Bavarian State Opera (live streaming), 31/10/2020

 Braunfels : Die Vögel

Chorus and Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera

Ingo Metzmacher

Just at the point when the German theatres were hoping to resume something resembling normal operations, and a new season, the orders for a second lockdown came through, to commence this coming Monday.  Undaunted, the Bavarian State Opera pushed ahead with their planned new production of Walter Braunfels's The Birds, if only for one performance, and that without an audience, and because they had planned to live-stream the show later on next week, they brought that forward too, to let the world see the piece.  It was certainly worth the effort, and I sincerely hope that everyone on stage and in the theatre this afternoon truly felt the sense of accomplishment I got from the viewing.

I only know Die Vögel from the excellent Decca recording by Lothar Zagrosek, one of the jewels of the "Entartete Musik" series of the 90s.  How this political and satirical fable was going to work on stage - because I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a literal presentation, that's not really Frank Castorf's style - was going to be interesting.  Braunfels wrote his own libretto, somewhat loosely based on the Aristophanes comedy.  Although the broad outline is the same, Braunfels substantially changes the conclusion, and adds a romantic element to it.  There's less outright comedy, but the satire is still strong.  It was written during the First World War, and there is a distinct anti-war sentiment to it, without being polemical about it.  However, particularly given the way Braunfels altered the ending, there are elements that became very pertinent to the zeitgeist of 30s Germany - when Braunfels had to retire, having lost his job at the Cologne Academy, and most of the outlets for his composition, being half-Jewish - and as we are going through very similar times now, it has again acquired a particular pertinence, which the director effortlessly pointed up without undue exaggeration.

Castorf's birds do not live in some natural environment, but in an ugly industrial yard, with freight trailers and shanty huts.  When they build their "cloud-cuckoo land" (the phrase comes from the Aristophanes), it isn't a floating city, but a telecoms tower.  The costumes evoke birds well enough, plenty of plumes and feathered capes or coats - there's a touch of the Vegas show-girl about some of the ladies' costumes - but there are other bird references too, notably Hitchcock's film, and Hitch himself looms ominously over the proceedings at the heart of the second act, this world's version of Zeus.  There were things I didn't really get - the birds' wedding in Act 2 was very strange - and the Nazi uniforms donned by the two humans were really rather superfluous (not to mention predictable).  However, on the whole, this was an excellent production, involving and entertaining.

Caroline Wettergreen (Nachtigall)
Die Vögel, Bavarian State Opera (© Bayerisches Staatsoper, 2020)

Musically, there was a cohesion, and more than that, an electricity about the performance that smoothed out some of the rougher corners of some individual artists.  Günter Papendell, who's normally excellent both as a singer and actor, seemed a little low-key as Wiedhopf, he didn't quite make the impact I expected of him.  Charles Workman was a solid Hoffegut; it's not a particularly beautiful voice, but his delivery was appropriately poetic, and the first scene of Act 2, a rapturous duet with the luminous Nightingale of Caroline Wettergreen, was exactly the emotional heart of the opera it is supposed to be.  Wolfgang Koch took a few minutes to warm up to his part, which was a pity, because Prometheus is technically a small role, but he has an enormous monologue, something like eight minutes, to deliver.  The end of it was admirable, but the start was a bit rough.  It was Michael Nagy as the opportunistic Ratefreund who was the most consistent of the men, vocally and dramatically, while Wettergreen negotiated Nachtigall's murderous tessitura with clarity and grace.  Chorus and orchestra were directed with a clear understanding of, and love for the score by Ingo Metzmacher, who brought out its many beauties for our greater enjoyment.

This is going to be available on-demand from the Bavarian State Opera website for a month, from next week and for a small fee, and I heartily recommend viewing.

[Next : 2nd November, if the organisation proceeds with the performance!]