On Forbes: Kirill Petrenko remains at the Bavarian State Opera

Kirill Petrenko Remains At The Bavarian State Opera

arlier today it was announced that Kirill Petrenko, the coming chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, has renewed his current contract as music director of the Bavarian State Opera by three years until 2021.

The Bavarian State Minister for Culture, Dr. Ludwig Spaenle, signed the new contracts with him and the Bavarian State Opera’s Intendant Nikolaus Bachler who brought Petrenko to the house in 2010, after a tetchy relationship with the previous music director, Kent Nagano. Bachler had all but married himself to Petrenko’s remaining in Munich, after it was clear that Petrenko would become the designated head honcho of the Berlin Philharmonic. Keeping Petrenko was thought to be...

Full review on Forbes.com.

On Forbes: Kirill Petrenko New Chief Conductor Of The Berliner Philharmonic

The Berlin Philharmonic has just elected a new chief conductor: http://t.co/rkgcInWSzW, from @ClassicalCritic pic.twitter.com/lzLRJG2lJC

— Forbes Opinion (@ForbesOpinion) June 22, 2015

Kirill Petrenko New Chief Conductor Of The Berliner Philharmonic

Radio Berlin-Brandenburg reports that the Berlin Philharmonic has elected Kirill Petrenko as their new music director and successor to Simon Rattle. An inquiry by that station was neither confirmed nor denied, but there will be a press conference later today. (The press conference will be transmitted live via Digital Concert Hall.) The news is suggestive of Petrenko not renewing his contract in Munich, where he is currently music director of the Bavarian State Opera, worshiped by the orchestra and adored by the audience which he managed to galvanize like few conductors in the past...

Continue reading here, at Forbes.com

Kirill Petrenko has been reviewed a few times on ionarts; those reviews can be read here.

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Ionarts-at-Large: End-of-the-World-Music in Vienna

Within a few days, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian State Orchestra (the opera’s orchestra) pitched their tents at the Musikverein in Vienna. I caught the second of those two concerts, with the Opera’s orchestra under their music director Kirill Petrenko, because I had to! It featured Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique, but that wasn’t the reason. It opened with Ravel’s La Valse (Poème chorégraphique pour Orchestre), but that wasn’t the reason either. But in the middle lured a tremendous work: Gesangsszene to words from “Sodom and Gomorrha” by Jean Giraudoux for Baritone and Orchestra by Karl Amadeus Hartmann. (More Hartmann on ionarts here.) Not only that, but with the best possible baritone in that repertoire, too: namely Christian Gerhaher (More Gerhaher on ionarts here). That’s unmissable in my book – and everything else is mere bonus.

La Valse was a fine such bonus to start with: As the first low notes emerged, the upper strings just barely broke through to the surface, which made the work—buzzing, droning, pulsating—all the more strange than it already is. It was woodwind eeriness, and the harmlessness of the waltz theme was hard to trust. When the strings finally got there, and came to the fore at last, along with the battery of four harps, they didn’t revert to a pastoral naïveté, either: With transparency  and foreshadowing and every timpani burst ever more threatening, the orchestra inexorably waltzed along to the ensuing final, perplexing stage… fooling no one along the way. Typical Kirill Petrenko, one might say, and a nicely disturbing opening.

Hartmann was the student of Anton Webern, an admirer of Arnold Schoenberg, and a liberal quoter from Alban Berg, but he was anything but a mindless disciple of the 12-tone cult: “Those who compose slavishly in acquiescent dependency on tone rows can certainly crank their bits out at a nice clip. But… you cannot just skirt the burden of tradition by replacing old forms with new ones. We have to accept that our path has become more difficult than that of our great idols before us.” Hartmann consequently developed a musical voice that makes him one of great if lamentably unsung composers of the 20th century.

K.A.Hartmann, Gesangsszene et al., K.A.Rickenbacher, Bamberger Symphoniker, S.Nimsgern Koch H.Berlioz et al., Symphonie Fantastique, M.Jansons, BRSO BR Klassik

Hartmann wrote his very last, unfinished work—the deeply pessimistic, apocalyptic Gesangsszene—for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. It was premiered a year after Hartmann died in 1963. It is uncomfortable listening, disturbing and stirring, relentless, but with glimpses even of conventional beauty amid the ruins. Fischer-Dieskau remained loyal to Hartman’s swansong and, between the premiere and 1987, performed it twenty times all over Europe. The premiere performance under Dean Dixon never made it from LP to CD, but recordings with the Bavarian and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestras led by Rafael Kubelik (Wergo) and Lothar Zagrosek (Orfeo) respectively let us eavesdrop on this bitter parting gift of Hartmann’s for which Fischer-Dieskau’s controlled urgency is apt.

If the performance with Petrenko and Gerhaher sounded very, very different from Dieskau’s attempt (especially with Kubelik), it’s because Gerhaher, unlike the albeit poignant Dieskau, opted to sing the work as written, not just an approximation thereof. The review of the concert in Munich promised much. In fact, Egbert Tholl of the Süddeutsche Zeitung was so destroyed afterwards, he had to leave at intermission (and communicated this in the review). The clarinet and flute pre-lament, to get us set up properly. Then one becomes witness to the colorfully illustrated Sprechgesang/singing, always at the edge of what is either just still or already no longer comfortable Sew-saw, sew-saw… as through bone with a surgeons’ saw... followed by impotent exclamation marks. Silence. Gerhaher amidst this like a pale horse. And then the flute again, piping up as if to see if things might not have turned around. They have not. This is End-of-the-World-Music! It even says so. The last words are: “It is the End of the World. The saddest possible of them all!” Indeed. Tholl called Gerhaher’s role in this that of the “Evangelist of Doom”, and it’s right-on. Then Tholl went out into the night, alone. As I might have, even though I was missing a bit of that solemn focus I had expected and hoped for… either a product of my lacking concentration or the less than perfectly concentrated, incomprehensive surroundings in the Goldener Saal.

I stayed. But what can you play, after hearing Hartmann? Nothing, if you take it seriously… if you really took it in, if you made it your own. Anything, of course, if it was just music… more or less impressive, to be listened to, more or less, and then dutifully applauded; a prosecco at intermission, a chat with the Feldhubingers and, oh look, Dr. Waldner is here; we haven’t seen the Gugler’s in weeks, and Hello Herr Professor Doktor Geigerl, Frau Professor Doktor Geigerl. How was the week at Lake Hallstatt? Why, then it’s no problem at all continuing with Berlioz’ self-indulgent tone poem of many ownders… the showy, effective, and not universally loved Symphonie fantastique.

The performance: Amazing details, finely traced and with great dynamic control and dramatic execution thereof and playing that you’d expect from an AAA concert-orchestra on a good day, but not not necessarily from an A opera-orchestra like the Bavarian State Orchestra, Munich’s nominal No.3 (after the obvious No.1 BRSO and the fluctuation our-concerts-are-like-a-box-of-chocolate No.2 Munich Philharmonic). So far, so good. But the performance was also detailed to the point of disconnect and incoherence. Maybe “AAA”, but not my cup of tea. In any case, it was entirely nixed by a squeaking double-bass chair that would not stop adding its gruesome, unwanted sound to the mix. Strange that Petrenko didn’t stop after the first movement, to remedy the ill. But disconnect and squeak aside, the Symphonie fantastique is also a frightfully self-important work (even if Petrenko wanted to downplay exactly that aspect), and the contrast to the earnest humility of the Hartmann reveals this mercilessly. It’s not my favorite work to begin with (although the BRSO recording from last year got me very excited), and once one isn’t in the mood for this Symphony, it gets annoying and tedious really fast, however impressive the circumstances. No matter: No one can take the gloomy delight of Hartmann away from me. 

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Ionarts-at-Large: The Petrenko Debut without Shadows

All pictures courtesy Bavarian State Opera, © Wilfried Hösl. Details, click for full picture.

The 50^th anniversary of the re-opening of Munich’s National Theater was celebrated with a production—then as now—of Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten. On November 21^{st t}he town, or at least the part of it interested in the Bavarian State Opera,was atwitter about the new production as it had not been

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Dip Your Ears, No. 131 (Pfitzner Supreme)

H.Pfitzner, Palestrina Kirill Petrenko / Frankfurt Opera & Museum Orchestra & Chorus P.Bronder, B.Stallmeister, C.Mahnke, W.Koch J.M.Kränzle et al. Oehms OC 930

I have a soft spot for most of the irreputable Hans Pfitzner’s unabashedly romantic tone. But Palestrina, his supposed masterpiece, can be dull. While I suffered through a performance with Simone Young in Munich, the Frankfurt opera, too, performed Palestrina, and fortunately Oehms was there to capture it. Under Kirill Petrenko the score sounds the way I want to hear it: delightfully crisp, full of purpose, nuance, detail, and even joy. It turns Palestrina from admirable craftsmanship into a sanguineous musical drama. The quality singers add to the delight, but the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra and its conductor are the stars.

Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 7 - New Release

Hans Pfitzner, Palestrina, K.Petrenko, Frankfurt Opera & Museum Orchestra and Chorus, Oehms OC 930

Hans Pfitzner, Palestrina K.Petrenko / Frankfurt Opera & Museum Orchestra and Chorus Oehms OC 930

I have a soft spot for most of the disreputable Hans Pfitzner’s unabashedly romantic tone. But Palestrina, his supposed masterpiece, can be dull. While I suffered through a performance with Simone Young in Munich, the Frankfurt opera, too, performed Palestrina, and fortunately Oehms was there to capture it. Under Kirill Petrenko the score sounds the way I want to hear it: delightfully crisp, full of purpose, nuance, detail, and even joy. It turns Palestrina from admirable craftsmanship into a sanguineous musical drama. The quality singers—among themPeter Bronder, Britta Stallmeister, Claudia Mahnke, Wolfgang Koch, and Johannes Martin Kränzle—add to the delight, but the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra and its conductor are the stars.

# 7 – Reissue

A.Bruckner, Five Symphonies, Günter Wand, Berlin Philharmonic, RCA 1708661

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Kirill Petrenko Next GMD in Munich

As announced yesterday by the Bavarian State Opera, Kirill Petrenko has been named the successor to Kent Nagano as General Music Director in Munich. This doesn't come as a surprise (read my article on Nagano's departure and Petrenko's likely succession at WETA); ever since Petrenko's conducting of Jenufa in April of 2009 (and again at the Festival--review here), he was said to be the man of choice for Intendant Nikolaus Bachler (Interview Part 1, Part 2, Short Version)... and rightly so. I'm glad to hear, that Petrenko has now been convinced into taking a permanent post. Here's to hoping that he will have many successful years at the Munich Opera and here's to thanking Kent Nagano for seven years (a decent length term, these days) that were not necessarily particularly passionate, but during which he brought essential new repertoire to the house, (hopefully) educated the audience to the masterpieces they had hitherto been blithely ignoring, and whose style of conducting breathed fresh air into scores that well deserved it. Three examples from last year alone: his "Schweigsame Frau" made more sense out of the music than any conductor on record has ever come close to, his "Les Dialogues" was riveting, his "Wozzeck" spectacular. that Munich never really warmed up to him no surprise, but turned out to be no hindrance. That the way he left came close to being a disgrace (courtesy a local scribe by the name of Brembeck), alas, was most unfortunate.

The official announcement follows:

"Arts Minister Wolfgang Heubisch and Nikolaus Bachler, the General Director of the Bavarian State Opera presented the new General Music Director of the opera company. Kirill Petrenko will succeed Kent Nagano in this position on September 1, 2013, for an initial period of five years.

Born in 1972 in the Russian city of Omsk, Petrenko served from 1999 to 2002 as Germany’s youngest general music director in Meiningen, and after that spent five years as General Music Director at the Komische Oper in Berlin. Since July of 2007, Petrenko has been working as a free-lance conductor, leading performances, among other places, at New York's Metropolitan Opera, London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. At the Bavarian State Opera, Petrenko most recently joined forces with director Barbara Frey for the new production of Janáček’s Jenůfa (2008/2009 season).

Minister Heubisch described Kirill Petrenko as “one of the most eagerly sought-after conductors world-wide. Petrenko brings with him all the prerequisites. He is a creative and highly precise maestro with a wide ranging repertoire and international experience.” Opera General Director Bachler is convinced that with Petrenko he has found the ideal person for the top musical post in the house. “The appointment of Kirill Petrenko sets a sign towards the future. With his creativity and personality he will provide new impulses.”

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Top 10 Live "At-Large" Performances of 2009

We list our favorite performances in chronological order, because you can’t rank live performance. Although this year, I probably could—because there was one staggering-amazing, one heart-wrenching, one eye-opening, and then seven very good performances among the ten concerts below. I don’t expect to hear Mahler’s Fourth Symphony ever again in quite as exciting a performance as Daniele Gatti delivered with the Munich Philharmonic. Heinz Holliger made Haydn burst onto the scene as if he had never ceased being the most relevant classical composer. Barbara Frey’s Jenůfa made me cry both times I saw it while also musically being the best offering the State Opera Orchestra has produced in some time, no doubt thanks to Kirill Petrenko.

January 27th, Salzburg, Mozarteum:

Holliger & Haydn

Martin Fröst played the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A, K622 on the basset clarinet it was intended for and Carter’s Clarinet Concerto after intermission. Fine stuff, with the Camerata Salzburg, but most successful and remarkable was the conducting of Heinz Holliger. I thought of him as a instrumentalist and composer, known for his conducting primarily in modern repertoire. No revelation that his Carter was excellent. But how absolutely smudge-free the muscular neo-classicism of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin shone through French romanticism—-full bodied and delicate-—was truly special. And the concluding Military Symphony by Haydn was worthy of hyperbole...

Mozart’s Birthday in Salzburg: http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=467

January 22nd/23rd, Munich, Herkulessaal:

Polyptyque & Bach with Röhn & Hengelbrock

Frank Martin is not a completely obscure figure, but unknown enough to be considered one of the hidden and neglected gems among 20th century composers. If his time hasn’t yet come, it will—and works like “Polyptyque -- Six Images de la Passion du Christ” (for violin solo and two string orchestras, commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin) will either be the cause or beneficiaries of that change in perception.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in two concerts on January 22nd and 23rd under Thomas Hengelbrock featured the six movements of Martin’s concerto alternating with Bach chorales. The 45 voices of the Bavarian Radio Chorus combined with the delicately performing orchestra formed a foundation from which the six concerto movements could rise and set them in a contextthat the audience could appreciate. Such mix-and-(mis)match programs, at their best, can enhance the experience of both, old and new. That certainly was the case here. Soloist Andreas Röhn, concertmaster of the BRSO, had a big part in that: His performance further underscored the level of individual excellence of that orchestra and the work's challenge had the soloist come out in Röhn—a student of Gingold and Szeryng and Carl Flesh-Prize Winner, after all. A Mozart Requiem followed.

Ionarts at Large: Mozart's Requiem with the BRSO

February 26th/17th/28th, Munich, Gasteig:

MPhil-Mahler-Gatti-Mahvelous!

After the Lulu Suite—so much more easily appreciable than the overlong completed version of the opera—it seemed clear that Berg, not Mahler, would be the highlight of this concert. As if this didn’t already sound close to hyperbole, it should be telling about the quality of the concert that the Mahler turned out the highlight, after all. For that it would have to have been the best Mahler Fourth I have heard—and it was...

Ionarts at Large: A Mahler Supreme & a Lulu to Die For

May 15th, Munich, Herkulessaal:

American Nights @ MusicaViva with Kristjan Järvi and the BRSO

Udo Zimmermann seems to feel naughty for throwing this tonal bone to the listener. The liner notes spend considerable time justifying the daring occurrence of--wait for it...: harmony! As a truly modern European composer one would not want to be considered a reactionary, after all. Perhaps Zimmermann is right about being worried. (“Is that allowed? Is this an Anti-Concerto” the notes disingenuously question and eagerly postulate. ) After all, this ‘taking the listener by the ear’, gently, and harmonically pulling him his way… this acknowledgment of purpose (in instrumentation and structure) is the very negation of Zimmermann’s (and the whole avant-garde music scene’s) underlying and often trumpeted notion of the “paradigm shift” that had allegedly occurred in our listening habits.

The concerto is gorgeous, even when it gets busy, noisy, and tangled. The heartfelt reception and genuine applause must have been quite different than the usual, cool admiration. Via perceptible ideas and motifs, through recognizability and musical craftsmanship Udo Zimmermann has arrived, if not at truth, so at least in reality. A warm “welcome back”.

Ionarts at Large: American Night at Munich’s Musica Viva

June 5th/6th/7th, Munich, Gasteig:

Faust for Schnittke, Schoenberg for Brahms

Rarely have I encountered a concert program seemingly so tailored to my (very mildly eclectic) tastes as that of the Munich Philharmonic earlier this month. Andrey Boreyko conducted Schnittke’s wild and whacky Faust Cantata—the closest (and maybe close enough) we’ll likely come to the composer’s opera “Historie von D. Johann Fausten”—and the Brahms G minor Piano Quartet.

The Faust Cantata, which would become the third act of the opera, shows Schnittke at his most effective... From the Matthew Passion to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Schnittke covers all your grand theatrical desires in this work. Undoubtedly one of the best treatments of Faust in music. The low growling, seedy prowling Malgorzata Walewska was the sordid hit amid a very fine completed by Artur Stefanowicz as Mephisto and bass Arutjun Kotchinian as Faust.

Ionarts at Large: Ravel & Schnittke in Munich

Munich, April 8th, Munich, National Theater:

On the Searing Pain of our Horrible Best Choices: Barbara Frey’s Jenůfa

You could sit through Barbara Frey’s Jenůfa (Bavarian State Operaand completely miss out on the fact that you have witnessed greatness. It doesn’t take much exhaustion, a touch of uncharitable mood, or slight dullness of mind to not pick on the subtleties that lift this production so far above others. A theater director by day, Mme. Frey went for the most human, most realistic approach to the drama, taking Janačék’s music and libretto seriously. The result was un-operatic in that it lacked grand gestures and pathos. And precisely that made it a terrific, terrifying experience that snuck up on the audience at any given, but never the most expected, moment... Kirill Petrenko elicited the most emotional--best--performance from the Bavarian State Orchestra this season...

Ionarts-at-Large: Munich Opera Festival Recap

Dublin, September 20th, Irish Museum of Modern Art:

Elizabeth I and Philip II Horsing Around Early Music

...Later during the final rehearsal, Queen Elizabeth, who barely reaches up to Caitríona O’Leary’s belt, pipes the tune of Greensleeves in duet with O’Leary, which sounds absolutely adorable and moderately musical. Then the little Queen gets her wig affixed while rummaging through her Hello Kitty bag and Philip II chats with Kate, the make-up artist, and crinkles his nose as her brush applies white powder to his face...

eX Shipwrecked Queen Horses Around in Dublin


Munich, October 10th, Gasteig:

BRSO, Jansons, and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra

Composed between 1950 and ’54, at a time when the composer was moving from neo-classicism to something closer resembling Bartók’s folk-modernism, the work is gripping, short on dissonance and long on sharp contrast and driving rhythms. This is music of a rare invigorating quality, full of different shades, timbres, and various levels of textures without being a saturated Technicolor bonbon: clarity and a sense of cool remain even during the glowing brass passages and the intoxicating finale. What an awe-some concerto to explore—and to explore as fine an orchestra as the BRSO with.

Ionarts-at-Large: Midori, Jansons, And Most of All: Lutosławski


Munich, October 15th, Prinzregententheater:

Schubert by Way of Webern

The Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO) is a local musical force to be reckoned with... why I have not made it to any of their concerts in the last two years, I do not know...

Where is Anton Webern in his Schubert song orchestrations? In the unfailing tastefulness, the clarity, the absence of anything not essential. It’s as if Webern, by orchestrating them, further parsed the songs’ accompaniment down. The result levitates above the singer like a mobile suspended from silver threads the thickness of hair. The brief, dotted touches of color are already pure Webern, even though these are youthful works compared to his more famous orchestral transcriptions. Every note becomes audible, it’s Schubert as nouvelle cuisine...

Ionarts-at-Large: Munich Chamber Orchestra Opens Season in the Hereafter


Munich, December 1st, National Theater:

Bel Canto with Buster Keaton

The review of the Bavarian State Opera's new "L’Elisir D’Amore" is forthcoming, and it will be glowing. What a terrifically entertaining show... you couldn't do better going to the movies, in terms of laughs, tears, and total diversion. When Rolando Villazon will take over as Nemorino in the next run of performances, he will have a hard time matching the sensitive, graceful, hilarious and melancholic, touching... in short: divine performance of Giuseppe Filianoti. Nino Machaidze was an Adina to match, Patrick Bannwart's stage and David Bösch's direction an instant hit. Great theater with music which, no offense, Donizetti, is precisely the way to treat this sort of repertoire.

Ionarts-at-Large: Munich Opera Festival Recap

The 2009 Munich Opera Festival was the first under the aegis of Nikolaus Bachler, and a few touches—design apart—were notably different. The closing performance, for one, wasn’t Die Meistersinger, as had been the (recent) tradition. It’s indicative of Bachler’s love for shaking things up, but more so for love for Verdi, and there were three more Verdi operas in the last week to make that point: Macbeth, Luisa Miller, and Otello.

The 2001 production of Falstaff itself dabbles along happily and is carried by the strength of the performing singers. Ambrogio Maestri played his Falstaff up with theatrical gusto and more vocal strengths than weaknesses. Michael Volle’s dramatic talent is wasted on this prickly Ford, but he’s a luxuriously cast voice. Alice and Meg (Anja Harteros and Gabriela Scherer) are gorgeous to look at and Anja Harteros’ Alice a pleasure to listen to. Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s must have watched every re-run of “Are You Being Served”, so closely was her Miss Quickly modeled on Mrs. Slocombe. I half expected her to inquire about her missing pussy mid-aria. And who is Elena Tsallagova? Her stupendous Nanetta, in glorious, silvery voice and stupendous acting, was the most enthusiastically cheered performance of the night.

Not so stupendous, albeit similarly cheered was the Liederabend with Waltraud Meier. There are few singers on stage that I admire more, whether as Kundry, Ortrud, or even Isolde. But a Schubert voice she hasn’t. Much of Die Wehmut, Die Forelle, Gretchen am Spinnrad, and the Nachtstück was awkward and harsh—only the Erlkönig was instantly superb. Little wonder: It’s like a mini opera; a whole story in five minutes, and Meier’s dramatic instincts immediately responded. Richard Strauss wasn’t served much better. In a city that had Strauss’ songs performed by the likes of Karita Mattila, Renée Fleming, and Diana Damrau in the last few months, rasping through these potentially sublime pieces along with an uninspired and uninspiring pianist (Joseph Breinl) simply doesn’t cut it. Had Strauss only known a voice like hers, he wouldn’t have composed these songs. There were moments, but not nearly enough. The best thing about the evening was perhaps Meier’s new, short and foxy, haircut.

There was of course the much heralded and trumpeted debut of Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin . He was wonderful, but overshadowed by an even better Anja Harteros. Her dark overalls, though not particularly flattering, had her look cute as a button and look eminently (innocently) pinchable . Richard Jones’ staging was confounding and consequently booed. But the more time passes, the more I’m beginning to appreciate it; there’s more to the “we’re building a house” idea than meets the eye at first. Maybe it is about classical liberalism, after all. My initial, mixed opinion was that this was good to have seen once for a few touching moments, but not good enough for a long life in the repertoire. Now I’m not so sure anymore and eager to try it again, even if the cast of singer/actors won’t likely be as exalted again.

Some of the side events—chamber concerts and an a cappella concert—were disappointments. Bach’s Motets are very difficult, of course, but the debut of the newly formed Munich Hofkantorei (looking back on a 500 year tradition of the Munich Court Ensemble) suffered from lack of precision and delicacy under the awkwardly conducting Wolfgang Antesberger. Corinna Birke’s soprano and Ruth Irene Meyer’s alto were lovely surprises, though. The fourth festival chamber concert—Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert—was dreadful tedium, courtesy of the Cuvilliés Quartett. Writing for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Klaus J. Kalchschmid summed it up perfectly: “Not a single measure was festival-worthy.” Business as usual, one is tempted to say.

The concluding Festival Concert, dedicated to Beethoven, was considerably better. The Fourth Piano Concerto was strangely un-interpreted by Nicolai Lugansky, but appreciable precisely for that particularly brand of unfussiness. The Pastorale Symphony needed two movements to get into gear, but then Kent Nagano brought some of the finest sound out of the Bavarian State Orchestra that I’ve heard him produce in these orchestral concerts. Any performance that makes the Sixth Symphony more rousing than drowsy deserves much credit.

Nagano also conducted “Trouble in Tahiti”—Leonard Bernstein’s send up of 1950s American suburbia in the gloriously clashing setting of the rococo Cuvilliés Theater. Read Raphael Mostel’s review—as exhaustive as excellent—for the details and analysis I can’t provide. So much, though: Despite violating some of Bernstein’s suggested staging (production Schorsch Kamerun), it worked very well as entertainment. “Trouble in Tahiti”, enjoyable 45 minutes short, is a far superior autobiographical venting of Bernstein’s spleen than his pompous ego-trip of a Third Symphony, “Kaddish”. The singers Beth Clayton (her “Dinah” a dead ringer for Amy Winehouse) and Rodney Gilfry took on their vapid characters with gusto, a hint of crudeness, and awkward rigidity not all of which may have been intentional. The “Greek chorus born of radio jingles” made up of Angela Brower, Jeffrey Behrens, Todd Boyce (all in clown costumes) was terrific. And the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra was fleet and eager all throughout. Only the intentionally cringe-inducing punk songs (part of the director’s youthful crimes) that served as the prologue were even more ghastly than intended. The effect crossed from the ironic to plain cruelty.

The world premiere of Jay Schwartz’ “Narcissus und Echo” was made of different stuff. Also with a minimal cast—one countertenor, one viola, the composer doubling as conductor and occasional organist, and two percussionists— visually it was an impressively-unassuming affair. In the bare bones All Saints Court Chapel, just yards from the gilded pomp of the Cuvilliés Theater, producer Christiane Pohle inserted her ideas with an element of thoughtlessness, imposing on Schwartz’s oratorio on the classical subject with a strained parallel of embittered, subliminally horny, flower sales girls (which I mistook for nurses, even after I realized they had doctored with Narcissuses all along). The spoken commentary—in part or wholly taken from George Sand?—was oddly out of place when the rest exuded eerie calm, evoked by the surrounding architecture, the natural light, the sparse textures of Charles Maxwell’s marvelous voice, and Lila Brown’s assiduous viola fiddling. (Her solo part, if resected from the score, should make one of the most popular contemporary compositions for solo viola.) As it was, “Narcissus und Echo” had something of Heiner Goebbels’ “Wars I have seen”. A promising premiere that should be even more enticing when performed, director-unmolested, at the Salzburg Landestheater next June.

Andreas Kriegenburg’s Wozzeck remains the most successful new production of the 2009 season; seeing it a third time only cemented that impression. Angela Denoke made the role her own in a performance every bit as good or even finer than Michaela Schuster’s and Nagano simply has a way with the score (or the score with him).

Ariadne auf Naxos , meanwhile, benefited from Bertrand de Billy’s conducting (taking over from Nagano who was on the rostrum last year). Robert Carsen’s direction is largely dependent on lighting and acting. The former is well provided by Manfred Voss, of the latter there is a bubbly abundance courtesy of the infectiously energetic Diana Damrau who focuses all the attention on her (appropriate for her character) and turns the opera into a one-girl Zerbinetta show. Adrianne Pieczonka’s Ariadne is marvelous, and Daniela Sindram’s Composer touching; Burkhard Fritz’ Bacchus impressive, smaller roles like Harlekin (Nikolay Borchev) and Brighella (Kevin Connors) even superbly executed. But one remembers only Zerbinetta, after leaving the Prinzregententheater.

You could sit through Barbara Frey’s Jenůfa and completely miss out on the fact that you have witnessed greatness. It doesn’t take much exhaustion, a touch of uncharitable mood, or slight dullness of mind to not pick on the subtleties that lift this production so far above others. A theater director by day, Mme. Frey went for the most human, most realistic approach to the drama, taking Janačék’s music and libretto seriously. The result was un-operatic in that it lacked grand gestures and pathos. And precisely that made it a terrific, terrifying experience that snuck up on the audience at any given, but never the most expected, moment.


The cast was almost the same as that of the premiere in April (the first time I’ve seen a row of critics in unrepentant tears), except for the excellent Joseph Kaiser who was seamlessly replaced by Pavel Cernoch. When that Steva hits the stage with his drunkenly swaggering, pompous, yet vacuously innocent persona, suspense takes grip of the audience and—Turn of the Screw-like—won’t let go until the last notes. Infused with Eva-Maria Westbroek’s searing pain as Jenůfa, well sung and still more touchingly acted, Jenůfa becomes imperiled by the others’ actions, but never just a passive ball in the courts of Kostelnicka, Steva, and Laca. Deborah Polaski (Kostelnicka) and Stefan Margita (Laca), highlights among highlights, turned in performances worthy of a superlative or two.

So much barefaced humanity on stage, so many crushed dreams and thwarted life-goals, had to elicit from the audience the utmost empathy for all characters, Cernoch’s Steva included, who finally collapses, overwhelmed by the events of the third act (and probably still not quite aware of having done anything wrong). When Laca and Jenufa timidly, quietly approach each other after one of the most severe silences in opera following the climactic turmoil, they do so by inching toward another, their hands touching in clear-sighted yet bashful recognition of the last chance at happiness (or something resembling it) they have. Proof that a touch of hands that can be as powerfully moving as a whole Mahler Adagietto.

Bettina Meyer’s set, which could equally serve a production of Peter Grimes, serves as a calm background if—easily done, I think—you can ignore the idiotic subtext about toxic waste and chorus mutants. Kostelnicka's shack on the shore, shorn of its walls, becomes the ingeniously uncomfortable, awkward place for the wedding ‘festivities’. The costumes by Bettina Walter, somewhere between Scandinavian 70’s and timelessness, support the action rather than drawing attention to themselves. Kirill Petrenko elicited, again, the most emotional performance from the Bavarian State Orchestra I've heard this season: seething, harrowing, and placid in turns. Rarely is opera such a moving place to spend two hours at—but when it is, it is worth being savored.


All production images © Wilfried Hösl, courtesy Bayerische Staatsoper. Image of Mlle. Tsallagova © IMG.