MUSIC REVIEW : Munich Opera Festival Focuses on a Native Son

The popular Theater am Gartnerplatz is offering the belated local premiere of Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” in repertory with an ultra-black-humored “Cabaret.” Broadway was never like this.

At the Deutsches Theater, one can choose between a road-company “Evita” in English and a kinky perversion of Offenbach’s “Grand Duchesse de Gerolstein” with a drag queen mincing through the title role. “La Cage aux Folles” was never like this.

The local concert hall is hosting an international piano orgy, with occasional balletic embellishment--believe it or not--thanks to the ubiquitous Maya Plisetskaya. Hermann Prey is singing a Lieder recital at the lavishly refurbished Prinzregententheater. Chamber music soothes the summer senses in candle-lit rococo castles and moonstruck gardens.

The biggest attraction--aside from beer--in the Bavarian capital, however, remains the Munich Opera Festival. It is dominated this year by an unprecedented complete survey of the operas of Richard Strauss.

Nearby Salzburg celebrates Mozart in commercial splendor, and the shops even hawk a delirious confection called Mozart-Kugeln. In super-serious Bayreuth, one still can buy a bust of Wagner sculpted in marzipan. Munich is content to honor its most beloved musical son, however, with music.

The three-week festival does stray occasionally from the Straussian path. Rossini’s “Mose” is on the agenda, with Carol Vaness sharing laurels with Ruggero Raimondi. The ballet company is mustering a “Swan Lake” with Yoko Ichino as Odette-Odile. “Figaro,” “Falstaff” and “Meistersinger” will make token appearances before the final curtain falls July 31.

The bill at the exquisite National Theater last Thursday turned out to be Janacek’s “Makropulos Affair.” It was sung in unintelligible German, but one could savor theatrical vitality in the moody, carefully detailed, semi-realistic production directed by Seth Schneidman and designed by John M. Conklin. Hildegard Behrens exerted brittle, erotic fascination and sang with generous Wagnerian intensity as the 300-year-old femme fatale of the title.

Strauss regained his spotlight on Saturday with “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Despite the authoritative conducting of Wolfgang Sawallisch, the controversial artistic director of the Munich Opera, the illumination flickered. The 1972 production, never ideal, obviously has seen better days, and the current cast lends new meaning to the concept of unevenness.

Cheryl Studer, the great white hope of the post-Rysanek generation of sopranos, introduced a radiant Empress. A guest from Zurich, Alfred Muff, showed rough promise as the Dyer.

The others, unfortunately, found themselves embroiled in a screaming contest. Robert Schunk nearly came to grief on the high tessitura that plagues the Emperor. Helga Dernesch as the evil Nurse tried, in vain, to make dramatic prowess obscure severe vocal weaknesses. As the Dyer’s passionate Wife, Ingrid Bjoner bade a rather wobbly farewell to a long and distinguished career.

Another valedictory marked “Der Rosenkavalier” Sunday, when Brigitte Fassbaender, a long-time Munich favorite, presented her vocally and dramatically gawky, ultra-boyish Octavian for the last time. Henceforth, she will concentrate on witches, queens and mothers.

Her colleagues on this sentimental occasion included Gwyneth Jones (replacing the injured Lucia Popp) as a noble, sensitive Marschallin, Kurt Moll as a lusty, basso-profondo Baron Ochs and Helen Donath as a still sweet-voiced Sophie. Jonathan Welch as the Italian Singer was Southern California’s stentorian contribution to the proceedings.

The ancient Otto Schenk staging-- anno 1972--looks pretty much like a rote exercise now.

The orchestra, which used to be inspired in this special challenge by none less than Carlos Kleiber, played sloppily in response to the vulgar urgings of Jiri Kout. One can only hope that his Janacek at the Music Center next fall will be more imposing than his Strauss in, of all places, Munich.