Looking back with tears: Giordano's "Siberia" at the Bregenz Festival
Created: 07/23/2022, 19:36
By: Markus Thiel
Little happiness in the Far East: Stephana (Ambur Braid) finds her banished Vassili (Alexander Mikhailov, Mi.) - and also her adversary Gleby (Scott Hendricks).
© Karl Forster
The piece was once shown at La Scala because Puccini couldn't finish his "Madame Butterfly".
Now the Bregenz Festival is dedicated to Umberto Giordano's "Siberia" - with success.
A choral song without instruments, in unison.
Right at the beginning, instead of an overture.
You hear it and immediately feel like you are in an orthodox church.
Hardly anything about it is authentic: This is how Umberto Giordano imagined Russia at the time.
There are echoes, exoticisms, as his guild liked it not only at that time.
At the same time, Giacomo Puccini composed Japanese music with "Madame Butterfly" in his ears.
"Siberia", Giordano's two-hour work in three acts, which premiered in 1903, is one of those operas that fell through the cracks.
Not only that is reason enough for the Bregenz Festival to revive the tragedy.
Especially since, a nice programmatic point, "Siberia" was played at La Scala at the time instead of "Madame Butterfly" - Puccini wasn't finished with his drama, which this year is running outside on the Bregenz lake stage.
Ex-courtesan follows her lover to Siberia
Stephana, an ex-courtesan who has become rich and famous thanks to a prince who has fallen for her, falls in love with the penniless officer Vassili.
He wounds the blue blood, so he has to go to Siberia, where Stephana follows him.
She is shot while she is trying to escape: not only thanks to Giordano's sweet, highly emotional sound dress, kitsch and naturalism alarm.
Director Vasily Barkhatov has the right break ready in the Bregenz Festival Hall.
Everything is embedded in a frame story.
A black-and-white video by Christian Borchers and live performances follow the journey of an old Italian woman to St. Petersburg and Siberia shortly after reunification.
She has an urn in her arms containing the ashes of her brother Vassili.
"Siberia" becomes a memorial tragedy here, and also a space for reflection on old and new Russia.
Barkhatov skilfully plays with these levels, Christian Schmidt has provided him with a stage that allows crossfades and parallelizations (a little too often at first).
The fact that the prison camp scenes taste of a little happiness in a picturesque ambience (costumes: Nicole von Gravenitz) is also a problem of the play.
With Giordano, a gap opens up between brutal action and effective, ear-flattering score.
In the shadow of Puccini, he has quite ambitious things in mind.
A lot is written much less on a full-cream level than in the colleague, with greater delicacy in the instrumentation, on the other hand with undiminished heaviness in the outbursts.
Structurally there are also special features, and this does not only apply to the a cappella beginning.
They are small experiments within sight of the culinary art,
The impression remains: one would have liked to know more about this Russia
Vocally, the big caliber is more in demand.
Ambur Braid as Stephana meets the dramatic demands with tireless heroine soprano and occasional fine detail.
The lyrically grounded, warmly timbrated tenor of Alexander Mikhailov as Vassili doesn't really fit in with this.
But it is precisely in contrast that it is distinctive and provides even more sympathy points for the loving convict.
The role of Gleby, who once made Stephana a courtesan, is conceived as a classic baritone villain.
Scott Hendricks has enough disgusting sounds ready for that.
Clarry Bartha as the old, invented sister Vassilis exudes an aura that is more than good for the evening.
Conductor Valentin Uryupin has immersed himself deeply in the score.
He almost never sticks to the notes, always devotes his attention to the ensemble and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra - the
This also testifies to the chameleon character of the orchestra, sounding so completely different than the day before with "Madame Butterfly".
Uryupin keeps an eye on the subtleties and instrumental mixtures, but he prefers hyperintensity, which is revealed by the occasional stomping along.
The only briefly touched upon scenes by Giordano and his librettist Luigi Illica (he also wrote "Butterfly") and the densely worked staging make the evening entertaining.
And yet the impression remains: one would have liked to know more.
About the characters pushing out of the classic operatic constellation, and also about this intangible Russia, about the connecting lines across time.
After only three performances, "Sibirien" will move to the co-producing Bonn Opera.
A strong piece that invites discussion - one wishes it further questioning.
