Das Traumboot
Bayreuth scion-apparent Katharina Wagner‘s production of Die Meistersinger opened yesterday at the Festspielhaus.
As you can see, this production is rather curiously cast with David Beckham as Walther and Aprile Millo as Eva.
Oh, well, all right, La Cieca must have her little joke, you know. The tenor is in fact Klaus Florian Vogt, whom many of you heard sing Lohengrin at the Met back in 2006, and, if this photo is anything like accurate, is indeed the “Traumboot” above referenced.
Now, be honest, cher public. If you saw this fellow approaching on a boat, would you even notice that it was drawn by a swan? No, La Cieca didn’t think so.
Oh, and of course, that’s not La Millo up there with the paint-spattered decolletage. More’s the pity, La Cieca must say, because surely if it were Millo singing the soprano part in the quintet, it would be more nearly in tune than this snippet from the Generalprobe.
For those of you interested in Ms. Wagner’s Konzept, here’s a feature from German TV.
I originally had one performance for his Lohengrin (I think he replaced someone for the run, if I am not mistaken). After hearing him I went back for 2 more performances. The audience reaction to him was very mixed. I heard 3 different people refer to him as a Helden Countertenor.
I thought Vogt was a return to the ‘old days’ (1900–40?) of German tenor singing — see Patzak and Tauber but for a bigger voice Volker. These singers emphasize float, sweetness and projection rather than belting. It was quite a performance, and I thought reached considerable heights in act three. It is not a thick, rich or heavy sound but it does ‘ping’ and he has a caressing manner.
As for Westbroek I saw her do an insane Lady Macbeth (Shost) at Covent Garden. I hate to commit cliche, but it was beyond demented and fantastically sung. I also have her Minnie in Fanciulla, a crazy demonstration of something (voice, temperament, imagination and madness). I have a Dutch DVD of her Lady Macbeth, weird for its own sake production but she is insanely game — when she stripped down to wrestle with Ventris my old lady heart just about stopped.
As for Frau Wagner, she’s a mean, stuck up, stupid bitch and deserved the boos on principal (but it seems for good real cause too!). Her father, for whom I actually did some favors, is right out of a film about Nazis, limp and all, but I intimidated him and his wife so much they were respectful (Heil John Claggart!!).
Vogt’s ethereal Lohengrin and Waltraud Meier’s Bette Davis Ortrud are reason enough to take a look at the Baden Baden “Lohengrin”.
Despite her “Meistersinger” debacle, Katharina Wagner will replace Wolfgang and the Wagner Festival will continue to spiral downward.
The Bayreuth TV clip of Meister..seems to show the opus as Meistersinger as The Office, complete with xerox machine, Walter as Jim and Beckmesser as Dwight. Would be interesting to see what this concept does with Sachs’ big finale glorifying the German language. La Westbroek in the Walkurie video shows her in a strange version of Hunding’s house, and Siegmund’s potbelly is very on display. Just some thoughts.
david beckham… LOLOLOL!! what a giggle – thanks La Cieca!!
made my day!
did KFV lose some weight since his met debut? he did not look so “hunky” and youthful then. it was a great debut though — i was astounded when he opened his mouth — sounding so sweet and i thought i was hearing tamino rather than a heldentenor.
Baritenor: That Suor Angelica production sounds really offensive. Let me be clear, it’s not my favourite opera by any means. I find it terribly schmaltzy but as the recent Met production showed, it needs to be played as an old-fashioned melodrama. That cynical production you describe sounds perfectly hideous. Why stage a work if you clearly hate it?
I’ve always had trouble figuring out what gives with Walter, anyway. He’s a noble who sold his property to live in town, but doesn’t seem to have enough geld for his own house, and has no trade to support Eva, besides maybe local lounge singing. Maybe Frau Wagner has decided to fill in some of the holes in the Meister plot.
I saw Meistersinger in Bayreuth on Wednesday of this week and I have to say that I just cannot, absolutely cannot believe that the audience cheered Klaus Florian Vogt. People, this is not a Heldentenor. He is hardly even a Lyric. He is a talented young man, and, yay he’s good-looking, but a Held is he not! Absolutely not, and he is really not that good looking on stage, unless you are sitting in row 1. (Actually, I thought that he was very small from the audience, but, while waiting for my friend by the stage door after the performance, I saw this hunky Peter Hoffman looking guy and wondered–who the heck is that?)
The opera world has really gone insane. A return to the 1900-40s? Are you crazy, mrsjohnclaggart? If Vogt would be compared to anyone from that era, it would have to be Schipa, who I also love. But, who in their right mind would ever have wanted Schipa to sing Wagner?
And do you know what is funny? In spite of the fact that this guy’s voice is so light in timbre, he can’t seem to sing higher than a G without going into some strange Voix Mixte.
My friend says that all of the women at Bayreuth are lusting after Vogt because he is so hot. They must have been the ones cheering after Wednesday’s performance.
I do not dream in any way that I am the one that is right and everyone else is wrong here. I just would like to point out that, according to the Kloiber, and I feel the same, a voice Fach is more than just whether the voice will cut through the orchestra, it is also a question of timbre. The Jugendlicher Heldentenor that should sing Von Stolzing must have a “metallische Stimme.” There is no “metal” in Vogt’s voice. At all.