Joana Mallwitz and Lydia Steier direct a great ‘Caballero de la Rosa’ in Zurich’s opera | Culture

During the almost five hours that lasts THE CABALLERO DE LA ROSAby Richard Strauss, many things can happen, even a change of station. Last Sunday, who entered the summer sun with Lake Zurich in the elegant neo -baroque building of the Openhaus, we left under an intense autumnal rain with the raised American flap. However, time inside passed.

Precisely that “strange phenomenon” of the passage of time, which Hugo Von Hofmannsthal evokes in the libretto of this master opera, is one of the reasons for the 25/26 season at the Swiss theater, from August under the artistic direction of Matthias Schulze. This affable Bavaro of almost two meters, which during the last decade held the same position in the state opera of Berlin with Daniel Barenboim, a strong bet from the beginning: “Everyone will be transformed from this Caballero de la Rosa”, Told the Swiss newspaper a week ago NZZ.

And he is right. The new production of this famous Comedy for musicreleased in 1911, is a genius. Two exceptional women have made it possible: the stage director, Lydia Steier, and the musical director, Joana Mallwitz. In both cases time has also played a central role. The manager American had already directed a first production of this opera in Lucena two years ago, “a malicious and sardonic interpretation,” he acknowledges in the hand program, then it seemed like a title too cloying. But in Zurich he has conceived a “more affectionate” staging and has fulfilled an old dream: reuse the shady and extravagant designs created in 2005 by the painter and photographer Gottfried Helnwein for the Los Angeles opera.

The fantasy and monochromatic aesthetics of the veteran Austro-Irlandic artist, known for inspiring the image of Marilyn Manson, permeates everything. The scenery and costumes of the first act are dyed from a rococó and ghostly blue; The second acquires a yellow, bourgeoisiest and nineteenth -ate; while the third adopts the lascivious and dissolve red of a brothel. In the latter, the grotesque and boasting Baron Ochs, who in the first two acts disregarded the colors of his clothing, finally harmonizes with the environment in which he will receive his deserved. Nothing squeaks, even when Helnwein’s fantasy introduces hyperbolic characters about stilts or with rabbit and bird heads. There you can see Steier’s excellent scenic work.

This is perceived from the first measures, when two servants struggle with the curtain to prevent us from seeing Mariscala making love with her lover Octavian. The rhythm of the scene always relies on music and enriches itself with a masterful direction of actors. Each of the more than thirty characters in the opera is accurately outlined, even those without sung intervention. In addition, the prominence of others barely cited, such as Leopold, the illegitimate son of the Baron, becoming an endearing disabled to his service, played by actor Sandro Howald, is enhanced.

The scenic achievements follow an act after an act: the admirable scene of the visit and the monologue evocator about the inevitability of old age in the first; The success of showing an indifferent Octavian when delivering the silver rose, before falling at the foot of the lovely Sophie, in the second. Perhaps Steier risks too much in the third, by reinterpreting the Viennese pantomime as a result of the complicity of the two young lovers, which derives in a caricaturesca scene where the baron reveals his sadomasochistic perversion. However, everything is recomposed at closing, which recovers the initial bed, now hiding Octavian with Sophie.

The musical direction of Joana Mallwitz is also the result of time with this score. He had already dazzled in Oslo in 2019 and, three years later, he prepared a new production in Nuremberg, although he could not release it for having contracted the Coronavirus. For her, THE CABALLERO DE LA ROSA It is “a great masterpiece”, but now also interprets it as “a reflection of today’s world”, considering the behavior of Baron Ochs typical of a true sexual predator.

This is stated in the hand program, where it also points out the main novelty of this opera: Strauss’s ability to transform conversation, talk and chatter into music with an absolutely natural precision and tone. There lies one of the great achievements of his direction, in which everything fits between orchestra and voices clearly and a dizzying rhythm. The other was his ability to highlight the camer passages within the dense orchestration of Strauss, at the head of an outstanding orchestra, from which he extracted impulse and variety in the numerous waltzes that run through this score.

The cast was also excellent. He was headed by the soprano Diana Damrau as a vivacious and close Mariscala, who stood out for her expressive naturalness, especially in the famous monologue of the first act. It was the great winner of the night next to the bass Günther Groissböck, who contributed an authentic charism to Baron Ochs without falling into the cartoon, with a flexible and fleshy voice.

The scenic interpretation of the couple in love – the octavian of the mezzo-soprano Angela Brower and the Sophie debutante of the soprano Emily Pogorelc – was highlighted, although without reaching the same level in the vocal. The baritone Bo Skovhus was a real luxury as a faninal, and among the secondary the contralto Irène Friedli stood out in the role of the intriguing Anina. The premiere function was broadcast directly on the art canal and will be available shortly on its free platform of streaming.

The beginning of the new season in Zurich’s opera, with Matthias Schulz as a new artistic manager, had an attractive prelude to the premiere of THE CABALLERO DE LA ROSA. It was a 24 -hour festival, completely free, held between the nights of 19 and 20, in which the theater remained open for anyone who wanted to meet him inside. There were even those who agreed to sleep on stage and participate, the next morning, in a collective morning yoga session.

The excellent summer climate in Zurich favored numerous activities for children and young people in the square in front of the theater. In addition, the public who wanted it could attend a general essay of Manonby Massenet, preceded by the explanations of Schulz himself, who wore a shirt like the rest of the workers of his theater. It was not a minor function, but an interpretation of great level that had two of the main current stars in the protagonist roles: the soprano Lisette Oropesa and the tenor Benjamin Bernheim. At the exit it was exciting to hear the comments of many people who had witnessed a live opera for the first time.