Guest Review: VESSELINA KASAROVA AT THE KONZERTHAUS IN BERLIN ON 28TH MAY 2017

Written by, and posted courtesy of Mr John Carnegie. Thank you, John!

VESSELINA KASAROVA AT THE KONZERTHAUS IN BERLIN

ON 28^TH MAY 2017

A year after the last time that Vesselina Kasarova’s schedule and mine last coincided, I was fortunate enough to be in Berlin when she was appearing in series of concerts at the prestigious Konzerthaus.  This is an excellent venue with good sight-lines, resplendent décor and (most importantly) superb acoustics. 

 Appearing alongside the venue’s own orchestra (a top flight band), VK featured in two performances of a full length concert of Haydn (cantata and symphony) and Saint-Saëns (aria and symphony) – plus a shorter morning concert for family audiences in which the Haydn items were featured alongside a Mozart aria. I managed to catch this morning concert and the repeat performance of the full length concert later the same day.

The morning concert was part of a long-standing tradition at the Konzerthaus entitled Mozart-Matinee in which parts of the full-length concert on at the time are combined with something by Mozart to form an hour-long event to which concertgoers are encouraged to bring their children and grandchildren. The presentation is very informal with spoken introductions to each item and onstage interviews with the conductor and soloists. Most of the many children in the audience were very well behaved and attentive. The only exception was a young boy with a clear case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who was sitting a few seats along from me in the front row. VK charmingly managed to calm him down during her interview by including him in the conversation. Thereafter he was putty in her hands and sat entranced and alert.

VK opened the proceedings with Haydn’s cantata Ariadne auf Naxos. Dressed in a simple black jump suit but with a resplendent pair of earrings (more about those later), she was given an exceptionally large area between the conductor and the first violins in which to perform – and perform she certainly did. This was no standard-issue concert performance of just the notes. Prowling around her allotted space like a caged tiger, VK gave a full-on operatic rendition of Ariadne’s passion and grief that proved totally involving for the audience. (There was scarcely a cough to be heard from them throughout.) However, it was not just the theatrics that were enthralling. Vocally, VK was in as fine as condition as I’ve ever heard her. There was not a trace of the problems that have occasionally marred her performances in recent years. This was VK at the top of her game and she produced some thrilling singing.

She followed the Haydn with an aria from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito – not one from her usual character of Sesto but the Non più di fiori of Vitellia. Again this was a superb rendition that was enhanced by something that could have wrecked its effect but which VK took completely in her stride. Halfway through the aria, one of her earrings disengaged itself and fell to the floor. Unfazed, VK whipped off the other earring and then scooped up the fallen one from the floor – all within a few notes and while maintaining character and vocal production. It was an excellent example of her innate stage craft (and also the reason why the earrings do not appear in the photograph of her curtain call above).

Later in the day, VK reappeared on the same stage for the full-length concert – dressed in the flaming red ball gown that features on the cover of her Russian Arias CD. (No earrings this time – presumably so as to forfend against any further malfunction!) She repeated the Haydn cantata to equal effect and later gave her familiar rendition of Dalila’s Mon Coeur from Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila. Although the latter was more of a challenge for VK with her having to contend against a greatly expanded orchestra that she is more used to having down in the pit of an opera house for this aria, both offerings went down a treat with the audience and they gave her sustained applause.

For both concerts, conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi proved to be a sympathetic accompanist and he came into his own with his witty rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No. 82 (with its multiple false endings designed to provoke premature applause) and his mastery of the huge forces involved in Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony.

All in all, this was a thoroughly satisfying double helping of VK’s artistry.

Guest Review: Vesselina Kasarova in Verdi's Rigoletto at Opera Bastille

The following review of the current run of Verdi's Rigoletto (with particular attention on our mutual favorite singer, Vesselina Kasarova) in Paris is guest-posted here courtesy of John Carnegie of Scotland. Thanks very much, John!

VESSELINA KASAROVA IN “RIGOLETTO” AT THE OPÉRA BASTILLE IN PARIS ON 14TH APRIL 2016

Through shuffling round work assignments, I managed to attend the second performance of the Opéra National de Paris’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at their unlovely Opéra Bastille venue – a vast and gloomy barn of a building that makes the New York MET seem almost intimate by comparison. 

Vesselina Kasarova was billed to play the comparatively minor role of Maddalena, the assassin’s sister/accomplice who causes the downfall of the title character and his daughter by succumbing to the charms of the opera’s philandering baddie, the Duke.  Given that Maddalena does not show up on stage until the very last scene of a long evening and that VK had cancelled her announced appearances on the two previous occasions that I had booked to see her, there was always a doubt in my mind as to whether she would turn up this time for a task that might seem somewhat beneath her.  On the other hand, the fact that Maddalena is a prominent participant in the Quartet (for my money, the single most sublime passage of music in the whole history of opera) made for a compelling reason to hope against hope that VK might actually appear.  Well, she did and to great effect.

Before one got through to her eventual entrance, however, one had to surmount the hurdles of the visuals on offer.  Claus Guth was on directing duties and his typically high concept piece of “regie-theater” proved to be a very mixed blessing.  The curtain rose at the start to reveal the figure of “Rigoletto’s Double”, a mimed role who represented Rigoletto looking back retrospectively on the events of the opera by mourning over the contents of a brown cardboard box he carried: his ex-jester’s costume and the blood-stained robe of his deceased daughter.  This distracting figure was onstage throughout the evening and his non-stop gurning succeeded in constantly pulling the focus from Quinn Kelsey’s portrayal of the singing version of the title character.


As the set unfurled around the “Double”, it quickly became evident that it represented a gigantic sideways version of the cardboard box he carried.  Brown cardboard is a very drab surface indeed and (combined with mostly monochrome costumes) made for a visually dull experience.  However, that proved to VK’s great benefit.  When she made her entrance in sparkling black thigh-high boots, a tight-fitting jump suit surmounted by a top hat a la Marlene Dietrich and carrying off a choreographed Las Vegas-inspired routine backed by a bevy of half-naked showgirls, this was the first visual excitement of the evening and the audience rose to the spectacle and VK’s panache in accomplishing it.  This compensated for the fact that she was having to deal with the inconsiderate accompaniment of Nicola Luisotti – one of the breed of conductors whose head is mostly in the score and rarely paying attention to the performers on the stage.  He spent much of the evening drowning out the singers with his vast orchestra.  Fortunately, VK managed to gradually overcome this unwarranted competition – first in a very telling contribution to the Quartet and then in her successful attempt to put some backbone into Rafał Siwek’s dour assassin.  Her portrayal could definitely be counted as a success and was richly rewarded with the audience’s applause at the curtain call.

As for the three principal roles, Quinn Kelsey made for a touching Rigoletto and often managed to command the stage (despite the distractions of his “Double”).  Michael Fabiano’s Duke was a less compelling assumption and was the singer who suffered most from being swamped by the orchestra.  Still, he perked up greatly in the last act – spurred on perhaps by the attentions of VK and the dancing showgirls.  The star of the evening though was Olga Peretyatko’s Gilda: pin-sharp in her coloratura and hugely affecting throughout.  Her final appearance was particularly moving.  In one of Herr Guth’s happier inventions, Gilda does not spend her last minutes onstage in a sack but as a disembodied spirit diagonally traversing the stage as she disappears from her father into eternity.  It was not just Ms Peretyatko’s nationality, talent and looks but also her manner that brought to mind a young Anna Netrebko.  The packed audience took her to their collective hearts and gave her a huge round of applause at the curtain call.  It was notable that VK (who has always been demonstrably appreciative of her fellow performers onstage) was particularly enthusiastic in her applause for Ms Peretyatko.

The current run of performances of Rigoletto in Paris is playing through to the end of May and VK (unlike her fellow principals) is scheduled to appear in all of them.  If you go on the 14th and 30th of May, you will not get the benefit of Ms Peretyatko’s Gilda but you will at least be spared Mr Luisotti’s conducting.  So, is it worth braving the travails of getting through the oppressive security arrangements of contemporary Paris (post Charlie Hebdo, the most militarised city in the western world) and enduring some of the vagaries of Herr Guth’s production?  On the whole (and particularly for VK and Olga Peretyatko), I would say yes.

*******

Guest review: La voix humaine and Bluebeard's Castle in Wiesbaden

Guest review courtesy of Mr John Carnegie, submitted promptly and all the delay is down to yours truly's tardiness in reformatting and minor editing stuff. Thank you, John! 

VESSELINA KASAROVA IN “DUKE BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE” AT THEHESSISCHES STAATSTHEATER IN WIESBADEN ON 19TH APRIL 2015

The week beginning Sunday 19th April was due to be one of the busiest in Vesselina Kasarova’s schedule this year: two performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde given between her first two performances as Judit in Bartók’s one act opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. I managed to contrive that I had to be nearby in Germany during the week and had booked for the opening performance of the Bartók and the second of the Mahler ones. However, VK cancelled both of her Mahler performances –ostensibly through illness. So I’m afraid  that I am only able to report on her performance in the Bartók.

If she had taken part in the concert in the Beethoven-Saal in Stuttgart’s Leiderhalle, she would have experienced an excellent fellow soloist (Stephen Gould – the first tenor I have encountered who has managed to ride over the orchestra in the notoriously taxing first song), a meticulous conductor (Gabriel Feltz – whose concern for incisive detail was perhaps at the expense of the broader flow of the piece as a whole) and a superb orchestra (the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker – who were at home with this music in a way they weren’t quite in the Mozart symphony that constituted the first half of the programme). On the other hand, VK would  have found an unfocussed and inattentive audience – unsettled perhaps by the curious architecture of the Beethoven-Saal in which there is not a single instance of symmetry.

As the full orchestra was not required for the Mozart, I found myself sitting next to one of the violin sections as I opened my programme to discover that Janina Baechle was to substitute for VK. Upon hearing my exclamation of disappointment at reading this announcement, the violinist assured me that Fraulein Baechle was by no means an inferior substitute – which indeed turned out to be the case. However, given VK’s evident vocal health in Wiesbaden on the previous Sunday, I was curious to learn from the violinist that Fraulein Baechle was already in place the very next morning for  rehearsals for the first of the Mahler  performances in Aschaffenburg on Tuesday.

Anyway, on a happier note, on to the Bartók. The Hessisches Staatstheater inWiesbaden is like a smaller version of the Zűrich Opernhaus at which VK had (until recently) been such a fixture, she must have felt very comfortable performing there. However, given that Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is one of my favourite operas and that some of VK’s recent performances (such as the patchy recital in Amsterdam and her somewhat underwhelming CD rendition of La mort de Cléopâtre) have been less than perfect, I admit that I arrived at the Staatstheater prepared to be disappointed. I need not have worried. For her, the evening was a triumph on the level of her superb Romeo opposite Anna  Netrebko in Munich or her assured contribution to that delightful recent China meets Europe CD.

However, despite a nearly full and buzzingly expectant audience, the evening did not start auspiciously. The first half of the double bill was a performance of Poulenc’s LaVoix Humaine. It starred (and I use the word advisedly) Julia Migenes as the solitary female who is the only onstage character in this rarely performed piece based on the Jean Cocteau monodrama. Ms Migenes’s previous fame had been the principal focus of the publicity campaign to sell the double bill and she was being feted the following evening with a gala performance at the local art house cinema of the film of Carmen in which she appeared opposite Domingo. However, on the evidence of the Poulenc, she is now very much a faded star. She still has manifest stage presence but played the protagonist on an unvaried note of petulance throughout and she under-projected much of the text.

After this,  the Bartók came as a great relief.  Granted the (very good) Hessisches Staatsorchester is much smaller than the vast forces specified by the composer but a bigger band might have overwhelmed the theatre’s acoustics. As it was, there wasn’t enough room for them all in the pit and the harps had to take their places in a box –giving their part on unexpected prominence. The production turned out to be one of the best of the many versions of the opera I have seen. Uwe Eric Laufenberg (who is also the theatre’s Intendant) was clearly influenced (how could he not be?) by the opera’s close parallels with the currently trendy Fifty Shades of Grey.  Bluebeard’s castle becomes his top floor penthouse accessed by lift. VK’s Judit enters into it with an Anastasia Steele-like fascinated faux innocence. The opening of the first door (to Bluebeard’s torture chamber) becomes the opening of his laptop to reveal the hidden images there. At the end, in a dubiously distinct departure from Bartók’s reinvention of the original legend, Bluebeard’s former wives are ghosts rather than still living and Bluebeard stabs Judit to death before she herself becomes a ghost.

The Staatstheater’s Music Director Zsolt Hamar was on conducting duties that evening and a very precise and inspiring job he made of it. As Bluebeard, Gerd Grochowski (who will play Wagner’s Dutchman at Wiesbaden next season) proved to be a most acceptable substitute for the previously announced Johannes Martin Kränzle. Subdued at first (and quite rightly so in terms of both production and opera), he developed stature from the opening of the fifth door onwards into the reluctant dominance required by the text.

However, the emotional and artistic centre of the performance was VK’s Judit. Looking much younger than her years, she succeeded in capturing all the facets of Judit’s complex character from wide-eyed fascination to shocked acceptance of the horrendous bargain she has made. Vocally, there was scarcely a trace of the all too audible inbreathing problems she had been displaying of late and she easily managedto impose herself over even the most extreme moments of orchestration. Of particular note was her subtly stunned realisation on the opening of fourth door (the garden of flowers) of a sense of utter hopelessness. This was the pivotal moment in what was arichly satisfying portrayal.

At the end of the performance, it was audibly clear that  –  despite Ms Migenes’s somewhat presumptively grandstanding re-entry into the centre of the curtain call line-up – it was VK who got by far the biggest ovation during the solo calls.

All in all then, a marvellous evening for VK and she was visibly delighted by the result. She is due to perform in appear in three out of the four performances of the production in Wiesbaden in June.  Provided that she turns up, anybody who can make it along will be richly rewarded.

Guest Posting: Vesselina Kasarova at the Whitsun Festival in Salzburg

Below is a guest posting courtesy of John Carnegie (who also supplied all the photos) after attending the Whitsun Festival in Salzburg on June 8th, 2014. Thanks very much, John!

“ROSSINISSIMO” FESTIVAL IN SALZBURG

Some people experience what is known as a “three Kleenex movie”. Vesselina Kasarova has just had a three frock evening in Salzburg.

Salzburg: that city with its curious concoction of culture and kitsch; in which the streets are paved with beggars studiously ignored by the penguin-suited culture vultures who stroll by them; in which (see below) the birthplace of its greatest son is situated above a Spar supermarket selling the ubiquitous over-priced Mozart Kugel sweets that typify the city’s avidity for art alongside its attempts to strip the tourist’s wallet of all its assets. Mozart famously couldn’t wait to flee the place. One wonders what his reaction would be to the contradictions on display there now.

For once though, Salzburg’s cultural focus was not on Mozart but a composer born a year after his death.  For the third year running, the city’s Pfingstfestspiele (Whitsun Festival) was being curated by Cecilia Bartoli and her chosen theme for 2014 was the music of Rossini. Packed houses were the order of the day as patrons stewed in the sweltering heat wave visited on the city. “Rossinissimo” (as the five day festival was called) covered a broad range of the composer’s oeuvre: comic and tragic opera, song, sacred music and not forgetting Rossini’s principal passion: food. The penultimate evening brought a host of stars to Salzburg – with two concerts at 5pm and 8pm including Frau Kasarova among the array.

The first of these was at the Mozarteum and featured Rossini’s final composition, the Petite Messe Solennelle, and the first of Frau Kasarova’s frocks for the evening: a demure dark brown number that allowed her to merge appropriately into the cast of this spare and sombre work in which individual talents are only occasionally allowed to emerge from the overall texture. Rossini gives his mezzo two stints in the sunlight and Kasarova seized these with aplomb. The first was a duet with the soprano in which Kasarova’s relish at being able to renew her alliance with her old sparring partner Eva Mei was evident. The second was the conclusion of the piece in which the mezzo rides over the chorus (in this case the superbly prepared Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia) in a celebratory Agnus Dei.

There were only two downsides to the concert. The first was the balance between the two pianos (the only instruments apart from a harmonium) and the voices. Although I was in the front row, I had the misfortune to be the pianos’ side and they at times overwhelmed the voices. (However, I think that the awkward balance was only emphasised by my particular seat. I sat further back in the same hall the next day for Joyce DiDonato’s recital and the way that the venue favours the instrument over the voice was still apparent.) The other downside was that one of the two pianists was also the conductor. Normally Antonio Pappano is one of the most considerate conductors to his soloists. Perhaps it was because of his over-exertions on a day on which he had already conducted Rossini’s Stabat mater but it was evident that Sir Tony had his head in the score rather than the score in his head. Oft times the soloists looked to him for guidance but they rarely got it. It was clearly a performance in which some of the individual parts (the chorus and the soloists) had done their own very careful preparation but the ensemble as a whole was under-rehearsed. Still, somehow it all came together reasonably well despite that.

After an hour’s break, it was time to move to the main venue of the Festival for its centrepiece: the Grosse Rossini-Gala. A galaxy of stars had been promised on the bill but a number of them (such as Agnes Baltsa, Teresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballé, Ildebrando d’Arcangelo and Erwin Schrott) didn’t turn up. Fortunately Juan Diego Flórez offered his services at the last minute and his duet from La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli (the two of them appearing opposite each other for incredibly the first ever time) was one of the highlights of the evening. The desertion of so many singers meant that not only was the evening a soprano-free zone (not entirely inappropriate for Rossini) but there were in fact only two female singers onstage throughout the gala - being the two most famous Zurich-based mezzos. After a succession of male “opere buffe” pieces (which ranged from an excellently delivered and genuinely funny Don Magnifico from Carlos Chausson to an over-confident Ruggero Raimondi parting tempo from the orchestra throughout most of Basilio’s La calunnia despite the best efforts of the baton of the otherwise supreme Adam Fisher), the first half concluded with the Act I Finale from Il barbiere di Siviglia featuring Kasarova as Rosina in her second frock of the night: a sleek, silvery-cream number. As Bartoli was already dressed in jeans, apron and yellow “Marigold” washing-up gloves for Cenerentola, she took on the role of the servant Berta. Cue for much clowning between the two mezzos miming severe backache as they exited from their curtain calls.

So far, the programme had consisted entirely of such high jinks and this suited the majority of the audience who had obviously come just for a fun night out. At the astronomical ticket prices charged, only the financially unchallenged can afford most of the seats. Unfortunately, there is not necessarily a correlation between wealth and musical appreciation. The social snobbery on display did not have much to be snobbish about in regard to their cultural sensibility. The insensitive barrage of coughing throughout the purely orchestral numbers was only amplified by the excellent acoustics of the Grosses Festspielhaus; flash photography was taking place during the actual performances; most distracting of all was the woman in front of me who spent over half of the evening texting on her mobile phone. One wonders why she had bothered to come.

In this circus atmosphere, it was obvious that the minority of serious arias on show would prove a trial to this majority element in the audience. Frau Kasarova had the misfortune to be the purveyor of such a piece when – as the first aria after the interval – she delivered Arsace’s Eccomi al fine in Babilonia from Semiramide.  Entering in frock three of the night (a stunning scarlet number), she proceeded to surmount the varied vocal challenges of this virtuoso aria. My only criticism of her performance was that it featured more than usually a defect that has sadly become of late more evident in some of her performances: a very audible and distracting intake of breath between the musical phrases. That though was more than compensated by the accomplishment otherwise on display in this most demanding of musical showpieces. She received respectable applause afterwards but deserved much more.

Much more to the taste of this particular audience was the grandstanding of Javier Camarena. The new boy on the block of star tenors delivered Ramiro’s Si ritrovarlo io giusto from La Cenerentola with the kind of tooth-grinding vocal excesses that excited this audience into a standing ovation and a fulfilled demand for an even more excessive encore. The other standing ovation of the evening went to the veteran José Carreras – mostly, I suspect, occasioned by his fame. However, in his case, the standing ovation was richly deserved.  His voice may be slightly ragged round the edges compared to what it once was but his artistry is undiminished. He brought a laser-like focus to Giocondo’s aria from Rossini’s first opera La pietra del paragone.  It was a privilege to be present for this.

After that, all that remained was for the majority of the cast to wrap up the gala with the Act II Finale from Il barbiere di Siviglia with Kasarova and Bartoli back as Rosina and Berta accompanied by one Figaro, two Counts, two Bartolos and no less than three Basilios. It topped an evening that was mostly enjoyable but – with a different audience and perhaps with the presence of some of the no-show stars – might have been much more than that.

That’s Salzburg for you though. Its distinctly Disneyfied brand of tourism breeds an atmosphere in which a multiplicity of frocks seems more appreciated than artistry. Personally, I would have preferred the chance to employ more than one Kleenex."

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Vesselina Kasarova's official website
Updated unofficial performance schedule

Don Quichotte (Don Quixote) at the San Diego Opera (8 Apr 2014)

My friend M and I went to San Diego Opera at the Civic Theater on Tuesday night to see a performance of Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte (Don Quixote), and were quite thrilled to see the place completely packed. There was hardly any seat left open even up on the balcony.

The staging is the same from the 2009 run and the title role is still spectacularly sung and acted by Italian basso Ferrucio Furlanetto, who brings just the sort of gravitas the character needs to draw sympathy rather than exasperation from the audience. If you can pick one artist to carry the show and make people want the opera company to survive the current abysmal mess that it is in, Furlanetto would be it. He is so at home with this role that he plays with it now rather than just coping.

Anke Vondung is quite a different Dulcinea than Denise Graves was in 2009. Not as much presence, perhaps, but quite fresher and more lyrical voice (at times a bit too 'lyrical' in the huge hall that is the Civic Theater, as she was easily overpowered by the orchestra). Eduardo Chama is a crowd pleaser as Sancho Panza and got the most (complimentary) whistles at the curtain call for keeping the show fun even to its tragic ending. I should say... I don't know why Simeon Esper is still singing a minor role like Juan. The dude has got a gorgeous voice (and quite a good look to boot)!

The chorus was a bit out of sync at the start but gelled up nicely thereafter.

I'm afraid I'm being a bit boring writing this up... It wasn't a care-free night at the opera like it used to be. People were taking photos and videos before and after the curtain and making jokes about how this could be the last opera they'd get to attend here in "America's Finest City"... and I got a bit depressed and also a bit conflicted about it. I'd like the opera to survive, of course, and for the many people I admire in the organization to get to keep their job. At the same time, I wouldn't like for it to survive with Ian and Ann Campbells heading it (and a real opera board shake up would be nice, too, starting with Karen Cohn, whose histrionics in print has really poisoned the pool of anyone that cares even a little bit about the San Diego Opera).

Typical staging at the SDO; traditional with period costume. This is from Tosca a few years back.

Mr Campbell had done a lot for the company, but his vision for it hasn't been jiving with what the popular audience wants for some time now. It's odd to read how him and Ms Cohn keep saying that 'grand opera' is the what people here wants, and yet at the same time they are both claiming that the chief reason for their attempt to shut down operation is 'declining audience attendance'. First off, the only works that could be confused with a 'grand opera' the SDO has staged since 2006 are Bizet's Carmen and Verdi' Aida. So, I suspect that when they say 'grand opera' here, what they really mean is ultra-traditional staging of staple opera as if they are museum pieces rather than living arts.

Just about the only minimalist staging of an opera at the SDO. Salome.

I know that I, for one, haven't been going to the opera much the last couple of years because the 'traditional staging all the time' thingy got pretty stuffy for me. The most entertaining show I had gone to there in recent years was Strauss' Salome... and that was due to the minimalist clutter-free staging as much as the stellar performance of the cast. And I was always dreaming of getting to, one day, see a low-coast minimalist conceptual Regietheater production like they do in Central Europe that makes people think about the story being told from the stage. A story that they can relate to despite of the opera's original setting. But there was no hope of that ever happening here while the likes of Mr Campbell and Ms Cohn are in charge. They want their 'grand opera' (bad use of the term notwithstanding) and they fault the audience for not liking their taste enough to pay to come to performances. For all they have done for the opera, the sudden manipulation of the opera board to force a shut down just because they couldn't make it work to their liking is selfish beyond belief, especially considering all the hard working loyal company staff and associated musicians who will soon be out of a job if the rest of the opera board can't come up with a way of saving the company.

And so, their dark cloud hang over the opera house and weighed down even Tuesday's good performance of Don Quixote... which I'll cite as the excuse for my lackluster not-much-of-a-review 'review'.. with apologies to the artists, who showed way more spunk than I do even though they are even more affected by this whole stinky thing!

Guest post: Vesselina Kasarova in Samson et Dalila in Cologne (Köln) 2014

My fellow opera enthusiast friend John Carnegie traveled to Cologne to see Vesselina Kasarova in Saint Saens' Samson et Dalila earlier this week and kindly agreed to share his impression in this guest blog post below. Thank you, John!

Samson et Dalila at the Oper Köln – 19^th March 2014

(2nd performance of the current revival of the 2009 production)

The performance did not take place in the Opernhaus (which is currently a building site where a completely new theatre is being constructed in place of the demolished former one). Instead it took place in the temporary Musik Dom venue that the Oper is using: a prefabricated structure under a bright blue tent next to the railway station.  It is a soulless shed with indifferent acoustics but good sightlines that can only be accessed via some unpleasant urine-drenched tunnels running under the station. Perhaps due to this (and the notorious reputation of the production), the house was only 70% full.

 

Foto: Lefebvre

Tilman Knabe’s production - which is in contemporary costume with the Philistines as Nazi-like fascists and the Jews as (well) Jews - is determinedly designed to épater le bourgeoisie and some of le bourgeoisie were duly épated and exited noisily at the end of Act Two when Dalila cut off Samson’s penis rather than his hair. If the departees had stayed for Act Three, they would have become even more upset when a triumphantly smiling Dalila presided over a crowd of extras being stripped naked, raped and machine-gunned.

Actually (to my surprise) I thought that the production worked very well indeed and (although melodramatic) it animated and illuminated the opera far more than the somewhat decorous production in which Vesselina Kasarova first gave her Dalila a couple of years ago in Berlin. What was even more surprising was how Frau Kasarova entered completely into the spirit of this production. She has always struck me as a delightfully modest performer who (as one reviewer put it) has always seemed more attractive when playing men than when playing women. (Even her Venus in Tannhauser was relatively chaste.) Not on this revelatory occasion when she turned on what can only be described as the "the full Netrebko". 

Foto: Lefebvre

The production conceives of Dalila as a thoroughly evil high-class prostitute whose pimp is the High Priest. Languorously draping herself in suggestive poses across a bed while wearing very little in the way of clothing, Kasarova's Dalila was sensationally sexy - both visually (she must have been spending all of her free time recently at the gym) and (most importantly) vocally. Her Dalila in Berlin (while she was recovering from illness) had been somewhat tentative. Here all her vocal guns were in place and she smouldered and then soared through the part. What a frustration it is that she is spending most of her time doing concerts when (as with her Romeo in Munich when I last saw her live) she is clearly at her peak of her powers as an opera artist.

As for the rest of the cast, the other highlight was Samuel Youn (Bayreuth's current Dutchman) in magnificent voice as the High Priest. His scene with Kasarova at the start of Act Two was the vocal highlight of the evening. As Samson, Lance Ryan sadly displayed all the faults of an over-employed Heldentenor. Starting the evening with a fearsome wobble in his voice, he gradually became more secure as the evening progressed but his is not an attractive sound and his acting was half-hearted to say the least. In the pit, Antonino Fogliani (who conducted Kasarova's recent concert performances as Romeo in Oslo) did an excellent job of standing in at the last moment for an indisposed Claude Schnitszler. The chorus and orchestra gave a good account of themselves despite the difficult acoustics.

Foto: Lefebvre

Overall, a sensational (and sensationalist) evening.

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My friend Yvette also attended the March 19th performance and wrote her impressions on her blog, along with sharing a wonderful backstage photo of Frau Kasarova smiling to all the fans that couldn't make it to the show.