Munich Opera Festival 2010: The Silent Woman

Franz Hawlata, Diana Damrau and Toby Spence

Die schweigsame Frau/The Silent Woman, July 30  2010, Prinzregententheater Munich

Director Barrie Kosky

Conductor Kent Nagano

Sir Morosus..... Franz Hawlata
Haushälterin..... Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Der Barbier..... Nikolay Borchev
Henry Morosus..... Toby Spence
Aminta..... Diana Damrau
 Isotta..... Elena Tsallagova
Carlotta..... Anaïk Morel
Morbio..... Christian Rieger
Vanuzzi..... Christoph Stephinger
Farfallo..... Steven Humes
 

Munich Opera Festival 2010: The Silent Woman

And so The Silent Woman (Die Schweigsame Frau) was premiered last  night in Munich. The German reviewers all seem to be delighted by the show staged by Barrie Kosky (awesome Aussie whose staging at the Komische in Berlin made Rigoletto-opera look intelligent), which after an overall disappointing Tosca comes to rescue the Festival 2010.

Diana Damrau and Toby Spence in Die Schweigsame Frau

The press is particularly gushing over Diana Damrau and Toby Spence who made the evening memorable, and the whole cast appears to have been extremely good [of course nobody resists converting Die schweigsame Frau into Die schwangere Frau -- Diana is pregnant]. The reviews you can read are: here, here, here, and more... Excellent conducting by Kent Nagano is emphasized too.

I'm glad I'll be able to see this show. I don't know this opéra-comique at all. It's a rarely staged Strauss and, strangely enough it's not in the 2010-2011 program of the Bayrische Staatsoper. So, it's now or... or who knows when?! :)

3 more pics and videos (all from BSO) attached below

When in Munich... Pinakothek der Moderne is Cool

Munich is very pleasant although not particularly beautiful a city. There are however three excellent museums/galleries that you MUST visit when in town.

If you're a Rubens fan you'll love Alte Pinakothek. Their whole collection is magnificent but their  selection of Rubens' paintings is extraordinary. In comparison, their Neue Pinakothek is much less impressive: you may consider zapping the monotony of first 15 chambers/halls and see the last 3 -- impressionists that will act on your mood like yawn dispersers.

The best of Munich is stored in Pinakothek der Moderne: fantastically organized museum, truly awesome collection of paintings [and some sculptures] covering full spectrum of styles of the 20th century. Add too that  a superbly arranged decorative design section, cleverly intertwined with contemporary art collection... and you get an idea of how good it all is.

Below I attach ~10% of the pics I took in the upper part of this most delightful building to visit when in Munich... [by clicking on each pic you'll see it larger/better]

Munich Opera Festival 2010

Halfway through and two out of three festival premieres were presented:

1. Medea in Corinto was apparently excellent which was expected since the director and the stage designer were Hans Neuenfels and Anna Viebrock [for a sneak peak see 2 videos attached below]
2. Luc Bondy's Tosca was sold out long before it was premiered mainly because of Jonas Kaufmann. For us who couldn't score the ticket Arte-TV provided a live broadcast and... how shall I put it?... it was far from the best of Bondy. If the Met crowd didn't moan because Gelb annihilated that pile of Zeffirelli's decors, I would have understood their discontentment at the beginning of 2009-2010 when this production was premiered in New York...
3. While Medea was in fact premiered a few weeks before the Festival began, and Tosca --although co-produced with the Met-- was premiered in New York in 2009, the only true Festival premiere will be the new work of Barrie Kosky, namely  The Silent Woman (Die Schweigsame Frau).  Kent Nagano will conduct, Diana Damrau, Toby Spence, super-talented Nikolay Borchev, and others will sing... and Yours Truly will be there [hoping that Hawlata will sing well.]