Deutsche Oper Berlin 2016: Salome ★★★ and Elektra ★★★★

 

Salome: Photo by  Monika Rittershaus

This month sees many operagoers heading over to Deutsche Oper Berlin for a Strauss extravaganza.  Der Rosenkavalier, Die liebe der Danae, Elektra and Salome are a few of the operas scheduled in and I had the pleasure of seeing Evelyn Herlitzius as Elektra and Allison Oakes as Salome this weekend.

It was my first time at the oper haus and I learnt much about its individuality and uniqueness from its friendly staff, quality of productions and audiences. For a start, while I fretted over finding an English translation of the librettos for these operas, it really wasn't needed. Deutsche Oper provides surtitles in both English and German - simultaneously! Not only does it make life easier for people like me who can't speak or read German, it can be very appealing and encouraging for its international audience. The productions (having seen both Salome and Elektra on consecutive nights) were irrefutably modern and abstract, yet I’m aware that I’m limiting my judgement based on two productions only. And there's no problems on the acoustics side either. Although it is large auditorium there was hardly any obnoxious echoes. Pretty solid sounds if you ask me.

Other things that added to my pleasurable experience at Deutsche Oper included the dress code which is practically nonexistent (not that I have a hard time deciding what to wear for the ROH OR ENO). Also, how easy it was to grab my jacket without having to worry about a stampede of fussy people, shoving and elbowing each other to get their belongings. In fact the cloakrooms are conveniently located at the entrance – it’s the first thing the staff attendant will bring your attention to. There’s also a decent bar on the first floor to grab a drink before the show.


Salome ★★★

I saw the Deustche Oper Berlin orchestra perform Salome back in 2014 at the BBC Proms, under conductor Donald Runnicles, so I knew musically I wouldn’t be disappointed. Tonight saw Alain Altinoglu conduct the orchestra, and although it was my first time seeing him perform, I was more than impressed as he encapsulated much of the drama and intrigue of this fascinating opera.

Vocally it was its lead soprano Allison Oakes who was the diamond in the production. Through and through, she portrayed a cold and cruel Salome, wary of her step-father’s lustful infatuation with her. Vocal quality was undoubtedly top-notch for many of its lead soloists including Michael Volle (Jochanaan), Herodias Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet (Herodias) and Burkard Ulrich (Herods) who I had seen at the BBC Proms 2014 as well. However it was the staging that failed to move me. Oscar Wilde’s Succès de Scandale (1891) which Richard Strauss adapted into an opera, seemed not so scandalous here on stage.

Director Claus Guth designs the stage as a high-end tailoring store for men with silk ties and mannequins on display. Herod’s soldiers including Narraboth (Thomas Blondelle) are suited up and just as robotic and zombie-like as the mannequins. Guth has six young girls running and dancing on stage randomly. All different ages, they resemble Salome at various phrases of her childhood and adolescent life, and this could be interpreted as Herods seedy perception of Salome. Its paedophilic nature is made known and deliberately perverse, though Strauss’s opera deals with a variety of sensational and biblical notions, not just necrophilia, that caused much controversy at its premier in 1905. In this production, however, Guth leaves it to the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra, Altingoglu and the expert soloists to unleash the emotional turbulent music of Strauss to carve out the sensationalism, blood and moral destruction for the audience, made not explicit on stage.

The sensational part of this production, however, is how drip and drab the staging was. Jochannas is introduced as naked and found in a rubble of clothes. As he sings and tells Salome to stop trying to tempt him, he slowly puts on a suit and I wonder whether this has anything to do with Salome’s power and authority in the narrative... (I don't know, the mind boggles.) Either way, I found myself wasting time attempting to decipher the abstract symbolism on stage than actually enjoying the performance. Oakes, Altinuglo, Volle and Ulrich and the music seemed to be the production's saving grace.

Excellent playing by @deutsche_oper orch.& unrivalled singing quality.Just mixed feelings on the direction #SALOME 😳 pic.twitter.com/LIFDH4ts7G

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) April 2, 2016

@deutsche_oper kissing-chopped-off-head ready! pic.twitter.com/lhx65k4C5U

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) April 2, 2016

Elektra ★★★★ 

Photo by Bettina Stöß

Having seen Donald Runnicles conduct for Salome at the Royal Albert Hall back in 2014, I knew I was guaranteed a solid performance. Here Runnicles as well as the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra were tenacious and much has to do with Strauss’s score, full of dissonance, leitmotifs and chromaticism. It’s hard to fall asleep when the music screams revenge!

Evelyn Herlitzius as the bitterly resentful Elektra is the tour de force of the production, and this is shown from the moment she sings the first few bars of "Allein! Weh, ganz allein.” The singing is praiseworthy and engaging; you forget where you are and all eyes can’t stop themselves from gazing at Herlitzius calling for her father Agamemnon. Though distinguished vocals aside, her potrayal of Elektra is toxic, psychotic and even scary. She describes Elektra as obsessive. Addicted to the idea, and willingness, to kill her mother and her lover. It's not a pretty picture and Herlitzius transcends that.

This opera of disjointed family relations, Greek royalty and murdering backstabbers takes place on Bernd Damorsky’s soil and dry mud stage, enclosed in golden painted walls. Is this the mind of Elektra? Shrouded in gold but stuck in limbo? The staging has nothing else to distract us but a door that opens above Elektra where her treacherous mother Queen Klytämnestra watches down on her. This minimal staging worked appropriately and permitted the audience to focus on its performers, Strauss’s phenomenal music did the rest. Doris Soffel as Klytämnestra hit the notes needed, even though her red couture made her look like Cruella de Vil's doppelganger. Her hideous laughing was effective, making her character easier to hate.

Elektra’s sister Chrysotemis - who Elektra attempts to get kinky with, attempting to engage in some incestuous kissing, fondling and rolling around on the soil - was sung by Manuela Uhl. I wasn’t entirely convinced by Uhl’s singing, which managed to move some of the audiences (as I saw at the curtain call). What she successfully did, however, was manage to irritate me with her innocent and non-confrontational depiction of Elektra’s sister. I found her annoying, but perhaps that’s the point. Chrysotemis doesn’t want to help her sister avenge her father’s horrific murder because, essentially, she is a coward.

Tobias Kehrer was mighty impressive. I had seen him at the Royal Albert Hall singing as Osmin in Glyndebourne’s 2015 production of The Abduction of the Seraglio, which made my viewing of him in the role of a serious and semi-heroic character more intriguing. From an oafish and comedy character to seeing him as Oreste, the son of Agamemnon, was marvellous. I’m a fan of his rich bass voice and to see him running around in anger through the soil and grace us with a sentimental scene reunited with his distressed sister only proved how versatile he can be as a performer.

Out of the two operas (Salome and Elektra), I felt much more pleased with the second opera, given the less-is-more concepts on stage. Director Kirsten Harms (who was given a honorary membership of @deutsche_oper! at the curtain call of the night I saw her) seemed to have harnessed the best of Elektra, Strauss’s and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal‘s highly-powered opera.

A gem I took last night. Strong stage presence and glorious voice. #EvelynHerlitzius as Elektra @deutsche_oper pic.twitter.com/gBGqCxUmFL

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) April 4, 2016

Astounding performance by #EvelynHerlitzius! Runnicles was in spectacular form @deutsche_oper #Elektra pic.twitter.com/WZYgaFeu8a

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) April 3, 2016

Strauss time! 😍😘 pic.twitter.com/xPGjKvKPDk

— Mary Grace Nguyen (@MaryGNguyen) April 3, 2016

The productions of Salome and Elektra have ended but here are various Strauss operas available. Please have a look at their website here. 

http://www.deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/calendar/

Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich ****

Wie kann man schlafen, wenn immer eine ganze Herde von Brüllhälsen wach ist?….Und lassen sie einen friedsamen Bürger schlafen? Nein, sie rennen auf die Straße, sie toben in den Schenken, sie kotzen die Nacht voll mit ihrem vermaledeiten Lärm! 

"How can I sleep when it sounds as if there were a whole herd of animals in the place? Does anybody else sleep in this city then? Do they allow a peaceful citizen to sleep? No, they run through the streets, they roar in the taverns, they make noise the whole night through."

---------------

I came to Munich with the intention of visiting Oktoberfest after hearing about the vibrant costumes (dirndl and lederhosen), party tents, delicious Bavarian food and, most of all, its easy-to-drink beer. Whilst planning logistics, I realised that the Bayerische Staatsoper was performing Die Schweigsame Frau so, I went along with friends and found the performance rather amusing. I discovered that, Oktoberfest's loudness and drunken mayhem was equally fitting for an opera that was also full of noise and bizarre sounds including a squawking parrot, dressed in a bright pink thong. Yet, on any normal day, Munich isn’t as deafening or mischievous as Oktoberfest (or so I am told.) 

Richard Strauss was immediately convinced by the Austrian Jewish librettist Stephan Zweig, who succeeded Strauss' former librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal following his death, to recreate Ben Jonson’s 15th century novel Epicone (or The Silent Woman) into an opera. Die Schweigsame Frau has a interesting composition; but that being a work of Strauss, it isn’t the most straight forward as it demands pace, and vocal and instrumental vigour from its musicians and singers. The opera was also – unfortunately - performed only a few times before it was banned in 1935 having faced many political backlashes from the Nazi party. If a letter with Strauss’ critical views of the Nazis had not been found, perhaps, Die Schweigsame Frau would have been, more, world renowned like his other popular operas (i.e. Salome, Der Rosenkavalier) but until now, despite being performed in some opera houses after 1958, it stills hasn’t received the same attention or treatment from contemporary houses.

[Given the lack of English surtitles in the Bayerische Staatsoper (which was expected), I tried to resolve this through a bit of due diligence thus, reading both synopsis and libretto, on the plane, beforehand.]

   
[This is a trailer of Kosky's festival première of "Die schweigsame Frau July 20, 2010 at the Prinzregententheater, Munich.]

Barrie Kosky, the artistic director of the Komische Oper and director for this production, had his festival première of Die Schweigsame Frau back in 2010 at the Prince Regent Theatre, Munich. He staged his production on the theme of ‘concentration’ where the audiences are meant to invest time listening to Strauss' sophisticated score and mint clean voices assigned to the zany characters of the opera troupe. Kosky depicts this, purely, through a shinny, bright and colourful fancy dress party with comedy running in and around the stage with a miserable Och, Morosus having to endure it all; yet he’s a different kind of Och from Der Rosenkavalier. Morosus, as Franz Hawlata portrayed him, here, is an old philosophical man that, indeed, moans and groans and hates the sound of life, yet, deep down, holds no malice for anyone and, in some ways, symbolises ourselves at our worst and most critical self, allowing the audience to like him, just, a little bit more.

Bayerische Staatsoper have a distinct stage culture and are known for putting together quirky, eccentric and, sometimes, strange productions. Die Schweigsame Frau takes place on a reduced stage with a platform at the center pulling everything, opera, music and its weird personalities, together. There’s a discerning distance between the main stage and the back where actors are seen walking to and fro, and off the stage, which alludes to the covert plans of the opera troupe and ‘life’s a stage’ motif.

With the finer details, apparent effort and work that had gone into make-up and costume designing, the audience could play a game of guess who the opera character is? There are too many to note down here, but some fairly recognizable opera heroes and heroines that were presented included: Rigoletto, Brünnhilde, Tosca, Falstaff, Salome, Otello, Cio Cio San, Wotan and many more. 

The stage is, rather, versatile and finds a way of re-using the platform as shown in act III where, before the opera begins, disco lights (which almost blind the audience) soar through as the platform is pulled towards the ceiling with multiple gold coins falling to the ground with Timidia (Brenda Rae) and Morosus (Hawlata) sat on the stage, gently enjoying the chimes and coins fall onto them.

Morosus (Hawlata) reacts painfully to any loud noise, whether it’s good, bad or, even, the sound of happiness. Hawlata presents Morosus as a man who suffers from an auditory sickness yet finds peace in the very end of the comedy. His voice was unflagging and the finale, and after thought of Morosus, proved calming and wonderful; despite not finding his silent woman, he realises the beauty of music as he sings, Wie schön ist doch die Musik – aber wie schön erst, wenn sie vorbei ist. This is perhaps my favourite aria of the entire opera and Hawlata does spectacularly well in ending on a climatic note dressed in pyjamas and hardly any hair; a deliberate device of Kosky in wanting the audience to consider Morosus’ progress to enlightenment through the opera.

American Soprano Brenda Rae, as Aminta, was lovely on stage as she bought down the humorous tone with a touch of love and passion particularly in the middle of act 2 where we see her show a Timidia as if she were a timid coloratura soprano that held herself back from delivering a high C. When there were high notes to be made, she embraced them gently and softly, retaining the goodness of Aminta; yet in act 3, we see a brash and bratty Aminta that brings out the clowns, drums and tantrums again.

Her wedded Henry Morosus, by tenor Daniel Behle, however was less striking. Despite having a big role as Morosus’ nephew, I was less impressed even if he gave inklings and hints of heart and warmth, there, just, wasn't enough. Nickolay Borchev as Schneidebar, or masseur in Kosky’s production, on the other hand, managed to adopt great stage presence. Admittedly the opera is a mixture of sprechgesang and recitative and even if Borchev’s role was spent more time talking, he did a good job of enunciated the German language lavishly (convincing me I should learn German too) whilst keeping the audience up-to-date on what was going on in this entertaining game-play.

Okka von der Damerau as Morosus’ housekeeper introduced the opera by spraying air freshener into the Bayerische Staatsoper's minimalist space in complete, utter silence, which cleverly set the tone for this, I felt, commedia dell'arte opera. As a loyal member of the Munich State Opera Company, since 2010, she also exhibited a loyal fixture to Morosus’ life and her mezzo-soprano's status was sturdy and never faltered.

Tara Erraught, as Charlotta, and Elsa Benoit, as Isotta, were a pack of giggles to watch. Like two kids fighting over a toy, they also kept up the comedy’s pretence and made the opera, even more, a pleasure to watch especially with their wildly coloured dirndl dresses as Schneidebart presented them to Morosus as if they were on a TV dating show (minus the camera man.)

The musicians of the Bavarian State Orchestra that were superbly led by Madrid’s Pedro Halffter also played a serious and pertinent role in bringing Strauss' music off the ground. Although, the score and sounds may be mono, the orchestra and its singers were sonorous, fertile and potent. Would I see Die schweigsame Frau again? Yes, but this time with English surtitles. 

There's a performance this week (11th October) and next year: (5th & 9th July 2015) at the Bayerische Staatsoper (Click here.)

BBC Prom 59: Richard Strauss' Elektra **** [FOUR STAR]

BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) and conductor, Semyon Bychkov

 BBC Prom 59 [Sunday 31^st August] was dominated by Elektra (1909); the second of the two so-called  psycho-pathological operas of Richard Strauss following a lusty and staggering performance of Salome the night before [see link below.] Christine Goerke took center stage making her prom debut as the menacing and evil daughter Elektra while 120 musicians of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) gave a steadfast and prominent performance conducted by the seamless and precise Semyon Bychkov who is well-versed in Strauss' work.

It was in 1903 (or 1904 according to some musicologists) that Strauss had attended a performance of the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s play Elektra that spurred them to work collaboratively - for the first time - and transform it into an opera. Set in antiquity, it follows the terrifying path of a troubled daughter, Elektra who seeks revenge for her father’s bloody murder. 

Elektra is imbued with turn-of-the-century themes such as dreams, psychoanalysis, sacrilegious rites, and inklings of lesbian incest from the original works of Sophocles. However, there is no official source that suggests, either, Hofmannsthal or Strauss were familiar with Sigmund Freud’s work. 

The immediate entry into the opera involves - almost - all instruments diving in with dissonance and tension which presents the omnipresent and looming dead father similar to Mozart’s Commendatore in Don Giovanni.  The BBCSO had its largest orchestral size comprising of up to eight horns, eight clarinets including two rare basset horns and a full assembly of percussion instruments.

Although filled with glaring stress and intense musical chords underpinning the instability and uncertainty of the tale of Elektra, there are harmonies fully illustrating by the BBCSO, such as D minor for Orestes, Elektra’s lost brother sung by Johan Reuter, and E flat for Chrysothemis, their slightly subdued sister performed by Gun-Brit Barkmin. In this evening’s performance, compared to the last, all singers memorised their lines and brought primed distinction and verve to Justin Way’s semi-stage.

(Left to Right) Johan Reuter, Dame Felicity Palmer, Gun-Brit Barkmin and Christine Goerke

Goerke had already sung the same role at the Royal Opera House last year which made her the optimum choice for the BBC Proms. Her vocal agility was unflagging and constant; one could hear the killer instinct of a tormented Elektra throughout. While her voice echoed, from where I sat in the Royal Albert Hall (RAH), her music still towered over. 

Barkmin also moved the audience being Elektra’s docile, yet spirited sister as a strong soprano. She didn’t, however, match Goerke's prowess, particularly at the last scenes were their voices seemed to clash. Yet, irrespective of this, Barkmin still held on until the very end despite how vocally demanding her role was.

Dame Felicity Palmer as Elektra’s mother, Clytemnestra entered in like a Hollywood star in a diamanté queen’s black robe to resemble a superstitious and guilt-stricken mother. Palmer’s fashion was fitting as her previous experience as Chytemnestra shone through and peaked; it was a delight to hear her and see her on stage as Goerke’s antagonist.

Reuter also showed a full-proof Orestes in the musical climax scene with Elektra. Although Robert Künzli as Clytemnestra lover, Aegisthus and Jongmin Park as Orestes’ tutor had smaller roles, they still managed to prove their merits as operatic performers while the five maids (Katarina Bradić, Zoryana Kushpler, Hanna Hipp, Marie-Eve Munger, and Iris Kupke) sung with vim and vigor. 

The score of Elektra is earth-shattering and musically booming; this is ignited by the dissident blend of countless instruments which amalgamate dissonance with melodies. With Semyon Bychkov’s precision, the BBCSO successfully conveyed Strauss’ intriguing opera which was filled with quiet, subtle hushes and victorious brass instruments to build up wicked suspense. An example of this is when Orestes and his tutor kill Chytemnestra and she screams. It is the trilling strings and abrupt instruments that turn up the volume and violence which discernibly supplements Strauss’ fixation with female voices and the female psyche.

An shortened version of my review of Prom 59: Richard Strauss Elektra: 

http://www.ldncard.com/blog/prom-59-strauss-elektra/0038

 Review of Prom 58: Richard Strauss Salome

http://www.ldncard.com/blog/prom-58-strauss-salome/0036 

Information on the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, events and ticket bookings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms