Gounod,  Faust: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Staatstheater Darmstadt,  Conductor  - Martin Lukas Meister  5.7.2007
and
Verdi: Il Trovatore: Conductor - Alexander Stessin 7.7.2007 (BM)

Ever since Stockhausen’s day, Darmstadt has been home to avant-garde cultural tastes. You wouldn’t necessarily think so when moving about among the unassuming, small-town audience chatting to each other in their quaint Hessian accents during intermission, but they are privy to an opera stage offering sophisticated productions - and very affordable tickets.

The theater’s slogan for this summer was “Darmstadt liegt am Meer” (Darmstadt is a seaside town), with sand boxes and lounge chairs set up in front of the recently renovated building to “prove” it, bringing back a popular motto from the 1970’s: “In Darmstadt leben die Künste” (The arts are alive in Darmstadt). Two of this season’s productions from inspired director Philipp Kochheim, with sets and costumes by Thomas Gruber and Bernhard Hülfenhaus, have established that this is still very true.

Gounod’s Faust was a appropriate choice for Darmstadt, the city where this work received its German premiere in 1861, attended by the composer himself – and it’s safe to say he would have been pleased with Martin Lukas Meister’s sensitive reading of his score today. Mark Adler sang the title role admirably, expressing the many nuances of the fraught scholar who longs for one last chance at youth and love, no matter what. Nonetheless, he was outshone by a  brilliant Anja Vincken as Marguerite, not to mention the astounding panache of Dimitry Ivashenko as Méphistophélès. The chorus sang beautifully in the scene following Valentin’s death, this character in turn portrayed wholeheartedly by Oleksandr Prytolyuk. But here is also the point where some of the hitches in this reading became apparent. Would a brother still kill the man who has “dishonored” his sister in this day and age? Not a very plausible story, at least not in this part of Europe (- best move it elsewhere?). And would a teenager just back from shopping at Zara be listening to a traditional German folk song on her walkman? Hardly – the thought seems just as ridiculous as her pink bedroom, the kind of thing you would expect from Doris Dörrie, the German film director who has been dabbling in opera of late, with debatable taste.

But with any luck, I will be forgiven this snide remark, since there is little I can do but rave about Darmstadt’s Il Trovatore. What a stroke of genius to set this piece in the 1920’s on the Orient Express, the set an intricately detailed cross-section of the train’s carriages. Ferrando, the narrator, becomes Hercule Poirot, and the plot, so often criticized for being excessively bizarre and far-fetched, is perfect for a murder mystery, while losing nothing of its craziness and passion. The aristocrats travel in luxury carriages, while the gypsies crowd into the third class. Luna, joined by Poirot, listens to the soldier’s chorus on an old 1912 vinyl recording, and even Verdi himself is frequently seen on stage, observing the action and scribbling away, as if he were still busy improving his score. The German surtitles were meant to resemble film dialogues – an interesting idea, but also slightly unnerving, since you didn’t need to be well versed in Italian to notice that at least half of it was being left out. Four top-knotch soloists are required to make any performance of this opera a success, and they were indeed first-rate: Zurab Zurabishvili lent his belcanto tenor to the part of Manrico and Sang Lee (from Nürnberg Opera) was a razor-sharp Count Luna, alongside Elisabeth Hornung’s searing Azucena and Allison Oakes’ outstanding Leonora, at her very best during the fiery cabaletta in the final section (a passage occasionally forgone when singers are not quite up to it).

I have seldom enjoyed an evening at the opera this much. Other theaters around Europe – around the world, for that matter – would do well to inquire about bringing it to their audiences!

 

Bettina Mara



Pictures ©Barbara Aumueller