{"id":91159,"date":"2017-10-19T10:02:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T08:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gbopera.it\/?p=91159"},"modified":"2017-10-19T10:02:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T08:02:25","slug":"komische-oper-berlin-pelleas-et-melisande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/komische-oper-berlin-pelleas-et-melisande\/","title":{"rendered":"Komische Oper Berlin: “Pell\u00e9as et M\u00e9lisande”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Komische Oper Berlin, season 2017\/2018
\n<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span>\u201cPELL\u00c9AS ET M\u00c9LISANDE\u201d
\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>Drame<\/span> lyrique in five acts. Libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck.
\n<\/span><\/span>M<\/span>usic by <\/span><\/span>Claude Debussy
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span>Arkel, King of Allemonde<\/i><\/span><\/span> JENS LARSEN
\n<\/span><\/span>Genevi\u00e8ve, mother of Goloud and Pell\u00e9as <\/i><\/span><\/span>NADINE WEISSMANN
\n<\/span><\/span>Goloud, grandson of Arkel <\/i><\/span><\/span>G\u00dcNTER PAPENDELL
\n<\/span><\/span>Pell\u00e9as, grandson of Arkel<\/i><\/span> DOMINIK K\u00d6NINGER
\n<\/span>M\u00e9lisande <\/i><\/span><\/span>NADJA MCHANTAF
\n<\/span><\/span>Yniold, the young son of Goloud <\/i><\/span><\/span>GREGOR-MICHAEL HOFFMANN
\n<\/span><\/span>Doctor\/shepherd <\/i><\/span>SAMULI TASKINEN
\n<\/span>Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin
\n<\/span>Conductor <\/span><\/span>Jordan de Souza
\n<\/b><\/span>Production<\/span> Barrie Kosky
\n<\/span><\/strong>Stage\/light <\/span>Klaus Gr\u00fcnberg
\n<\/b><\/span>Co-stage designer <\/span>Anne Kuhn
\n<\/b><\/span>Costumes<\/span> Dinah Ehm
\n<\/b><\/span>Berlin, 15th October 2017
\n\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/em>After his acclaimed debut at the Bayreuth Festival this summer with a new production of Wagner\u2019s \u201cDie Meistersinger von N\u00fcrnberg\u201d, opera director <\/span><\/span>Barrie Kosky<\/b><\/span><\/span> is back in Berlin to open up the festival season of the <\/span><\/span>Komische Oper Berlin<\/b><\/span><\/span>. It was founded 70 years ago by Musiktheater pioneer Walter Felsenstein who has ever since influenced the style and character of this unique opera house that can still boast about being an Ensembletheater. This precious feature of the theatrical landscape in Germany has more and more given way to the international stagione system above all at bigger opera houses with jet-setting star singers, conductors and directors to zap up their productions to compete on the meanwhile mercilessly commercialized opera market. It has become an open secret that smaller German theaters often stage more aspiring and interesting opera productions by relying on their own <\/span><\/span>companies<\/span><\/span><\/strong>. In case of a new production to start the Komische Oper festival season with, it was first and foremost Barrie Kosky\u2019s own ambition to produce<\/span><\/span> \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/em>Pell\u00e9as et M\u00e9lisande\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/strong>by<\/span><\/span><\/strong> Claude Debussy <\/span><\/span><\/strong>on the grounds that<\/span><\/span> the world premiere took place at the Op\u00e9ra-Comique in Paris which is comparable with the Komische Oper Berlin. Another reason may be the fact that he can exclusively cast the opera with singers of his team. The result is\"\"<\/a> undoubtedly an excellent musical performance due to<\/span><\/span> Jordan de Souza<\/b><\/span>, the new Kapellmeister who conducts his first premiere at the opera house. He prefers a chamber music sound to bring forward the shimmering poetic and impressionistic details of the score in line with Berrie Kosky\u2019s approach of a chamber play but falls a little short of the broad opulent orchestra sound that Debussy stands for as a composer of symphonic rather than opera music. That is quite to the advantage of the <\/span>Orchester der Komischen Oper <\/b><\/span>which is<\/span> <\/b>not used to the score as the opera<\/span> <\/b>has never been staged at the Komische Oper yet and<\/span><\/span> mostly young singers who can concentrate on a clear declamation of Maeterlinck\u2019s portentous text as well as the vocal requirements of their parts that are partly beyond the traditional pitch of the operatic voice. Baritone <\/span>Dominik K\u00f6ninger <\/b><\/span>starts a little self-conscious underlining Kosky\u2019s approach that <\/span>Pell\u00e9as<\/span> is quite as or even more na\u00efve and innocent than Melisande. He manages the unusual tessitura between tenor and baritone very well with a largely appropriate nasal sound at the beginning and an increasingly free emission of higher notes in the more dramatic passages throughout the night. After succeeding in leading roles in \u201cCendrillon\u201d by Massenet and \u201cL\u2019enfant et les sortil\u00e8ges\u201d by Ravel <\/span>Nadja Mchantaf<\/b><\/span> seems to be a specialist in French opera and her <\/span>M\u00e9lisande<\/span> confirms that.<\/span> <\/b>She combines soprano and mezzo passages in a natural way and develops the character from the shy girl to a loving woman by unusual dramatic moments in the second part. <\/span>G\u00fcnter Papendell<\/b><\/span> also goes on with his role portrayals and his <\/span>Goloud<\/span> is almost sympathetic rather than a sheer villain. His virile baritone sounds \"\"<\/a>ideal in the role and is a good counterpart to Dominik K\u00f6ninger\u2019s softer Pell\u00e9as. Another plus is <\/span>Gregor-Michael Hoffmann<\/b><\/span><\/span> from the T\u00f6lzer Knabenchor as <\/span><\/span>Yniold<\/span><\/span>. Unlike the boy in the world premiere, he is able so sing the whole part with his boy soprano. <\/span><\/span>Genevi\u00e8ve<\/span><\/span> is sung by <\/span><\/span>Nadine Weissmann<\/b><\/span><\/span> whose plush contralto is a rather luxurious cast for the relatively small vocal part. A member of the company for many years, <\/span><\/span>Jens Larsen <\/b><\/span><\/span>uses his sonorous and present bass for the aged <\/span><\/span>King Arkel<\/span><\/span>. Honestly I have second thoughts about Barrie Kosky\u2019s production. Pell\u00e9as is an opera with little action, a kind of mental drama. A lot of details such as M\u00e9lisande\u2019s former life remain vague and uncertain. There is plenty of symbolism and darkness seems omnipresent. Is it an association with a mental state such as depression or just a feeling of not being well? M\u00e9lisande seems remote but is trying to love two men at the same time. Kosky\u2019s response is something between nothing and the illustration of nothing. <\/span><\/span>Stage and light designers<\/span><\/span> Klaus Gr\u00fcnberg <\/b><\/span>and<\/span> Anne Kuhn <\/b><\/span>have constructed a black and white picture stage with circular segments that revolve in either direction<\/span> with a rotating washer drum in the backdrop enabling a flexible and fast change of the scene with actors appearing or disappearing. It certainly requires a good deal of timing that may be effective but barely illustrates the action. At the beginning M\u00e9lisande changes dresses designed by <\/span><\/span>Dinah Ehm<\/b><\/span> for every scene like in a fashion show to be obviously pregnant in the second part. Is it meant to prevent boredom like the increasing violence towards the end? All that remains mysterious including the fact that even Arkel seems to have a finger in the pie about the child M\u00e9lisande gives birth to at the end. I hope the production will keep its place in the repertoire. The applause at the end was joined by a few boos indicating that not only I have doubts about it. Photo Monika Ritterhaus<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Komische Oper Berlin, season 2017\/2018 \u201cPELL\u00c9AS ET M\u00c9LISANDE\u201d Drame lyrique in five acts. Libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck. Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":91161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19307,4831,3064,19308,17159,9354,19309,4797,9270,19305,19306,3090,14273,16607,3065],"class_list":["post-91159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-anne-kuhn","tag-barrie-kosky","tag-claude-debussy","tag-dinah-ehm","tag-dominik-koninger","tag-foreign-readers","tag-gregor-michael-hoffmann","tag-gunter-papendell","tag-jens-larsen","tag-jordan-de-souza","tag-klaus-grunberg","tag-komische-oper-berlin","tag-nadine-weissmann","tag-nadja-mchantaf","tag-pelleas-et-melisande"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91159","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=91159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91160,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91159\/revisions\/91160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studioroldo.it\/gbopera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}