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BERLIN OPERA NIGHT

This is a live DVD recording of a concert of opera arias at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2003.

This gala is the 10th edition of the annual event first organized in 1994 to raise fund for the German AIDS Foundation. It is in a gala concert style, with dressed up singers (evening gowns and black ties) coming out to sing their number(s) in front of the Orchestra of the German Opera-Berlin conducted by Kent Nagano. The DVD is quite short for the price. The program consists of well known pieces and none are less than well performed (with a few stand out performances). I think Mozart is over-represented with 3 out of 14 tracks while Verdi and the bel canto are omitted altogether. There is no aria from Handel opera either, a curious thing considering the current revival of Baroque operas there.

Conductor: Kent Nagano / Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Chorus Master: Ulrich Paetzholdt / Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Tracks:
1. HÄNDEL: Music for the Royal Firework: La Rejouissance (Orchestral)
2. MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro: Non so piu cosa son (Angelika Kirchschlager -mezzo soprano)
3. MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro: Voi che sapete (A Kirchschlager -mezzo soprano)
4. MOZART: Don Giovanni: Madamina, il catalogo (The Catalog Song) (Rene Pape -bass)

These first 4 numbers constitute a light and friendly opening to the concert. Händel’s ‘La Rejouissance’ serves as a background music to get the audience settled down... much the function of Baroque opera overtures, really. It is briskly conducted by Maestro Nagano who is generally outstanding in his conducting through out the evening of wide ranging repertoire.

Tracks 2 & 3 are love sick arias sung by Cherubino, one of opera’s most celebrated ‘trouser roles’ (young male character sung by a female singer). Cherubino is one of Frau Kirchschlager’s signature roles, but she is more effective when she is singing and acting it on-stage than in a concert setting. Without the context of the opera surrounding her, there isn’t much emotion projected in her beautiful dark mezzo voice. If you don’t know the words, you wouldn’t have a clue what Cherubino is singing about. It is a beautiful rendition, nonetheless. The lack of drama is justifiable in this concert setting.

The wonderful German bass Rene Pape sings Leporello’s famous ‘Catalog Aria in Track 4. This is the song Don Giovanni (Don Juan)’s page sings in recounting his boss's conquest of 2000+ women all over Europe. It is nicely slick and dismissive read... Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni’s rejected conquest, wouldn’t get any sympathy from this Leporello.

5. PUCCINI: Tosca: Vissi d’arte (Michele Crider -mezzo soprano)
6. DVORAK: Rusalka: Song to the Moon (Adrianne Pieczonka -soprano)
7. WAGNER: Lohengrin: Einsam in trueben (Elsa’s Prayer) (Anne Schwanewilms -soprano)
8. R STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier: Marie Theres! Hab’mir’s gelobt (trio) (A Kirchschlager, A Pieczonka, Juliane Banse)

Tracks 5-8 are the dreamy nostalgic opera scenes. Track 5, being the heaviest of the bunch, is the heart-wrenching song Tosca sings in her despair over the undeserved fate awaiting her and her beloved Cavaradossi. Michele Crider is no longer at her peak and there is now a wide vibrato in the voice that threatens to turn every held high note into a tremolo (which could be quite distracting), but she is so into the drama of the piece that I couldn't care less about her wide-pulsing notes. This Tosca may be short on nuances, but she is long in heart and receives a well deserved thunderous round of applause from the appreciative audience.

This is my first exposure to the Canadian soprano Adriane Pieczonka and I’m mightily impressed by her sweet and powerful voice and her wonderful musicality in Rusalka’s operatic version of ‘Part of Your World’ (ever seen Disney’s The Little Mermaid?). This rendition is in original Czech (so I haven’t got a clue how well she pronounces things). Her Rusalka isn’t as vulnerable as Renee Fleming’s, but this is just as good a showing in a different style.

Anne Schwanewilms, the rising young German lirico-spinto soprano, does a hypnotic reading of Elsa’s trance-like prayer from Lohengrin in track 7 (this is one of the few hummable things in Wagner opera). Ignoring a few off-pitched notes, she is perfectly in character as Elsa ... as if she is really seeing her knight in shiny armor precipitating in front of her. Frau Schwanewilms looks to be a slim girl, but sounds like a giantess! I hope to catch her live in a Wagner or Strauss opera one of these days.

Track 8 is arguably the most beautiful soprano trio ever written. It is the piece that starts the finale of Richard Strauss’ popular Der Rosenkavalier, with the older woman giving her blessing to let her young lover take up with a girl more suitable for him... “Hab’mir’s gelobt ihn Lieb zu haben, in der richtigen Weis (I promised myself to love him in the right way).” Unfortunately the 3 voices here aren’t well matched and take a while to get in sync. It also doesn’t help that the Sophie of Juliane Banse doesn’t take much care to prevent her big voice from drowning out her 2 partners, and Mme Pieczonka looks just about busting her throat to be heard over Banse and Maestro Nagano’s blooming orchestra (his orchestra is supposed to be blooming, Banse isn’t... she's supposed to blend with the other soprano voices instead of being the loudest voice heard all the time). Frau Kirchschlager doesn’t exert herself as much and coasts with the French horns doubling her line... but this being her 3rd number of the night she can have some slack.

9. PUCCINI: Turandot: Nessun dorma (Salvatore Licitra -tenor)
10. SAINT-SAËNS: Samson et Dalila: Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix (Grace Bumbry -mezzo soprano)
11. MASSENET: Werther: Act III prelude - Werther! Qui m’aurait dit? (Letter Scene) (Vesselina Kasarova -mezzo soprano)
12. LEONCAVALLO: I Pagliacci: Recitar!... Vesti la giuba (Vladimir Galouzine -baritone)

And here come the heavy hitter dramatic arias of the night. Track 9 is by now associated exclusively with Luciano Pavarotti (whose withdrawal from the Met production of Turandot was the occasion of Salvatore Licitra’s rise to stardom). This rendition won’t make you forget Pavarotti, but it isn’t bad either. All the notes are there, but Sr Licitra isn’t in good voice and he sounds uncomfortable somehow.

The American soprano turned mezzo Grace Bumbry takes Dalila’s Act I aria(track 10) quite slower than I’d prefer and her vibrato is about as wide as Ms Crider’s has been, but she sings like the femme fatale with a grudge that Dalila is. Conviction really does go a long way in making the audience forget any flaw in the singer’s voice. It also helps that she blasts off with a convincing high Bb at the end. Gotta love her for it!

Track 11 is the longest excerpt of the night and also the most dramatic. It is hard to imagine the famous Letter Scene from Massenet’s Werther done any more effectively. Maestro Nagano leads a darkly romantic read of the orchestral prelude that is perfectly matched by Vesselina Kasarova’s dark and dramatically realistic read that will put you right into Charlotte’s dimly lit room in that oppressive Christmas’ Eve. She practically turns this music into a French style mad scene. Very traumatic to hear... I’m left shaking with trepidation for the tragedy to come as her final 'et tu fremiras! (and you will tremble)' fades away with the orchestra. To attest that I’m no chicken, the live audience seems similarly shaken and it takes them a while to recover. Watching Frau Kasarova sings in concert setting can be a bit intimidating, though. She gets into the opera scene in her own head and practically acts out her thoughts as she sings. This version is even better than the one in her complete 1997 cd of the opera. The voice is darker now (with really powerful forte thrust) and the French is much, much better!

It is to Vladimir Galouzine’s credit that he manages to snatch the audience back after such a dramatic performance. Track 12 is from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. A short, bitter song of the clown who puts on a smile even as his heart bleeds. Opera purists will skin me for it, but I actually like this rendition better than Jussi Bjorling’s. Galouzine is neither as polished nor vocally gorgeous as the legendary Swede, but he does sing with his heart on his sleeves. Thankfully, this is also the last ‘heavy’ number of the evening... lest we all forget the setting is a gala concert and not a real opera performance.

13. LEHÁR: Das Land des Lächelns: Dein ist mein ganzes Herz (Charles Castronovo -tenor)
14. J STRAUSS II: Die Fledermaus: Brüderlein und Schwesterlein (ensemble)

The fast-rising American tenor Charles Castronovo shows off his big (heavy-ish) tenor voice in this ardent rendition of the best known aria from Lehár’s operetta, The Land of Smiles. It is a delightfully romantic tenor song with sweeping melody that lets him show off his upper range (tho I find this tenor a bit heavy handed with his German).

The evening ends with a delightful ensemble of the party number Brotherhood and Sisterhood from the Waltz King Johann Strauss (II)’s blockbuster of an operetta, Die Fledermaus. The baritone Markus Bruck and the counter-tenor Jochen Kowalski singing Falke’s and Orlofsky’s solos opening to the number apparently had their own solo number cut from this DVD production. Their missing solos (and 21 other numbers) do appear in the audio CD version on Sony BMG (RCA) label titled Festlische Operngala, however. It is a fun piece with all the singers joining in (some had not sung the piece before and are seen reading from the score). Herr Kowalski has one of the better counter-tenor voices out there, but really... to me Orlofsky just has to be sung by a mezzo. He doesn't sound mean enough in the girlish head voice counter-tenors sing with!

All in all, a good DVD of good to great performances of 13 of opera’s best loved tunes. It’s just too short for me to give it 5 stars for this price. It also doesn’t help that I can’t even say for sure if all the proceedings from the sales will go to the AIDS Foundation. The track lining only mentions that the proceedings from the event itself was donated ( though 5 Euro is donated per sale of the CD version).

I’m not a German insider, so I’m curious. If others have seen the DVD, do you know who that drop dead gorgeous sleek platinum blonde lady in the audience that the camera keeps panning to is?

1 DVD. Run-time: 73 min. Subtitles in English, German, French, Italian. Booklet contains track listing and a brief recap of the night’s event in English, German, and French. No printed libretto.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4