I knew you'd like this picture ;-)
If you're thinking - what's this gotta do with the Traviata???... well, probably nothing :-) But it turns out i had a bit of a Dirndl&Lederhosen weekend ;-) My weekend away turned out to be filled with loads of stuff, music only being one of them.
Upon arrival there on Friday i made my obligatory way to Marienplatz in search of food and drink and found out the town was celebrating its 851 birthday this very weekend! The preparations were already gearing up and the whole weekend the town was filled with blaring Volksmusic and people proudly wearing their bestest Lederhosen and Dirndl :-) Of course i once again missed out on a great photo-opportunity because i hadn't brought my camera with me.
You're probably giggling at the mental image of it all right now ;-) ... hmmm, well how about this little secret: It was a lot of fun for me and not for any touristy reasons you might think, but because it brought me "back to the past" in a flash to my own years of Dirndl wearing, Polka dancing and Volkslieder singing years. Shocked? :-))) It might be beyond your wildest imagination, but i am indeed the proud owner of my very own little Drindl in which i enjoyed hopping around to Volkslieder next so some cute Lederhosen wearing boy :-) There were some totally yummy grown up versions around this weekend in Munich and some really beautiful dresses as well! I really wish i didn't live miles away and could get a new Dirndl made.... no chance i could still fit into the one i was wearing when i was 12! :-)
I know such frocks are always the joy of tourists, but worn by the locals in the right place and at the right times they are beautiful to look at and a pleasure to be worn :-) Just like kilts in Scotland ( for which i definitely have a soft spot!), trajes de fallera in Valencia, Dirndls in Bayern are the thing to have!
Anyways, in the absence of appropriate attire i joined in the other obligatory activities :-) I went through the selfimposed torture of having a couple of Russn (Weissbier with lemonade), Wurst with Sauerkrauft in this place which i warmly recommend (Hofbrauhaus):
and, of course Kaiserschmarn (eggs, milk, vanilla, butter in gallons, raisins, sugar and heavenly apple-pure with fragrant cinnamon)! If you are experiencing a slow death by pictures i'll not be made responsible! ;-))))
It's all even yummier than you can imagine! In case you are wondering why not straight beer... well, because as usually, flying from Gatwick means you don't get to sleep in your own bed at night if you fly at 6am! And while i couldn't stay away from local festivities, i didn't want to waste a perfectly good opera ticket by dozing all the way through the evening's Traviata :-)
I did miscalculate though... the icecold beer did wreck my throat .. again! And i sat through the Traviata in the boiling temperature with a parched throat and trying to swallow as little as possible to avoid coughing more than Violetta. I didn't have a marvellous evening. - for various reasons, but the important thing is: my parents absolutely did!!
Probably haven't told you i dragged them all the way to Munich to hear Jonas Kaufmann in an attempt to show them what the fuss is all about and to avoid being disinherited because of visiting them less often than i travel to hear Herr JK sing. So i begged for the tickets some year ago, was lucky enough to get them, organised the trip, booked the hotel, etc and hoped he would do the rest ;-) The fact they would get Angela Gheorghiu as Violetta was supposed to be the cherry on the cake. Well, different cherry again and again, as we found out on the evening when arriving at the opera. I stressed about the change, i stressed about who they would like and who they wouldn't, i guess i mentally even prepared an extensive defense speech, in fact i probably stressed so much i forgot to relax and just enjoy... I needn't have worried! My parents couldn't care less that Mrs Gheorghiu wasn't there, as long as Jk was, they were happy. I fact, to my utter amazement and... em, embarrassment.... they mutated into fans from his first notes. The kind of fans who shout Bravo Jonas!, who i had to stop from carrying 3 magazines to be autographed, who i had to reassure that no, he wouldn't leave before saying hi to everyone at the stagedoor, who had to have a photo taken with him and yes, sighhhhhh... the kind who i literally had to peel off him to leave...
Now you are laughing, but i assure you, you wouldn't have, had you been me, trying to play it cool though this all! ;-) I'm glad they had a blast though and i'm sure they wouldn't mind repeating the experience ;-) Next time i'll be firmer... only 1 autograph per person!!
On to the Traviata.... the above Provenza and Non udrai rimproveri i have borrowed off someone, thought you migth want to hear Simon Keenlyside's first Germont ;-)
As for my impressions of the night... they are mixed bag. First of all i broke my own two main rules: have a rest before a performance and don't have expectations. I was too tired, not feeling well, suffering from lack of air and excess of heat in the hall to really be able to concentrate on the performance. Besides telling myself not to expect anything in a Traviata is like telling a fish not to swim! So the fact that i didn't fly off high with emotions on the night is probably more my own doing than anything that happened or did not happen on stage.
The conducting was just as bland as i had heard it from the first night, not maybe the worst in itself, but making Verdi sound monotonous is not a good thing. It's not supposed to sound like a bunch of repeating rhythms with accents of percussion. And the passages from too slow to too fast were brisk. It just lacked overall in intensity, which didn't help my own problem. It is a fact that good singing alone cannot make a performance become exceptional. Everything has to fit and glue together. You can still enjoy the parts and appreciate individual quality, but it is unlikely to take you to that special place :-) Traviata for me used to be an easy trip to that "place"...normally...
I think on this night, knowing it all too well and expecting certain peek moments by default did not work for me. The production in itself didn't help either. It wasn't bad or ugly, on the contrary, just unexpectedly realistic. Germont does not warm up to Violetta's pain until the end, in their first encounter he's brought the daughter along for greater impact, impatiently looks at his watch and makes signs behind Violetta's back that he will be with his daughter as soon as he is done. He can't even bring himself to shake Violettas hand or make some gesture of warmth when she asks for a fatherly embrace. Ok, the man is on a mission, but hearing Simon Keenlyside's warm voice and seeing the gestures of rejection is somewhat startling :-) He makes a very believable character, too much so ;-) Alfredo i'm afraid did not have a better fate in the eyes of this producer. In the Brindisi he is more concentrated on swishing a cup of champagne across his shoulders and behind his back, impressing the guests with his bending skills and daring them to try the same trick, than actually paying attention to the girl! Ok, i was amazed at the gymnastics but thought... what the ???? He should be all over her, shouldn't he? He's not the shy lover in Un di felice either, more assured than expected and things feel quickly resolved to both parties satisfaction. Come second act he is blissfully unaware of anything going on, contently balancing on a swing in the garden comtemplating the satisfying state of his life. When she is lost in tears trying to say her good byes he laughs, not taking her seriously at all and ultimately assured that she just loves him to bits and that is how she gets, an emotional girl, not anything else. In the third act there is no throwing of money around, he packs the money in a controlled cold fury in her hand.
Realistic? Surely..... Violetta after all is misunderstood and alone almost to the end. You could boil the story down to the hard facts, but i don't think Verdi meant it that way and Dumas certainly didn't. Or maybe i am just incurably romantic and would like to believe that in spite of misunderstandings, social constraints, innocence and misguided pride the binding emotion in this story is love. There certainly is in Verdi's music and some of that chemistry and tender emotion got lost for me in the evening's performance. I think the concept in itself sought to eliminate the extra sweetness in the plot. The rather rudimentary conducting never managed to touch upon that layer in the music. Sadly, it is probably exactly this extra sweetness that i tend to fall for in the Traviata. I've not grown tired of it in 30 yeards and i missed it the other night.
But let's not blow things out of proportion, this is not a post about my favourite Traviatas or a box of Kleenex that never got used on the night. It wasn't a bad night and i don't expect to be knocked over by a tide of emotions every time i step into an opera house. Sometimes you just appreciate good singing, since it is not given that you will always get it.
Myrto Papatanasiu, who was a last minute replacement for the ailing Anja Harteros, who herself replaced the ill Angela Ghoerghiu did a good job. She sang a vocally secure and technically quite accomplished Violeta with good diction and elegant stage presence. Her performance was rightly applauded and she gets mayor brownie points for pulling it off so well musically. The problem for me was that she was altogether too secure and selfcontained to make a truly believable fragile Violetta. Her voice has an extremely secure but glassy edge in the high notes and i just missed a bit of vulnerability in her performance.
Jonas Kaufmann played his character, such as it was designed in the production, very believably and his voice was secure and thrilling all the way. There were some beautiful and elegant piano notes at the end of Dei miei bollenti spiriti and the Parigi o cara will always be a reminder for me of the first time i heard not only his voice, but his special brand of singing. In the more energetic passages, such as the O mio rimorso, one could hear glimpses of what could one day be an exciting Manrico, should he ever decide to sing Trovatore. Overall i think that i prefer his more vulnerable take on the Alfredo, like for example in the Paris Marthaler Traviata. I missed some of the depth of feeling that i have heard so many times in his Mario this year or the lost and confused overwhelming passion of his Jose, shades of which could maybe be part of Alfredo. Obviously this particular production build Alfredo along tougher, less romantic lines.
Simon Keenlyside's Germont was a very pleasant response to the question of his development into further Verdi roles. Just listen to the above bits! The singing stays incredibly elegant all throughout and the flexible drive behind Non udrai is something not usually found in typical Verdi baritones. I enjoyed hearing hat second bit so much!!!! The voice expands without any pressure to fill all notes and he can crank it up more than one would expect ;-) What makes listening to him a real pleasure is that in Verdi, as in everything he sings, he brings to the lines a care for details, a creativity in shades that few strive to achieve these days. Proof to anyone who cares to listen carefully that Verdi is so much more than belting out strings of hum-ta-ta.
The singers definitely showed a better understanding of Verdi than the conductor tonight. All three were generously and repeatedly applauded, after some 10 min of applause at the end i stopped counting. And the main arias within were also punctuated with applause, which gave a slight feeling of concert rather opera, but with well known pieces this frequently happens :)
On a last note... nice to see Jonas Kaufmann finally singing on the Munich stage and wonderful to see the bond between him and his home town audience already growing strongly. I'd say from what i have seen, happy circumstances for both parties :-)
