Opera Nights

It is that festive time again. The celebrations for Christmas and the New Year seem to begin earlier and last longer and longer as time goes by. In December and January there are more than 20 operas to be enjoyed in Vienna, to say nothing of ballet, operetta, musical, concert and other special performances on offer in the opera houses. 

The new season began with Open Days to launch a very busy Season in all three houses. Both the Volksoper and Theatre an der Wien have had their first premieres as we write in the middle of September. These were Johann Strauss’s operetta Wiener Blut and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw respectively. The Staatsoper opened with a Gala performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with great performances by Placido Domingo and Feruccio Furlanetto who captured the audience not just with the power of great voices but with moments of great and wrenching sensitivity as the tragic story unfolded. Murmurings of dissatisfaction at a tenor in a baritone role enjoyed very little support. 

I had to move house in March. I suppose that I should be in therapy but that prospect seems worse than moving house.My bijou bungalow and garden and the schloss park in which they are situated are going under the hammer with the tag “vacant possession of the entire”. So the move was inevitable. Now the resettlement is almost complete and all the stress and problems have been replaced by a simple joy.

Now that the new season is firmly established in Vienna’s four opera houses, the risk of the ODS affliction has disappeared. Usually occurring during the months of July and August, it can be a very stressful and unpleasant experience but effective relief is available, althought sometimes at considerable distance and expense, such as in Salzburg and Bregenz, where an overnight stay is usually required. Or much closer to home, in Klosterneuburg and Gars am Kamp… So now you’ve got it?

The preview of the next season at the Staatsoper is now available from any of the usual sources (Bundestheaters Ticket offices etc.) at a cost of six euros. Attractively presented in a 136- page booklet, the preview is packed with important information and comes with a convient Year Planner, a booklet of the subscription cycles and a plasticated pocket book- sized programme for the whole season (see below for details).

It all looks like an auspicious start to life under the new Director, Dominique Meyer and the Musical Director, Franz Welser-Most.

Now that the Marathon Ring has been run twice in November, it is now time to look forward to some relaxation and to turn our thoughts to the festive season just ahead. The number of shopping days to Christmas is diminishing rapidly and there still remains much to be done. This may need to include planning some opera for both family and indeed for selves!

There are no less than three opera premieres in Vienna this month. In the Staatsoper, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, previously produced only in its other, later version, Katerina Ismailova, begins to unfold its tragic tale on Oct. 23. At the Volksoper, there is an even more tragic tale in one of the best loved operas of all time, Verdi’s Rigoletto – the hunchback jester whose thirst for retribution results in the murder of the daughter whose seduction he is seeking to avenge. This new production, which opens on Oct. 17, transposes the opera to a modern setting and is in German. Two days earlier, Rossini’s relatively unknown Tancredi (1813), another tragedy, comes to the stage in Theater an der Wien. (see Events, p.25).

“In peace I have found my image, I have found myself,” Owen Wingrave exclaims at the climax of Benjamin Britten’s second-to-last opera. It’s a powerful aria, sung by British baritone Andrew Ashwin and the music for once leaves behind the darkness and overall oppressive atmosphere of the work.

Two important operatic events took place in Vienna at the beginning of April. One was the staged performances of Händel’s Messiah at Theater an der Wien, which drew much excited and enthusiastic appreciation from mostly delighted audiences. The other was the publication of the Staatsoper’s Handbook for the season 2009-2010.