Liedermatinee Jonas Kaufmann Helmut Deutsch

Note: Foto belongs to Julien, posted here(on opera-giocoso) ( i hope he is ok with me borrowing it, it was just too perfect to resist, it really captures the bond these two have)


So back from Zurich and planning to stay put for a while (so those overdue thoughts on Elisir and Lohengrin at the ROH will also get a chance to be written down, i promise :-)).

It was so incredibly hot in Zurich!! 30 degrees and in London just 15, too much of a difference. And I’ve been fighting off a nasty tonsilitis since the beginning of the week. On Thursday I wasn’t so sure to go but then the antibiotics finally kicked in and since I had no fever decided i was ok to travel. Not that throat ache or loss of voice has ever stopped me ;-) I had a client at work once say with delight on the Friday when my voice cracked on the "good bye" and completely dissapeared on the "see you next week".."if you will be able to still ask us questions!". So i wrote on a scrap of paper: "if you think my chatting skills are scary you haven't seen my non-verbal communication yet!!!" ;-)

Anyways, never a boring time with these travels lately, i must have a really cheeky guardian angel who thinks it is amusing to see how bad things can get before they turn out good in the end… Plane was good this time ( loooveee those new planes Swiss has, extra leg-room, yay!, and they are cheaper on the route than BA if you manage to book in advance, and they upgraded the croissants to yummy sandwiches), pity i had to carry the farmacy with me ( good thing at the airport security control nobody tried to taste my cough syrup... puke!)... I mean, just what you need, hot weather and you can’t have anything icecold…

In Zurich I watched the concert from Berlin on TV( Beethoven, 9, Barenboim, Berlin, Brandenburger Tor, Pape, JK, Roschman, Meier) but the images weren’t that good, when the singers sang they showed the orchestra, when the chorus sang the conductor and so on… and the lot clearly didn’t get much rehearsal time, some really audible hick ups and the chorus was pretty much chaotic… The 4 singing were the best bit of it, but the microphones weren’t all that great… still probably the biggest audience they ever sang in front off :-) And a special event after all ( even if the politicians didn’t think so, the benches where they were supposed to sit were 30% empty and one in the front row fell asleep during it, he sat there dozing off with his head fallen on his chest… and woke up with a jump during Freude… smashing! ;-))) All on national TV... ( don't even think about giggling at the fact that i was sitting in Zurich in a hotel room, watching a concert from Berlin on TV.. remember! tonsilitis... supposed to rest, relax, recoup, ergo...i had a good excuse!)

Then dinner, cough, cough, alcohol free beer, cake, cough, spazieren, lake, cough, chat, cough, chat, 4 hours sleep... Sunday!

The Liedermatinee was great! Only Jonas knows how he did it, with all his busy schedule the week before. Two hours of beautiful singing and storytelling! I always love the Strauss but hearing the Burgschaft and the Dichterliebe live was special. Helmut Deutsch was also in good shape, I’d almost say better than in Paris, somehow they both managed to capture the attention of the audience from the first note and it was as if you couldn’t get your eyes and ears off them. The managed to arrange the hall really nicely with a big bouquet of flowers on the sides and a huge tapestry the size of the curtain pulled down behind them. I wish i had the camera with me!

Someone said his voice maybe sounded a bit tired (more likely a bit sleepy ;-)) … I honestly couldn't say. At least it woke up quickly, wish i was so fast at being ready to go in the mornings ;-) I may be wrong, but i don't think there are many tenors around singing Burgschaft, and probably also Dichterliebe, it sounds as if made for baritones, both definitely dip low and very low indeed and any tenor would have a tough time filling those registers to the full without ocassionally mixing some warm air in :-) (there was very little of that by the way, thank God! warm air we did not need, more like buckets of ice :-))))

What I do know is that in terms of retelling and interpreting the songs he was very good. Because I think the point is not to pay attention to the actual note or think about how his voice sounds, but to think about the song you hear and the story it is telling you, the images it paints. It may sound strange but while listening to them it was like having a picture showing in my mind. I could imagine the flowers, the Bachlein, the Wind, the tears and embraces, all in Technicolor!! Amazing! In Paris I was excited and really liked it, but yesterday I could have sat there and listened to them for hours and hours, telling more and more stories and the movie in my mind would have been Oscar-worthy!

I especially liked the Dichterliebe, which really felt like a cycle, like a continuous string of little pearls, rather than a collection of individual songs. I’ve known the poetry since school time, but like this it becomes much more the expression of the poets feelings and thoughts. If there hadn’t been that stupid mobile going off in the middle of it!!! Unbelievable! Of course it took a while for the owner to find it.. I was upset because i thought, now that’s it with the “Stimmung”!!! Jonas just went on as if nothing at all had happened and he somehow managed to make the next song more intense, more intimate, so that I managed to slip right back into the “Traumwelt” which he created and immediately forget about the phone.

Amazing, because I am sure he heard it too and it must be really annoying, and then to draw everyone in with such easiness is no small thing. I don’t think before last morning I really saw how he can hold the audience in his hands or rather clinging to his lips. And it is not by imposing his presence in any way. I would even say in an opera his presence is more defined, not necessarily aggressive, but assertive, he is there! But in a liederabend/matinee it is different, the “Minnesanger” has priority. How to explain it? In an opera when he sings you feel as if he extends himself to reach you, he reaches out to the audience, where as in lieder it works the other way around, you feel drawn to him, to follow him where he leads. It is just as powerful, but in a different way. It was magic to be able to enjoy it without constant interruption of applause and just drown a bit in the music ;-) I think most people felt like this because at the end of the cycles there were long moments of silence before the applause erupted :-) Helmut also did his bit to make the tension special by keeping his hands on the keys just for a few seconds more to let the feeling linger. Magic, magic, magic!

The Strauss was more animated, because they are much more contrasting in mood and with those Jonas likes to play about more ;-)

He doesn’t move about too much, but a smile, the simple expression of his face is enough to convey the feeling. Mind you it was a good idea not to move more, it was as hot as hell if not more! He was singing about tears running down the cheeks and you could see the sweat drops slowly trickling from his forehead onto the lapels of his suit ( they both wore suits, Jonas without a tie ;-)) . After the break they both appeared just in white shirts and Jonas asked for understanding and explained that they had to leave etiquette for the sake of art , and he very kindly said that of course in turn we are allowed to do the same ;-))) We kindly decided to keep our clothes on, in spite of the heat ;-)))

The applause was big from the beginning but it was loud cheering and bravos by the end and we got 3 more encores: Breit uber mein Haupt, Ich trage meine Minne und Nichts :-) Maybe he would have gone on for 1,2 more but they had Rigoletto on in some 30 min and we all got more or less thrown out ;-) Oh, Pereira came on stage to give him and Herr Deutsch each a big bouquet of roses… roses were beautiful.

I’m glad I didn’t cough once, I completely forgot about the throat :-) I did get through half a box of Strepsils ( and i absolutely hate hard candy!!) I guess with all that sugar i could have done without dinner and lunche for about 2 days... Felt like licking at a bowl of salt at the end ;-) Mind you, others weren’t so lucky, a couple peppered the whole thing with “cough” “cough” and all throughout we could hear people talking on the corridor, but while they were singing and playing nobody really noticed these disturbances. Well, except i had a lady next to me trying to open a plastic box with small rattling candy during a lied ...but after barely escaping assasination from the one in front of her she decided to wait with play until the pause between the lieder ( and thanks to the one in front of her i am able to avoid a sentence of live in prison for commiting murder with my bare hands!). I am somehow for all eternity and all performances plagued by little old candy munching grannies, now what have i done to deserve that???

And with that the full two hours of the joy of singing came to an end and Jonas had to go back to signing and photo -duty :-) An official signing had been organised and the lucky present were able to get the new Cd and get up close with the charmingly smiling artist and the equally talented pianist. This artistic and friendship bond they have is evident whenever you see them playing and working together and it is what glues the whole thing together and allows both of them to rediscover this music anew every time, with a freshness and spontaneity that makes it exciting for the listener as well.

Looking forward to doing this again :-)

Liedmatinée Jonas Kaufmann Zurich, 24/05/2009
Jonas Kaufmann Tenor
Helmut Deutsch Klavier

Franz Schubert 1797-1828
Die Bürgschaft D 246

Robert Schumann 1810-1856
Dichterliebe
Liederzyklus nach Heinrich Heine, op. 48
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
Aus meinen Tränen spriessen
Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’
Ich will meine Seele tauchen
Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome
Ich grolle nicht
Und wüssten’s die Blumen
Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen
Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen
Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen
Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen
Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet
Allnächtlich im Traume seh’ ich dich
Aus alten Märchen winkt es
Die alten, bösen Lieder


*** Pause ***


Richard Strauss 1864-1949
Fünf Lieder op. 21 «Schlichte Weisen»
All’ mein Gedanken, mein Herz und mein Sinn
Du meines Herzens Krönelein
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden
Ach weh mir unglückhaftem Mann
Die Frauen sind oft fromm und still

Vier ausgewählte Lieder
Sehnsucht op. 32, 2
Nachtgang op. 29, 3
Freundliche Vision op. 48, 1
Ich liebe dich op. 37, 2

Vier Lieder op. 27
Heimliche Aufforderung
Ruhe, meine Seele
Morgen
Cäcilie


Encores:

Breit' über mein Haupt dein schwarzes Haar
Ich trage meine Minne
Nichts

Tip: Helmut Deutsch will also visit us in London acompanying both Matthias Goerne and Thomas Quasthoff at the Wigmore in the next season.

Tosca Zurich, it's not just about the music!

Note: all photos from direct links to the Zurich Opernhaus page http://www.opernhaus.ch/d/

Since I have seen two performances I will start with the impressions regarding the first one and then complete with the ones from the second, since it might be interesting to see how perceptions might change, or not, if you get a chance to inspect it closer :-)

Part I....

I’ll start with the musical bits, since it is probably what most of you would like to know about first.

It is a good performance and one can really sit back and enjoy the singing.

Jonas was good last night, maybe not as secure in the beginning, but definitely by the end of the night. He started off Recondita with a tiny bit of dust in the voice and the breathing in the long lines of the duet was a bit more laboured than usual. Not that it would be generally noticeable :-) very likely only audible if you heard him singing the role several times and have something to compare with. The spring air outside was full of pollen and spring things that trigger all kinds of allergic reactions and he felt it as well. I would also tip on the very dry wind and most of all on the hot-house inside!! That theatre is an oven! Extremely hot and very very dry. I don’t think I was ever as thirsty at the end of the night like yesterday, I felt like Manon in the desert! I could hardly speak, I can’t imagine how it must be for the singers. I wish they would think more about the singers and not only about the ladies flaunting their strapless dresses and bejewelled décolletés and turn the heating down quite a bit … (I’m quite willing to freeze a bit if it gives the singers more breathing space, after all I am used to the “fresh” air at the ROH, no chance of snoring or dozing audience there ;-) )

Anyways, by the end of the first act he seemed to have cleared his lungs and voice and from then on it flowed more flexible and agile. The Vittoria is quite something as he starts it off in the farthest corner of the stage and it reached me at the very back of the hall with incredible force. What I love about the way he does it, is that he keeps enough force left to drive the “carnefice” with a vengeance! It makes a perfect double whammy! One that few if any are capable of. The Vittoria is impressive because he stands next to the painting he made and Scarpia stole and then tore to shreds and smashes it down to stand on top of it to deliver the lines! Voice and stance deliver a perfect victorious image. And I always like the “carnefice” better than the Vittoria, and finally in Jonas I find somebody who gives them all the anger, the punch they require. His “Scarpia, carnefice! carnefice, carnefice,” gives an incredible sense of justice after all the torture. And he’s about the only one I ever heard with such good diction and control of his voice that you understand every single word there.

The third act was wonderful, I think he is mastering it better every time. Unfortunately I had a lady next to me who thought the wonderful prelude to “E lucevan” was a good moment to pop noisy candies! And in “dolci mani” her neighbour violently blew her nose! I did wish sudden death upon them… Of all the moments to be disruptive this was the worst! I am so glad I am going again and will prey for better neighbours next time. Because the third act is really beautifully staged, the stage is empty with just Mario and Tosca on it, first Mario alone and the lights really help you focus on them. The start is actually quite strange and intimidating. The stage is bare, and it looks as if you were on stage as well looking into the black emptiness of the hall with the audience in the background. And he stands at the back of the scenery, as if on the front of the stage staring into the blackness, then is lying down all alone on the floor as if dreaming an remembering both torture and his love for Tosca. Before the aria, as if in trance he energetically draws Tosca eye and half face on the wall, as if it is the last thing he wants to take with him out of life. I think it is a very touching idea and it is dual in a way, as due to the stage on the stage it makes you instantly think of how alone an artist really is there. How must he feel, left all to himself on stage, not really being able to see the audience in front. Very frightening. The Zurich stage is not a big one but it was very impressive how they managed to suggest the feeling of void and having to do a balancing act on the edge. Jonas also managed to convey a very touching feeling of fragility and frailness. Perfectly in tune with the softness and sensitive singing. I really believe he is better than last year in ROH. Maybe it is because he has more time to spend with the music and the character and really work out his own harmonies. In ROH it was already amazing what he managed to do, but what I hear now is more complete, it is more like a unique concept, than just some brilliant ideas. Now you have more power and force when required, but also more control of dynamics and variety thereof everywhere. It is not only the third act that you hear this, but from the very beginning. The Recondita and the duet with Tosca in the first Act are already more shaded. It never seizes to amaze me how lyrical and caressing his voice can be, or rather his singing can make the voice become. And since the Toscas in ROH, this has become more refined, more developed.

A pity Pappano is not in the pit, because Jonas was often carrying all the musicality and emotion in the score by himself. In ROH, as in the Butterfly as a matter of fact, I always had the feeling the music is like the wave the singers are surfing ( for lack of a better comparison…) The emotion came from music and voice together. While last night I often had the feeling I needed to hear Jonas singing to recognise the beauty of the musical line. The orchestra and conductor are by no means bad, but the music does not shine or move like something that is alive. I didn’t really get drawn in by the music, because it felt too much like background and it was often too indistinct. In ROH you were drowning in the music, it was so emotional. Yesterday they somehow left enough distance to observe bum notes, think about the hows and whys sounds happen.

Hampson I liked much better than I thought I would. When I read the reviews from he premiere I forgot how good an actor he is as well and I had the feeling that this is not really his role. But he does manage to own it fully. He has that sickening slickness and feels natural in the role. He is not a good guy trying to be bad, he is obsessed, greedy for everything, money, power, Tosca. And he manages not to overact it, there is fairly little movement or agitation, it is rather his contention that transmits the danger. And luckily he restrained from pushing too hard and the voice was warmer, rounder and the singing altogether more a pleasure to listen to than expected. Yes, there are the odd harsh edges here and there, but I think it is more the voice itself not being what it was 10 years ago. The lines are still beautiful and you could recognise there, just like with Jonas the liedersanger :-) However the voice is, he still has mostly very good control of it. He really owned the second act and I thought the applause he got in the end was well deserved.

Emily I liked as well, especially since her portrayal of Tosca was much less uni-dimensional the production had let me fear. She was adequately diva-ish but she also portrayed the woman in love quite credibly. I guess everyone interprets what they see their own way, for me she was much more a woman of passions who has to live up to her diva image, than a diva who is so self-absorbed that everything and everywhere is a stage ( as comments of the production previously suggested). She has a thrilling top and her voice has nice colours…. Unfortunately yesterday I felt like her lower register hadn’t really showed up for the night :-( There are so many lines for Tosca that sit there or end there for greater emphasis and those were just a bit hollow… It is not the end of the world, and maybe she too was suffering from the dryness and high temperature. Also, she is the one who has to be in constant movement around the stage, flowing around the men who benefit from more limited activity. And that really needs to be said, she has very gracious movements, just on the right side of theatrical for the portrayal of the role. And this makes dramatic singing while doing it all the more difficult. It would be very unfair to her not to recognise her performance just because one wishes that all that colour in her voice would extend to her lower register as well. I liked her and I felt emotionally drawn to her Tosca, while I didn’t expect to be from what I had read about the production.

There are many interesting images in the performance: Scarpia appearing from behind big columns like Mephistopheles, Mario singing in from of the painting, with the light spot on the madonna, The Vittoria on top of the shredded painting, Tosca pinned to the wall by Scarpia and a bright lightspot, which takes the horror-like image to extreme, Tosca singing Visi d’arte at the border of the stage with the rest darkened and only the golden sides of the stage lit (really draws out the image of a diva singing an aria on stage for the captivated public, beautiful!), Mario alone at the beginning of act 3 and Tosca’s eye looking upon the stage from his drawing , Tosca throwing herself from a lightspot on stage into the darkness in front of the imaginary stage. It is all very striking visually. Still I am not sure what I think of the production itself, it’s not totally different or unexpected. The image in the first act with the empty chairs arranged for the audience to attend the performance is interesting and on the empty stage effective, but once Mario, Tosca and later the chorus and Scarpia start moving in between them it becomes slightly ridiculous. Because the movements and interaction of the persons get severely hindered by the constant bumping into the chairs. Mario and Tosca especially have to keep ducking the chairs, sit on one, stand up to follow the other, sit again on another chair, poor Tosca keeps swishing her skirts in between chairs, which constantly interrupts the lovely interaction and leaves the lovers pinned to the wall in a rather less romantic fashion sometimes ;-) And then the audience/chorus turns towards us and with their back to their own stage which they are supposed to be watching for the Te deum. Understandably, they have to watch the conductor, but it totally spoils the effect of watching an audience who is in turn watching another stage. Under the circumstances, bare is better and I definitely like act 2 and 3 more.

I haven’t made up my mind fully about the production and I am not sure if I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to the performance last night because of the staging - which creates a certain distance because you are observing a stage on a stage -, or because I wish the music would have been more engaging or because I had noisy neighbours and was sitting in a back corner of the hall or just because of me :-) Most likely it is because of my own self. I am really looking forward to seeing it again and with all surprises now revealed I might get a better chance at letting myself get totally sucked into the music :-)

End of part I…

So how did it work out the second time around?

I liked Carignani better than last time but I am still slightly out off by the very brassy sound of the orchestra, which I am still unable to tell if due to the huge open pit for such a small house or simply to much brass-contribution… Still this time round I didn’t miss Pappano quite as much :-)

The performance was recorded for the local TV or maybe for a DVD and I am really looking forward because musically it was excellent! In spite of Hampson having had to pull out a couple of days before due to throat ache he was back in form and there were no significant audible signs of the illness other than a bit of strain in the second act on the more powerful phrases. Both he and Emily gave it their absolute all in terms of engagement this night and if this translated into small instances of vocal fatigue, the performance overall was all worth it. And them I could see very well and enjoy accordingly.

Unfortunately I had the bad idea to go for a second row seat in a loge on the 1st Rang. Advice to all Zurich visitors: do NOT go for these, stay as far away from the 2nd rows in loges as you can. Don’t be deceived by the lower price, the visibility is strongly impaired by the decorating baroque columns and you are squeezed among 3 high stools. The only positive point is that after some 20 min your legs will have gone to sleep and your back as well and you won’t feel any pain anymore…. Double bad luck for me, the action is strongly left-sided, at least what Mario is concerned so I had two choices: either breathing down the rich necks of the sitters in the front seats of the loge and risk toppling over rather un-elegantly from my high stool or lean back and close my eyes ( since I couldn’t see half the stage anyway) and just enjoy the singing. The latter proved after some initial struggle with balance and neck-twisting the better option. But I had to peek at least at the beginning just to be 100% sure it wasn’t some recording I was hearing and Jonas was just amazingly moving his lips to it… I mean I like his voice ( Duh! ) but I know it is not perfect or completely smooth. This night however he was not only in good form, he was in excellent form and his usually amazing control over his instrument was toned to perfection. Sometimes I look forward to the flow of the voice just for the excitement of the unknown where it will lead him. Tonight it was somehow totally different. The voce just flowed with such easiness and was conducted with such intent and grace I actually stretched around the column to see if he was breathing and then had to lean back with a satisfied and amazed smile. It is quite something to enjoy a performance totally relaxed, having a feeling of absolute certainty that whatever you would hear next would be the exact line the singers intends it to be. Of course I know there is no such thing in singing, that it is unpredictable. However I believe there are nights when the singer is in total sink with his voice and it does respond to his will and desire perfectly. Must be quite a powerful feeling that one, like Harry Potter wielding his magic wand ;-) I was obviously delighted to receive such a treat but also to watch and hear how it is done.

You would be wrong to think however that such musical quality would come at the expense of feeling and expression. Quite the contrary, it is probably why and how the voice was so powerful the other night. And not only his, but everyone’s.

I don’t know if Carsen’s production is an excellent one, the visuals I mentioned before were just as effective the second time around, so they are brilliant indeed. I am still annoyed by some elements in the first act as for me they don’t add much to the interpretation, but they can be ignored with no impact.

It is however not a Tosca to floor you or shock you, but I now believe it is not meant to do that. The music and the plot itself do that effectively enough, there is no need to overkill it. Nor is there actually much room to change Tosca fundamentally. Why would you even want it? Why change a story that in itself has perfect tension build up and strong drive. So if you can’t change Tosca, what can you do? Well, you can give it what few directors decide or care to: “Personenfuhrung”. The story is powerful, but it doesn’t mean that the characters are just there to deliver the lines. Yes Tosca has politics in it, but is really that what drives the plot? I think not, politics just provide the instruments, the backdrop and means for the human conflicts to explode. If you think about it, it is not about politics at all, but profound human emotions like love, greed, jealousy, desire, compassion. Scarpia has power in his hands but at the beginning of the story he can’t have the one thing he desires most: Floria Tosca. She on the other hand has a talented artist at her side, but in spite being the admired Diva is still an unsecure woman who doubts her lover and is plagued by jealousy. Mario is the enchanted lover, but he is also a liberal in his times and a profoundly good person, who cannot deny helping his friend, even is political engagement was never his priority. He actually tells us in Recondita armonia that his life is full with art and his love for Floria. The conflict unfolds when Scarpia recognises the opportunity to use Tosca’s jealousy and Mario’s attachment to Angelotti to finally achieve his goal, have Tosca to himself! He very effectively describes at the beginning of act 2 that he will use whatever means he can to indulge in what life has to offer.

So if we think about it, the story is not driven by external political events, but by the passions and flaws of the characters themselves. I think this is where Carsen was brilliant in his Tosca. He seemed to have sensed this and decided to put the personal conflicts in the foreground. Of course you can only do that if you have singers who are good and can spend equally as much time on creating their character as on perfecting their singing. Zurich got very lucky in this respect with Jonas Kaufmann as Mario, Thomas Hampson as Scarpia and Emily Magee as Tosca. They each managed to bring more colours and shades to their character.

I am glad I was right about Hampson... he made a natural evil and obsessed character, machiavellic indeed :-) His alternative displays of elegance, apparent friendliness and outbursts of anger, desire and almost sheer madness were chilling. Magee was perfect opponent and pray, with divaish dignity and charm but also with deeply moving femininity and anguish. The outer diva never completely overpowered the woman inside. The scenes in the 2nd act were even more compelling and captivating than the first time around. The scene where she dignified and with almost contempt takes off her dress to lie down on the shreds of Mario’s painting that Scarpia destroyed while he takes off his tie and jacket with a sickening slowness really gave me the chills.

And the whole 2nd act contrasted perfectly with the first and last, which were of unusual romantic character, due this time to the contribution of Jonas Kaufmann’s Mario. His Mario was less ironic and self-assured and just simply deeply in love with Tosca. So much so that he almost forgets about Angelotti stashed away in the hiding place in the church in the first act. In the last act his sadness and the sense of being alone is conveyed very touchingly by the way he rolls in his restless sleep while caressing the ground as if it were his Tosca. He feverishly tries to capture her image by drawing her eyes. The following duet with Tosca is the most romantic I have witnessed so far, reaching for the joy of reunion to the dream of a happy life to the endless sadness of realisation on his part that there is actually not going to be a happy end to their story. I don’t think his last “Parlami ancora come dianzi parlavi,
è così dolce il suon della tua voce!” was ever sung more emotionally than last night…


I don’t know how people see this Tosca if it was their first, but for me it was a fresh take with unexpected emotional engagement. And to touch me at this point with this opera beyond musical enjoyment is not an easy task :-) Over the last 12 months I have definitely overdosed on Puccini, and this one in particular, on top of the already existing overdose of years. It is not a Tosca of cheap thrills and in your face, it is more one where with beautiful singing and convincing portrayal of complex human emotions get you gradually enveloped and gently taken in. So I have a general feeling of warm satisfaction about it and if it does come out, I might even be persuaded to buy the DVD (if for nothing else than to prove that Puccini can be sung softly, tenderly and authentically romantic, with no cheese in sight!).

For a small video about the production see on the Zurich Opernhauspage under Opernhaus TV (http://opernhaustv.eviscomedia.com/media.1005.html)



So now it is time to lay Puccini to rest for a while and give my thirsty ears and eyes some well deserved treat of French and German music :-)

À bientôt, mes amis!

Tosca in Zurich..again and again...

Photo pinched from Klassikakzente.de ;-)...i guess it is a small preview of the upcoming Sehnsucht CD, which will appear on dear Wagner's birthday ( go google! :-p)

Anyways, i am just reserving the space for my thoughts about the Tosca, i've seen it once and tomorrow i will repeat so didn't want to say things i might not mean in the end :-)

More soon....

When Clark Kent sings like Superman…

When Clark Kent sings like Superman… (of the Carmen in Zurich, the recipe to unspoiled enjoyment of a performance and the wonderful Jonas Kaufmann)

I must have some weird attention disorder or be unusually slow but I just realised that I need to see a new production at least twice to be able to take in all the details. It could also be because I am used to seeing over more than 20 years the same production of an opera, such as Carmen. You don’t exactly get bored with it, even if you have seen the opera more times than many singers have sung it ;-) But the visual impact becomes totally secondary and you focus solely on the music, or on the odd little changes that might happen because a new singer takes on the role. And if these productions are also everything but modern or challenging or adventurous then you yourself as a spectator of operas are in danger of becoming very one-dimensional yourself! My neurons are lately getting a kick out of a kind sensory overload due to new productions and I must say I have found a totally new excitement in going to the opera! Not that I have ever lost or saw in any way tarnished what drew me there in the first place as a little kid, the love and fascination for the music ;-) But having the visual and emotional impact of a show become equally important is an exciting thing (which can lead to one bawling her eyes out at the most unexpected moments, even after 20 years!)

But on to this Carmen ;-) So, I saw it twice and lucky me for doing so. My opinion of it changed quite a bit from one take to another and I also had an almost perfect combination of performances: one from the back of the stalls and the other in the first rows. Different conductors, with one being slightly more musically accomplished and the other being the better show. The double whammy had a very positive final result and I can say that I liked this Carmen more than I ever expected to! My different experiences were due to the show itself, my own doing, but also my environment. When you are trying to take in a performance with all your senses nothing is more annoying that distractions from your neighbours! You nice ladies out there, leave your husbands alone and don’t drag them forcefully from some football game to the opera! You might be happy to have gotten your way, but I will have the most violent thoughts in a while towards them!!! Especially if they ruin the most sensitive and tender bits of an opera by chewing endlessly on some candy, clapping and unclasping their reading glasses, flicking through the program in the dark or crunching up empty candy boxes! I just wished Jose would jump off stage and kill my neighbour in the first Carmen, rather than the woman herself! In the second one I had a coughing-giggling couple next to me, but somehow they were more bearable (he giggled all the time...well, at least somebody found Carmen funny! And she got the cough fits every 30 min) While all this was going on I was trying to absorb this Carmen, which I knew some things about, probably more than I should have. I really should stop myself from reading all 30 reviews before seeing a show! Or looking at any pictures. It never helps in terms of a better experience, quite the contrary. You end up puzzled why things don’t happen as you assumed they would and take longer to overcome the shock of unexpected developments, because critics will never tell you the juicy bits, they are always just about the transcendental significance of some object that is or misses from the stage or about vibratos, fiatos, portamentos and other foreign score-dissecting words. So take my advice, go as virgin as possible to a performance in terms of directing and reviews, but do find out what’s it about because otherwise you might not understand a damn thing! If you haven’t heard it before, do listen if you have time to some stuff (at least you find out in advance if you need to take a pillow with you for a more comfortable nap!) but stop yourself from listening to more than 5 versions and definitely don’t expect to hear any of these on stage. Remember, most of the singers who you have heard on CD are now old and grey, can’t sing a tune, would only make a good granny or granddad than a decent lover or are in heaven ( or hell, depending). And even though they wrote the notes, the composers have not left us with exact instructions as to the hair style and eye color, weight, height, tone of voice and correct or stylish length of high or low notes. So pretty much everything goes, as long as it follows the score and nothing nor anybody will ever be perfect. What you might adore, others will surely hate! So if you really want to have fun, just listen and watch, don’t compare; it really is about the here and now!

Luckily this Carmen, although modern, did not try to confuse the viewers too much. The action and intrigue is still fully recognisable, moreover, the whole story is stripped back to the bare essential. The stage is filled out by an inclined round disc, which is very nice visually because you always see everything from a perfect angle, but which from some fairly unnatural movements of some of the singers you could tell also presents serious balance challenges for smaller persons. And I suspect this inclination together with the high heals pushed Veselina into a continuous strained pose, which I will come back to a bit later.

The stage stays pretty empty all the way through which for a stage of small dimensions as Zurich is, is not a bad choice. We have in the first act an umbrella and a plastic chair which is Jose’s personal space, a door to the cigarette factory and nothing else. In the second act chairs, tables which are quickly stacked up and a TV set which shows a football game first and scenes from a corida later during Jose and Carmen’s interaction (very suggestive ;-)).In the third act we have make believe mountains of Lilliput size at the edge of the disc against a huge image of the moon at night and various smuggled merchandise on stage. In the third act…we have a tree, a big, very life like laurel tree! The bareness focuses all the attention on the main characters, who have to either deliver excellent performance or the show will go down with them very quickly, because there is nothing else to focus on or to look at. Under such circumstances excellent singing and acting becomes an experience to be savoured word for word… but it will also make any faults to take on significant proportions.Luckily , with some small exceptions the first was the case here ;-)

Act 1 – enter Clark Kent

This act is usually all about Carmen and who she is, but in this production it definitely was about Jose as his character was dissected up to the last detail. The act starts with the chorus of policemen here /soldiers otherwise engaging the public by watching into the house and pointing fingers at us as if we were the ones they watch walking down the street. Surprising, but funny as you would otherwise normally barely make eye contact with anyone on stage and here it was intentional. Michaela stops by and they leave her in her undies! Well 50’s undies which would nowerdays pass as a white summer dress ;-) But it becomes all clear what this bunch of policemen is all about.

Then the children chorus, excellently sung and played, a joy to watch and I am glad that while they did so they had the stage to themselves.

Among all this boisterous activity enter Don Jose, or is it him? Tall, lanky, clumsy, with evasive eyes hidden behind the most hideous glasses ever known to man. He salutes his superior and in his haste drops a whole stack of newspapers and his boss' magazines. With a mixture of disgust and fear he picks up his boss' glossy pages only to unfold them by mistake showing off some revealing pictures. Horrified, he pushes the glossy in his boss' hands and carefully gathers his own reading material ;-) He is carrying a big canvas bag (very unmanly that object indeed!) and wearing a perfecty buttoned up uniform (while his colleagues seem to be running around in short sleeves) He sets up camp next to a big umbrella on an uncomfortable looking plastic chair, takes off his cap and carefully places it next to the chair, to reveal perfectly gelled back hair with an equally perfect parting line. He carefully attaches a small ventilator to the umbrella, then proceeds to sit down, weary of crinkling his pants and not before taking his jacket off and putting it on the back of the chair. He is wearing a long sleeved, equally buttoned up shirt with a dark tie. He then proceeds to take things out of the canvas bag: a lunchbox and a fruit juice (the rest of the bunch had been drinking beer just moments ago). He places a napkin on his lap and vigorously munches on a sandwich and elegantly sips from the juice bottle. Then he carefully eliminates any remaining bread crumbs from his pants,places everything back in the lunch box and the box in the bag and gets out some newspapers. He straightens these, digs up a pen, crosses one leg over the other and arranges his pant line so as not to crinkle and becomes totally engrossed in solving some crosswords in the newspaper. Oh, and by the way this is Jonas Kaufmann!!!!!!

And now you may laugh as much as you like, the audience certainly did and I had the hardest time ever no to! Useless to say this whole detailed routine of unveiling Clark Kent/alias Jose, the mama’s boy took quite a while and was so thoroughly fascinating that I completely missed the exit from the cigarette factory of the workers and Carmen’s entrance the first time I saw it! It is of course intentionally in such a big contrast to all the activity around him and shows us just how deep under in his little controlled world this man is. If he didn’t look up at some point from his newspaper to wrinkle his nose, fan his hands to disperse the cigarette smoke and point his ventilator at the workers you wouldn’t even notice they are there ;-) needless to say this was an Oscar worthy performance if I have ever seen once! JK as the perfect and perfectly credible mama’s boy, I had to live to see that with my own eyes or else I would have never believed it! And he had hardly sung a note yet…other than to describe the workers for his boss as some women, “tres legere!” Never even noticed this phrase before but he did put all his disdain into it and it sounded marvellously rounded and heavy…you could practically see the clothes drop of those women in this sole word ;-)

So yes, this Clark Kent stole the show but there is nothing wrong with that! The murder at the end of this opera is by no means the normal ending to a relationship, however passionate, so there must be a trigger somewhere in the two main characters, they must be shown to be worlds apart, worlds so far apart and so conflicting that they clash with destructive consequences. So this is an unusual but credible version of Jose. And the picture and his character weaknesses become complete once Michaela comes into the picture. He embraces her like a beloved sister until he notices her state of undress, from which point on he jumps away totally intimidated and never looks her again in the eye until she is fully dressed again. His sole preoccupation is with his mother’s memory and her letter. He is the vivid picture of the son, longing for his mother and his tranquil village back home. So much so that when Michaela offers the kiss he bends sideways to offer his cheek and shies away even more when she forcefully twists his head to deliver the kiss on his lips. None of the usual playfulness around the kiss can be found here and once the letter is opened, he never even notices Michaela leave.

The interaction with Carmen happens totally at her initiative. Rewind back to the plastic chair where he solves his puzzle. She sings her alluring song but he never eve lifts his eyes from the paper; intrigued, she gets closer and closer and sings around the chair until he notices and when she addresses him, stammers something about making a chain for his weapon, chain which promptly drops out of his mouth as he gaps at this strange creature. She drops the flower on him and he picks it up as it were some dirty or hot thing, hastily putting it away in his pocket, completely flustered by her talks of enchanted flowers and the unwanted attention in general. All this while all the other singers on stage watch them which highlights even more his awkwardness in light of all this attention.
A few moments later when he drags her off from the fight in the factory he seems full of righteousness in dealing with her, but as soon as he is asked to touch her in order to tie her hands, his hands start trembling and you see he’d rather run away. He asks her to not speak to him and tries to be hard but weekly fails to do so when se strats singing by slowly leaning on his back and he is totally torn between walking away but is somehow spellbound next to this women. The contact has bewitched and confused him and when she steps away playfully tying his wrists together he twist neck, upper body and head to get closer to her. Easy prey this one and his weakness is played and sung out in full by JK, his tone and his attitude is enchanted, imploring, spellbound, totally attracted by the unknown.

Carmen in the meantime never comes off as a real enchantress, she is harsh and comes off as cold and quite calculating. She is annoyed by his indifference, amused by his awkwardness and his struggle to fight her off. It feels like a cat and mouse game, more than a seduction game. He is seduced more by the unknown than by Carmen herself. I am unsure if this was fully the director’s intention or this is the product of Kasarova’s interpretation of Carmen. Her movements are never fluid, never quite gracious or seductive; in the first performance 90% of the time she had adopted a strange pose with her feet apart, firmly planted in the ground, her head up high and her already pointy chin directed to China. She never really looks at Jose, she looks somewhere above the audience, or above his head and all he ever gets from her is an ironical smile. Not once did I ever get the feeling this Carmen even liked Jose, he just seemed the constant subject or her irony. I understand that the director wanted this Carmen to be different, that she is supposed to dislike and be tired of men in general,but this was taken to the extreme with Kasarova. The character became too one-dimensional, even in physical expression. Add to this her desire to create a vocally different Carmen as well, each note and phrase was elaborated, the delivery stylised in a demonstration of absolute control of voice and technique. This would surely be interesting in a concert, but in a live performance it added an extra layer of artificialness to a character already stressed to caricature dimensions. Watching the same pose during an entire opera while hearing soo much vocal twisting that it distorts the music can be tiring and at times boring. And it does the characters no favours as you can’t really bring yourself to feel sorry for her death. The first time around I never believed that Carmen ever cared for Jose, or for Escamillo, I never really felt Carmen, the person, ever was on stage.

2 Act – Flying Buttons

I found it strange that there never are any other women besides Carmen and her two friends in this scene. And it was strange that the singers had to carry the tables and chairs around. At least here it was still believable within the pub context but in the next act this was truly annoying! And don’t even get me started on the dance of the three women! Horribly ridiculous! The link on the Zurich opera house site fully illustrates this ( http://www.opernhaus.ch/d/spielplan/spielplan_detail.php?vorstellID=10322870) …it could be any jungle dance, but Mowgli and Baloo were way way more gracious than these 3. Whoever choreographed this definitely doesn’t deserve any sweets for at least a month! All three are pretty and sweet women and they deserved at least this instance of elegance or gracefulness within the opera and I can’t really forgive the author of this crime for destroying one of my favourite musical parts in this opera! Shudders!

At least the following quintet was musically so alert and fun and well sung and played that it erased the image of the “dance” fast enough! Well done to the two smugglers and Carmen’s friends, they received on both nights very well deserved applause!

And now to the almost happening relationship between Carmen and Jose. Or the only point where their intentions almost meet. Although in this version they are never meant to meet because Carmen never honestly has any emotional intentions towards Jose. But at least physically it is almost happening. This production has some beautiful images, which make the whole thing worth while. One of the best is here. He comes, tie, shirt, shyness and all to declare his love for her and she, amused by his jealously decides to make it up to him by dancing for him. And again instead on focusing solely on Carmen in this scene the attention switches very cleverly on Jose’s reactions to Carmen. She sits him on a chair, centre stage and a spot of light focuses on her moving hand as it circles him until it tousles his hair and finally centres on him, head dropped backwards and she grabs his hand and draws him to her. Beautiful acting from both, splendid lighting and perfect images.
Jose is at her mercy and buttons start flying ;-) Carmen rips his shirt open and buttons actually fly ( he still wears his tie however :-p) and his belt hangs loose and… taratata!!!! ;-) Just in time one might think as he really looks lost!
He quickly buckles up again and tries to leave and by doing so looses any chance he might have had with her. He has one of his temporary fits of character, which make you hope he is morphing into a real man, but alas, as the show goes on you realise it never quite happens. He drags her to a chair where she listens with the most disdainful face ever to one of the most beautiful love songs ever written or sung! If you heard JK sing Jose at ROH forget it, this is a totally different Jose! Sweet, desperate, powerless and almost scared he is a picture of softness and addiction and ends up on his knees hugging her feet in a most touching and frustrating imploration. The voice is divine!!! If only it didn’t come from such a weak character ;-) It is impossible not to feel sorry for this Jose! Well, except if your name is Carmen.

His love once given has become irrelevant and what she wants is freedom, he can join in if he wants to follow. Beautifully heart twisting how while she sings and struts over the stage he drags himself from the feet of the chair on his knees back to her feet where he collapses powerless in this vision of an impossible world she is offering. JK ends up imploring her to stop talking and rolls on his back with his head hanging over the edge of the stage softly whispering while she joins him lying on top. I dare say we were all rendered speechless and not by the sensual suggestion but by the sensual tone of voice coming from his throat in this most impossible of positions!

But since he has some will left he refuses to follow, more fighting, enter his boss, jealousy, an energy burst from Jose and more fighting during which the same Jose ends up with a bottle being broken on his locks ( remember Carmen’s hand had finally tousled those gelled locks ;-)).Verry effective trick which has everyone gasping and Jose rolling of the stage…or almost to the edge of it ( yes, you are right in thinking the director kept JK extremely busy during this performance, no penny of his cache got wasted!). In the mean time enter the smugglers, Jose’s boss gets killed in a very discrete way, as if this were business as usual for these people, and the scene ends with everyone praising freedom while Jose kneels horrified next to the body of his bloody boss.

Well, Carmen might not be thrilled by this Jose but the audience certainly fell in love with his flower song, while still on his knees he had to submit to the overwhelming wave of applause that thundered over him!


3 – the blue moon or was it the blue t-shirt?

One thing I found really distracting is that singers were asked to do the stage arrangements as well, particularly in this act. I love to stay in this invisible bubble of the imaginary world while the performance last and seeing the singers drag carpets along the stage, arrange them into place, carry mountains around and carton rocks does not rock my world! I don’t like to be reminded it is all fake and I think these activities are to be left to professionals who don’t leave kinks in the carpets on a sloped stage where others can slip and end up in a head first fall into the orchestra pit. Ok, it didn’t happen this time around but there was tripping and I much rather would have listed to the music with a drawn curtain than get distracted by the stage carpeting.

What I did like about the scene was the gigantic moon in the background, plain beautiful. And there were more gimmicks to come from Jose! When JK started limping across the stage, then sat down at the edge, took his shoe off and started massaging his foot with expert movements as if this was business as normal I honestly thought, oh noooo, what the hell has he done now?????? I mean forgive me, but given recent history this was a tad too realistic for me in the first instance, he’s just too good at this acting business ;-) Of course when he stood and walked off totally normal I did see the comic side of it and had to stop myself again from laughing out load! JK, you did it, you totally had me there!

I love the card scene but I have to say while Carmen’s friends do an admirable job Carmen never convinces me here, she is neither afraid, nor in any way worried…seems almost as if the cards like everything else bore her .. Pitty really because I adore the fatalism of destiny here when she repeats again and again, toujour la mort! And her dark tone contrasts so well with the joy of the other two about love and money. Bizet had done amazingly well here and this moment was almost entirely lost.

Michaela comes and goes, Isabel Rey is nice but I am sad to say her voice never has the warmth needed for this role to become really convincing. And I wish somebody would explain to me how in the middle of the mountains she finds good ol’ Jose’s canvas bag ( yes, poor fella’ is still carrying it around!), takes a puppet out of it and totally dismembers it voodoo style while singing????? Or while Carmen is still wearing her high heels and apron in the middle of the mountains? Besides why she never deserves a decent dress that doesn’t make her look like a cleaning lady???
Or while Jose is wearing a sleeveless t-shirt in the middle of the mountains?? On second thought, forget the last question! Never mind why, thank god the shirt and tie are gone and helloo there dark blue sleeveless number!!!

Reenter Escamillo! Whom I have unjustly left out of act 2… Petrusi is a wonderful Escamillo, traditional but not in a bad way. This production has enough innovations and distracting details, it is nice to find a familiar constant for a change. Petrusi sings the macho and charming toreador to a T and even manages to down a whole pint of beer in between 2 phrases which earns him laughs and applause. He is back in the mountains this time and his exchange with Jose is fascinating. Escamillo so sure of himself and his chances with Carmen, while the other is an almost broken man who listens while sitting down on a box to the sad short story of his love for Carmen from the lips of her probably next lover. Only when Escamillo suggest the love is already over does he react and draws the knife and they engage in a visually very attractive fight. JK literally flies midair while jumping gracefully from one box to another. There is some knife clicking and some daring moves, well done for both singers! The fight might be longer and more difficult to play than usual but it is enjoyable to watch.

And after our eyes have been spoiled with some pretty clever images ( and let’s not forget the blue shirt!) we are treated to some regal singing! If anyone had doubts that this Clark Kent would ever become Superman none remained after this. Non Carmen, je ne partireeeeee paaaasss!!!! Je te tien fille danne!! Those long phrases, that breath, that voice that kept coming, powered through to every corner of the house and into every ear and heart! One of those instances when you feel you could lift of your seat and start floating around in space! The voice was dripping with force and energy and you could feel its irresistible pull! and one would ask themselves what on earth is Carmen thinking when she sends this Jose away?

I thoroughly enjoyed this very different Carmen and even liked to be forever frustrated by the mama’s boy depicted here, but I would lie if I would say I didn’t equally enjoy this outburst of full on power. After all, he will kill her, so at some point we have to see the force that he can unleash when he lets go of his inner demons. And it is not the decibels I am talking about here, because it is not about volume but about intensity; you have to feel that with every note he ties her emotionally to himself, that he forces her one step closer until she is caged in his passion for her, with no way out. Or so he thinks….oh how chilling his nous reveronnnnn!!! How dangerously dark and scrumptiously menacing!


4 Who killed who?

Chorus of singers and children are set up somehow similar as in the first act but less engaging, maybe because we are all waiting anxiously for the last confrontation. I fail to understand here why Carmen is still wearing the same dress as in the mountains and why Escamillo gives her a big fat diamond ring? Strangely enough, although I never would belive this Carmen would love any man, I love the way Kasarova sings oui je t’aime Escamillo, warm and full of passion! Too bad the character that was constructed for her makes such statements totally unbelievable. And there was really no need for the new bling! She can perfectly throw away Jose’s ring, which we never saw him give to her anyway, just as she has thrown him away emotionally a long while ago. It doesn’t really have to do anything with the new man, she never really cared for him anyway, not in this version anyway. The love and passion was really more in his head than in reality, and when he finally realises that the Carmen he loved never actually existed or ever loved him he kills her.

But until then they do a kind of dance/chase around each other and the tree, which strangely enough gives a beautiful image. Carmen keeps to her cold and remote character and never really engages with him, she never really looks at him. He on the other hand implores in the sweetest voice, in the smallest, most intense pleading whisper to be saved by her.He does say to save her but it rings especially true when he pleads to be saved himself. It is heart wrenching and ear tingling at the same time. With every word you feel the love and the dispear he is equally drowning in. Her harsh tone contrasts beautifully to his tender one. I was amazed by the singing the first time I heard it and was luckily totally touched the second time around. I cannot explain why, but the second time I truly felt the connection in this scene. Probably in part because Kasarova was much more alive the second time around. She seemed to think less and feel more while singing, her character was equally well defined but she became human. The drama was even more intense because suddenly you had two irreconcilable people before you, rather than just a Jose clinging to an imaginary and still statue. The second time around she even looked at him and finally looked appropriately afraid and horrified when stabbed. And I cried all the way through from his first to his final note, from his first imploring step to his last one, where he reaches with trembling hands to his “Carmen adoree”, now dead before him. I can’t describe how touching it was in words, because words alone would not be enough. All I can say is, if you get the chance, go hear and go feel what you hear! When something breaks inside you and vibrates at every note you’ll know!
I missed about this production the recitatives from ROH which gave a more personal dimension to the interaction between Carmen and Jose, but then again, this such as it was would have been maybe less touching had there been more connection between the two, the drama and emotion unfolds here rather from the disconnect.

I thought the tail waggling dog in the first act was one detail to many. If the habanera doesn’t do it for the public on its own, the support from the dog is not gonna work either!

PS A friendly hello to the nice girls at the wardrobe of the opera house who were so utterly fascinated by the magazine with JK on the cover that they had to read it and make copies of it!!! ;-)))) Happy to help out with some entertainment during those long hours and happy to find fans in house :-)

PPS JK = Jonas Kaufmann