UPDATE: He is a review of the production. Honeck cannot seem to get away from controversial productions at Stuttgart!
The International Herald Tribune
November 4, 2009 Wednesday
Stefan Herheim imagines 'Rosenkavalier' as an erotic fantasy
BYLINE: George Loomis
In the same country but in a different world is the Stuttgart Staatsoper's new production of Richard Strauss's ''Der Rosenkavalier'' by Stefan Herheim. It imagines the opera as an erotic fantasy by the Marschallin, who, in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's libretto, is in her mid-thirties but worried about advancing middle age while having an affair with Octavian, a 17-year-old count. As the curtain rises, the two are in bed after having sex, which we know has occurred from Strauss's ecstatically descriptive orchestral prelude.
This is not what we see in Stuttgart. Instead, the Marschallin is found seated at her dressing table amid clouds. Not liking what she sees, she shatters her mirror, as satyr-like men, with strapped on genitalia, appear and begin to gang rape her, an experience from which she is saved by the arrival of Octavian, who is lowered, deus ex machine-style, onto the stage. Dressed in his 18th-century best, he fights the satyrs off.
Mr. Herheim, a 39-year-old Norwegian, is currently the darling boy of operatic Regietheater in Germany, having cemented his reputation with a 2008 production of ''Parsifal'' at the Bayreuth Festival, which found even level-headed critics admiring the way he interweaved elements of Bayreuth's past and present, and of Germany itself, into the stage picture.
Herheim productions rely on eye-dazzling effects, with whirling turntables.
Especially impressive in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' is the ''cheap hotel'' of Act 3, a sleekly elegant affair (sets by Rebecca Ringst) that accommodates black-tie dinner guests on two tiers. On the other hand, the overall action takes place within a dark-blue frame with sparkling stars, an apparent evocation of dreamland, that looks tacky.
Mr. Herheim allowed some important encounters to unfold without distractions, but the final trio finds a satyr still on stage, pretending to weep copiously.
Was he mocking the opera as a drama of sentiment? Some would say this is what ''Der Rosenkavalier'' is all about. Stripped of sentiment, as here, not a lot remains.
Mojca Erdmann (Sophie) and Marina Prudenskaya, (Octavian) do well in a cast that also includes Christiane Iven (Marschallin) and Lars Woldt (Baron Ochs).
And the conductor Manfred Honeck presides over an exceptionally assured orchestral performance.
German audiences crave novelty. They like - and expect - productions like this. Mr. Tiezzi's essentially traditional ''Boccanegra'' was roundly booed in Berlin. In Stuttgart bravos easily drowned out a few boos for the production team. Some say you have to see a production by Mr. Herheim multiple times to understand it. No thanks, at least this time.
Der Rosenkavalier. Richard Strauss. Stuttgart Staatsoper. Through Jan. 10.
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The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's music director Manfred Honeck is about to embark on one of the most difficult tasks as a conductor: leading Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier." It will be the first time Honeck has ever conducted the sophisticated comic opera and it will be in a new production at the Stuttgart Opera, for which he also is music director.
The performances open Nov. 1 and run intermittently through January 2010. Honeck mentioned the task several times to me while on tour with the PSO to Europe this past September. He had a score with him and was studying it any chance he could get! He was a bit nervous about it, but I am sure he has nailed it down by now.
Here is the staff and cast:
Conductor Manfred Honeck
Director Stefan Herheim
Stage Design Rebecca Ringst
Costume Design Gesine Völlm
Light Design Olaf Freese
Choir Director Michael Alber
Dramaturg Xavier Zuber
Cast
Feldmarschallin Christiane Iven
Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau Lars Woldt
Octavian Marina Prudenskaja
Faninal Karl-Friedrich Dürr
Sophie Mojca Erdmann
Jungfer Marianne Leitmetzerin Michaela Schneider
Valzacchi Torsten Hofmann
Annina Carola Gruber
Ein Polizeikommissar / Ein Notar Mark Munkittrick
Der Haushofmeister / Ein Wirt Heinz Göhrig
Ein Sänger Bogdan Mihai
Staatsorchester Stuttgart
Choir of the Staatsoper Stuttgart
Children’s choir of the Staatsoper Stuttgart
Me again: Here's an excerpt from the presser about what to expect from the production:
The scenic realisation focuses on the Feldmarschallin’s point of view. A palace is shown onstage, with walls displaying different images when turning. The ceiling is an arch, whose form and matter resemble a gigantic crinoline. The Feldmarschallin, who is placed underneath this arch, shatters the mirror in front of her and decides to create her own world in which Octavian, Ochs, Sophie and Faninal are figures of her inner world –wonderful and dreadful at the same time.
In the introduction of the comic opera, the Feldmarschallin’s “erotic dream”, climaxing in the appearance of Octavian, sounds like a fantasia from the brass of the Rosenkavalier motif. The role of the rough philanderer Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau is a symbol for the mythological world of Eros. His people seem to be emanated from a Rubens painting. As satyrs they are making trouble in the Feldmarschallin’s world. Ochs’ intention to marry the young Sophie is thus not only a marriage for money, but also reminds the Feldmarschallin of her own wedding with the Marschall. Here, the music creates psychological and emotional depth. It offers a variety of different psychological conditions.
(by Xavier Zuber)
Posted
Nov 09 2009, 07:40 AM
by
Andrew Druckenbrod