Hereinspaziert!
‘To Life’, introductory show for the opening of the 2020/21 season
Graz Opera House, Austria
Opera houses across Europe are tentatively opening the new season, with varying degrees of confidence, including some provincial houses like this one in Graz. Austrian opera is indeed in the forefront of moves to reopen to the public, with the Vienna Opera also launching a full 2020/21 season this week. Both have taken precautionary steps. In Graz for instance all staff wear masks throughout, except on stage, and audience members are required to wear masks on entry and exit, though not once seated. Seating is in alternate seats, with unused seats strapped up, so they cannot be used unofficially.
Opernhaus Graz is a lovely neo-baroque building, opened in 1899, replacing a series of older theatres used for opera from the seventeenth century onwards. The current opera house was subject to some wartime damage, but was quickly repaired and reopened after the war, later undergoing major renovations between 1983-85, which modernised its equipment and facilities without major change to the original building. More recently a modern administrative wing, rehearsal rooms and children’s theatre were added alongside the opera house.
Unlike some well-known Viennese institutions, Graz has a relatively strong record of promoting women: Sunday’s presentation was introduced by the Opera’s Intendant, Norah Schmid, with contributions from Ballet Director, Beate Vollack, and the new Principal Conductor, Roland Muttig, who recently replaced Ukrainian Principal Oksana Livnic, the latter much in demand internationally since taking on the Graz post in 2017.
Sunday’s season taster show demonstrated ambition and variety, with new productions of Weinberg’s 1968 opera ‘The Passenger’, Jerry Bock’s ‘ Anatevka’ ( Fiddler on the Roof), Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’, Smetana’s ‘Bartered Bride’, Offenbach’s ‘Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein’, Wagner’s ‘The Flying Dutchman’, ‘Der Florentiner Hut’, Nino Rota’s 1955 rendition of ‘The Italian Straw Hat’ and Sibelius’ ‘Tempest’ scheduled for the coming season, along with reprises of ‘Don Giovanni’ and ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and a strong ballet and concert programme. Still feeling their way somewhat with the new regulations, Sunday’s performance was orchestrally strong (with the Graz Philharmonic conducted by Marcus Merkel), but maybe a little hesitant in the singing (though both Markus Butter and Neven Crnic impressed in the Mozart arias) and choreography. Whether to kiss, embrace or elbow bump on stage remains an unresolved and potentially awkward issue! The audience reacted with appreciative applause, politely desisting from verbal reaction.
