Serge Dorny’s first season as the new State Opera director has just come to an end. Time for a balance sheet.
Scene from the Munich performance of “The Devils of Loudun”.
Serge Dorny’s first season as the new director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich resembles a radical counter-brush. What he did as artistic director for many years in Lyon, France, with artistic success, he imposes on Munich. But the two cities and stages are difficult to compare.
The Bavarian State Opera is one of the leading, largest opera houses in the world, also economically. Dorny’s official assumption of office in Munich last autumn undoubtedly took place under extremely difficult conditions. The pandemic is not over yet, and now a war is raging in Ukraine.
Marthaler drives out the plush
In these economically difficult times, Dorny only focused on the shadowy repertoire in the series of premieres in his first season. For opera connoisseurs, this is an inspiring treasure trove, especially since there were strong productions: above all Dmitri Shostakovich’s “The Nose” in the staging by Kirill Serebrennikov with the State Opera General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski on the podium, but also Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” or the operas ” Blood House” and “Thomas” by Georg Friedrich Haas. However, it remains questionable whether these works can be kept in the repertoire in the long term.
Because Munich is not a stagione operation and, in contrast to Lyon, has a second large opera stage, the Gärtnerplatztheater. There, the artistic director Josef E. Köpplinger serves operettas, musicals and operas with smaller casts. Dorny apparently didn’t have that on his radar either when he moved from Lyon to the Isar. In any case, an operetta like “Giuditta” by Franz Lehár belongs in the neighboring Gärtnerplatztheater. After all, the cerebral staging by Christoph Marthaler has expelled every plush from this operetta.
Shostakovich’s The Nose directed by Kirill Serebrennikov.
Rarely played, but inspiring: “Bluthaus” by Georg Friedrich Haas.
Serge Dorny is also showing Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” in Munich.
Dorny is consistent
This, in turn, fits perfectly with Dorny. You don’t have to appreciate the decorative cuisine and glamor aesthetics of his predecessor Nikolaus Bachler, but: driving out any sensuality is not the last word of wisdom either. Even the State Opera’s website or seasonal brochures are as dry and brittle in design as crispbread. So far there has been no sign of the “digital strategy” announced in spring.
In Dorny’s state opera temple, one sometimes feels as if one is in a cultural elite re-education camp. How this will generate a younger audience with an affinity for technology and at the same time serve Munich’s opera chic crowd remains open for the time being. According to their own statements, the occupancy rate of the State Opera is currently just under ninety percent. When asked, it is emphasized that this number refers to “all tickets issued”. It is not explained whether this also includes tickets given away free of charge. Anyone who visits the house regularly may start pondering at this information.
You have to give Dorny one thing: He consistently follows his profile and stays true to himself. Even at the current Munich Opera Festival, with which the season of the Bavarian State Opera traditionally ends, he caused a lot of excitement in the opera celebrity circus. As the opening premiere, there was again no prominent highlight, but Krzysztof Penderecki’s “The Devils of Loudun” from 1969 based on Aldous Huxley. That’s nice and quite daring.
A daring season opener: Krzysztof Penderecki’s The Devils of Loudun.
No boos, but light rows
Almost two and a half hours without a break, cluster-like continuous sonication with exorcism, torture and group sex: you have to endure that. The production by Simon Stone, the musical direction by Vladimir Jurowski and the nun Jeanne by Aušrinė Stundytė were rightly applauded at the premiere, without boos; during the performance, however, the audience rows thinned out. The next “Affront” now followed with “Capriccio” by Richard Strauss.
Strauss’ “Capriccio” has already been seen in more compelling versions than the one from Munich – that’s a pity given the current world situation.
This last premiere of the season was not a new production but a revised re-edition of a production by David Marton. It came out in Lyon in 2013. A more compelling overhaul with live video followed three years later in Brussels. For the current new revision in Munich’s Prinzregententheater, realized for the first time in Lyon in 2021, Marton went back to the roots of 2013, so to speak. That’s a pity, because the contemporary historical context of expulsion, flight and repressive state terror that was also reflected on appears toned down compared to the Brussels version. When this last Strauss opera was premiered in 1942, the Second World War was raging. In this abysmal time, Strauss writes an opera about the opera. What is the ideal musical theater like? Do the words or the music dominate?
The stage design by Christian Friedländer mutates into the scene of totalitarian conditions – which is only hinted at in Munich, however. On the other hand, Diana Damrau made a strong debut as the Countess under the direction of Lothar Koenigs. Also worth hearing is the Count by Michael Nagy and Kristinn Sigmundsson as theater director La Roche. However, the warming up of a very old direction is not up to the standard that one might expect from a large, leading opera house. In Dorny’s second season, there are new productions of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” – which should soothe the regular Munich audience.