Foto: Axel Zeininger/STOP ( Wiener Zeitung) Sorry for the tiny photo, couldn't find any other. I wouldn’t normally bore you with my travel details, but yesterday was just crazy and not in a good way!
This Manon in Wien was my only one and .. I almost missed it!! I got up before 6am, got to Heathrow where my flight had been moved to another terminal. Because of these changes chaos descended upon my terminal... screaming kids, nervous parents, half drunks off to holidays in the sunshine, etc. I got trapped in the security cue for about and hour, ran the miles long marathon to the gate only to have it literally shut in my face and be denied boarding! Got dragged off still running to customer services, where I arrived still before the actual departure time of my flight… what a joke!!! Chaos there as well, as I was obviously not the only mishap of the security debacle and I looked desperately upon the poker face of the BA attendant searching for the next available connection….half of me wanted to knock dead the one who dragged me there from my flight and the other was praying for divine intervention and the good will of the BA attendant in customer services. He says… well, we have only one more BA flight to Wien today (my heart stopped, my feet gave way….) and it leaves London 2,40pm and gets into Wien (tic toc tic toc tic toc… the man couldn’t find the stupid time!!!!) 6,10pm….. glups! Then he goes on saying…. I have another one from Austrian leaving at 4pm and getting into Wien around 7,30pm… Nooooooooooo!!!!! I have a performance at the Staatsoper that starts at 7,30pm, really need to be there!! He goes: are you singing??? ( me thinks, lucky you I don’t!) No, but it is of extreme importance that I be there. I was actually picturing myself there, getting to Wien and not being able to see the performance (heart attack, fainting and the lot). Don’t know what he imagined in the end, but I managed to convince him that although the show could go on without me, I would be miserable without the show :-)
Of course this was all done in an extremely polite and calm manner both from me and the BA staff :-) After all, I had to put up a nice face to convince them to put me on that flight, acting the way I felt like would have only gotten me sent home packing :-) By the way, this was the only flight I lost, ever, in all these years of travelling!
So there I was, stranded in T3 at Heathrow looking forward to a couple of hours of doing not much else but imagine all the ways the flight could go wrong and be late and me not make it in time to the performance. I’ll spare you the details of how I decided to change from jeans to my elegant opera clothes at the airport and get on the plane like that. No wonder people where looking at me like something was definitely off, black silk flowing, jewels, make up and all and a huge computer backpack on top of my elegant jacket and a suitcase in hand…. Did I tell you that I was going straight to work from Wien? That is 7am flight back to London and straight to the train to work.
So I just pretended to be a very eccentric lady and smiled haughtily to all the people ogling me. The flight attendants wanted to seat me in business but I said no thanks, cattle class for me, I just enjoy to dress up :-) At least they thought it was funny and helped me with my luggage :-) Unfortunately this didn’t stop other people from missing the flight and oh joy! We had to unload their luggage which made us 30 min late departing…. At least nothing else went wrong after that. We landed at 6.20pm and I’ll spare you the details of how I sprinted through the airport with the backpack on my back and the suitcase in hand. I saw the city train was due to leave in just two minutes and decided to skip the elevator and jump down the stairs… except I dropped the suitcase by mistake and it went plonc plonc plonc down the stairs. I just stopped and bent over laughing watching it slide down the stairs without me! I honestly said out loud: works fine for me! and followed the suitcase down, picked it up and made it to the train with 20 seconds to spare. In town I jumped into a taxi, then realised I had no cash, had to stop by a cash machine and finally I was at the Staatsoper at 7,10pm! I got the stinky eye from all the elegant grannies I passed by inside the house when I rushed to pick up my ticket (yes, I had to do that as well!) with my suitcase and backpack. The man at the wardrobe almost dropped his eyes on the desk where I heaved the suitcase and the backpack (hope he didn’t pull a muscle when he tried lifting them off, thinking they were feather-light…. No such luck I’m afraid, a week’s work stuff in there). More stinky eye from a couple of ladies and gents who watched this, but at this point I just couldn’t care less. This is no traditional opera attire, I know… so sue me! :-)
And – unbelievable! – 15 min before performance start I was actually sitting in my very own seat in the Staatsoper, row 13 (wonder if it had anything to do with the lucky number, hm….. )
I’m afraid I will make up all the rest about the performance… I fell asleep after the first few bars… and woke up to the sound of someone booming down on me “Fuyeeeeeeezzz, ahh fuyeeeezzzzz” thinking: Nooo, pleeeeease no more running!!!!!
Just kidding ;-)))
Of course I didn’t fall asleep, I mean how could I with all the noise the orchestra was making? The percussionists definitely had a schnitzel too many yesterday! And so did the brass section and the conductor who drove the proceedings with …. Enthusiasm?!?!?! The first act was too loud altogether and you had to listen your way through the noise to hear the voices. Sitting towards the back of the auditorium acoustics shouldn’t have been a problem, but the sound from the pit didn’t mix well at all. The conductor (Miguel Gomez-Martinez) luckily tamed down his approach from the 2nd scene onwards and we got a bit more balance in the sound. But I did feel plagued by the brass and percussion all night, the triangle sounded as if it is was tingling in my ear! I am not one prone to comparisons, but I couldn’t help but remember the elegant sound of the Chicago orchestra under Villaume…and the baroque feel of the slower parts, perfectly suggesting time period, flourished exterior used to hide steamy background. I couldn’t find any of that last night. I guess with the kind of schedule and rapid change of performances, singers and conductors they are forced to keep, they don’t get much chance to refine the sound and work on the details. Overall the night was ok, I just missed the details, the nuances.
Thankfully, what lacked in the music was supplied plentifully by the singers, and especially Jonas. His voice just carries the music within it. And yesterday he just wowed the audience with the piani, the shadings, the dynamics. All the technique I so like to rave about was there, supporting the emotion which shaped the singing. The applause after his “reve” was the first real, felt one of the night. You could hear the unspoken “ooooohhhhh” going through the audience. We all know he is a good actor, but the detail in every gesture yesterday was amazing. Every facial expression was natural and convincing, there was neither too much nor too little of anything.
Nora Amsellem started off a bit wobbly, but she warmed up gradually and by the second part I liked her. Her voice is not perfect but she sang with feeling. To be fair to her the production also doesn’t make it easy for her, she has to jump from the bedroom scene in Paris straight into the next one and this is too much singing packed in one (even with the conductor sometimes trying to take it down a notch for her volum-wise). This is probably not a Manon production that suits her best, she is probably too warm, too sensitive for it. The portrayal in this staging is a bit out there, obviously fitting Anna (who I saw in it last year) better than it does Nora. As a consequence, some gestures seemed a bit forced and unnatural, but in other parts she was more credible and altogether I think I like the more sensitive version of Manon better. Compared to last time when I saw this production the second scene in Paris was more tender and loving, the relationship between the two more credible. Both Jonas and Nora managed to create a real connection on stage and I liked the fact that it was more subtle and natural than expected.
I think half way through the second scene the public was really hooked. Less creaking, coughing and overall more concentrated silence. And it was this feeling of intimacy that continued to the end, even through the more crowded scenes.
The St Sulpice scene was even more emotional than I imagined it to be, and this is more due to Jonas than to Nora, he seemed to drive the happening, even if it is more through his reaction to her. She did say and sound all the right ways, but it was really him who drove and expressed the emotion. The “Fuyez” wasn’t the best I have heard him sing, it was actually the only place in the whole evening when the sound wasn’t always beautiful. But it carried loads and loads of feeling and it really touched the public, who literally exploded. After that it was as if a spark had ignited and I haven’t seen des Grieux torment and surrender so intensely portrayed. Again I like McVicar’s concept of it much better, especially the ending (here they just run off and he even remembers to take the money his father offered… where is the passion, where is the love?). I don’t think they had a very good idea with the ending of the scene in this production. The emotions spiral so high and he gets so irresistibly drawn to her until final surrender that this ending just seems a bit anticlimactic. But the singing and acting definitely did take us where it was supposed to. Awww, tormented love and passion on French music with Jonas singing his heart out… what a pleasure to listen to, what a delight to watch! (Ok, I admit it, I am an incorrigible romantic that way….)
The “Manon, sphinx étonnant,”, one of my very favourite motives in the opera was all that I expected and more! It is very touching in that it tells you that he is now conscious of sliding towards the abyss, but as long as he has her in his arms he can’t help himself. This is where he really let the voice soar and the fire burn high. With Nora also in better control of her wobble we were now headed straight for the finale. I like the bareness of the stage here with the images of nature and strong winds setting the stage and creating a feeling of void, isolation but also anxiety around them. It was strange because they should have both been tired by now, but it actually sounded as if they had now properly warmed up (just a general feeling I had about the second part of the performance altogether).
The rest was so so, Markus Eiche was on and off and I didn’t much care for Dan Paul Dumitrescu father ( the French was just terrible). In general the French wasn’t the greatest and Jonas sounded the most French of all with Nora sadly being in parts not really understandable (i know she is a native speaker, but sometimes the language one feels more natural in, because of that very reason, does not get articulated enough for the audience to understand the text well). I just feel sometimes that this music looses a bit of lustre if the French isn’t up to par. And it wasn’t, you couldn’t really understand what the chorus was singing and the other characters were also a bit shaky at times. Overall it just lacked the glue that comes only with longer rehearsal times, sometimes even the principals weren’t totally in sink with each other. This meant that at times in ensemble scenes the public got a bit bored; it just works so much better if you can understand the original text when sung. There isn’t a boring word in this opera as far as I am concerned! On the other hand, the public had the translation, but the magic of the night was just very one-sided. This was clearly reflected in the applause, the public knew very well what they liked best about the evening :-) (in case you still have doubts, yes, it was Jonas)
It hasn’t made me stop wishing I had been in Chicago last year, but it is the next best thing :-) When it ended all I wished for was to be able to stay on to see the next one as well…
But, alas, I went to bed at um… better not think about that…. and got kicked out of bed by the alarm clock at 5am and off i went again to the airport.
Believe it or not, I couldn't be happier about being there last night, every single one of my short 12 hours in Wien was worth it :-)
This Manon in Wien was my only one and .. I almost missed it!! I got up before 6am, got to Heathrow where my flight had been moved to another terminal. Because of these changes chaos descended upon my terminal... screaming kids, nervous parents, half drunks off to holidays in the sunshine, etc. I got trapped in the security cue for about and hour, ran the miles long marathon to the gate only to have it literally shut in my face and be denied boarding! Got dragged off still running to customer services, where I arrived still before the actual departure time of my flight… what a joke!!! Chaos there as well, as I was obviously not the only mishap of the security debacle and I looked desperately upon the poker face of the BA attendant searching for the next available connection….half of me wanted to knock dead the one who dragged me there from my flight and the other was praying for divine intervention and the good will of the BA attendant in customer services. He says… well, we have only one more BA flight to Wien today (my heart stopped, my feet gave way….) and it leaves London 2,40pm and gets into Wien (tic toc tic toc tic toc… the man couldn’t find the stupid time!!!!) 6,10pm….. glups! Then he goes on saying…. I have another one from Austrian leaving at 4pm and getting into Wien around 7,30pm… Nooooooooooo!!!!! I have a performance at the Staatsoper that starts at 7,30pm, really need to be there!! He goes: are you singing??? ( me thinks, lucky you I don’t!) No, but it is of extreme importance that I be there. I was actually picturing myself there, getting to Wien and not being able to see the performance (heart attack, fainting and the lot). Don’t know what he imagined in the end, but I managed to convince him that although the show could go on without me, I would be miserable without the show :-)
Of course this was all done in an extremely polite and calm manner both from me and the BA staff :-) After all, I had to put up a nice face to convince them to put me on that flight, acting the way I felt like would have only gotten me sent home packing :-) By the way, this was the only flight I lost, ever, in all these years of travelling!
So there I was, stranded in T3 at Heathrow looking forward to a couple of hours of doing not much else but imagine all the ways the flight could go wrong and be late and me not make it in time to the performance. I’ll spare you the details of how I decided to change from jeans to my elegant opera clothes at the airport and get on the plane like that. No wonder people where looking at me like something was definitely off, black silk flowing, jewels, make up and all and a huge computer backpack on top of my elegant jacket and a suitcase in hand…. Did I tell you that I was going straight to work from Wien? That is 7am flight back to London and straight to the train to work.
So I just pretended to be a very eccentric lady and smiled haughtily to all the people ogling me. The flight attendants wanted to seat me in business but I said no thanks, cattle class for me, I just enjoy to dress up :-) At least they thought it was funny and helped me with my luggage :-) Unfortunately this didn’t stop other people from missing the flight and oh joy! We had to unload their luggage which made us 30 min late departing…. At least nothing else went wrong after that. We landed at 6.20pm and I’ll spare you the details of how I sprinted through the airport with the backpack on my back and the suitcase in hand. I saw the city train was due to leave in just two minutes and decided to skip the elevator and jump down the stairs… except I dropped the suitcase by mistake and it went plonc plonc plonc down the stairs. I just stopped and bent over laughing watching it slide down the stairs without me! I honestly said out loud: works fine for me! and followed the suitcase down, picked it up and made it to the train with 20 seconds to spare. In town I jumped into a taxi, then realised I had no cash, had to stop by a cash machine and finally I was at the Staatsoper at 7,10pm! I got the stinky eye from all the elegant grannies I passed by inside the house when I rushed to pick up my ticket (yes, I had to do that as well!) with my suitcase and backpack. The man at the wardrobe almost dropped his eyes on the desk where I heaved the suitcase and the backpack (hope he didn’t pull a muscle when he tried lifting them off, thinking they were feather-light…. No such luck I’m afraid, a week’s work stuff in there). More stinky eye from a couple of ladies and gents who watched this, but at this point I just couldn’t care less. This is no traditional opera attire, I know… so sue me! :-)
And – unbelievable! – 15 min before performance start I was actually sitting in my very own seat in the Staatsoper, row 13 (wonder if it had anything to do with the lucky number, hm….. )
I’m afraid I will make up all the rest about the performance… I fell asleep after the first few bars… and woke up to the sound of someone booming down on me “Fuyeeeeeeezzz, ahh fuyeeeezzzzz” thinking: Nooo, pleeeeease no more running!!!!!
Just kidding ;-)))
Of course I didn’t fall asleep, I mean how could I with all the noise the orchestra was making? The percussionists definitely had a schnitzel too many yesterday! And so did the brass section and the conductor who drove the proceedings with …. Enthusiasm?!?!?! The first act was too loud altogether and you had to listen your way through the noise to hear the voices. Sitting towards the back of the auditorium acoustics shouldn’t have been a problem, but the sound from the pit didn’t mix well at all. The conductor (Miguel Gomez-Martinez) luckily tamed down his approach from the 2nd scene onwards and we got a bit more balance in the sound. But I did feel plagued by the brass and percussion all night, the triangle sounded as if it is was tingling in my ear! I am not one prone to comparisons, but I couldn’t help but remember the elegant sound of the Chicago orchestra under Villaume…and the baroque feel of the slower parts, perfectly suggesting time period, flourished exterior used to hide steamy background. I couldn’t find any of that last night. I guess with the kind of schedule and rapid change of performances, singers and conductors they are forced to keep, they don’t get much chance to refine the sound and work on the details. Overall the night was ok, I just missed the details, the nuances.
Thankfully, what lacked in the music was supplied plentifully by the singers, and especially Jonas. His voice just carries the music within it. And yesterday he just wowed the audience with the piani, the shadings, the dynamics. All the technique I so like to rave about was there, supporting the emotion which shaped the singing. The applause after his “reve” was the first real, felt one of the night. You could hear the unspoken “ooooohhhhh” going through the audience. We all know he is a good actor, but the detail in every gesture yesterday was amazing. Every facial expression was natural and convincing, there was neither too much nor too little of anything.
Nora Amsellem started off a bit wobbly, but she warmed up gradually and by the second part I liked her. Her voice is not perfect but she sang with feeling. To be fair to her the production also doesn’t make it easy for her, she has to jump from the bedroom scene in Paris straight into the next one and this is too much singing packed in one (even with the conductor sometimes trying to take it down a notch for her volum-wise). This is probably not a Manon production that suits her best, she is probably too warm, too sensitive for it. The portrayal in this staging is a bit out there, obviously fitting Anna (who I saw in it last year) better than it does Nora. As a consequence, some gestures seemed a bit forced and unnatural, but in other parts she was more credible and altogether I think I like the more sensitive version of Manon better. Compared to last time when I saw this production the second scene in Paris was more tender and loving, the relationship between the two more credible. Both Jonas and Nora managed to create a real connection on stage and I liked the fact that it was more subtle and natural than expected.
I think half way through the second scene the public was really hooked. Less creaking, coughing and overall more concentrated silence. And it was this feeling of intimacy that continued to the end, even through the more crowded scenes.
The St Sulpice scene was even more emotional than I imagined it to be, and this is more due to Jonas than to Nora, he seemed to drive the happening, even if it is more through his reaction to her. She did say and sound all the right ways, but it was really him who drove and expressed the emotion. The “Fuyez” wasn’t the best I have heard him sing, it was actually the only place in the whole evening when the sound wasn’t always beautiful. But it carried loads and loads of feeling and it really touched the public, who literally exploded. After that it was as if a spark had ignited and I haven’t seen des Grieux torment and surrender so intensely portrayed. Again I like McVicar’s concept of it much better, especially the ending (here they just run off and he even remembers to take the money his father offered… where is the passion, where is the love?). I don’t think they had a very good idea with the ending of the scene in this production. The emotions spiral so high and he gets so irresistibly drawn to her until final surrender that this ending just seems a bit anticlimactic. But the singing and acting definitely did take us where it was supposed to. Awww, tormented love and passion on French music with Jonas singing his heart out… what a pleasure to listen to, what a delight to watch! (Ok, I admit it, I am an incorrigible romantic that way….)
The “Manon, sphinx étonnant,”, one of my very favourite motives in the opera was all that I expected and more! It is very touching in that it tells you that he is now conscious of sliding towards the abyss, but as long as he has her in his arms he can’t help himself. This is where he really let the voice soar and the fire burn high. With Nora also in better control of her wobble we were now headed straight for the finale. I like the bareness of the stage here with the images of nature and strong winds setting the stage and creating a feeling of void, isolation but also anxiety around them. It was strange because they should have both been tired by now, but it actually sounded as if they had now properly warmed up (just a general feeling I had about the second part of the performance altogether).
The rest was so so, Markus Eiche was on and off and I didn’t much care for Dan Paul Dumitrescu father ( the French was just terrible). In general the French wasn’t the greatest and Jonas sounded the most French of all with Nora sadly being in parts not really understandable (i know she is a native speaker, but sometimes the language one feels more natural in, because of that very reason, does not get articulated enough for the audience to understand the text well). I just feel sometimes that this music looses a bit of lustre if the French isn’t up to par. And it wasn’t, you couldn’t really understand what the chorus was singing and the other characters were also a bit shaky at times. Overall it just lacked the glue that comes only with longer rehearsal times, sometimes even the principals weren’t totally in sink with each other. This meant that at times in ensemble scenes the public got a bit bored; it just works so much better if you can understand the original text when sung. There isn’t a boring word in this opera as far as I am concerned! On the other hand, the public had the translation, but the magic of the night was just very one-sided. This was clearly reflected in the applause, the public knew very well what they liked best about the evening :-) (in case you still have doubts, yes, it was Jonas)
It hasn’t made me stop wishing I had been in Chicago last year, but it is the next best thing :-) When it ended all I wished for was to be able to stay on to see the next one as well…
But, alas, I went to bed at um… better not think about that…. and got kicked out of bed by the alarm clock at 5am and off i went again to the airport.
Believe it or not, I couldn't be happier about being there last night, every single one of my short 12 hours in Wien was worth it :-)
PS
A thank you to BA who still serve sandwiches on their flights, otherwise my stomach might have been even loader than that triangle! And to friends who are good with train schedules and helped set the deadline i had to run towards ;-) And to Jonas and Nora who proved that at least for 12h one can live happily just off music and romance :-)
For those who want more, here are some reviews from the Austrian press:
Manon , Wien 26/04/2009
Dirigent Miguel Gomez-Martinez
Manon Lescaut Norah Amsellem
Chevalier Des Grieux Jonas Kaufmann
Graf Des Grieux, sein Vater Dan Paul Dumitrescu
Lescaut, Manons Vetter Markus Eiche
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1240550007129
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3895&Alias=wzo&cob=410954
And for completion, one of the sort "I dislike anyone famous and i am a fan of the locals, whether they deserve it or not" ..he thought the sound from the orchestra was "Farbig und frisch" colourful and fresh...ehem... he must have been sitting on his ears at times...
http://diepresse.com/home/kultur/klassik/474402/index.do?from=gl.home_kultur
I loved the way Natalie portrayed the girlish joy of life and how she suffered under her own fickleness and constant desire for more. This Manon had depth, she didn’t mindlessly flow from one situation to another, but felt the pressure of her own desires, but is nevertheless a victim of these, she isn’t able to win the battle with herself, she is just too young and is just too eager to experience life at full. And this brightness and joy with which she lives her life to the fullest is what attracts De Grieux and becomes his undoing. His attention is captured by her girlish looks, but soon this “enchanteresse” takes hold of his heart. She brings the sparkle into his life and the fire soon consumes the young chevalier. The both live too intensely, love too passionately for all that emotion and energy to be contained in a normal human existence and even less in one incarcerated in the constraints of their times. The fire consumes them until nothing is left but ashes… But until then they immerse us with them in this whirlwind of emotions.
