Author : Johan Uytterschaut
Recently, after seeing Falstaff in the New York Metropolitan, I mentioned being a fan of Robert Carsen. And I don’t detract anything from that now. The solutions he keeps offering in the ever surprisingly complex and therefore very demanding spectacle value in Strauss’ Rosenkavalier live up to his reputation. I won’t go into details; may I suffice by concluding that his scenery was never messy, contrary to what I have been watching more than once, to my annoyance. Rush, yes, but then that is explicitly the goal of this Vienna “Komödie für Musik”.
The female primary parts in this production have received a new cast since the last time it was put on stage (then lead by Renée Fleming). Let’s have a look. Last season, we were very much impressed by the new girl on the block, Lise Davidsen as Ariadne. Therefore high expectations for her rendering of the Feldmarschallin. And she largely delivers. Fleming has left very big shoes to fill, and the fact that they differ about thirty years in age left a mark: Davidsen has not quite yet acquired the maturity to make us forget la Fleming; her impersonating this somewhat tragic character lacks the necessary draft. Paradoxically, the massive potential she is displaying doesn’t allow her to achieve what she undoubted will achieve in ten years’ time. But I’m nit-picking. Having someone like Lise Davidsen in your cast is truly a luxury. Leonora in La Forza del Destino next season? We can’t wait!
Interesting opponents: Samantha Hankey’s Octavian and Erin Morley’s delicious Sophie. All consummately professional, brilliantly acted, with vocal demonstrations worthy of Richard Strauss. But for some reason I missed the proverbial “spark”; I mean in the threesome as a whole. I may be spoiled by the perfection in Kleiber’s recording (production by Otto Schenk, featuring Jones, Fassbaender, Popp) where that kind of chemistry is very much present. In any case, I have been waiting for something that wouldn’t come.
Oddly, the same goes for the rest of the cast. I was somewhat disappointed by Günther Groisböck’s Heinrich in Lohengrin, but the part of the baron fits him like a glove. He is absolutely in control of this very demanding (tessitura ánd complexity) scripture, and he is acting with visible pleasure. Similar comments for Katherine Goeldner’s and Thomas Ebenstein’s scheming duo, and for Brian Mulligan’s Faninal (except for the, again, overstressed voltage). All quite valuable achievements in their own. But in the end, the collective is nothing more than the sum of its parts. And as odd: the one character escaping this was René Barbera’s Italian Tenor. Maybe that’s because it stands above the mêlée, so to speak. He was presented as the spitting image of Enrico Caruso, with made for a funny cameo, and he truly made it happen. This type of “all or nothing” flashes is quite demanding for the singer involved and, if acted and sung well, draws a lot of attention. He was being helped by special lighting, but still: a marvellous moment.
It can be me, of course, but the orchestra didn’t seem its scintillating self either. We are dealing in subtleties, and I don’t know what conductor Simone Young usually does to this score. In itself, there was nothing wrong with this performance, but I missed that extra sparkle I mostly do hear in the Met.
Conclusion: there is a disturbing thorn to this rose, and can’t put my finger on it. All in all I had an enjoyable evening, but something was amiss. What…?
Watch the rerun of the show on April 24 at Kinepolis cinemas.