The most fruitful years of the festival were those during the directorship of Ulf and his successor Howard Arman. The Festwochen became a breeding ground for new talent, a stepping stone in the great careers of future masters of historically informed performance, a model for the founders of new festivals and an encouragement to include early music in the programmes of other prestigious events. Something started to go wrong during the reign of Ren\u00e9 Jacobs, who treated Innsbruck somewhat dispassionately, as a sideline to his international activity, which was developing more dynamically outside Austria. The crisis worsened during the tenure of Alessandro De Marchi, an alumnus of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and one-time assistant to Jacobs, who failed to revive the festival\u2019s tried-and-tested but a bit outdated formula. De Marchi undoubtedly deserves praise for inaugurating the Cesti-Wettbewerb, a competition in honour of the Italian composer Pietro Antonio Cesti, who served for some time as the Kapellmeister at the court of Archduke Ferdinand Charles in Innsbruck. Prizewinners from previous years, including Em\u00f6ke Bar\u00e1th, Rupert Charlesworth, Sreten Manojlovi\u0107 and the Polish mezzo-soprano Natalia Kawa\u0142ek, are developing beautifully, building careers not only in the Baroque repertoire. However, sceptics grumbled that De Marchi was making misguided programming choices and put his own ambitions above the patience of listeners, who were treated to hours-long performances of not always interesting rarities. The critics also raised concerns about De Marchi\u2019s striking but increasingly mannered interpretations.<\/p>\n
Graupner’s Dido<\/em>. Jone Mart\u00ednez as Menalippe and Andreas Wolf (Hiarbas). Photo: Birgit Gufler<\/p>\n One thing is certain: the festival began to lose the interest of audiences and foreign critics. It was time for reforms. The change of the guard in 2023, after the last season programmed by De Marchi, brought with it a change in the structure of the entire Festwochen management. Markus Lutz, the previous Managing Director, became Executive Commercial Director; Eva-Maria Sens was appointed Artistic Director; while the harpsichordist, conductor and researcher Ottavio Dantone, well-known to Polish audiences as well, was made the new Musical Director.<\/p>\n The motto of this year\u2019s Festwochen was \u201cWhere do we come from? Where are we going?\u201d I have already answered the first question above. If, as I suspect, the organisers were referring to the title of Gauguin\u2019s famous painting, the motto was missing the question \u201cWho are we?\u201d Which is not entirely clear in the case of Eva-Maria Sens, a graduate in history and German studies, who has been collaborating with the festival since 2015, previously in the much less prominent position of head of artistic administration, and has no particularly impressive track record. For the moment her vision is not much different from the declarations of most newly appointed directors, trying to lure the audience with an open dialogue between the past and the present. It will be possible to answer the question \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d in a few years, although it is already worrying that the festival\u2019s musical directors will serve no more than three to five seasons. In my opinion this is too short a time to give the festival an identity and leave a clear mark of artistic individuality on it. It\u2019s a pity, because Dantone and his Accademia Bizantina, the festival\u2019s resident orchestra, represent the commendable trend of communicating with listeners in a purely musical language, without unnecessary fireworks, with a deep sense that the content and the emotions of compositions written centuries ago will prove intelligible also to a modern, well-prepared audience. Yet it takes time and determination to develop a new audience. Let\u2019s hope both Dantone and his successors will not lack either.<\/p>\n In evaluating the entire festival, the programme of which, spread over more than five weeks, included stagings of three operas, the Cesti Competition, over twenty concerts and as many fringe events, I have to rely on the opinions of the local critics for obvious reasons. I arrived Innsbruck for the last few days of the Festwochen, consciously \u2013 albeit regretfully \u2013 forgoing Giacomelli\u2019s Cesare in Egitto<\/em> under Dantone and a concert performance of Handel\u2019s Arianna in Creta<\/em> featuring the winners of last year\u2019s competition. I chose Christoph Graupner\u2019s Dido, K\u00f6nigin von Carthago<\/em>, conducted by Andrea Marcon \u2013 the operatic debut of the twenty-four-year-old composer, who not long before that got a job as a harpsichordist at Hamburg\u2019s Oper am G\u00e4nsemarkt. The building in the square where, contrary to its name, poultry was never traded, with the name most likely referring to the estate of the landowner Ambrosius Gosen, was the first public opera house in Germany, opening in 1678, just over forty years after the inauguration of Venice\u2019s Teatro San Cassiano. It was a stage where no castrati were hired, but where audiences nevertheless expected the same thing as in Venice: elaborate arias full of intricate embellishments and complicated librettos with lots of subplots.<\/p>\n Graupner wrote Dido<\/em> after the departure of his younger colleague Handel, a violinist and harpsichordist at the Hamburg theatre, who before traveling to Italy had managed to present the well-received Almira<\/em> and the now-lost Nero<\/em> at the G\u00e4nsemarkt. Of the scores of Handel\u2019s later \u201cHamburg\u201d operas, Florindo<\/em> and Daphne<\/em>, only fragments have survived and they are insufficient to warrant a reliable reconstruction. The operas of Johann Mattheson \u2013 the same to whom H\u00e4ndel refused to give way at the harpsichord for a performance of Die ungl\u00fcckselige Cleopatra<\/em> and was very nearly killed by the enraged composer, an event that turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the two men \u2013 are yet to see their renaissance. The first performance in our time of Mattheson\u2019s Boris Goudenow<\/em>, which premiered in Hamburg in 1710, three years after Graupner\u2019s operatic debut, did not take place until 2005. Of the three composers, whose oeuvres from that period perfectly reflect the \u201cprogramme line\u201d of Oper am G\u00e4nsemarkt during the house\u2019s first heyday under the direction of Reinhard Keiser, one, Mattheson, was Hamburg-born, while the other two received their first musical training in two Saxon cities: Halle (Handel) and Leipzig (Graupner). Despite the undoubted stylistic differences, their works from the period represent German opera of the transitional phase between the mature and late Baroque, that is, according to Piotr Kami\u0144ski, \u201can intoxicating mixture of Venetian opera, French choreography, German heartiness and universal bad taste\u201d.<\/p>\n Robin Johanssen (Dido), Jacob Lawrence (Aeneas), and Jorge Franco (Achates). Photo: Birgit Gufler<\/p>\n The occasional stagings of Almira<\/em> aside, this eclectic genre is still a terra incognita for most Baroque opera lovers. Dido<\/em> \u2013 like Almira, which does not resemble any of Handel\u2019s later operas \u2013 surprises with its huge size, mixing of German arias and recitatives with Italian arias, typical of Hamburg opera, a range of improbable subplots and an extraordinary sensuality of sound. It also reveals the composer\u2019s Leipzig training, especially his mastery of the art of counterpoint and fugue. The orchestration is dense and dark, combinations of instruments\u00a0 not obvious, changes of mood abrupt, play of modes and keys deeply thought out and linked to the character of the protagonists (most of the title role is in minor keys). Worthy of note are the elaborate ensembles and choruses, in part inspired by French composers, and in part even featuring literal references to Purcell\u2019s Dido and Aeneas<\/em> \u2013 which would confirm musicologists\u2019 most recent theories that the father of English opera\u2019s oeuvre had a much bigger influence on the music of continental composers than previously thought. Graupner also made several significant corrections to Heinrich Hinsch\u2019s libretto, demonstrating an unerring sense of drama \u2013 corrections sometimes as subtle as changing the order of the chorus\u2019 words at the beginning of Act III from \u201cDido lebe\u201d (long live Dido) to \u201cLebe, Dido\u201d to make the link to the following ominous duet between Aeneas and Achates, \u201cLebe, Dido, lebe wohl\u201d (Farewell, Dido, farewell), all the stronger.<\/p>\n It’s a pity that Marcon took the accusations against De Marchi too much to his heart and opted for rather serious cuts to the score. Many arias were removed from the opera, as was the entire role of Iras, Dido\u2019s confidante in love with Achates, with secco recitatives being drastically trimmed as well, sometimes to the detriment of the musical dramaturgy. Perhaps, however, the audience at the Tiroler Landestheater indeed was not ready yet to sit through the complete work that would have taken at least four and a half hours to perform without the cuts. In the truncated version it did hold the audience\u2019s attention, a lot of credit for which is due to the Italian production team: the dancer and choreographer Deda Cristina Colonna who was in charge of directing (in 2017, shortly after Stefan Sutkowski\u2019s death, her production of Lully\u2019s Armida<\/em>, presented in Innsbruck two years earlier, was brought to the Warsaw Chamber Opera), and the set designer Domenico Franchi. A sensible compromise between the sumptuousness of the historicising costumes and props, and the minimalism of the geometric, sliding decorations \u2013 magnificently lit by Cesare Agoni, who bathed the stage in vivid, saturated shades of blue, red, black, white and, above all, gold \u2013 provided space for the singers and ample room for manoeuvre for the director, who patched up the gaps in the libretto with elaborate acting gestures alluding to both Baroque dance and modern forms of dance and pantomime.<\/p>\n The biggest hero of the evening was, however, Andrea Marcon, leading the soloists, NovoCanto vocal ensemble and La Cetra orchestra with an energy that proved infectious to all the performers, but at the same time with precision and without falling into irritating mannerisms. He beautifully spun tuneful, expressive melodic lines, intricately weaving them into the dense, shimmering texture, only to occasionally pull out a single thread from it. He placed the accents brilliantly, played with timbre skilfully and, above all, perfectly balanced the proportions between the stage and the orchestra pit, which, given the rather uneven vocal cast, was not an easy task.<\/p>\n I was a little disappointed by the eponymous Dido portrayed by Robin Johanssen, a singer endowed with a sensual and fresh soprano with a charmingly silvery timbre, which to my ear is more appropriate for the classical repertoire, however. Her singing, smooth, even across the registers and confident in the coloraturas, lacked primarily specifically Baroque ornamentation. In addition, Johanssen took a long time to warm up and achieved her full expression only in Act III (especially in the harrowing aria \u201cKomm doch, komm, gew\u00fcnschter Teil\u201d, in which she was accompanied with uncommon sensitivity by Eva Saladin, the ensemble\u2019s concert mistress). Alicia Amo, cast in two roles \u2013 Anna, Dido\u2019s sister, and the goddess Venus \u2013 has a soprano that is bright and rather harsh in tone, marked by a persistent, uncontrolled vibrato, which the singer tried to cover with expressive delivery of the musical text, not always succeeding. I was definitely more impressed by the velvety-voiced, very technically proficient Jone Mart\u00ednez in the soprano roles of Juno and the Egyptian princess Menalippe, whose love for the Numidian prince Hiarbas, head over heels in love with Dido, would find fulfilment only after the death of the Carthaginian queen. The weakest links in the male cast were the tenors: Jacob Lawrence (Aeneas), handsome-voiced but unconvincing as a character, and the clearly still inexperienced Jorge Franco as Achates. On the other hand excellent performances came from the unfortunate suitors: Andreas Wolf, who impressed with his sonorous, well-placed bass-baritone and stylish ornamentation in the role of Hiarbas; and Jos\u00e9 Antonio L\u00f3pez, whose noble, mature baritone was perfect for the role of Juba, Prince of Tyras infatuated with Anna.<\/p>\n Musica hispanica. <\/em>Los Elementos, Alberto Migu\u00e9lez Rouco. Photo: Mona Wibmer<\/p>\n I stayed in Innsbruck for two more days. The following day, at the Jesuit church, I was able to enjoy rarely heard music by two eighteenth-century composers, Jos\u00e9 de Nebra and Francesco Corselli, fragments of which \u2013 arranged in a vocal-instrumental mass typical of Madrid\u2019s Capilla Real at the time \u2013 were performed passionately and unpretentiously by the Los Elementos ensemble conducted by the Spanish countertenor and harpsichordist Alberto Migu\u00e9lez Rouco. The day after that, as part of the new \u201cOttavio Plus\u201d series, Dantone and Alessandro Tampieri, concert master and soloist of the Accademia Bizantina, gave a concert at the Spanish Hall, presenting a sophisticated programme featuring works for solo harpsichord and harpsichord in dialogue with violin, viola and viola d\u2019amore: from the \u201cproto-Baroque\u201d Frescobaldi, through Attilio Ariosti, Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach, to the heralds of Classicism, Johann Gottlieb Graun and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.<\/p>\n Ottavio Plus. <\/em>Ottavio Dantone and Alessandro Tampieri. Photo: Mona Wibmer<\/p>\n The venues were packed, but pilgrimages of music lovers from abroad are yet to materialise. There are new faces among the performers, the repertoire is already a bit different, the festival is slowly changing course and setting off into the unknown. \u201cAll remains different\u201d, the new directors announced, alluding to the hit song by the German actor and singer Herbert Gr\u00f6nemeyer. I hope they will keep their word. The refrain of Gr\u00f6nemeyer\u2019s song begins with the words \u201cthere\u2019s so much to lose, you can only win\u201d.<\/p>\n Translated by: Anna Kijak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Veterans of the Polish period instrument performance wax emotional about Innsbruck. In the turbulent 1990s, when they came to the Tyrolean capital \u2013 full of hope and poor as church mice \u2013 to study with the greatest masters, they would sometimes slip in without a ticket to concerts at the Hofburg, the Spanish Hall of … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-8335","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8335"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8345,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8335\/revisions\/8345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Jone-Martinez-Menalippe-Andreas-Wolf-Hiarbas-c-birgit-gufler-33.jpg\")
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