{"id":71755,"date":"2014-04-29T00:48:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T22:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=71755"},"modified":"2016-11-26T04:49:15","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T03:49:15","slug":"komische-oper-berlinclivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/komische-oper-berlinclivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Komische Oper Berlin:”Clivia”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Komische Oper Berlin, season 2013\/2014\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>
\n\u201cCLIVIA\u201d<\/strong>
\nOperetta in three acts, libretto by Charles Amberg and F. Maregg
\nMusic Nico Dostal\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nMusical arrangement by Kai Tietje
\nE. W. Potterton, industrialist from Chicago\u00a0 <\/em>STEFAN KURT
\nClivia Gray, film actress<\/em>\u00a0 CHRISTOPH MARTI
\nJuan Damigo <\/em>TOBIAS BONN
\nYola, his cousin<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 ANDREJA SCHNEIDER
\nLelio Down, journalist oft he Chicago Times <\/em>PETER RENZ
\nGustav Kasulke, inventor <\/em>CHRISTOPH SP\u00c4TH
\nCaudillo \/ Valdivio\u00a0 <\/em>MAX GERTSCH
\nFilm director \/ D\u00edaz<\/em>\u00a0 MARKUS MERZ
\n1st gentleman \/ assistant producer\u00a0 <\/em>JAN PROPOROWITZ
\n2nd gentleman \/ production manager\u00a0 <\/em>VOLKER HERDEN
\n3rd gentleman \/ Rodrigo\u00a0 <\/em>SASCHA BORRIS
\nFirst gaucho\u00a0 <\/em>M\u00c1T\u00c9 GAL
\nSecond gaucho <\/em>MATTHIAS SPENKE
\nThird gaucho<\/em>\u00a0 BERNHARD HANSKY
\nDolores <\/em>JOSEFINE EBERLEIN
\nThree court officers<\/em>\u00a0 JAN PROPOROWITZ, VOLKER HERDEN, SASCHA BORRIS
\nDancers\u00a0 <\/em>ALESSANDRA <\/em>BIZARRI, SARAH BOWDEN (Dance Captain), LAURA FERNANDEZ, CORA ROHLOFF, MARIANA SOUZA, JANE-LYNN STEINBRUNN, LADA WONGPENG, MARION ZOLLINGER, PAUL GERRITSEN, SILVANO MARRAFFA, DANIEL ORELLANA, DANIEL THIERRIEN
\nChorus soloists and extras of the Komische Oper Berlin
\nOrchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin
\nConductor\u00a0 Kai Tietje<\/strong>
\nChorus David Cavelius<\/strong>
\nDirector\u00a0 Stefan Huber<\/strong>
\nStage\u00a0 Stephan Prattes <\/strong>
\nCostumes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Heike Seidler
\n<\/strong>Coreography\u00a0 Danny Costello\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nLight\u00a0<\/em> Diego Leetz <\/strong>
\nSound design\u00a0 Matthias Reusch\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>
\nBerlin,\u00a0 20th<\/sup> April 2014<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is operetta supposed to be like? A combination of glamour, pretence, catchy music, diverting entertainment? One could theorize about the topic but it is easier to see something that brings this combination to life in every aspect. Berlin’s Komische Oper chose Nico Dostal’s<\/strong> biggest success “Clivia” to present an operetta as exactly what it is and what it is not, either. The result is a most entertaining three hour theatre event. It is the story of the Hollywood star Clivia Gray who is to shoot a new film in Boliguay, a fictitious South American country. The venture is financed by the US industrialist Potterton and jeopardized because the film crew does not have a work permit for the country.\u00a0But there is a solution: a sham marriage between Clivia and the Boliguayan gaucho Juan Damigo makes her a citizen of the country and the film crew can cross the boarder. The sham marriage soon turns into a love affair. Potterton for his part pursues his own interests and prepares a coup to overthrow the new Boliguayan government and save his investments in the country. The coup fails and the new passionate love is at stake the more so as Juan turns out to be the revolutionary leader and people’s president of Boliguay. Clivia proves not guilty after all by having not known about Potterton’s true plans behind the film shoot, which paves the way for a happy end. Hollywood and its stardom, “dollar diplomacy” and American imperialism, a military coup supported by the US – the authors of \u201cClivia” mix up the political and social issues of the early 1930s in a fascinating way and prove once again how close the genre of operetta used to be to current time events. We cannot find out for sure any more if Nico Dostal and the playwright Franz Massarek who used to sign as a writer with the pseudonym F. Maregg had the so-called Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay in mind for the background of the operetta. The name Boliguay suggests so. The two countries waged war against each other in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the first act the stage (design by Stephan Prattes, <\/strong>costumes by Heike Seidler<\/strong>) looks like a Carmen setting with palm trees. The frontier with a closed barrier is clearly visible in the middle of the stage. Later it is opened for the Boliguayan female army of Amazons in sexy light-blue uniforms led by the resolute Yola. She falls in love with the journalist Lelio Down who is at first expelled from the country. The opening scene is big theatre with three singing gauchos, dancers, a stuntman etc. It turns out to be a scene shot on a film set. Potterton shows up to make clear that he finances everything and therefore controls everything and everybody including the film star Clivia. She appears in a big show scene with chorus, ballet, and the well-known melody of Man spricht heut nur noch von Clivia<\/strong>. Producer Stefan Huber <\/strong>develops the action scene after scene with all elements and clich\u00e9s of operetta but never gets lost in details. There are elaborate ballet scenes (choreography Danny Costello<\/strong>) in folkloric costumes as well as a tango act. The revolutionary president of Boliguay comes up as the gaucho Juan Damigo who meets Clivia for the first time. It starts the game of who is who, who knows what, pretence and reality. The sham wedding takes place with all pomp and circumstance like a Hollywood film and the couple enters a big card-board tank on which they enter Boliguay along with all the film crew. The plot cannot do without the comic character of Gustav Kasulke, an odd inventor from Berlin who eventually sells his sleep machine \u201cSnoozewell\u201d to Potterton. Christoph Sp\u00e4th <\/strong>plays the partwith the typical Berlin dialect and humour and makes most out of the hit Man muss mal ab und zu verreisen<\/strong> supported by the enchanting Amazon soldiers\u2019 ballet. Stefan Kurt<\/strong> convinces as the unscrupulous industrialist Potterton both as a singer and actor. He changes suits on stage while it is changing from the papier-mach\u00e9 of the first act to a big show staircase of the second with the orchestra around it like a big band. Peter Renz<\/strong> as the journalist\u00a0Lelio Down is highly competent with his operetta-experienced tenor. A few years have passed by since he could show his full abilities as a lyrical tenor in the very successful production of \u201cThe merry widow\u201d by Leh\u00e1r. Yet the stars of the production are the so-called Geschwister Pfister consisting of Andreja Schneider <\/strong><\/strong>as Yola, Tobias Bonn <\/strong>as the gaucho Juan Damigo, in fact the revolutionary president of Boliguay, and Christoph Marti<\/strong> in the title role. It was a brilliant idea of Komische Oper director Barrie Kosky to engage the three for the production. After doing an operetta about 20 years ago they have starred in very successful individual show programmes. Now they are back with an operetta in a big opera house. Andreja Schneider<\/strong> is not the usual soubrette but the powerful and self-confident Yola. She manages the music well including \u201cWonderful girl\u201d as a duet with Lelio, a song by Nico Dostal that was added by Stefan Huber and the conductor Kai Tietje <\/strong>instead of the Astrologer\u2019s song in the 3rd<\/sup> act. Tobias Bonn has a nice operetta tenor with secure top notes and his acting ideally fits into the production making a point as the major male character torn between his revolutionary leadership and private life as a loving man. Clivia\u2019s soprano part had to be transposed for Christoph Marti\u2019s baritone <\/strong>but he is just fabulous in the title role giving it all the glamour of an operetta diva. The fact that Clivia is played by a man does not have any meaning to the production and most part of the audience merely forgets about that after a few minutes. There is no gay component in it. Clivia\u2019s famous song Ich bin verliebt does not fail in its effect in a fountain with two big swan figures and you do not even miss the usual coloraturas of a soprano. The cast is completed by Max Gertsch <\/strong>who was once a member of the Geschwister Pfister group, Markus Merz, Jan Proporowitz, Volker Herden<\/strong>, and Sascha Borris<\/strong>. M\u00e1t\u00e9 Gal<\/strong>, Matthias Spenke<\/strong>, and Bernhard Hansky<\/strong> are a great musical gaucho trio. The attractive professional dancers add to the highly entertaining evening as well as the chorus soloists and extras. Kai Tietje creates an adequate sound with the well-disposed orchestra of the Komische Oper. <\/strong>Photo Iko Freese<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Komische Oper Berlin, season 2013\/2014\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cCLIVIA\u201d Operetta in three acts, libretto by Charles Amberg and F. Maregg Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":71766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10465,10463,10458,9354,10460,10466,3090,10459,145,10462,10461,10464],"class_list":["post-71755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-andreja-schneider","tag-christoph-marti","tag-clivia","tag-foreign-readers","tag-heike-seidler","tag-kai-tietje","tag-komische-oper-berlin","tag-nico-dostal","tag-opera-lirica","tag-stefan-huber","tag-stephan-prattes","tag-tobias-bonn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}