It was a cherry on a cake to see Carl Maria von Weber’s opera “Euryanthe” in the Theater an der Wien after seeing the magnificent Brueghel exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna earlier that day. From outside the theatre looks humble, but the auditorium is good old “red velvet and gold decorations” style.
Euryanthe is not the most performed opera by von Weber and the reason is most likely the libretto, which is totally wacko. The story takes place during the reign of Louis VI and the story tells (to simplify it some) about Lysiart betting with Adolar that he can seduce Adolar’s wife Euryathe (definitely not the only such bet in operatic history!). Euryanthe has befriended the daughter of an enemy – Eglantine, who hates Euryanthe. Lysiart and Eglantine combine their forces and manage to convince Adolar that Euryanthe has deceived him. Euryanthe dies and hearing that, Eglantine reveals the plot, which makes Adolar regret abandoning Euryanthe. Then, surprise surprise, it turns out that Euryanthe did not die after all and the couple are happily reunited, but Lysiart kills Eglantine.
The music of Euryanthe is von Weber at his best, so that partly compensates for the clumsiness of the libretto. Theater an der Wien had brought the work to undefined modern days (the dresses of the ladies hinted at 1950’s) and for once the modernization was skilfully done. Both the stage setting by Johannes Leiacker and the costumes by Judith Weihrauch were rather simple but really elegant. By obscuring the timeframe, the opera was made a universal story of envy, love and goodness. The entity really worked and the excellent music made the performance even more impressive. ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien was really on fire when conducted by Constantin Trinks.
As a whole the singers did well. Actually after reading the synopsis, it was easy to be surprised, how well the performers managed to express the feeling of their characters. Especially Theresa Kronthaler as Eglantine did a fantastic job as a woman who gradually became crazy in her hatred. And I am sure than more than one spectator will remember for a longer time the rather lengthy full frontal nudity scene of Andrew Foster-Williams in the beginning of the second act.
From the point of view of singing my favourite performer was Stefan Cerny in the role of Louis VI. What a gorgeous bass and definitely strong enough voice to carry over the thunder of the orchestra. I wasn’t overly fond of Norman Reinhardt who sang the role of Adolar, but the other soloists were good choices for their roles.
The opera was a great end to a day in Vienna and I am sure to visit this theatre again, if fate takes me again to Vienna and if their productions really are of this high quality.
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