Don Carlo Kammeroper, Vienna
Dec 18th 2018
Well, the first thing to comment on about this performance is the location – and the ‘company’. It’s in a small but very attractive theatre – about 20+ rows downstairs and a few in a balcony. It seems to be the base for the young up-and coming singers of the Theatre an der Wien to ’show their stuff’ (Junges Ensemble des Theater an der Wien)– with concerts, recitals and operas, the latter it seems both staged and in concert form. I only discovered it by accident when surfing the main site and the opera caught my eye. It seems to be a characteristically fine Austrian/European acknowledgement of the importance of music/opera/theatre/new generations etc. etc. – all the things that the UK now so neglects.
The stage setting was minimal – a flat backdrop on a surprisingly steeply raked stage (from what I could see when I stood at the pit edge in the interval), doors back and centre, a large panel Stage Left that could reveal someone behind (but was only used very occasionally) and a couple of small items of furniture. There were only the main singers and the orchestra was virtually a chamber one – very decent but at times the strings were underpowered – but bearing in mind how few of them… Now bearing in mind this is Don Carlo (the French version) which normally is the epitome of the French style of Grand Opera, this might sound strange if not foolhardy – but it worked well. There was no chorus, no auto da fe scene but the end result was to make this very much a personal drama with the emphasis on the characters and their relationships. This worked well – and because the staging was so spare, the full emphasis for us and the performers could be on the singing and acting.
Without exception voices and performances were excellent -and a number were more than that. Andrew Owens was a sweet and powerful-voiced Carlo and a sound actor. The top was ringing and clear and his word-painting was good. As his father Dumitru Madarasan was excellent – a superb rich and deep instrument with a resonance that rather belied his frame –there must have bene excellent technique and breath control, I reckon. The only slight problem was that his somewhat small frame did not always visually convey the character but as this was done by acting and music, that was not a problem. Kristjan Johannesson was an equally fine Posa – although, being exceptionally tall, there were a few moment between him and Carlo where the height discrepancy was slightly comic. The voice and acting were both excellent and again, he had the full range for the part with youthful ease at the top. Ilona Revolskaya was an excellent Thibault with a pingingly attractive and bright soprano that nevertheless had some body to it and was not merely thin and piping. She had excellent stage presence too, even when not actively involved. Jenny Siladie triumphed with Elizabeth, conveying gravitas passion and maturity both vocally and visually. The voice was a very good sized one but with her, as with all the others, there was no sense of strain which a larger scale performance with a full orchestra in a larger house would have given. Performing an opera like this in a ‘chamber’ version meant that young voices could cope well with these great parts but not be overparted – the whole idea of doing a work of this scale on a smaller scale really is an excellent one. I actually thionk that, if my understanding of the German in the programme was correct, that it was a proper, professional ‘reduction’ of the full score so all key musical elements were there just not the epic Wagnerian grandeur and heaviness. Ivan Zinoviev was a marvellously and sinisterly cadaverous Grand Inquisitor – no attempt to get the extreme old age in looks but rather a grey-faced figure from ones Expressionist nightmares. Finally,Tatiana Kuryatnikova was a sensationally good eboli. A magmnificent, rich, even and full-toned voice that met every musical and dramatic demand of the role. In fact, when singing full out, she was almost too much for the small theatre!
So a really marvellous evening – and a very encouraging one, for if this is the standard of the opera stars of the future then the art form is in excellent hands.