Ensemble and choir horse racing at Ascott. Photo Loch Féile Mörbisch
MÖRBISCH / Lake stage: MY FAIR LADY – premiere
11. July 2024
By Manfred A. Schmid
Introduction: The all-powerful governor of Burgenland is putting cultural journalists out of work. Hans Peter Doskozil is not only state governor and cultural advisor in one, but he also feels called to be the state’s highest cultural critic. The premiere of… My Lady At the end of the midnight hour, Hans Peter Dampf sent a press release about what he had seen and heard on the Internet, written in seconds (?). It is not surprising that he awarded the highest marks to Alfons Haider, who appointed himself director general, and therefore to his own cultural policy, given his self-aggrandizement and infinite overestimation of himself: “Alfons Haider takes a risk with the contemporary interpretation of the classic “My Fair Lady”. This courage was given in a great way today! With this piece, he and his team present state-of-the-art contemporary entertainment at the highest level – it has all the ingredients for a great success: top-notch singers and actors, a highly variable stage design , a charming comedy. , characteristic choreography and the unique environment of the lake stage! All I can say is: Make sure you come to Burgenland this year for the lake festival, “My Fair Lady” is a great event! Under Harald Serafin, Mörbisch was described as the “Mecca of operetta”, under Alfons Haider it is currently developing into the “Olympus of open-air musicals” – as the responsible cultural officer, this development fills me with great joy and I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. on this iconic performance! (…)”
Your reviewer will no longer indulge in this anthemic self-praise, but will instead carry out his task as an impartial music and theater critic. Burgenland’s suggestion of predicting Mörbisch’s status as the “Olympus of air operas” is not commented on here, but remains in the room. Better to see for yourself.
Das Music My Lady from 1956, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics and libretto by Alan Jay Lerner, based on the play by Bernhard Shaw Pygmalion, takes place in London in 1912. Professor Higgins, a linguist by profession and a certified bachelor, meets the flower seller Eliza Doolittle, who only speaks Cockney. This later led to a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering. Higgins wants to prove that he can turn Eliza into a society woman within a few months with intensive speech training, which he does.
Adaptations have always been made to the original. Robert Gilbert and Gerhard Bronner created a version in 1969 in which Eliza speaks Viennese, and only recently Eliza’s “Storage” was staged in Baden. Director Simon Eichenberger now wanted in Mörbisch My Lady to bring it in today. Eliza – like her social environment – speaks today’s Viennese, or more precisely: South Simmeringer dialect, a rough conversational language enriched with many expressions from fecal language and the latest terms from social media. This is played out in endless dirades, often spoken very quickly. Anyone who does not know these special Viennese expressions – think of the thousands of visitors who come by bus from all over Austria – probably will not always find it easy to understand what is being said. But above all it is the amount of text that has been invented that leaves problems and the evening almost endless. Initially short, British-laconic conversations are transformed into a wide range, so that the performance includes a half-hour break and start – resulting in kiss-bussy scenes from the VIPs who are enjoyed to the point of impossibility and the speech lasts welcoming Alfons Haiders three and a half hours. One wishes to receive Harald Serafin’s entertaining greetings full of wonderful progress.
It is hard to understand why the language is set in present-day Vienna, but the class arrangement is still based on London. The complete successful stage design Walter Vogelweider with Big Ben, Tottenham Court tube station, a pub, a black taxi and Royal Ascot racecourse, suspicions rise that the person responsible command team but he does not fully believe in the intended incorporation of the music and thus reveals a fundamental problem with the production: the musical, while focused on the social importance of the correct manner of speaking, in terms of being a quintessentially British story, is a play about the spirit of the great Irish jester George Bernhard Shaw with great success. In Austria, a country where a rather conservative governor said “Bring on Marie!”, linguistic subtleties and arrogance of this kind are certainly not an issue.
The simmering mistrust in the opera is also reflected in the fact that the director Eichenberger, who is also responsible for the choreography, introduces new scenes, such as the night of the ball, at which Eliza is introduced to high society. In the original version, Higgins and Pickering simply report on the success achieved when they get home in the morning, while in the Mörbischer version this event is accompanied by Hungarian sounds and waltz music and a strange crazy man named Zoltan Karpathy (awesome . Roman Frankl) pimped up (musical arrangement Christian Frank), is played. Interesting enough, but basically as unnecessary ballast as the bullfighter unleashed dance (clothing CLaudio Pohle) after Eliza’s first perfectly spoken sentence “It looks so green when the Spanish flowers are in bloom.”
Anna Rosa Döller it’s a quite enchanting Eliza Doolittle, albeit a small voice – despite electronic amplification. Your longing, euphoric confession “I would dance tonight” something like that goes down.
Mark Seibert As Professor Higgins, who is still quite young, scores points with his experience and ability, but is not necessarily the best choice for the role of the brittle, odd scholar. Ramin Duster it gives Colonel Pickering a British victory in a different Viennese environment. If in London, then at least in the fine, dry, English way.
As can Eliza’s father Alfred P. Doolittle Herbert Steinbock score points with his comic performance. Could be vocal “Hey, I’m getting married this morning.” to be more sophisticated, but surrounded by a lot of author. Why a few dancers have to take their shirts off to show off their stomachs at the hen party is beyond my imagination.
The pleasant plus points of the performance include: Dominik Hees as likeable, eager to sing Freddy and Marika Lichter in the speaking role of Mrs. Higgins with a sober, realistic, calm world view. A pleasant haven of calm in the general chaos.
Many of the embellishments and scene extensions in this production could happily have been done without. But not sure: Dolores Schmidingers great performances as a queen! Amazingly funny, but a pleasure and almost a visit in itself My Lady even in Mörbisch.
Musical direction of Michael Schnack at the orchestra the podium works well, which also applies to the choir. The audience’s applause ranged from friendly to enthusiastic and they were probably a little tired too, which is no surprise after three and a half hours.