The city of Erfurt, where theatre intendant Guy Montavon has been suspended, has pulled the plug on a long-planned Ring cycle.
Das Rheingold will go ahead but the next segment will be replaced by Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah.
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Quite ironic to replace Wagner by Mendelssohn’s oratorio.
I couldn’t imagine a nicer piece with which to replace Wagner.
I assume the delicious irony of Wagner’s Ring being replaced by Mendelssohn’s Elijah is intended.
2.25 hours of Wagner should be enough for anybody. At least in Rheingold, Wagner was still fresh and hadn’t got to the stage where he was just slogging along to get to the finish line. The opera does need an intermission, though.
It’s really sad, but opera and theatre in Germany are in a incredibly bad state. Each year less people are willing to watch a performance and pay for that. One gets the impression that German theatre has become an extremely expensive playground and aloof bubble for insiders, who mostly care about political ideologies and corresponding aesthetic preferences. Mediocre stage directors with no management experience or talents whatsoever are eager to become artistic directors or intendant, lured by absurdly high earnings and fees which make a German chancellor’s income pale in comparison (whereas “normal” actors, musicians, singers, dancers and technicians are often treated like slaves, there is a lot of abuse of power involved). This system is doomed.
If only the compromised leadership could find a perfect hero to save their doomed system, a hero free even from the taint of having been hired by them..
Difficult to disagree with a lot of that comment.
This seems rather harsh…if things are really that bad in the German theatre, why is the brilliant Australian theatre director Barrie Kosky happy to be based in Berlin, working with the Komische Oper, and very busy in Germany and internationally? I hope this system continues to flourish and to share its creativity with anyone who’s interested. I certainly am.
Seriously, what is happening in Erfurt? Guy Montavon is a, er, colourful personality but has never failed to improve beyond recognition every theatre he has ever run. Is his personal situation now the reason for this Ring crisis?