Vienna State Opera (live stream), 13/11/2022

Hindemith : Cardillac

Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Cornelius Meister

I'll be brutally honest here.  I have not considered the Vienna State Opera as a major house for many years now.  After their Golden Age of the post-war era, apart from the superlative orchestra, the company left much to be desired.  Although they could and did programme star soloists from around the world, the productions never quite seemed to really showcase the talent.  Now, I'm basing much of this off recordings and broadcasts, and it's only only in the last ten years or so that I've been able to see productions - firstly, broadcast from the Salzburg Festival, and latterly direct from Vienna - to confirm or rebut my impressions, and the impression has remained pretty much the same.   Tonight, however, I saw something truly exceptional, an outstanding production, without the prop of glittering soloist names, but with a solid, well-rehearsed cast and fully engaged conducting of the house's always excellent orchestral forces.

Hindemith's Cardillac was created in 1926, based loosely on E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Mademoiselle de Scudéri", which in some circles is considered the first crime story in Western literature.  If it had been created as a film, rather than as an opera, this production by Sven-Eric Bechtolf is exactly what it would have looked like.  It's a masterpiece of German Expressionism, as if directed by Robert Wiene, or Fritz Lang, sharply defined blacks and whites, and skewed perspectives.  All the cast sports whitened faces with black-ringed eyes and mouths so dark red they too appear black.  The original story is set under the reign of Louis XIV in France, and the libretto does retain its references to Paris, but no, we're in full inter-war German 'decadence', the sensation of a society of rotting values is almost visceral.  Cardillac's workshop brought the colour and the sense of gold into it at full strength, vital considering the importance of the gleaming metal. It's a superb piece of re-imagining, engrossing from start to finish.  Hindemith himself may not have appreciated this particular aesthetic, but Bechtolf makes complete sense of it, from first note to last, and I have not been this riveted by an opera production in a long time.

Vera-Lotte Boecker (The Daughter) and Tomasz Konieczny (Cardillac)
Cardillac, Vienna State Opera
(© Michael Pöhn, 2022)

I'm not that familiar with Hindemith's idiom, but the lean, crisp sound conductor Cornelius Meister drew from the State Opera Orchestra was expressive and vivid.  The chorus, insanely hypocritical as they bay for the blood of the killer terrifying the city, was outstanding.  Stephanie Houtzeel was a luscious Lady, well-matched in the Cavalier of Daniel Jenz, their intimate scene rendered in an erotic shadow-play of remarkable effectiveness.  Cardillac's Daughter was Vera-Lotte Boecker, a helpless automaton looking for independence, yet afraid to cut her strings.  It's a weak character, vacillating and uncertain, but Boecker's clear soprano was sure and bright.  Gerhard Siegel was her lover, the Officer, not a particularly attractive voice, at least, not in this music, but also confident and strong, and a good foil to Tomasz Konieczny's compelling Cardillac, haunted yet remorseless.

This was a truly remarkable evening, something that will stay with me for a long time to come, and a validation of the Vienna State Opera's great name.

[Next : 16th November]