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Titolo: Recensione Flauto Magico Salisburgo NYTimes

Music Review | Salzburg Festival
Mozart Resounds in a City He Hated
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By JEREMY EICHLER
Published: August 2, 2005
SALZBURG, Austria, July 31 - If only Mozart could see his hometown now.
His letters are full of disdain for Salzburg, which he saw as
hopelessly narrow-minded and parochial. As he wrote to his father, he
felt constantly undervalued by his employer here, the Archbishop
Colloredo, whom he despised "to the point of madness." He finally ended
his service to the court on "that happy day" in 1781 and described to
his father being booted out the door by Colloredo's deputy, with what
is surely the most famous such kick in music history.
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Klaus Lefebrve/Salzburg Festival
Front to back: Miah Persson, Netta Or and Richard Croft in Mozart's
very early "Mitridate," which provides a glimpse of what was to come.
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Scenes from 'Mitridate'
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Hans Jörg Michel/Salzburg Festival
For a new production of "Die Zauberflöte," in its Salzburg Festival
premiere, a dramatic broken-in-two staircase. More Photos >
As Salzburg gears up for the 2006 celebrations of the 250th anniversary
of Mozart's birth, people don't talk very much about that kick. These
days, when it comes to Mozart, the streets of this fastidiously groomed
Baroque city are spilling over with pride - or at least, business
acumen. You can hardly walk one block without bumping into Mozart's
image plastered on, well, just about anything you could conceivably
buy: T-shirts, candlesticks, perfume, umbrellas, napkin rings, beer
mugs, shot glasses, and on and on, not to mention the ubiquitous
chocolate-pistachio-marzipan treats called Mozartkugeln. What would
Wolfgang think? Imagine one of those irreverent peals of laughter that
Tom Hulce kept uncorking when he played the composer in the film
version of "Amadeus."
The Salzburg Festival itself goes easy on the marzipan, but it is still
deeply committed to making 2006 a banner Mozart year. A brand-new 29
million-euro (about $35 million) concert hall, the House for Mozart, is
being built to open just in time for next year's summer festival, which
will feature a rare cycle of all 22 of Mozart's stage works. Among
these, 10 will be brand new productions, with a starry assortment of
conductors, orchestras and directors. Others will be revivals,
including two new productions that had their premieres last week at the
festival: "Mitridate, Re di Ponto" and "Die Zauberflöte."
The festival's artistic director, Peter Ruzicka, sensibly suggests that
to demythologize Mozart's genius, one needs exposure not just to the
late great works but also to the entire course of his growth, juvenilia
and all. On Thursday night, the festival gave this year's guests an
early introduction to that lesser-known Mozart with Günther Krämer's
new production of "Mitridate," staged in the courtyard of the city's
grand 17th-century Residenz.
Written for a Milanese audience when the composer was only 14,
"Mitridate" is first-rate early Mozart, an opera seria that is
astounding for someone that age, and yet provides only a glimpse of
what was to come. Its plot, adapted from Racine, centers on the great
warrior Mitridate, who is to marry Aspasia when his sons, Sifare and
Farnace, learn that he has died in battle with the Romans. They compete
for Aspasia's hand, but their hopes are shattered and their lives
endangered when their father returns alive. Much groveling and chaos
ensue, interspersed with beautiful arias in which the characters pour
their inner torment into fantastically ornate vocal lines. The writing
was in fact demanding enough to keep the work off the stage for most of
the last century.
The opera is also dramatically underdeveloped, and therefore ripe for
some insightful direction. Mr. Krämer has instead given it a flashy
modern look full of visual interest, but not enough beyond that. The
crux of the interpretation is a brilliant two-tiered set designed by
Jürgen Bäckmann, who makes ingenious use of mirrors; during the
opera's opening few minutes, for example, a phalanx of
Mozart-doppelgängers appear to be running up the walls. The same
extras later slide down a slope coated with thick black sand and return
to perform a strangely stylized yogalike dance.
It all proved too distracting, though fortunately the second half was
more focused and character-driven. Over all, one wished Mr. Krämer had
probed deeper inside the work rather than making mischief at its edges.
Still, this was rather tame director's theater, and the conservative -
and very glittery - Salzburg audience cheered the production team on
opening night.
The first-rate cast also won well-deserved applause, including Richard
Croft in the title role, Bejun Mehta as Farnace, Miah Persson as
Sifare, Netta Or as Aspasia and Ingela Bohlin as Ismene, a princess in
love with Farnace. Marc Minkowski led his Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble
in a superbly lithe and buoyant reading of the score. Opera on period
instruments is still rare at the Salzburg Festival, but this
performance should set the standard.
A more familiar and altogether not-too-shabby band was in the pit of
the Large Festival Hall two nights later: the Vienna Philharmonic under
Riccardo Muti. The occasion was Graham Vick's "Zauberflöte," another
near miss. It offered a provocative take on Mozart's most famous opera
but got lost somewhere in the onstage field of giant sunflowers.
That is where Zarastro's secret lair is located, and this
interpretation seeks to reverse the usual symbols and upend the
ennobling message typically found in the work's Masonic-inspired
libretto. Rather than a source of light and moral wisdom, Zarastro's
order is shown to be a dark place of shadows and stagnation. The Queen
of the Night, sung with solid top notes by Anna-Kristiina Kaappola, is
dressed all in white, and Zarastro, sung with great resonance and depth
by René Pape, carries a double-barreled shotgun. The priests are old
and emaciated; a giant staircase, presumably leading to higher
spiritual ground, sits broken in two. Clearly, Mr. Vick is getting at a
vision of Enlightenment run afoul, the language of universal freedom
abused as a mere cover for power politics.
This is a sharp-edged and arguably timely reading, but unfortunately,
Mr. Vick seems to lack the courage of his convictions. Zarastro is not
sinister enough. His lair, rather than merely shadowy, should have been
a place of real darkness. Tamino, sung respectably by Michael Schade,
also loses his redemptive potential by being portrayed here as a
suburban teenager who runs around in a rugby shirt, sneakers and an
aw-shucks attitude.
Papageno, dressed in colorful 1970's grunge, was sung to fine comic
effect by Markus Werba; Genia Kühmeier was an affecting Pamina. There
were also some wry comic touches in the opening scenes, as when the
Queen of the Night makes her grand entrance by showing up in Tamino's
bed. Mr. Vick also nods amusingly to C. S. Lewis with a Narnia-esque
use of wardrobe closets as gateways to various magical worlds.
Mr. Muti kept the Enlightenment satire a safe distance from the score,
leading the overture with broad-gestured dignity. And what a pleasure
to hear the Vienna Philharmonic in an opera pit, catching the
unsuspecting ear by surprise with its nimble sweet-toned woodwinds and
lush velvety strings.
Even if neither production ultimately took flight, both gave an
enticing taste of what should be in store for next year: little-known
Mozart given real attention, and the most famous Mozart reconceived.
After 2006, Jürgen Flimm will take over as the artistic director of
the festival. Here's a suggestion for his first season of programming
in 2007: give Mozart the summer off. The poor man will have earned it,
and it would do a tremendous service by refreshing his music here,
maybe even engendering some critical debate about the use and abuse of
his myth. O.K., admittedly, in this town, it's a long shot.
"Mitridate, Re di Ponto" continues for seven more performances at the
festival, Friday through Aug. 25; "The Magic Flute," for eight
performances, tonight through Aug. 28.
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Mr. Muti kept the Enlightenment satire a safe distance from the score
questa frase sembrerebbe dar torto alla Ns tesi sull' influenza dell'
impostazione registica sulla direzione d' ork...
LUX

 LUX
Si, è vero, ma non è chiaro che cosa il recensore intenda per satira
Illuminista.... non credo che nemmeno Vick stesse pensando
all'Illuminismo in senso stretto in quest'allestimento (certo che è
buffo discutere di un allestimento di cui abbiamo visto solo delle foto
e ascoltato dei commenti!!!).
Comunque il sig.Eichler sia particolarmente brillante. Sappiamo tutti
che Sarastroo si pronuncia con la Z, ma avrebbe potuto scriverlo con la
S, visto che anche in inglese ci sono molte parole che si scrivono in
un modo e si pronunciano in un altro.
E poi, perchè scrive che è un piacere ascoltare i V-Phil in buca per
un'opera come se questo non accaddesse mai? Non sono loro a suonare
allo Staatsoper? O mi sbaglio? E se non sono loro, chi sono?
Baci,
Lucia

Se ti interessa danno il Mitridate appunto stasera su OE1 (satellite
Astra)
Giuseppe Sottotetti

allo Staatsoper?
Mi par di sě... Boh, forse Herr Eichler č di Salisburgo e nn si sposta
mai a Vienna!?...	;-)))
LUX