Notes from Vienna
As well as covering opera in Scotland, the Edinburgh Music Review will occasionally report from operas elsewhere, not least because we don't get enough opera in Scotland (a subject we may return to in future), but also because opera is international and opera lovers like to compare notes on their experiences. As a Friend of Covent Garden for over 50 years I shall be reporting regularly on the Royal Opera, next on Jonas Kaufmann and Lise Davidsen in Fidelio on March 3. Since the opera will be transmitted to cinemas on March 17th we hope that EMR readers will find this a useful taster.
Recently I spent a long weekend in Vienna doing 3 operas in 3 nights. I'm not going to give detailed reviews of the operas, because by the time you get to Vienna they will no longer be playing! However I want to mention it because this is for some people a very accessible way of increasing our operatic experiences and spending a weekend in one of the great cities of the world. The Vienna Opera, the Staatstoper, is one of the leading opera houses in the world and the busiest: it has operas on 7 nights of the week, whilst most opera houses are dark for at least one night or in the case of Covent Garden doing ballet half the week! It also has very high standards of casting and production and the Vienna Philharmonic, who provide the musicians, is one of the finest orchestras in the world, if still somewhat male dominated! It is also very accessible: it's a big house with 2,500 seats and you can stand at the back for 10 Euros and have good sight lines. We had 34 Euro seats in the gallery, which were comfortable and had a little screen in front of us with English surtitles. We saw Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella) - a bit of a clunky modern production set in 30's Italy with 3 sport cars on the stage. However, it was decently sung and has lovely music.
Wagner's Lohengrin was on the Sunday afternoon beginning at 5 pm and due to be conducted by the great Russian maestro Valery Gergiev. However just before the start the opera house chief came on to the stage and announced that Gergiev had been delayed in Russia so wouldn't be there to conduct, but he had anticipated this - following a late arrival and delayed performance the previous week - and had a very good substitute conductor, the German Michael Guttler, in place! Norman Lebrecht, whose blog Slipped Disc is the most read in the world, had the story within 15 minutes (sent by me!) and by the end of the evening there were 69 comments on the item, most of them critical of Gergiev. Guttler's performance was certainly appreciated by the knowledgeable Austrian audience, as was that of Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, returned to the title role after an attack of flu, and the lesser known highly talented young Swedish singer, Cornelia Beskow as Elsa von Brabant. (Incidentally we hope to cover news and gossip about music in Scotland on the EMR so do send your news to us!) Lohengrin was very well sung but was a dire production with the chorus in lederhosen and the swan a papier-mâché model! However the music was wonderful and the chorus sounded superb even if they looked awful!
The final opera was Strauss's Salome, perfect for Vienna since Strauss was himself there and of course the Freudian interpretations of Salome are very relevant. It was a very old (1972) production which looked tired but again the music and the singing (from Lise Lindstrom, Michael Volle, Waltraud Meier) saved it.
Finally Vienna is of course a superb city with lots of music, art, architecture and of course food and wine. It is also very accessible from Edinburgh. We had a weekend package which began at £139, including flights and 3 nights bed and breakfast at a very good quality Novotel, conveniently situated for Vienna's superb and inexpensive transport network, right across from the central station.
