January 13, 2002: Parsifal in Vienna

2002-01-13 Parsifal (R. Wagner), Wiener Staatsoper

Amfortas = Bernd Weikl
Titurel = Peter Wimberger
Gurnemanz = Kurt Rydl
Parsifal = Placido Domingo
Klingsor = Wolfgang Bankl
Kundry = Violeta Urmana

Peter Schneider, conductor





Peter Schneider was the right conductor for Parsifal.
Kurt Rydl was great as Gurnemanz, but not as tall as Matti Salminen, and that was a pity. Because in Madrid where M. Salminen sang Gurnemanz, he was always the tallest onstage, and that is almost a requirement in this role. Bernd Weikl too was great, as Amfortas, but I think Madrid's Grundheber was better. As in Madrid: Wolfgang Bankl was Klingsor, and he was great, too.

And this Parsifal was great, but now we come to the center of the question, Parsifal and Kundry. Plácido Domingo and Violeta Urmana. It was the Placido Domingo who sang the best German, without a false word, the Spaniard was better than the German-speaking singers in the language test of Parsifal. Violeta Urmana, in her attempt to sing correct German, seem to loose out meaning in the search of pronounciation.

The Kundry of Violeta Urmana was unexciting, boring in both act1 and 3. Only in Act 2 did she manage to be any thing called exciting because of the beautiful dress she was wearing. Where Agnes Baltsa gave heart and soul into Kundry, only belcanto from Urmana.

Plácido Domingo, the final judgment: he is a great Parsifal. still young. Forever young.


13.JANUARY 2002 17:00


-----
Parsifal
Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel von Richard Wagner

DirigentPeter Schneider
Inszenierung August Everding
Ausstattung Jürgen Rose
Choreographie Ray Barra
Chorleitung Ernst Dunshirn
" ..

Kundry - Violeta Urmana*
Erster Knappe - Cornelia Salje*
Zweiter Knappe - Michelle Breedt
Dritter Knappe - Walter Pauritsch
Vierter Knappe  - Michael Roider
Erster Gralsritter - Benedikt Kobel
Zweiter Gralsritter - Peter Köves
Blumenmädchen 1 Gruppe - lngrid Kaiserfeld
Judith Halász*
Stella Grigorian
2 Gruppe - Simina Ivan
Renate Pitscheider
Michelle Breedt
Stimme von oben - Michelle Breedt
* Rollendebüt an der Wiener Staatsoper


ODTravel

December 8, 2013: Tristan und Isolde in Vienna

2013-12-08 Tristan und Isolde (Wagner), Wiener Staatsoper

Tristan = Robert Dean Smith
König Marke = Albert Dohmen
Isolde = Violeta Urmana
Brangäne = Elisabeth Kulman
Kurwenal = Matthias Goerne
Melot = Clemens Unterreiner
Ein Hirt = Carlos Osuna
Ein Steuermann = Marcus Pelz
Stimme eines junges Seemanns = Sebastian Kohlhepp

Peter Schneider, conductor

Regie - David McVicar
Ausstattung - Robert Jones
Licht - Paule Constable
Choreographie - Andrew George

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE.
"Love" at first note. Loved the orchestra with conductor. Wagner the composer is great. Too many words all the time. But one does get into it. I no longer oppose the idea of Jose Cura as Tristan. But really Wagner heroes vs Verdi heroes, Verdi wins every time. Loved Elisabeth Kulman as Brangäne. Highlight in love duet between Tristan and Isolde = Brangäne singing. Robert Dean Smith is a great singer, once in a long while one hears he is not German but still amazing singer. Violeta Urmana as Isolde, great work, a great singer but she was not able to mesmerize me as she did as La Gioconda in Paris. Albert Dohmen was so great that I wished his part was bigger. Matthias Goerne as Kurwenal was just luxus. Clemens Untermeier as Melot was also very good. Carlos Osuna as the shepherd was also wonderful.


The production with David McVicar as director, scenography by Robert Jones, was great. Sadly it was Isolde's Liebestod that ruined the perfect Tristan. Tristan is the one the who dies of love, and King Marke appearing with Tristan dead that is truly sad. I actually cried. Then Isode's Liebestod, who would have guessed that was the disappointment of the evening. Violeta Urmana was singing her heart out. But instead of dying there, she was going slowly out in her red dress. For the applause Urmana appeared with the black dress and was then more like Isolde then in Liebestod. Bravi, tutti!!

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December 3, 2005: Lohengrin in Vienna

2005-12-03 Lohengrin (Wagner), Wiener Staatsoper

Heinrich der Vogler = Kwangchul Youn
Lohengrin = Johan Botha
Elsa von Brabant = Soile Isokoski
Friedrich von Telramund =
Falk Struckmann
Ortrud = Janina Baechle
Heerrufer = Adrian Eröd

Semyon Bychkov, conductor

LOHENGRIN

Dirigent: Semyon Bychkov
Inszenierung: Barrie Kosky
Bühnenbild: Klaus Grünberg
Kostüme: Alfred Mayerhofer
Choreinstudierung: Ernst Dunshirn



I did not realize it until the day after that this was the uncut version of Lohengrin. That notion explained things up for me. I thought I had forgot parts, and the love duet did not quite play up the romanticism that I heard in Plácido Domingo and Jessye Norman in the Decca recording of Lohengrin. And the end, something was amiss in the end, I thought the reason was that it was some time ago that I listened to my recording, maybe years even. The conductor was brilliant and orchestra played wonderfully, but still... it was boring. The complete Lohengrin I am sorry to say is not such a great opera. I wonder if that would have been my notion if I had just heard it on the radio. Webcast Radio.Orf.at. ?

I had hoped to see Agnes Baltsa as Ortrud, that was my primary and indeed only reason to go to Vienna. But she walked out for health reason and Janina Baechle sang instead. But for me it was obviously that the replacement mezzo was singing an Ortrud that was really created for Agnes Baltsa. The voice of Janina Baechle do not have a personality as Baltsa, it was a blank voice, and her acting was too extreme, she over-acted. Agnes Baltsa as Ortrud would have been really the center of the opera, eye-catching, and her voice willing to be ugly for the drama, and Ortrud needs to have an actress willing to the extremes. The undoing of Janina Baechle was to try to not be Ortrud but to be Baltsa's Ortrud.

It was a rather colorless Lohengrin, beautiful sung but lacking in personality. Falck Struckmann as Graf von Telramund, Johan Botha as Lohengrin, Soile Isokoski as Elsa von Brabant; was good singers but still their voices was colorless. Kwangchul Youn was a good Könich Heinrich, Adrian Eröd as Heerrufer was very good.

This production made Elsa von Brabant into a Blind Woman which made nonsense of the libretto. The director maintains that he plays the score on the piano before defining the opera, so why didn't he read the libretto, too. Soile Isokoski is totally believable as a Elsa even as a blind woman. And this is not a performance making Elsa into a sorry handicapped person, no, Elsa is blind but that is not hindering her a bit. This is a great performance of Soile Isokoski, but to my ears she still does not have the vocal resources for this Wagner role. But still, BRAVA!!

Johan Botha is singing Lohengrin, Parsifal, Radames, Calaf, etc in Wiener Staatsoper, why ? His voice is not really heavy enough for Lohengrin. He is just a fat tenor.... He doesn't sing like a Lohengrin, he doesn't look like Lohengrin. Why not give him a suit that makes him look more like Grail Knight. Long white hair apart, thumb down. I have really no idea if this man can act, I put most of the blame at the feet of the director and team.

The production was really, really.... I don't know, irrelevant... Stupid.

Lacking in personality was this Lohengrin production. With Agnes Baltsa there would have been at least one personality....

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June 22, 2014: Der Fliegende Hollender in Oslo

2014-06-22 Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner), Den Norske Opera & Ballet (Oslo)

Hollenderen = Terje Stensvold 
Senta = Erika Sunnegårdh
Daland = Ketil Hugaas
Erik = Henrik Engelsviken
Mary = Tone Kummervold
Styrmannen = Marius Roth Christensen

John Helmer Fiore, conductor
Den Norske Opera & Ballet

REGI - Andreas Homoki
SCENOGRAFI - Wolfgang Gussmann
KOSTYMER - Wolfgang Gussmann
DRAMATURGI - Werner Hintze

LYSDESIGN - Franck Evin

I thought I would be so bored. This was Wagner after all. Opera with no intervals is just plain wrong. I have to admit I looked at my watch. First time I looked one hour had already passed. I thought I saw wrong numbers it was dark there. So this was working and with this regie and scenography it did not make sense to stop between acts.

Here one could have compassion with the Hollender because he care about Senta. When the H understand that Senta would probably suffer eternally he wants to stop the wedding. Senta has promised herself to Erik years ago but she is so much in love in the idea of the H. Erik loves Senta but he comes of more like a brute who has such self-pity. The H. is a man who has suffered a lot for his arrogance but his love for Senta makes him able to put Sentas life and happiness first, something Erik has not learned. Senta shows her "love" for the H. with sacrifising her life, she blows her brains out.

The Romantic Opera of Wagner. Where is the Romance really? Senta is not really the kind of woman one should aim to be. Daland, her father talks about her that she would be as pleasing and obidient to her husband as she is to Daland. Senta, my sweet child. But ever since she heard the story of the flying hollender she has been wild. So it was a great!!


After the opera and the applaus and the speech and flowers it was time to go home.

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May 13, 1999: Die Walkure in Vienna

1999-05-13 Die Walküre (R. Wagner), Wiener Staatsoper

Sieglinde = Waltraud Maier
Siegmund = Siegfried Jerusalem
Brunnhilde = Gabriele Schnaut
Fricka = Margareta Hintermeier
Hunding = Egils Silins
Wotan = Falk Struckman

Why go to see Wagner's Die Walküre when you're not exactly a Wagner fan. I prefer Verdi to Wagner. But I also like Plácido Domingo. So after seeing some video from Vienna State Opera with Plácido as Siegmund ("Tales from the Opera"), I wanted to see this opera and this production myself even without PD.

Waltraud Meier & Siegfried Jerusalem was exciting Sieglinde & Siegmund. I loved Fricka embodied by Margareta Hintermeier, wife of Wotan, loving Wotan but duty tells her to condemn Siegmund for loving his twin sister. Brunnhilde, a goddess who does what her father wishes, not as he says. She must be human, but only a hero (Siegfried) will be able to awaken her. Wotan was real person in this version. It was great!!!!

1630-2230 in the opera. OK if its this production.
BRAVA; Margareta Hintermeier!!.

OD Travel

April 27, 1989: Der Fliegende Hollender in Oslo

1989-04-27
Den Norske Opera
General Rehearsal of
Der FLIEGENDE HOLLENDER
by Wagner

Senta = Frøydis Klausberger


I used to be a Opera Friend of Den Norske Opera in my study years. Lots of opera possibilities as General Rehearsal. All I remember is that Frøydis Klausberger, our Norwegian soprano was a great Senta. And that I only enjoyed her aria at the spinning wheel. And then I had the program but no list of cast...

OD Travel

April 11, 2015: Lohengrin in Oslo

2015-04-11 Lohengrin (Wagner), Den Norske Opera & Ballett (Oslo)

Heinrich der Vogler = Magne Fremmerlid
Lohengrin = Paul Groves
Elsa von Brabant = Nina Gravrok
Friedrich von Telramund =
Ole Jørgen Kristiansen
Ortrud = Elena Zhidkova
Heerrufer = Yngve Søberg

John Helmer Fiore, conductor

Regie- Johannes Erath
Scenography - Kaspar Glarner

Costumes - Christian Lacroix

A wonderful Lohengrin in Oslo, or was it?

The production was in black and white mostly except that Ortrud was dressed in green. Even as the prelude started we were shown that Ortrud was most probably the villain and also at other times we were shown flashbacks to the past were Telramund tried to kiss Elsa and Ortrud took the brother of Elsa. Directors of to today do not think the audience are too bright so they have to show it all.

The problem for me was Elsa. All that running around, being crazy, and fainting and then suddenly she was able to show some dignity as a noble woman. Only men think women faint that easily. It was true at one time when women's dresses and so on was so tight that taking a deep breath was impossible. With more loose dresses women do no longer faint at all kind of moments. Nina Gravrok was Elsa von Brabant. First act aria "Einsam in trueben Tagen" was sung very staccato and with no legato line that it never seemed to become the first class aria it is. Even as it is years since I listened to Jessye Norman on CD and almost a decade since I saw it in Vienna with Soile Isokoski I remember the celestial feeling this arias gives you when sung by these too first class opera singers. Luckily as the opera progressed and Elsa did not have to act so absurdly Nina Gravrok singing improved. Unfortunately I expected more of a professional singer: to be able to sing legato and give every line their right form even if the directors demands you to run around onstage as a madwoman.

Elena Zhidkova was Ortrud. What more to say about this great singer? She acted and sang just as you would dream a Ortrud being able to do. She was helped by the director allowing her to play the role straight up without inventing stupid moves. If one wanted more and/or different from Ortrud one would have to falk to Richard Wagner, the composer who also wrote the text to his operas.

Ole Kristian Jørgensen was Friedrich von Telramund. Again a great singer / actor who was allowed to bring the best of himself without the director inserting himself. In short Ortrud and Friedrich von Telramund was utterly believable as a couple and in themselves.

Magne Fremmerlid was King Heinrich der Vogler. He did it well but I missed hearing the full sound of his large voice. Was it deliberate or was something not right? Most importantly it was nothing that diminished him, he was perfectly put in the right spot and did not waiver.

Paul Groves was Lohengrin. What should I say about Paul Groves as Lohengrin? That he was great enough? Or... Was he perfect or was he lacking as Lohengrin. In many ways that is the whole question of Lohengrin himself. The perfect knight of the Grail or the imperfect human being.

Lohengrin could be the story of a purity society. I never noticed Telramund admitted to force himself on Elsa just after realizing the boy, the duke of Brabant disappearing. Telramund has a claim of Brabant especially when the boy, the heir, is gone missing. And if Elsa accepts him as husband then voila Telramund becomes Brabant. Elsa rejects Telramund and that "tells" him that she must have killed her brother. Thus disgusted with Elsa, the young woman and heiress of Brabant, he married a woman much more to his liking. No he is still pure-thinking when the other woman is Otrud, the last offspring of those who ruled Brabant before it was Christened.

Telramund tells this directly to the king with everybody hearing and Telramund is still considered brave etc man. His purity is intact but Elsa's purity is in doubt. Should I even have to call the witness who is said saw the deed. Of course not. To doubt a man on his word. What an horror! Of course it was Ortrud behind him all the times. Elsa is not allowed to be anything except crazed after her unknown knight. Wagner makes her such, and the director drinks it up and does not allow much dignity to poor Elsa. Lohengrin appears an otherworldly creature for the people of the times of Lohengrin. As a modern woman he appears as an arrogant idiot. The adieu to the swan, the looking into Elsa's eyes to see she is innocence. Wow. Well the singing was great enough and the director did not destroy the moments so one can enjoy it. To care for Elsa or Lohengrin that is not so easy.

Lohengrin has won the fight. Of course the men had to fight and they had to call the fighting God's courtroom. What could possibly go wrong? Telramund as so many men of  opera is incapable of understanding the fault was their own, so he accuses his wife. As a Christian he believes that God must have fought hard on Lohengrin side since he seemed to be such a wimp. When Ortrud who hated this new God and religion, tells him that Lohengrin used sorcery to win Telramund jumps up, yeah! He was not wrong, he was wronged. Then she has her man back and can get him to do what she wants.

After being weak and foolish Elsa, who is getting married, now has her dignity in place and can act like the nobility she is. Ortrud worms her in with her woe is me, you getting married, but my poor, poor husband. Elsa being noble allows Ortrud to come in become part of the bride parade. Being meek is not something Ortrud does well so she shows her real colors when Elsa is going to church or from church and accuses Elsa of all kinds of things while giving the girl doubt about her man, why not know his name and family and whether he is a noble at all. Telramund works on the men, this Lohengrin is he really..

Wedded bliss, no bed. They are alone for the first time EVER. And now married. Both now nothing except that GOD is important. The love duet is filled with God and purity. They love each-other, but always remember, it is pure love. Love is not sex, beds are not needed, what two people need is to have a talk, not THE TALK, but to talk about we love God and trust God. Then Elsa topples down and goes completely Eve to her Adam. I love you so much as I would rather die than tell anyone your name and station, but please tell me who are you. The forbidden fruit, the forbidden question. Alas, now all our happiness is gone!!! (Did I miss something, when did all that happiness happen? Oh, I must have blinked)

The king had come to Brabant to make it whole by deciding who will be the duke there just sow that Brabant would also be part of the German war against Hungary. Now that Lohengrin is married to Elsa and Telramund is banished, they can all happily go to war. Lohengrin killed Telramund after he jumped to kill Lohengrin when Elsa popped the wrong question. Now he asks was he right to kill the banished man that tried to kill him. Yes. But the Defender of Brabant as asked the brabantian to call him, ask also did they all hear Elsa swear to never ask. Since she has now asked he must go away but he ask them to deem if he was noble enough. Of course, he is. Knight of the Grail, and his father Parsifal who is crowned there. Is Elsa totally defeated as Lohengrin, who we all now know as Lohengrin, goes away with his swan. Lohengrin also tells now if only she had waited a year her brother would have come home. Defender, because the brother is still the Duke. Tell your brother all about me, Lohengrin says. Ortrud tells all that the brother was the swan. Lohengrin frees him.  Elsa dies.

No happy ending for you!!!

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