Idiot is Salzburg’s biggest hit
OperaMieczysław Weinberg’s opera on Dostoievsky novel The Idiot has received audience ovations and ecstatic reviews at the Salzburg Festival.
The director Krzysztof Warlikowski updates the story to modern Russia, replete with characters selling their souls for a ruble. Aušrinė Stundytė stars as Nastasia, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jan Brachmann writes in the FAZ: ‘When Bogdan Volkov, as Prince Myshkin, sits alone on the huge stage of the Felsenreitschule, staring into the darkness around him and singing in a half-voice, childishly bright: “What a breathless, strange day. Everything rushes and flickers before my eyes,” then you can feel what Weinberg’s music has captured about this character from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel: it gains clarity about the world by becoming quiet in the midst of the noise.’
Shirley Apthorp writes in the FT: ‘There are times when you leave the opera house unable to speak. When the combination of text, music, motion and imagery reaches a level of such complex perfection that you can’t find words for the way you feel.’
Looking forward to seeing this next week.
The MET needs to learn a lot from the europeans
And from Russia.
Sadly it learned Regietheater.
I saw the premiere in salzburg and I think it is one of the most signifcant musical events in recent times. A great opera -superbly performed by singers, conductor and orchestra. The real star is Bogdan Volkov as Prince Myshkin who gives one of the most thrilling solo opera performances I have ever witnessed. Still 4 more performances- if you happen to be in Salzburg this month- do try to catch one of them.
Thank you, Eyal!
.It’s Nastasia not Natasha name of heroine
Looking forward to Prokofiev’s “The Gambler”, too.
I hope it goes hand-in-hand with this Dostojevsky opera….
The idiot is one of the greatest operas of the 20th century. Musically,i think it´s even greater than the Passenger…Played in the world premiere production of the full version in Mannheim(there was only a performance of a reduced and abridged version in Russia before..). Fascinating experience.
Nice to see the positive response.
However, ticket prices are absolutely crazy.
Saturday’s show is sold out. The only seats available for the other three performances start at 340 €.
Any chance of the opera being recorded?
By the way, is there a rationale for equations relating to general relativity in the production? (Assuming the photo is from the production…)
It was filmed during the premiere. Like most of the Salzburg opera pruductions, we can expect a DVD next year. Meanwhile, Medici will be streaming live the last show in the current run in 23.8