Popping champagne corks in Kakania ?
Tom Goossens directs Die Fledermaus (semi-staged) in Ghent (***½) [live]
"It seems that Johann Strauss composed at all times, day and night, at least when he did not happen to be eating, sleeping, playing billiards or cards. Sketchbooks, scraps of paper, shirt-cuffs, sleeves of nightgowns, tablecloths were never safe from his note-taking pen. Hundreds of never-used motifs finally found a place in the melody chest that Adèle, his third wife, guarded like a precious treasure! The best inspirations found their way into 174 polkas and 159 waltzes. Since they were composed of an average of 9 themes, Johann Strauss had to find more than 1,400 different melodies for his waltzes alone!" The picture Otto Glastra van Loon paints of waltz king Johann Strauss in his Mosaic of Music History is almost hallucinatory.
Both Berlioz and Wagner were fans of Johann Strauss Sr. His widespread popularity was not seen by them as detrimental regarding his artistic achievements. In "Mein Leben," Wagner tells how Johann Strauss Sr. could thrill his audiences like a master magician. As is well known, Wagner was a big fan of "Wein, Weib und Gesang" but also of Strauss Jr.'s waltz of the same name. In Wahnfried, Strauss' waltzes, father and son, were regularly on the evening's musical program. And the respect was mutual: Strauss Jr. would conduct the Austrian premiere of Tristan und Isolde in 1861!
"It has been a long time since this house has performed an operetta," intendant Jan Vandenhouwe writes in the program book, without being able to come up with a valid reason. It sounds like a mea culpa but we read nothing to suggest that anything will be done about it at the Van Ertbornstraat. Unfortunately, Opera Vlaanderen is not the only house that treats the operetta as "eine alte Tante im Walzertakt." Contemporary opera directors could emulate the example of Berlioz and Wagner. Real composers do not allow themselves to be caught by the division between E and U-Musik. They understand the value of good musical ideas and Die Fledermaus and many other operettas of the golden and silver periods are full of them. It is a debate that was sometimes held in Austria among others by Gerard Mortier in his Salzburg years. Real art tolerates no dirndl Mortier must have thought when in 2001 he irritated friend and foe alike with the total deconstruction of Die Fledermaus in the bold, degrading staging by Hans Neuenfels. The humorless theater this produced, hopelessly contorted in its intention to confront Austrian audiences with their own (brown) past, was not among his starry hours in Salzburg. Because of Mortier's influence, I learned to appreciate Die Fledermaus and the operetta only later.
Die Fledermaus was a reasonable flop at its Vienna premiere at the Theater an der Wien (1874), both with the press and the public. But six years later it had already been staged in 180 German theaters, a success that Strauss would only match thereafter with Der Zigeunerbaron. The final consecration then followed in 1890 when the Vienna State Opera incorporated the work into its repertoire where it has since been treated essentially as a Singspiel, an opera with spoken binding texts. The waltzes of the Strauss dynasty have since become as identity-building for the art metropolis of Vienna as coffee houses and Sachertorte.
Nowhere is it written that the play is set in the Vienna of the Habsburgs, once jokingly called Kakania by Robert Musil. The question then is: how much Flemish couleur locale does the play tolerate? Not much, according to the elderly lady in the front row who ostentatiously left the theater after half an hour of exposure to director Tom Goossens' binding texts in Flemish. My neighbor, a celebrated opera critic, spoke of a disgrace and applauded for such courage. Had both ladies lost sight of the operas quasi-Buddhist maxime - "Glucklich ist wer vergisst was nicht zu ändern ist" ?
As in Salzburg 2001, Der Frosch, the colorful jailer of the third act who regards the whole world as a prison, will be upgraded to a conferencier. He will explain the entire plot, motivate and even direct the soloists in their actions, most often in rhyme. For those familiar with the play, those lines are very redundant. The play is constantly interrupted and never gains momentum. Some characters such as the decadent Prince Orlofsky are given little profile. Besides being redundant, the binding texts are a little funny, a little pedantic, a little woke, a little conceited as you might expect from iconoclastic young performers. What were we like ourselves at that age? True respect for the past only comes with age. Hopefully Opera Vlaanderen will not make it a tradition to cut up canonical works with Flemish humor. Imagine doing that with Le Nozze di Figaro, for example, what then?
Alexander Joel appears occasionally at the Vienna Folk Opera with the same piece. He conducts with both his right hand and left leg, constantly threatening to burst into dances, participating in the action and having to relinquish his baton to the intoxicated prison warden Frank during the third act. Precision in ensemble playing is of the utmost importance, and Joel manages to inspire Opera Flanders' Symphony Orchestra to highly disciplined musicianship without therefore completely capturing the Viennese esprit of the piece. The nice thing about this concert performance is that the soloists are at the forefront and can in no way be outplayed by the orchestra.
David Kerber is an almost ideal Alfred with his bright, well-rounded tenor and his perfect feel for the most kitschy role in the piece. Caterina Marchesini can project large parts of the Rosalinde-part very excitingly into the auditorium, her soprano having a warm timbre. In addition to crocodile tears, she manages to produce fantastic moments during "Oje,Oje, wie rührt mich dies." "Klänge der Heimat" is not a real csardas but it is the climax of her participation in the Orlovsky party. The rest of her reading is rather problematic as the voice becomes very thin and unstable in the chest register. Maria Chabounia as Adèle provides the coolest vocal performance of the evening with successful vocalises during her entrance and especially with the vocal gymnastics of "Spiel ich die Unschuld im Lande," her final exploit in prison. In "Mein Herr Marquis," she is Strauss' ventriloquist giving a master class in how to laugh in an opera. Kris Belligh as Frank entered the stage as a speaking role only to be forced by Alfred to sing along. That worked as if improvised and was one of the rare moments where the Goossens humor really worked. Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger has a fine baritone with good projection. As Dr. Falke, he gets to introduce "Brüderlein, Schwesterlein" and then pull choir and soloists into this alcohol-soaked hymn to love with its beautiful dynamic shading. It is the musical highlight of every performance of Die Fledermaus. Such is the case here, and Alexander Joel continues with a brisk "Donner und Blitz" polka. It makes for a strong finale to the second act. The hangover that follows is not for the audience but only for the characters. Christoph Strehl as Eisenstein has the least interesting part to sing and the least engaging voice to make his mark with. Prince Orlofsky, often performed with little conviction by tenors and mezzo-sopranos of rank and file, was given a good run by Lotte Verstaen. Mitch van Landeghem and later Ewout Lehoucq performed the director's binding texts with brio.