2023-11-21 15:10:51
Things were already looking worse for Max Reger student Jaromír Weinberger, who was born in Prague in 1896 and died voluntarily in Florida in 1967. This Czech composer of Jewish descent seemed to have been swallowed up by musical history at some point. With his opera “Švanda dudák” (“Schwanda, the Bagpiper”), which premiered in Prague in 1927, he quickly achieved enormous success around the world. By 1931 there were more than 2,000 performances.
His operetta “Spring Storms” premiered in Berlin in January 1933, and ten days later the Nazis marched through the Brandenburg Gate with torches to pay homage to Hitler. And on February 27th, when there was also a performance, the Reichstag burned. On March 12th, the successful piece was rudely canceled. No more funny. The fate of the “last operetta of the Weimar Republic” seemed sealed.
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Composer Erwin Schulhoff
Weinberger, who had lived in Baden near Vienna and Prague since 1929, had to emigrate in the fall of 1938 and came to the USA via France. After the Second World War he only returned to Europe for summer stays. He wasn’t happy again. And while his operas “The Beloved Voice” (premiered in Munich in 1931) and “The Outcasts of Pokerflat” (released in Brno in 1932) are still waiting to be re-evaluated, “Spring Storms” had a great success in Barrie shortly before the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 Kosky’s production at Berlin’s Komische Oper. “Wallenstein” from 1937 was tried out again this year in rarity-loving Osnabrück.
In the bar for a little happiness: scene from the Weinberger Opera in Vienna
Source: Matthias Baus
And after all, Augsburg and Görlitz, Dresden and Berlin, Gelsenkirchen and Prague, these were the last performance locations for “Schwanda, the bagpiper”. There is a lot of fuss about it.
You can experience a score that is quite fiddly and counterpoint-loving with expansive orchestral interludes that combines Czech folklore, polka, furiant, odzenek and dumka with modern sounds. The aim is to make them bloom and shake, to spray colors and bring them to life. And the cast should also show enthusiasm, love and friendliness for their grateful roles.
This bagpipe-playing “Schwanda” is not a sonorous Pied Piper who immediately enchants everyone. The opera wants to be conquered. She presents herself as folksy. But at the age of 31, Weinberger composed his only worldwide success, mostly sung in German, at the same time as Weill composed his “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” and Ernst Krenek his jazz sensational hit “Jonny plays on”.
Surprisingly timeless
Both works today seem stuck in time and have therefore aged poorly, “Schwanda” with its double comedy base, but a weak libretto, which is about true love, the longing for more and fulfillment at home, about Faust’s universal search and a hellish travesty la Offenbach has remained surprisingly timeless. And musically powerful. The almost ten-minute overture begins with Stravinsky mechanics.
There are only three main characters. The soulful Schwanda as a mixture of Orpheus and Papageno, who makes everyone dance when he just plays his bagpipes – he demands a slim, melodious baritone fullness. A finely distinguished soprano was supposed to give his newly married Dorotka warmth and shine. She is also loved by the gentleman gangster Babinsky – as a mixture of entertainer and filou, the most original role, singing and dancing him as a tenor. This robber has charm and pride, agility and chutzpah – and yet he can’t get a bride.
Jaromir Weinberger in Vienna
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Schwanda’s encounter with an ice queen in love, an execution that was prevented at the last moment and even a descent into hell were promised as sung in the German translation by Kafka intimate Max Brod Production by the Theater an der Wien In the direction of Tobias scratch, there is subtle fun, although the Bohemian village in Arthur Schnitzler’s Psycholotterbett doesn’t sound idiomatic at all.
Because we see straight away – the overture ends with coitus between Babinsky and Dorota – how the unsuccessful musician Schwanda stumbles into both of their bedrooms, but is not particularly irritated, instead inviting the half-naked seducer to stay there and share boxed pizza.
Goal of an open marriage?
Is Dorota (the hands-on, very direct Vera-Lotte Böcker) polyamorous, does the badly blonded Schwanda (with a pleasantly dark baritone and real naivety: Andrè Schuen) want an open marriage, or is he even interested in the dazzling intruder (stronger metallic, darkened color). Tenor: Pavol Breslik) interested? In any case, Schock sends the unlikely male duo on a journey to their sexual selves.
First, cleverly interrupted by video recordings in the taxi and at the sausage stand, we go into a black and gold salon where the gay saint Sebastian shines on the wall. Behind which – as in Schnitzler’s “Dream Novel” – a choir of robed conspirators soon demands Schwanda’s head because he refuses to do so to the landlady, apparently a high-class hooker (lustful: Eva Pavlu) with a pimp (lurking: Sorin Coliban).
After the break, the devil himself (with a hellish voice: Kresimir Strazanak) waits in a shabby-black jungle of nightclubs (equipment: Rainer Sellmaier), where a gender-fluid S/M swingers party is raging in the basement – somewhat more drastic in the videos with extras (release for performances from 16 years), opera-compatible with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir, which mostly performs acts other than singing. And again Schwanda doesn’t get a chance; at least it’s enough for a man’s kiss.
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Star director Tobias scratch
Schwanda’s sexual longings fly high and boil hot. Petr Popelka, the chief conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, throws himself into the colorful score with verve and rhythmic sparkle, but he doesn’t find a real outlet. Because when he comes home again, Dorota fucks Babinsky again, who still leaves unloved.
Was it all just Schwanda’s Schnitzler dream? As nice as the encounter with Weinberger’s unique opera is, it somehow seems – as was the case with his recent productions in Berlin and Vienna – as if Tobias Schieber is currently a little less interested in directing.
#Opera #rarity #Vienna #sexual