The Autumn Opera Season in Athens : a report from Bettina Mara (BM)

Verdi: Nabucco

Greek National Opera, Olympia Theater

GNO Orchestra – conductor: Elias Voudouris 27.10.2007

and:

Arnold Schönberg: Erwartung

Alexander Zemlinsky: Der Zwerg

Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall Prague Radio Orchestra – conductor: Nikos Tsouchlos 29.10.2007

Nabucco
 

The Athenian opera season got off to a rocky start this autumn. Greek National Opera opened with a rehash of Julia Pevzner’s version of Nabucco (reviewed here in March), somehow lacking the verve of performances earlier this year and stripped of the big names featured in the original cast – Maria Guleghina and Leo Nucci – although they were admirably replaced by a first-rate Mlada Khudoley as Abigaille and above all David Wakeham with his consummate and moving portrayal of the title role. Francesco Ellero D’Artegna was a definite bonus as Zaccaria and tenor Herman Villar as Ismaele also contributed to making the evening worthwhile.

But it is beyond me why some of the very ideas that made this production coherent were scrapped, such as having the chorus hold up pictures of missing and persecuted persons from all over the world during “va pensiero”, thus bringing home the director’s message about the universal evils of oppression and arbitrary power. Not a wholly auspicious beginning overall, and the uncertainly surrounding the issue of who will be asked to follow in the footsteps of Stefanos Lazaridis - dismissed after just one brilliant and irreverent season as artistic director - adds to the general feeling of unease. Lazaridis may have been more popular with the public than with GNO’s administration and staff, but his will nonetheless be a difficult act to follow. In the meantime, the man at the helm of GNO is Ulysses Kyriacopoulos, president of the Board of Directors at GNO, a shrewd but likeable technocrat visibly dedicated to making ‘his’ opera house into a sound financial venture. One can only hope that someone with an inspired artistic vision will be called upon to join forces with him -  for now, ticket prices have gone up yet another ten euros from last year without anything happening that would seem to warrant a night at the opera being more expensive here than in many cities in, say, Germany.

Der Zwerg

Meanwhile, the Athens Megaron has not put opera very high up on its list of priorities this season, kicking off with four performances of Expectation, presented as a double bill with  The Dwarf. Attendance was lukewarm – perhaps no major surprise with regard to the Schönberg, not a piece that draws crowds in the first place. On top of that, word got out that Elena Nebera (replacing Inga Nielsen) was far from convincing in this musical monologue, her top notes and German pronunciation sorely lacking in clarity. Mercifully, this part of the evening only lasted half an hour, making way for a rather more intriguing performance of Zemlinsky’s opera based on the story by Oscar Wilde and featuring Marlis Petersen as Dona Clara with her crystal clear soprano. She has succeeded in proving that singers no longer need to have a ‘big’ voice in order to be able to throw their weight around in today’s opera scene, while always wisely concentrating on the repertory that suits her best - another one of her signature roles is  Berg’s Lulu. Her colleague was Boiko Zvetanov who gave a poignant rendition of the dwarf who dies of a broken heart. Alas, his splendid tenor was frequently drowned in blasts of sound from the orchestra pit, where Nikos Tsouchlos was presumably getting carried away with some of the admittedly striking passages in the score. Some of Gottfried Pilz’s costumes, particularly the maids’, were a little gaudy and over the top, but he did a brilliant job with the hugely effective sliding mirror sets. This is somewhat less true of Eike Gramss’ directing, which seemed to fluctuate between flurries of activity (nearly leading to head-on-collisions between some of the singers) and long stretches of inertia near the end.

Unfortunately, the only other staged opera scheduled for this season at the Megaron is L’Italiana in Algeri in a revival of a historical (i.e. old-as-the-hills) Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production, starring Agnes Baltsa, who is more inclined to sing in her home country now that she is past her prime. Though Baltsa most definitely still has her moments, this is  not much to get excited about, but I look forward to standing corrected.

Bettina Mara

Pictures © Stefanos 2007

 

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