Since I had some extra time before the train to Helsinki left, I decided to go and see Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s mini-opera “Der Schauspieldirektor” (The Impresario) in the old Mariinsky. Somehow I had managed to not see this opera earlier even though it is performed relatively regularly in various opera houses in Europe.
The background of the opera is rather funny. The Emperor Joseph II decided to organize an opera competition between Antonio Salieri and Mozart in the Schönbrunn castle in Vienna. The theme of the opera was to be theatre. Salieri composed to the competition an Italian opera that were hugely popular at that time and this small German-language opera of Mozart lost the competition.
The opera is a story about an impresario, who receives an invitation to perform at the festival of Rumburg. Since he only has one performer in his theatre, he decides to organize an audition. Three singers take part in the audition: Madame Herz (Olga Pudova), Mademoiselle Silberklang (Larisa Yudina) and Monsieur Vogelsang (Dmitry Voropayev). All the singers try to get as high a salary as possible and the position of the first singer till the Impresario in desperation manages to get them sing about performing for the sake of art.
Mariinsky had managed to find to the roles of the competing prima donnas two extremely talented (both as singers than actors) coloratura sopranos. Olga Pudova’s Madame Herz, who constantly sipped from her flask, was absolutely hilarious and Larisa Yudina’s dominatrix styled Mademoiselle Silberklang sang her way to at least my heart (in addition to which her German pronunciation in the arias was good).
Most of the opera was spoken text, so this version is only worth seeing if you understand Russian, since the spoken parts were in Russian and without texting. The singing started only when the auditions started. To this version the director Gleb Cherepanov had added a couple of extra arias (one for both ladies): “Io non chiedo, eterni Dei”, which Mozart composed the opera “Alceste” of Christoph Willibad Gluck and which contains the highest note ever composed for human voice. That is why there aren’t really that many singers who can sing the aria, but Larisa Yudina did beautifully. The second extra aria was also from Mozart “Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!” and he composed it for Pasquale Anfossi’s opera “Il curioso indiscreto”. This aria was successfully sung by Olga Pudova.
The opera may not have been the highlight of my opera year, but it suited well as a little snack while waiting for the train to leave. A funny detail: also this opera’s set design and costume design was based mostly in black, red and white colours.
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