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Die tote Stadt at the Royal Opera House

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Post  Dominic McHugh Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:00 pm

Covent Garden has just staged Korngold's Die tote Stadt for the first time. Any reactions? Here are a couple of reviews:

http://www.musicalcriticism.com/opera/roh-tote-0109.shtml

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article5601854.ece

I must say that I wasn't convinced of the quality of the piece, but others seemed to enjoy themselves.

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Post  Jngarratt Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:40 pm

I thought it was an odd piece, very much of its time with its compulsive interest in the idea of getting in touch with people who are dead and I like a lot of the music very much.

I thought the staging was excellent, very creepy in places - this is a set where it pays to be able to see the back of the stage. my favourite bit was the marionette sequence which seemed to have a harder edge than the rest of the opera.

I was impressed with the singers in what must be a fiendishly difficult piece - particularly for "Paul" and "Marie", and if I'd been singing Paul I'd have wanted danger money for being expected to lie under that huge ceiling as it rotated!

I liked this but I can see why it fell out of the repertoire - it really is odd.

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Post  Janet Woodall Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:29 pm

I loved it - I don't care if it is more Korn than gold (how many other operas can that be said about?), it moved me and I was more or less riveted all the way through. For me, the dream sequence staging was incredibly well thought out and executed, and the whole thing melded together really well. My current earworms are Marietta's lute song and the Pierrotlied - can't get enough of them

If proof were needed that it is an opera relevant to today - a friend I saw there on Friday whose husband died fairly recently was in flood of tears and found it a cathartic experience, it made me cry too (and I'm not usually a blubberer), and there were quite a few other ladies having to fix makeup during the interval who had most obviously also been crying. Not that the quality of an opera should necessarily be measured in tears...

I have some reservations about Nadja Michaels who seemed to struggle with tuning esp on the first night. But she was much better on Friday (2nd night) and fits the role physically. Heroic tenors are not generally my thing but I enjoyed Stephen Gould's Paul, and he managed to bring on my tears (for the right reasons). Gerald Finley was magnificent - well, you wouldn't expect me to say any thing else would you.

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Post  musiclover Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:30 pm

I didn't like it and left at the interval. Theatrically it was strong and the dream sequence particularly so but the score made this opera less than enjoyable for me. There were about 10 minutes of glorious music in the first couple of acts, not enough to counteract the clashing vocal and orchestral parts of the remainder.

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