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Brigitte Fassbaender succeeds in reviving the unknown Biedermeier opera "Lady Kobold" in Regensburg

2020-10-26T16:17:52.109Z


Joachim Raff? Hardly anyone knows this composer today. Wrongly, as the excavation of his comic opera "Lady Kobold" in Regensburg shows.


Joachim Raff?

Hardly anyone knows this composer today.

Wrongly, as the excavation of his comic opera "Lady Kobold" in Regensburg shows.

  • Opera legend Brigitte Fassbaender stages the three-act play "Lady Kobold" by Joachim Raff in Regensburg.

  • The music hasn't been played in 150 years and is a real find.

  • The amusing, high-speed performance spreads the charm of a Biedermeier puppet theater.

"Listen: Of course I want to control who your husband will be," says the brother to the sister.

“But my type for you fits perfectly into your prey grid - so why not right away?” It could have gone that way.

Then we would have been spared a lot, unfortunately, as one can now state.

A two-hour opera, "Lady Kobold", with scenes of confusion that trigger multiple logic alarms.

But above all, music that has not been played for 150 years.

Nobody really knows why.

The treasure was raised at the Regensburg Theater

(see plot below).

This is only because the outgoing director Jens Neundorff von Enzberg has a weakness for Joachim Raff.

Joachim who?

Raff, born in Switzerland in 1822 and died in Hesse in 1882, was heavily involved in cultural life at the time.

Although autodidact, he wrote a dozen symphonies and six operas, was director at the Frankfurt Conservatory and well connected - as an acquaintance of Franz Liszt and Hans von Bülow, for example.

From time to time his overture to “Dame Kobold” is haunted by request-concert programs, but that is largely the case.

Tightened recitatives and a smaller corona line-up

The number is a high-speed pick-me-up for the following three-act act.

And, oh little wonder: the scenes usually keep what the intro promises.

So a real discovery.

But for that, opera legend Brigitte Fassbaender and conductor Tom Woods had to tweak the score a little.

The recitatives in particular have been tightened.

Some arias are even split up, the partial piece then appears elsewhere.

The fact that a smaller line-up is playing in the ditch due to the Corona actually benefits Raff's finesse in tone color.

The result is an extremely entertaining 105 minutes including a break, with composer colleague Albert Lortzing you got bored more.

This is also due to conductor Woods, who lets the Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra dance easily and with contagious esprit through Raff's slalom.

Above all, however, the theatrical instinct of the Fassbaender is to blame.

She has proven several times that she loves comedy.

Instead of fishing for laughter, she prefers the subtle.

And the director herself knows that Paul Rebers' libretto, which varied a play by Calderón, is dusty and musty ("Greetings to me, demonic house"), that some confusion was created with play-opera German crowbar.

105 winking minutes of opera

With Bettina Munzer (stage) and Anna-Sophie Lienbacher (costumes) she spreads the charm of a Biedermeier puppet theater.

That, for example, men constantly have to go to the ramp to bang fraternal duets (just think of Verdi's “Don Carlos”), the Fassbaender lovingly skewers as an excess of hormones.

Other things are also driven one turn further into the caricature and gently flashed over without exposing the piece.

The distance, the constant winking, all of that fits because it also questions the figure templates.

Anyone who thinks that Raff's comedy occupies the ensemble with vocal walks is wrong.

Anna Pisareva is driven as Donna Angela in extreme situations with a dramatic skin gout, which she does very well.

Tenor Oreste Cosimo (Don Manuel) has a portion of hero ore ready in addition to operettas.

Johannes Mooser (Don Juan) manages this balancing act on the baritone level, Oliver Weidinger gives servant Rodrigo as a relative of Leporello.

Actual main character is Angela confidante Beatrice.

Soprano Sara-Maria Saalmann turns her into a puller - with sparkling, substance-rich singing and occasional flamenco interludes.

You hardly notice that everything had to be staged with a minimum distance of two meters.

For almost two hours you had forgotten the bad C-word.

The plot:

Donna Angela is imprisoned by the brother Don Juan.

When she tries to flee, she meets Don Manuel.

He's on the way to see his friend Juan.

Manuel has no idea that it is his sister.

The escape fails.

Angela wants to meet her almost savior.

Juan announces that he has found a husband for Angela.

She doesn't know that it's Manuel.

When she writes a letter to Manuel, he is amused about the game.

There is confusion and a fight between Juan and the unrecognized Manuel.

In the end, the latter and Angela find each other.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2020-10-26

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