Music in Berlin :Oper für Alle !

The poor quality of my video is a shame really compared to the beauty of the Staatskappelle. Daniel Barenboïm was conducting Eugen onegin the night before. He has tremendous energy .
I loved that sunday afternoon in Berlin.
This musical week-end was unexpected, it all happened when I went to the operahouse and discovered this musical event. Daniel Barenboïm and his orchestra made all the peole happy ! They gave so much to this fantastic audience, to me who happened to be there. It is always a question of giving and taking isnt'it? What do muscians get from us ?
I was moved to be part of such a friendly audience.

Special thought for a special singer.

Rita Gorr: Eboli, Don carlo.
Ah! Più non vedrò... O don fatale! (Don Carlo)
Teatro Nacional De São Carlos Lisboa, April 5, 1964 Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, conductor

No patience. Why not ???

As I was waiting in front of Martin Gropius Museum, one of the finest building in Berlin, I soon realised I was in a terrible smoke which after half an hour's waiting made me cough and an hour later I had to take sips off my small mineral water bottle from my cotton bag because it was becoming unbearable to breathe in such an acrid smoke. The queue was not moving as it was lunch-time and not many museums are opened on mondays in Berlin. The exhibition was worth waiting for! When preparing my trip, I was so thrilled to find out I could actually see Frida Khalo's paintings!

There was a lot of coughing in the queue and the ugly chimney stuck on this beautiful façade was a disgrace with all that smoke coming out! how on earth did they get permission for such a terrible eyesore?
Gradually coughing and drinking water from time to time, I eventually was in the building to face another queue for the tickets(a very unwelcoming gentleman was at the ticket-office and a shocking price too for the whole museum, 21€ and for the exhibition only 10€), then another queue facing the staircase, in front of a lady -attendant. I was still coughing and when she inspected my cotton bag (with my small mineral bottle and my guidebook) she told me off, and asked me to leave the bottle at the cloackroom downstairs. At that very moment my patience went off , I politely said I needed the water because I was choking due to the long queue in the smoke and that even indoors the smoke could be smelt, and coughing heard, she said something in German, I asked her if she understood my English then she took me to the ticket-office and the same unwelcoming gentleman told me in perfect English that the rule was no bottle in the museum, so I said well in that case I am not staying... got my money back, and went off.
I had dreadful thoughts during this unfortunate episode, walked up the road, took a photo of this façade and then went through the open air Typographie des terrors which is next to this disfigured Martin Gropius Museum.

Back to Berlin.

My fascination was deeper than in Oct 08. I have not found any clues yet for either the flying chairs or the whirling ones, just like dervish dancers. The general atmosphere of these repetitive slow motion movements was rather poetic combined with the music and the attitudes of the outstanding couple of actors formed by Anna Samuil and Rolando Villazon. Anna Samuil sang Tatiana even more heartedly; her voice has the real colours suited to the music and the Letter was stunning. Tchaikovsky under Daniel Barenboïm's conducting sounds utterly amazing, and made me recall having similar pangs in my heart at some subtle musical moments. The stage is never empty and the music flows. At one point I thought it could be seen as an oratorio for the death of the passion and the real love of two characters out of four, before listening to what could sound like Lenski's Requiem; and in fact Freyer is right to simulate his death on this musical phrase. Red Pierrot falls and black Columbine weeps silently. This time I think I did not keep watching Lenski; I tried hard to focus on the Freyer Ensemble in order to catch the meaning of it all. I was caught up in it like I had been last time perhaps deeper as I had had two years to wonder about it. The beauty of the orchestra and the singing is a kind of treasure here. René Pape's Gremin was a success and Eugene Onegin sung by Artur Rucinski was much more convincing this time. It is possible to think that this production, which could be the last one, was indeed the best one! The dancers from the Ensemble, especially the couples on each side of the stage often had attitudes which puzzled me, one standing on top of the other in absolute dead motion, looking like a drawing in those black and white suits. During the applause, which was terrific, stamping feet could be heard, something I had not heard for years - in those days stamping in the Gods used to produce clouds of dust, since the floor was wooden... The artists and the orchestra came onto the stage and went out to cheer the people who were watching the broadcast outdoors on Bebelplatz. Another night to remember.

My idea, now that I have tried twice to follow this strange poetical production, is that this time I went through it like an oratorio, knowing the story quite well and feeling the deep wounds of the characters. The dreadful waltz sounds much more like a dance macabre and then no doubt the chairs are flying, dead and empty.
At the top of the steep slope Lenski stands like a red cross then falls.
Tatiana, a weeping madonna by his side is mourning.
Olga is out of focus. She is too futile to be part of it. From the left hand corner of the stage, gradually the shroud falls and invades the stage, completely black by the end of the waltz.
Onegin forsaw the strong link which might have been the right one, matching Tatiana and Lenski.
Achim Freyer shook this very romantic opera to the boundaries of psychoanalytic introspection of the characters!

Whatever took my mind away was immediatly summoned by the spendour of the music. I had once more the impression of a new tempo for the whole Tchaikovsky opera.
Anna Samuil struck me more and I enjoyed her amazing rendition of ths role.
I would have liked to see her without her mask at the stagedoor, but she did not show up. Rolando Villazon told us she was at the reception.
René Pape, and of course Rolando, welcomed the fans after the show; again a very warm meeting with Rolando, who even hummed 'la fleur que tu m'avais jetée" while signing my programme and sketching the flower!

And it is all a question of dates - in October 11, he will definitly become the Chairman of Marseille's International opera singing contest... he is a wonderful person and a great singer of course!



sikalische Leitung
Daniel Barenboim
Inszenierung | Bühnenbild | Lichtkonzeption
Achim Freyer
Regiemitarbeit
Tilman Hecker
Kostüme
Lena Lukjanova
Amanda Freyer
Chöre
Eberhard Friedrich

Larina
Katharina Kammerloher
Tatjana
Anna Samuil
Olga
Maria Gortsevskaya
Filipjewna
Margarita Nekrasova
Eugen Onegin
Artur Rucinski
Lenski
Rolando Villazón
Fürst Gremin
René Pape
Triquet
Stephan Rügamer
Saretzki
James Homann
Ein Hauptmann
Rosen Krastev


Staatskapelle Berlin
Staatsopernchor
Freyer Ensemble