#klaipeda state theatre

[officialwagnerrant]

Wagnerrant Review #2: The sea on land

Work: Der Fliegende Holländer House:  Klaipėda State Music  Theatre Date of performance: Streamed on Operavision on 02.04.2021

Team: Director: Modestas Pitrenas Conductor: Gediminas Šeduikis With: Almas Švilpa, Sandra Janušaitė, Tadas Girininkas, Andris Ludvigs, Rafailas Karpis, Dalia Kužmarskytė.

Review: @dichterfuerstin

If just one of Richard Wagner’s operas is fit for outdoor performances, it is with no doubt Der Fliegende Holländer. Set at the sea, it almost demands a production staged open air, with the sea or any kind of water as it’s backdrop. Not much surprisingly, the Klaipėda State Music Theatre’s production of Der Fliegende Holländer is by no means the first of it’s kind. But But while other opera houses, for example the Theater Regensburg in southern Germany, went for semi-staged or even concertant productions, the Klaipėda State Music Theatre put on a fully staged and choreographed Holländer. The outcome is visually impressive.

To be frank, the production wouldn’t bet that special if it was just your normal indoor staging. Two big scaffolds, one on each side of a big platform, mark the stage, some seemingly actual harbour buildings work as a backdrop. The Dutchman himself appears on a boat. This ship is not on the water, as far as one can see it on the video it’s on railroads. The setting in a harbour is established by gold being transported in an elevator and the women unloading boxes from a boat. And in terms of Personenregie and choreography for the sailor’s chorus, director Modestas Pitrenas uses quite simple tricks as well: Senta and Erik having their emotional duets on oposite sites of the stage, to show how far away they are from each other, giving Senta big movements for her first aria, making it a dramatic storytelling. The sailors perform a little dance for Steuermann lass die Wacht. What Pitrenas does works, but it isn’t special.

It’s the water that makes on wish to have seen the production live. Not one scene of the opera is played on actual water, it’s all on land, but it doesn’t matter, theatre is about the illusion and the illusion works. The art of director Modestas Pitrenas and probably even more of stage-designers Dalius Abaris and Sigita Šimkūnaitė gets the sea on land. They create a storm-shaken ship by having water running through the scaffolds, making sure nobody stays dry during the entire first act of the opera. This feeling of being on the stormy sea doesn’t only work for the audience at the scene. It translates strikingly through the recording as well and makes a captivating video. In person, it must have been breath-taking.

Unfortunately however, the performance of the singers cannot quite hold up to the impressive stage design. Some things can of course be excused, for example that the opera is slightly shortened. It doesn’t hurt. It’s also okay for the singers and the orchestra using microphones. The production was open-air after all and cannot profit from theatre acoustics, it even has to accommodate possible wind and other negative weather situations. A big problem when playing open-air is also the placement of the orchestra. There’s a reason for why the pit is usually located beneath or in front of the stage. In Klaipėda, the orchestra sits on a small platform next to the stage. The sound is well mixed and everything is nicely audible using earphones. For me as a German listener the strong accents many of the performers have are distracting as well. However one has to consider that the production was not made for German people and most of the audience members probably did not even notice the accents. Unfortunately, though, not all of the performers seem to be opera singers. Many lack vibrato or have a strong wobble, sound strained and audibly struggle to hit their respective role’s notes, something that cannot be helped by giving them microphones. Notable exceptions of this are Daland (Almas Švilpa) and Erik (Andris Ludvigs). The orchestra on the other hand, especially the soli, played beautifully. Personally I found them a little too soft at the parts where the music has to explode, for the storm- and Holländer-motif. It could’t really match what was going on on stage. But it was pleasant to listen to, and maybe sounded more impressive live.

Overall this Holländer is very nice to look at. However it does not seem to be marketed at opera fans, more at theatre- or just event people that want to see a nice open air spectacle. If you have a free evening I’d recommend giving it a shot anyway. I had fun, even though I did not always like the singers.