Yes, Die tote Stadt is coming to the Royal Opera House. Not that they're risking trying to stage it themselves; instead they're taking on Willy Decker's production from Salzburg and Vienna. Thanks to Brendan for the tip-off, and to the Unofficial Korngold Website which confirms it and tells us that there will be seven performances, opening on 26 January 2009. Ingo Metzmacher will conduct and the cast is to include Nadia Michael as Marietta, Stephen Gould as Paul and Gerald Finlay as Frank/Pierrot.
Die tote Stadt, as I pointed out in a comment box the other day, has only been performed once before in Britain; in concert; by a non-professional orchestra (the fabulous Kensington Symphony Orchestra and their inspiring, Korngold-friendly conductor Russell Keable). That was a decade ago. Productions? None. This will be the UK staged premiere. I regret that I haven't yet seen this production, but am relieved that they are not taking the one from Zurich a few years ago - with Olaf Baer in high heels and black wings, 'Eurotrash' indeed - or the ghastly thing that was filmed from the Opera du Rhin and that remains the only available DVD of the opera.
Well, folks, it's about time, too. Better late than never.
Read more about the opera in Brendan Carroll's splendid introduction to the New York production, here.
10 comments:
Gerald Finley singing "Mein Sehnen, Mein Wähnen"? I might just burst with joy at the thought of it (well, getting my A-level results today contributes considerably).
But...2009? I can't wait that long!!
Anyway, thanks for the notice!
Me too! (bursting with joy, that is...my A levels are a world away...)
Dear William Styron fan, if you are getting your A level results you will be young enough not to know how horribly soon January 2009 really is! Only 18 months away...by the time you get to my age, that's nothing. sigh.
Oh, thank heaven I'm not the only one who thought little of the Opera du Rhin production which I just watched last week. Mind you, it was interesting to see Birgitta Svendén, whose brief appearances as Erda in the Met's Ring on DVD are a highlight for me, in the role of Brigitta. I thought the singing was generally okay but the staging was incomprehensible. Korngold deserves so much better. So do we.
Aw, thanks for the words of wisdom, Jessica. And it's not like I'll be doing nothing during those 18 months....moving to the UK (British, but raised in Germany and Spain), starting uni....
Ooh, er, better keep this on-topic.
A Willy Decker production? Well, at least it's been tried and tested abroad, but the name Willy Decker always inspires mild dread in me. His productions of Peter Grimes and Don Carlos are great. La Traviata (all hype, that DVD) not so much, I felt.
May I please just add that the arrival of Tote Stadt at the ROH is perhaps the Mount Everest of Korngoldian achievements that I never thought I would live to see?
The Decker production by the way, is very interesting, thought-provoking and works well with the music at every level. (I cannot bring myself to discuss the Strasbourg production, the premiere of which I had the very great misfortune to review!)
Still on the TOTE STADT roll...I hear a rumour that the New York MET is also considering it...and if they do, it will be the first time that Tote Stadt has graced New York's main stage since 1921! Added to which, next winter, the San Francisco Opera will also present the Decker production, cast yet to be announced.
So, with new productions also announced for Bonn (2008) and Moscow(the Russian premiere, 2009/10) I think we can safely say that Korngold's opera is finally a repertory piece again. Thank GOD!
Great, great news! [Memo to self: start saving for trip to London in 1/09]. Added bonus: it's football season and I should be able to see my beloved Everton play.
Mr. Carroll, thank you for the information about other upcoming productions. The San Francisco one was supposed to be done during Pamela Rosenberg's tenure, I'm glad David Glockley didn't push it aside.
Great news about my very favorite opera. Now, who's going to sing Paul in all these productions, to me the opera hinges on getting a Paul who can sing the zillion pages of high loud things AND still sound like Richard Tauber in the last five minutes.
Does this mean we can expect a fully staged production of Heliane in England in 2016? (DTS: premiere 1920 > 89 years for a first production; Heliane premiere 1927 + 89 years). One can hope.....
D'oh! I forgot to add another productin of Die Tote Stadt in my post yesterday.
As you might know, James Conlon is doing a Recovered Voices Project here in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, they had a concert where they did excerpts from Schreker's glorious Die Gezeichneten, Braunfels gorgeous Der Vogel, Ullman's Kaiser von Atlantis, Die Tote Stadt (Gluck das mir, Pierrotlied) and a complete semi-staged performance of Zemlinsky's wonderful potboiler Eine Florentinische Tragodie.
In 2007/08 they're doing a fully staged production of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg, bizarrely not coupled with the logical companion piece, Eine Florentinische Tragodie but with Ullman's OK The Jug; in subsequent seasons, there will be fully staged productions of Die Gezeichneten (please, please don't use the Stuttgart production; I've seen it there and in Amsterdam!), Der Vogel and TA DA! Die Tote Stadt.
I love living in Los Angeles, except for the traffic, and this is one of the reasons. Thank you James Conlon!
I'm certainly looking forward to Die Tote Stadt, but I'd have been even more excited to see Das Wunder Der Heliane, given its rarity. Has there even been a production in the last 50 years? It's hardly that great from a dramatic point of view, but the music is just fabulous.
Richard, have a look at the correspondence on JDCMB from November & December 2007 for info on the concert performance of Heliane at the RFH and the nuclear fallout that followed. For us paid-up Korngolistas, the music is glorious indeed, but I fear that the bile spouted by various critics in the wake of this gigantic Kraken of a piece may have been enough to push it back underwater for a while. Some of their comments would have been welcomed with open arms by the Third Reich. Tragic, but true. If it is so difficult to pull off in concert, I wonder whether any stage director will dare to lay a finger on it. It would, of course, be fabulous if they did. But what are the chances?!
Ah, Jessica, I was there (in what used to be called the Annexe but is now Side Stalls or something) and it was marvellous! I also read the reviews afterwards and was a bit irritated by them (but not as much as I used to be, having belatedly realised that critics are often more interested in Making a Point than in writing a fair review).
Yes, it's certainly very sad that a staging is probably less likely now, but let's keep on hoping. Meanwhile, Friends' booking for Die Tote Stadt opens tomorrow and I'll be at the keyboard trying to get my favourite seats in the stalls circle.
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