It seems to be the play of the hour: after Munich's Gärtnerplatztheater, the Staatstheater Nürnberg also pays homage to Offenbach's war satire "The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein".
There are no battles to be seen, but a squad of archivists.
Just look at the desk.
Or in the pantry, in the basement compartment or in the garage: The “Tagesschau” never talks about the greatest challenge of our time – even though constant private entropy is wreaking havoc worldwide.
You could also call it disorder, sloppiness or simply a mess.
Above all, this Gerolstein goes into battle.
By means of a huge archive, an orgy of drawers and shelves.
A "last oasis of punctuality", as it was once said that evening.
This mini-state is at war, and against chaos.
It is a strange coincidence that a few weeks after the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, the sister state theater in Nuremberg is also paying homage to Offenbach's "Grand Duchess of Gerolstein".
Equally telling is that real battles are left out in both versions of this war satire – although the time is right and the composer wrote his masterpiece in a France mired in a dangerous European crisis.
Absurd, slapstick and a file ballet
In Nuremberg, with director Andreas Kriegenburg, Harald Thor (stage) and Andrea Schraad (costumes), everything remains bizarre.
The court of the Duchess are gray mice archivists (“and archivists!”) who go to the same hairdresser with a Mireille Mathieu fetish and trust in the Fielmann free frame.
The uniformed staffage leads to Fritz confusing his adored Wanda.
To Offenbach's rhythms, the people let the standing desks rotate.
Only the boss affords a chic trouser suit, later a monster hoop skirt and a one-man secret service: actor Pius Maria Cüppers sets the tone of the evening with a complicated speech during the overture.
The war, which takes place at Offenbach during the break, is imagined as a wild company party followed by a hangover.
During the later ballet, the exceptionally playful choir lets the files clatter to the beat.
Whether in the ensemble or in the moments of two: Kriegenburg's directing is extremely precise, a choreography of small and large absurdities, a slapstick episode with caricature alarm, always two or three calibration marks above sea level.
It looks less like a fluffy operetta, and not like sparkling satire à la française, more like a Teutonic Monty Python variant.
As the title heroine, Eleonore Marguerre is a slightly tricky boss, not a vamp, but a character clock that someone must have wound up too much.
It is amazing how she keeps the pace of play, and she has no problems with the large range of the part.
As the eye-rolling General Boom from the model book of the operetta, Chloë Morgan, Hans Gröning is not a lovely Wanda, but an exhilarated Wanda who, thanks to a tantrum, switches to English as her mother tongue.
And Martin Platz is a nice cross cast as Fritz: a character tenor who, awkward, with wide eyes and just such a tenor, cannot classify everything that happens to him between the drawer walls.
Eroticism only exists in trace elements
One of the best punch lines happens unintentionally.
In the second performance, the singer of Baron Puck had to sit out due to illness.
Ivan Oreščanin sings for him from the side box, while actor Yascha Finn Nolting plays and speaks with text block and turbo, as if Kriegenburg had planned it that way.
Well-groomed and well-coordinated music pushes out of the orchestra pit;
Conductor Lutz de Veer and the Staatsphilharmonie could certainly afford more glaring and cheekiness.
It is a problem that some directing voltes come to nothing at Kriegenburg.
In between, the constant overstimulation seems to be trying rather than justified.
In addition, the evening is too long, dialogue sections and music are not balanced.
And how the eroticism is, we only experience in trace elements: This performance, as much as the title heroine likes to reach for the guys, does not tingle.
You don't have to overdo it like Josef E. Köpplinger.
But there is much more to learn about rising juices at his Gärtnerplatz.
Nuremberg doesn't have sparkling wine, instead there's Gerolsteiner with gas.
