd rehearsed it. Following an airing in January, Jürgen Rose's ten year old production was revived for just two nights. Some critics complain that Munich's summer opera festival is not imaginative enough, that it doesn't have new productions coming out of its ears like Salzburg's does. But for out-of-towners like me, one of the main attractions is well-cast revivals of old favourites.

However when the most convincing actor on stage is Ramón Vargas, you know you've got problems. The singing was uniformly terrific, but the cast, to a (wo)man, looked as if they'd been shoved on stage and told to get on with it. It didn't help that the temperature outdoors was a muggy 80-plus degrees, and worse inside. In their heavy period costumes, sweat running down their faces, running around the stage was probably the last thing any of them wanted to do.

Rene Pape talks to his agent

Newspapers are dead, believe it. Rene Pape's agent dispenses with the press and interviews Der Superbass himself.

I'm not sure which is the best bit  - that his ring tone is Méphistophélès' devilish laughter from Gounod’s Faust, or that he has a dachshund called --- Wotan.

Compulsive reading, and apparently there are more instalments to come.

Get your Rene Pape now while stocks last

Rene Pape - or Рене Папе as he's known in Russia -  tells Vera Stepanovskaya of Art Lovers Journal  he's had enough. After 20 years of solid opera, he's cutting right back.

He's booked up for the next couple of years, but after that he intends to focus more on recital work. Limiting his future opera appearances to one or two a year should leave enough spare time to catch up on his reading as well. Literature and history are his picks - it's time to develop his mind.

More here (in Russian).

Don Giovanni from Verbier with Terfel and Pape - FREE streaming

 

The 20 July Verbier Festival concert performance of Don Giovanni is available in full online FREE for one month (thanks to reader Dolcevita for the tip). It's luxuriously-cast and beautifully-sung top to bottom, and marks the last opportunity to catch Bryn Terfel in the title role before he switches permanently to Leporello.

Manfred Honeck conducted the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the full cast is René Pape (Leporello) Anna Samuil (Donna Anna), Bryn Terfel (Don Giovanni), Thomas Quasthoff (Commendatore), Michael Schade (Don Ottavio), Annette Dasch (Donna Elvira), Sylvia Schwartz (Zerlina) and Robert Gleadow(Masetto).

There are two sources - arte.tv and medici.tv. I found the Medici streaming was slightly better quality - but you need to sign up for a (free) account to watch beyond a brief preview. 

The festival runs from 17 July to 2 August, and as last year, both channels are are also streaming other festival performances - in some cases live. The full programme is here.

 

 

a slight smell of burning

LPO / Jurowski / Pape - Royal Festival Hall, 31 May 2009

The balcony was closed due to lack of interest. The stalls were lightly sprinkled with the dedicated, the curious, and a few first timers clutching heavily discounted tickets (everyone from lastminute.com to the German Embassy was flogging them). The 2,900 seat Royal Festival Hall is hard enough to fill at the best of times, and the promise of 'new music' doesn't make it any easier.

Tonight's UK premiere was Torsten Rasch's Mein Herz brennt ("my heart burns"), a vast slab of heavy metal-tinged neo-romanticism in the form of a song cycle. The stage was built out to accommodate an orchestra so oversized they frequently drowned out the principal soloist, Rene Pape, despite his amplification. Couldn't someone have twiddled a knob somewhere? He sounds fabulous on the recording and it was a shame the live experience couldn't match up.

Katharina Thalbach, who wisely clutched her microphone to her chin, came across more clearly. Her whisky'n'cigs spoken vocals, somewhere between Lotte Lenya and the possession scene from The Exorcist, echoed the dark and brooding tone of the self-consciously retro music, which looks back to Zemlinsky and Schreker as much as Berg and Mahler.

The modern twist comes in the text, sourced from the lyrics of the German industrial metal band Rammstein. The tunes themselves are mostly discarded, but the melodic line retains more than a hint of rock rhythm. And despite the strong individual characterisation of each song, the relentlessly dense texture and earsplitting volume they all share is as cumulatively bludgeoning as a night in with Rammstein themselves.

The long evening began with the fifth symphony of Mendelssohn, the Susan Boyle of this year's anniversary composers, over-exposed and seemingly inescapable.

 Mahler's Todtenfeier, a sketch for the first movement of his second symphony was an interesting choice. Not just because of Rasch's Mahler influence either - the LPO will open next season with a performance of the full symphony. This performance didn't dig too deep and sounded a tad under-rehearsed and, but the clarity and driving pace promised much.