Last premieres of the season at the Bavarian Opera

opera festival The Munich Opera Festival, which ended the other day, held by the Bavarian State Opera, traditionally presents to the public both its popular repertoire performances and new productions. This practice, believes MIKHAIL FICHTENGOLTS, is optimal: those who did not have time for the festival itself get a chance to see all the new products during the next season. There were two new performances on the program - Wagner's "Walkyrie" and Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress".
The history of the production of Die Walküre, the most poignant drama in the Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, was painted in sad tones from the very beginning. The staging of the first day of Wagner's tetralogy was undertaken by the former revolutionary of the opera stage, who in recent years became a patriarch, Herbert Wernicke. His sudden death two weeks after the start of work on the opera jeopardized not only the upcoming festival, but also the entire next season (Wernicke was invited to direct the entire “Ring”). The late's assistant, Hans-Peter Lehmann, was there to help, completing the performance on time, but receiving a solid slap in the face from local critics for saying that his "Dalkyrie" was too decorative, a beautiful picture replacing a concept that was crude and not worked out.
Considering that the same criticism ten to fifteen years ago wasted Wernicke himself in vain, reproaches for shortcomings should not be taken too seriously, especially when you see self-confident Wagnerian stars Waltraud Meier (Sieglinde), Peter Seiffert on stage (Peter Seiffert (Sigmund), John Tomlinson (Wotan), Gabriele Schnaut (Brünnhilde) and Mihoko Fujimira (Fricka). In fact, Lehmann's directorial style is almost not felt - he imitated Wernicke's decorative style so accurately and conscientiously. The new things that attract attention in “Die Walküre”—the brilliantly polished plasticity of the mise-en-scène, the close attention to the emotional undertones of lengthy monologues—came as a pleasant surprise for Wagnerian dramaturgy with its “coarse grinding.” Against the backdrop of bright, exaggerated and luxurious scenery (representing the auditorium of the theater in Bayreuth), Wernicke’s favorite lurid spots of color, the story of little people came to life - the trembling Sieglinde (an outstanding work by Waltraud Mayer) and her twin brother Siegmund (the magnificent Peter Seiffert). The history of Wotan’s family also acquired a characteristic shade of grotesquery - the conflict unfolding in the Wagners’ family nest in Bayreuth clearly hinted at the current squabbles in this noble family, which has worried the minds of secular reporters for years. The subtlest touch of irony in Lehman’s “Die Walküre,” however, can easily evaporate: next season, the production of the entire “Ring” (and, accordingly, the editing of this performance) is entrusted to David Alden, a master of uncompromising and very original concepts.
For the cumbersome and gloomy Wagnerian fresco, the Bavarian Opera chose a very unexpected pair during the festival - Stravinsky's elegant neoclassical pastoral "The Rake's Progress." Stravinsky's opera buffa is a malicious parody of romantic drama, all the values of the 19th century are carefully turned inside out, and the aesthetics of the Viennese classics is taken as a basis - also, however, not without malicious intent. Director and choreographer Martin Duncan, taking on "Adventures", made an unimaginable stylistic somersault, ridiculing not only the pomposity of romantic cliches and quasi-Mozartian pastorals, but also Stravinsky himself. In Duncan's world, everything and everyone lends itself to irony. To the smooth music of rural scenes, obese women frolic in tight tights. In Mother Goose's brothel, where the main character ends up, black boys twirl their hips to the tune of a well-behaved orchestral tune. The climax of the performance is the appearance of Baba Turkish, the hero’s wife, a woman with a beard; Duncan gives this role not to the mezzo-soprano, but to the countertenor Christopher Robson, whose beard moves to the pubic area. The director's extremely ironic style is complemented by a light, almost operetta-like musical rhythm, which is set by the venerable conductor Ivor Bolton and tenor Ian Bostridge, who plays the sought-after rake. This unabashedly funny production will probably not be lost in the rich repertoire of the Staatsoper, even when the Ring of the Nibelung is taken up in earnest next season.

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 143 dated 08/14/2002, p. 13

Themes:

The Ring of the Nibelung was not allowed to fall