This was my first live Rienzi. I hated the concept, but loved the music. Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducted; Philipp Stötzl was the stage director. Wagner’s score was cut to 160 minutes, performed in two acts. According to the director, they did not cut any of the tenor's music. The cast was once again very strong with Torsten Kerl managing to excite and to conquer the role as the 14th century Tribune, Rienzi. His sister, Irene, was sung by Camilla Nylund, but her character was destroyed in the concept. Also, Wagner does not give her a starring role. Miss Nylund, a beautiful woman, did the best she could under the circumstances. Not only was she an aggressor in the incestuous relationship with her brother, but she basically was a common slut. The real star was Kate Aldrich as Adriano (Irene's lover) - a trouser role. Miss Aldrich has a commanding and powerful voice. Hopefully, the operatic world can hear much more from her.
Scenically, we watched a replay of German history from the end of WWI thru to the conclusion of WWII - the decadent Weimar Republic era to the rise of Hitler and his eventual demise. It was an eerie reminder of what can happen to a society when a charismatic leader can control the populace. The text was about Rome, but the visual was of Hitler's mountain retreat, Albert Speer's architecture, and the final days in Hitler's bunker. There was a Rienzi salute; a Rienzi flag (a big R); a citizenry of uniformed men and women, marching to the beat of Wagner's music. Adolf Hitler apparently loved this opera. During the overture we see "him" (Rienzi) at his mountain retreat looking out at the Alps. He is seen conducting; doing handstands and cartwheels and gyrating to the music. (It was performed by a super - not the tenor.) I enjoyed all the music from this Rienzi, but I would have preferred that it had been set in Rome, where it belongs.
* * *
From Terry Quinn in the UK:
10 February
Most Wagnerians remember their first Wagner opera and sometimes envy the journey of discovery facing those attending their first production. For most of those present in Berlin in February, this was an opportunity to see Rienzi for the first time but to be honest, we did not expect much because we knew that the original was very, very long and apart from the overture, much of the music was unmemorable. However, most of us were pleasantly surprised.
The production qualities were very high with imaginative, well thought out sets and a cast that sang and acted very well. Rienzi, sung by Torsten Kerl, was portrayed as somewhat eccentric at the beginning and a progressively nuttier failed leader as the climax approached. The curtains opened at the beginning of the overture and a hyperactive Rienzi strode, cartwheeled and lay on his desk while he played at conducting the orchestra.
Some of us were distinctly uncomfortable with the director’s thinly disguised Nazi theme with Rienzi’s supporters wearing uniforms and waving banners carrying a stylised K. This was probably the cause of some isolated booing at the end of both the first and second acts.
The story is long and complicated and some of us had failed to find an English libretto before making the trip. I found it impossible to resist the urge to look up at the supertitles for help but found none because they were in German only. However, they did serve one useful purpose, they helped to identify the main characters.
The second act used an effective split-screen technique. On the upper stage, a large rebellious crowd overcame Rienzi’s forces while below, Rienzi and his sister Irene (Camilla Nylund) were surrounded by smartly uniformed officers poring over campaign maps. Again, the connection with an earlier failed leader in his bunker was uncomfortable.
The standout singer in this production was American Kate Aldrich who sang the male role of Adriano. She was warmly applauded by the predominantly German audience who even interrupted the flow by applauding two of her major ‘arias.’ Once again, the Deutsche Oper chorus led by Washington DC born William Spaulding were outstanding and it was nice to see the principals insist on the chorus stepping forward with them for the final curtain calls.
Now we know why Rienzi is so rarely performed. Interminable recitative with very little memorable music. Fortunately the original five acts have been drastically cut and this new Deutsche Oper production was presented in two acts but the long sequences of recitative, chord, recitative, chord, became wearying. I have no wish to see Rienzi again but I am glad I was there. After 50 years of being a Wagner nut, it was a novel experience.
* * *
From Terri Stuart in CA:
I just loved Rienzi. Having seen a fuller, but still cut version in Leipzig with Stephan Vinke in the lead, I'm all for the cuts. The role of Rienzi is simply punishment for a tenor. The cuts also served to tighten the action. I thought it was riveting in Part 1 and also Part 2. If I want to see an "Animal House" toga party - I'll rent the DVD. Adriano was turned into the hero who finally got the cojones to take action against the inept leadership of Rienzi - a puppet Facist dictator. I loved that the final scene split into the reality of the people Rienzi urges to "be free" above and the bunker below, from which Rienzi made his freedom pronouncements. The use of stage cameras to project faux live newsreel footage of Rienzi was just brilliant. Torsten Kerl must have sat watching old silent films to make some of those grimaces. From the bunker - Irene served as a Leni Riefenstahl filming her brother as the messages were transmitted to the square above. And while maybe the historic Rienzi was stabbed thousands of times by an angry mob, this Rienzi was bludgeoned to death (in Leipzig they were stoned) and Irene was done in by jack booted soldiers' rifle butts. Kate Aldrich, Camilla Nylund and Torsten Kerl were all fantastic in their roles - Aldrich clearly the audience favorite.
There was a lot of disagreement about the ending and I concluded that the facist overlay worked, except at the end. Wagner's Rienzi was weak, vain and inept. He had no message and provided no leadership. The Facists who were used as the outline for the production absolutely did have their own insane ideas and were disasterously effective in carrying them out. So it didn't quite fit but it was still riveting theatre. I'm glad that this will be released on DVD.
* * *
And from Stephen Charitan in Ohio:
Heil Rienzi! or Springtime for Rienzi
I have always been curious about Rienzi even more so after experiencing a very stage worthy production of Das Liebesverbot a few summers ago in Cooperstown. First and foremost, any opera by a composer of Wagner's stature is worth attention, but I was also drawn by the three excerpts that occasionally cropped up - that magnificent overture, Rienzi's prayer, and Adriano's "Gerechter Gott" sung by the likes of Schumann-Heink or Frida Leider. I finally satisfied that curiosity through a rare performance of the work at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. More of the production later, but witnessed live with a strong chorus, an intense Adriano, and a clarion Rienzi it made for a thrilling, visceral evening of music theatre. Much of the choral writing matches the swagger of the overture, and very stirring it all is. Having heard the Deutsche Oper chorus in Lohengrin and Meistersinger the two days before, here they outdid themselves. Perhaps it was the excitement and newness of music seldom performed, spiced by that aforementioned swagger but the group came together as a "character" in the drama, just as important as any of the protagonists. Some of the choruses foreshadow what was to come in Tannhäuser and Lohengrin in their otherworldly, ethereal beauty - the chorus of Peace Envoy's from Act 1 stays in the mind. The most fully developed character in the opera and the one that leaves the theatre with you is Adriano, torn between his family ties to a corrupt nobility and his conscience which leads him to trust Rienzi as hero and savior of the people. There is more than a little of Sesto from La Clemenza di Tito in his self struggle and, like Sesto, it is a meaty role for the right mezzo. In bygone days, I could have easily envisioned the late, great Tatiana Troyanos in the part, but young Kate Aldrich seized her moment and exposed the heart of this character with her rich, large scale voice, almost out of proportion to her small stature. She captured the audience from the start and won the biggest ovation of the evening. As Rienzi, Torsten Kerl had the heft and thrust to serve the public face of the character which is the one most on display throughout the opera. He lacked the poetry and beauty of tone for the famous prayer which went for very little vocally. He also wasn't helped by the concept which reached a dead end when it came to staging this critical, self revealing moment for the title character. Irene, Rienzi's sister, is one of Wagner's least developed characters. She has no major solo scene and seems to exist only to "duet" with Adriano or Rienzi or fill out the top line in ensembles. She does have some wicked coloratura in her final duet with Rienzi that caused the otherwise lovely Camilla Nylund to shake and muddle through as best she could.
When I read the advance write up on this new production I had a pretty good idea that there would be allusions made to Rienzi as a fascist demagogue. What I was not prepared for was a full scale operatic biography of Adolf Hitler shoehorned into Wagner's music and libretto. Some of it was very clever and I must admit I could not take my eyes off the stage for a minute. When the curtain rose at the start of the overture we were in a unit set that looked like one of the audience chambers in Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery. At the back of the stage was a large picture window looking out over snow covered mountain tops - the Berghof perhaps? Sitting at a large desk with his back to the audience was a uniformed figure whose hand lazily started to "conduct" the overture along with the maestro - wasn't "Rienzi" one of Hitler's favorite works in the Wagner canon? As the music builds the uniformed figure begins to dance, pirouette, and then do multiple cartwheels across the stage - not as subtle as Charlie Chaplin's Adenoid Hinkel doing a pas de deux with the globe, but a reasonable facsimile thereof. Incidentally this was not Torsten Kerl, but a dancer plumped up to resemble the singer.
At the end of the overture sets fly in looking like the "modern" city seen in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". It is this Weimar world with the chorus dressed like George Grosz characters that Rienzi and his black leather coated SS men come to change. During one of Wagner's most rousing choruses the people show their acceptance of the Fuehrer by shedding their colorful individual eccentricities and donning black and white uniforms emblazoned with the letter "R." Whether supported by music or libretto it was nonetheless a brilliant "coup de theatre" and made director Philipp Stölzl's point in one sharp stroke. All in all I would say the first act was both provocative and successful from a production standpoint. In Act 2 (5 Acts compressed to 2) "The Concept" started taking on water. At curtain rise the stage is split with the top being a war torn city and the area below a concrete bunker hung with military maps. The bunker also contains architectural models of an "ideal" city including a large dome like structure looking suspiciously like the one Hitler planned to erect in his New Berlin. When Rienzi makes his appearance in the Bunker he is seen hunched over and walking with a cane. His other hand is held behind his back shaking with palsy. This sort of attention to biographical literalness leads you to expect that the director will continue to find direct parallels between Hitler's life and Rienzi's life as the opera works to its conclusion. One of his biggest stumbling blocks comes in the famous prayer. If you look at the words alone Rienzi's hubris is fairly evident - he credits the deity with endowing him with exceptional powers - a divine right to rule. However, there is no guile, pride, or cynicism that I can hear in the sublime music accompanying those words. In this production Rienzi begins to toy with those architectural models as he sings to his "Almighty Father" upending the buildings and piling them on top of one another helter skelter as if playing a capricious god himself. Perhaps the young Wagner thought his Rienzi a noble character after all if the music is to be trusted. The question for director Stölzl is how do you find a side to Hitler that would justify such spiritually uplifting music at such a critical moment in the character's musical development? Of course he couldn't and chose to play for irony, ultimately sacrificing Wagner's sound world for a bit of clever business to fit the concept. At the end of the opera, Rienzi does not take his own life in the Bunker but is killed by the mob - again a jarring note given Stölzl's fascination with literal detail. I hope to see the opera Rienzi again, in fact I will seek it out. I would enjoy hearing this cast again, particularly Ms. Aldrich who I believe is a talent to watch. The "tricks" in this production are all pretty much on the surface and though I was engaged in piecing them all together in the moment, I've done that now and don't think it would gain much by repetition.
Thanks to the reviewers for their insights on this seldom-seen opera. I'm happy to know that it will be out on DVD for those of us who missed it. Love it or hate it, it looks provocative!
The reviews of the other four operas will be in the next posting. For more dazzling photos of the productions, visit the DOB web site: http://deutscheoperberlin.de/
No comments:
Post a Comment