Ahead of the new production of "The Ring of the Nibelungs" scheduled for 2020 and entrusted to Valentin Schwarz (direction) and Pietari Inkinen (musical direction), the Bayreuther Festival this year offers a new production of "Tannhäuser" and revivals of "Lohengrin," "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg," "Parsifal," and "Tristan and Isolde."
The production of "Tannhäuser" in the Dresden version was entrusted to young German director Tobias Kratzer, whom we've already seen at work at La Monnaie with his staging of Mozart's "Lucio Silla." Thanks to Kratzer, assisted by Rainer Sellmaier (set and costumes), Manuel Braun (video), and Reinhard Traub (lighting), the Bayreuther Festival now also has its place on the list of opera houses where you can no longer simply listen to and admire an overture without being confronted with video images. In the case of "Tannhäuser," we were immersed in the landscapes of Thuringia, the region of the Wartburg, which is traversed by an old Citroën van. Inside it sit Venus (in a black glittering bodysuit), Tannhäuser (who looks like a McDonald's clown), the dwarf Oskar (a reference to the hero of Günter Grass's "The Tin Drum") and Gateau (sic) Chocolat (a black drag artist).
We find the van again on stage where it comes to a halt so that posters can be put up proclaiming "Free in your decisions, free in your actions, free in your pleasures," slogans that Wagner wrote in 1848. When Venus deliberately runs over a guard who wants to prevent them from leaving without paying, Tannhäuser reaches his breaking point. He leaves Venus and suddenly finds himself, along with us, in front of the famous façade of the Bayreuth Festival Theater, toward which the pilgrims are heading! He is discovered there by his old friends, dressed as medieval knights. Suddenly Elisabeth also appears and gives Tannhäuser a slap across the face. End of Act One!
The second act shows us a hall of the Wartburg, more or less in its traditional presentation where the singing contest will take place and, at the same time, in video recordings what is happening behind the scenes. Thanks to a tall ladder placed against the façade of the Festival Theater (an attraction for the audience during intermission), Venus's band enters the theater (the Wartburg). Venus disguises herself as one of the "noble pages" and attends the singing contest, which she tries in vain to influence. Even in the general chaos that ensues later, she can actually do nothing, nor can Oskar and Gateau Chocolat, who are meanwhile caught up in it as well.
In the third act, we find the familiar but worn-out van again, where Oskar apparently lives. He offers Elisabeth, who visits him, to share his meager meal. Among the returning pilgrims, who have now become migrants, Elisabeth searches in vain for Tannhäuser. Wolfram tries to comfort her, even partially dons Tannhäuser's clown costume and is then taken by Elisabeth into the van where they engage in passionate (?) lovemaking. When Tannhäuser appears, he makes clear that he wants to go off with Venus again and finds the bloodied, dead Elisabeth. No redemption for him and apparently none for the migrants either!
Wolfgang Wagner (8/30/1919 – 3/21/2010), whose hundredth birthday was commemorated this year, loved to call Bayreuth a "Werkstatt," a workshop or studio. One might wonder to what extent that interpretation allows for more or less successful experiments that ultimately do not serve Wagner's oeuvre, worse still, that distort or deform it. Fortunately, we have not yet tampered with the music, performed by an experienced orchestra. In the performance I attended, Wagner's score was in the capable hands of Christian Thielemann, who replaced Valery Gergiev, who was unable to conduct due to his mother's death.
Thielemann allowed us to enjoy great lyrical phrases and moving dramatic moments. He let the orchestra shine in subtle colors and impressive yet always controlled sonorities, achieving perfect cohesion between orchestra and stage, even when the images presented by Kratzer and his team told us something different. The cast was of high caliber, starting with Stephen Gould, who delivered an impressive Tannhäuser with his precious metal voice that handles the demanding vocal part effortlessly and sustains it to the end.
At the same time, he brings beautiful nuances and knows how to move us, even in his ridiculous costume. The young Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen brought freshness, spontaneity, and emotion to Elisabeth, and with a rich, homogeneous voice of gleaming metal. I was less convinced by Elena Zhidkova's Venus, who threw herself wholeheartedly into the interpretation imposed on her by Kratzer and sang with a voice of clear timbre but often lacking force. That cannot be said of Markus Eiche, who presented us with a rather reserved Wolfram but definitely beautifully sung with a homogeneous and well-projected baritone voice. Stephen Milling gave authority and a sonorous sound to Landgraf Hermann. Daniel Behle lent his delightful tenor to Walther von der Vogelweide and Katharina Konradi her fresh soprano to the shepherd boy, here a young girl on a bicycle! The other roles were well filled and the Bayreuth choruses, prepared by Eberhard Friedrich, did full justice to their well-deserved reputation.
For "Lohengrin,", a revival of the 2018 production in a staging by Yuval Sharon with sets and costumes by Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy, lighting by Reinhard Traub, there were fortunately no video projections during the prelude. We were thus able to fully enjoy the heavenly music, brilliantly played by the Festival Orchestra under Christian Thielemann, who managed to maintain tension and emotion throughout the performance. And not just in the great moments. There was poetry, dramatic power, attention to nuance, and excellent rapport with the stage.
It has not become clear to me what Yuval Sharon's intention is in his staging, which combines past and future, presents crowds of people who seem to have stepped out of old paintings, and in which the people of Brabant rather resemble Dutch farm girls! He offers us a Lohengrin without a swan but with the appearance of a safely landed cosmonaut without equipment or baggage. All of this in a world surrounded by a blue haze, with transformers, high-voltage lines, and other technical gadgetry. It is a world in which women are abused and even condemned to the stake and in which Gottfried, the young Duke of Brabant, is a little ecological fellow, dressed entirely in green!
For the performance I attended, Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala were announced as Elsa and Lohengrin, roles they had already sung together in Dresden. Netrebko had withdrawn, but Beczala was fortunately there to let us hear his sublime interpretation of the role, sung with his beautiful, radiant voice, his excellent text projection, his elegant style, and his noble delivery. No wonder the audience gave him an ovation. It was Annette Dasch who replaced Netrebko as Elsa, a role she had sung earlier in Bayreuth and which she performs with her less luxurious vocal resources but as an expressive and moving interpreter. She had a formidable rival in Elena Pankratova, an Ortrud with great presence and an impressive vocal performance. Thomas Konieczny presented a brutal Telramund with a rather rough voice, but the King Heinrich of Georg Zeppenfeld had great vocal nobility and fine authority. Egils Silins announced his proclamations as herald with force. Good ensemble work from the minor roles and once again impressive choruses.
- WHAT: Bayreuther Festival 2019 – Tannhäuser and Lohengrin
- WHERE & WHEN: Bayreuth 13 and 14 August
