As of: February 4, 2024, 2:45 p.m
By: Markus Thiel
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The circus is coming to town – or something worse?
Scene from the “grotesque opera” with Hany Abdelzaher (circus director, from left), Benedikt Eder (Valuschka) and Paul Kmetsch (assistant to the prince).
© Marie Liebig
Right-wing extremists are demonstrating outside, inside there is the piece about the political situation: Regensburg is showing the grotesque opera “Valuschka” by Peter Eötvös about a village that succumbs to dark promises.
He has nothing to do with Harry, Haakon or William.
A martyr?
A savior?
Or leader of a dark power - which the people still long for?
One thing is certain: This prince does not appear, neither in the composer Peter Eötvös nor in the underlying novel “Melancholy of Resistance” by László Krasznahorkai.
What we hear are the warnings of the newspaper delivery man János Valuschka.
But the villagers don't want to hear his fears.
This good man, at least that's what is shown on the stage of the Regensburg Theater, ends up in a straitjacket.
It is high time for this opera and the novel, which was published in 1989.
Peter Eötvös, who turned 80 on January 2nd, used it as the basis for his 13th opera, which premiered in Budapest last December.
A dark parable about the manipulation of the masses, about their seduction, about creeping aggressiveness in a society, which leads to pogrom-like conditions.
A “tragi-comedy with music,” is what the composer calls it, which had its German-language premiere or second premiere in Regensburg - 30 percent of the non-stop 95-minute piece is new.
The mastermind is an invisible prince
A premiere day like a glove.
There are three demonstrations outside in Regensburg's old town.
Medium-sized companies gather, including the inevitable Hubert Aiwanger.
Right-wing extremists from the “Children Stand Up” campaign are making their voices heard, and thank goodness counter-protesters are also making their voices heard.
And inside, on the theater stage, you experience a provincial backwater that is looking forward to a circus guest performance.
“Star” is a stuffed whale, the mastermind is the invisible prince.
More and more strangers are coming to the village.
Tensions are rising, also because the new mayor, Ms. Tünde, is fueling the anti-mood with her fascist movement “It's green so green.”
The title character, Valuschka, is in the tradition of the classic opera jester, who only preaches the truth and is fascinated by the divine order of the universe.
Once, when Eötvös silences the small orchestra, Valuschka describes the beauty of a solar eclipse.
The directing director Sebastian Ritschel darkens everything, a scene of pure, touching poetry.
At the end, when everything is too late, Valuschka sits on the bed of a presumed psychiatric institution with the ultimately most divine music being quoted.
The tone sequence BACH sounds.
Eötvös delivers a fragmented, delicate musical language
As frustrating as the story may be, Eötvös (also) sees the matter as grotesque.
Accordingly, he lets the orchestra shine in a bizarre way.
This is a fragmented, delicate musical language. Burlesque, with a love of color and detail, as if you were listening to the swept-up sound shards of a great whole that had been shattered.
Again and again you hear something rhythmically profiled, right down to spoken vocals, even in the choir scenes, when the men, who are in great demand, chop up words like “irresponsibility” or “unreliability”.
In some cases there are purely acting sections; Eötvös himself sees the piece as a “transition between prose theater and opera as theater”.
Much of it is illustrative; avant-garde disciples may turn up their noses.
But the onomatopoeias also reveal a subtle, evil humor: “Valuschka” stretches from the initial pounding of a train to the final pounding of the uniformed wearers.
Above all, however, Eötvös writes comprehensible, vocally useful theater music that modernity does not want to reinvent.
This allows the roles to emerge all the more vividly.
The Regensburg house, which is known to be elevated to state theater status in 2025, has cast an amazing cast.
You can only experience Benedikt Eder as Valuschka with a fine, somnambulistic, high-pitched baritone that is easily appealing in every position.
Or the extremely over-the-top Kirsten Labonte as Mrs. Tünde.
Or actor Gabriel Kähler as the elegant and smooth emcee Hagelmayer.
Impossible to single out everyone in this male-dominated, consistently convincing ensemble - a more than impressive overall performance.
Including digging: The Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra under General Music Director Stefan Veselka is strong because it is often required as a soloist - and yet handles the tricky score as naturally as possible.
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The production plays with reality
Sebastian Ritschel, director and costume designer, does not push the evening into the hyper-bizarre.
Kristopher Kempf designed a convertible stone vault for this purpose.
You see less of the comedy of “Valuschka” and more of the dark, threatening nature of this parable.
This short evening is a play with reality, a gentle turn into the surreal.
And an adequate, never prepotent implementation of this new opera.
You can feel the respect that Ritschel and his team have for the composer - Peter Eötvös himself, who is seriously ill, is reportedly planning to attend one of the subsequent performances.
His “Valuschka” is a large piece of the mosaic in the regionally radiant program of the Regensburg house.
This musical theater season brings together under the motto “Identities” the premiere of the opera “Michael Kohlhaas” by Stefan Heucke, Dvořák’s “Rusalka”, “The Rocky Horror Show” and the operetta rediscovery “The Prince of Shiraz” by Joseph Beer .
Ritschel then shows the actually intangible “Valuschka” prince: as a short man who is lowered into a cage.
Maybe also because today's relevant princes no longer remain invisible.
They sit on the Budapest Castle Hill, in the Thuringian state parliament and possibly soon again in the White House.