Die Passagierin on DVD

I just noticed an important DVD release: The Passenger,  opera by Mieczyslaw Moisey Weinberg, that was fully staged last summer in Bregenz for the first time ever. You can order it from  amazon.de or amazon.fr, and next month from amazon.co.uk too [didn't find any info about the release date amazon.com]

I saw this show in Bregenz and discussed it on this blog - c.f. here [there you can also find the synopsis for this opera as well as a bunch of production photos].  Together with DVD you get a short illustrated book about Weinberg's extraordinary life and about this opera in particular. Read it before watching the show -- it very much changes your perspective.

To me this was (one of) the most intense emotional operatic moment(s) in 2010. Thanks to David Pountney and to the whole production team.

Wholeheartedly recommended!

Opera Festivals 2010: Aix does it better

And so the Summer of Opera Festivals 2010 is over. It's been good even if somewhat surprising that the most interesting things happened in July (and not in August).

General impression: There are far too many festivals. Many city mayors across Europe support the Opera Festivals financially because they are good for their (cities') image, it's a bonus for tourism, it helps creating some jobs...
I want to believe that quantity implies a few quality productions every year, although this year wasn't particularly good example (except perhaps in Aix).

I believe the (main) purpose of Opera Festivals should be to propose new stuff, to define new directions in performing and staging the well known operas, and to bring to our attention good contemporary operas as well. It's hard to counter-punch that argument without questioning the artistic purpose of Opera Festivals altogether: one may as well extend the standard operatic season and include a couple of more operas in your usual Opera Houses and pretend they were success!

I am perfectly aware that matching the artistic intentions with your financial capacities is very hard, but that's what distinguishes good from mediocre Festival directors, i.e. good from mediocre festivals.

With that in mind,  The Best Festival 2010 was undoubtedly the one in Aix-en-Province:

Bregenz Festival 2010: The Passenger you can never forget

The Passenger/Die Passagierin [opera by Mieczyslaw Weinberg], July 31 2010, Festspielhaus Bregenz

Musical director ...... Teodor Currentzis
Director ...... David Pountney
   
Martha, polish woman Prisoner in Auschwitz 19, on the ship 34 years old ...... Elena Kelessidi
Lisa, german woman in Auschwitz 22, on the ship 37 years old ...... Michelle Breedt
Walter, Lisa's husband, diplomat 50 ...... Roberto Saccà

Tadeusz, engaged with Martha Prisoner, 25 years old ...... Artur Rucinski
Katja, russian partisan Prisoner, 21 years old ...... Svetlana Doneva
Krzystina, polish woman Prisoner, 28 years old ...... Angelica Voje
Vlasta, czech woman Prisoner, 20 years old ...... Elzbieta Wróblewska
Hannah, Jew Prisoner, 18 years old ...... Agnieszka Rehlis
Yvette, french woman Prisoner, 15 years old ...... Talia Or
Old woman, Prisoner ...... Helen Field
Bronka older prisoner, 50 years old ...... Liuba Sokolova
1st SS-officer ...... Tobias Hächler
2nd SS-officer ...... Wilfried Staber
3rd SS-officer ...... David Danholt
Steward ...... Richard Angas
Boss ...... Heide Capovilla

   
Wiener Symphoniker, Chorus of the Prag Philharmonic

Bregenz Festival 2010: RESPECT

Festival in Bregenz is maybe less famous than those in Salzburg, Bayreuth, Aix, or Glyndebourne, but what David Pountney does there for years already is simply awesome.


Bregenz is a small --and very posh-- Austrian town on Bodense (Lake Constance), situated almost within walking distance from both Switzerland and Germany. Many learned about the Bregenz festival through the 007 movie Quantum of Solace, where a good part of the action occurs during a performance of Tosca on their big floating stage spectacularly set on  Bodensee.

Every two years they change the sets (and obviously the show as well), the grandeur of which never ceases to attract tourists. If that can invite more people to discover opera, I say go for it! Last year they premiered the Graham Vick's production of Aida  -- now available on DVD -- and so the same installation is still there this year.

This July in Bregenz: The Passenger/Die Passagerin by Moisey Weinberg

Between the festivals in Munich and Salzburg/Bayreuth there will also be a popular festival in Bregenz. This year they will present a new David Pountney's production, this time of an opera by Mieczysław Weinberg called The Passenger/Die Passagerin.

A hugely talented young Teodor Currentzis will conduct the Wiener Symphoniker and a solid cast including  Elena Kalessidi, Roberto Sacca and Michelle Breedt.

On the Bregenz Festival web-site you find a succinct description of this opera that you most probably don't know much about:

Two young women, both voyaging by ship to a new and different life, are caught up by the history that links them to one another: The Passenger by the Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg is the Festival Opera House production in summer 2010. The opera is based on a novel with the same title by the Polish Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz. Completed in 1968, the opera was first performed in 2006 in a concert performance in Moscow.

The Passenger is regarded as a work of extraordinary originality and gigantic dimensions. Shostakovich praised it as a masterpiece and used all his influence to try and get it staged. But in spite of the fact that four Soviet opera houses expressed an interest in staging The Passenger, it was vetoed every time by the cultural authorities.

David Pountney insists and calls Moisey Weinberg a "Third Man" alongside Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Even though the composer died after the end of the Soviet era [he died in 1996], he didn't live to see a scenic performance of his opera.

Ed I learned that this production will travel to Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Teatro Real in Madrid, and to  New York.