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Caution Comes First for New Vienna State Opera Directors
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12173 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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2 / 1987 |
1,098 Words |
| Author
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Andrew Clark
Andrew Clark is a broadcaster and critic living in Switzerland. |
As a statement of intentions, the new Vienna production of Un ballo in maschera does not paint a very fresh or enticing picture of what can be expected at the State Opera in the next few years. The appointment of the experienced West German intendant Claus Helmut Drese as the new director, and his imaginative and quick-witted invitation to Claudio Abbado to join him as music director, promised much - and still does. If they are to deliver the kind of artistic product that their reputations have led the world of opera to expect, however, they cannot afford to continue on the safe and overfamiliar artistic path that this first staging of the new era represents.
To be fair, it was wiser to play safe than to make any of the kind of large controversial statements that characterize the opening moves of most German-language theater regimes. The proud and conservative Viennese public is naturally critical and needs to be wooed. Over the years, they have seen too many directors arrive on the steps of their venerable operatic institution amid a flurry of promises and expectations only to find these same directors departing in an atmosphere of acrimony and anger before their contracts had expired. Gustav Mahler, Karl Bohm, and Herbert von Karajan all had reason to be bitter about Vienna and its reputation for intrigue, which claimed one further victim in Lorin Maazel just three years ago.
Drese, who came to Vienna after a ten-year period building up the international reputation of the Zurich Opera in Switzerland, was sensible enough not to repeat any of Maazel's opening claims about "a gala every night." By virtue of his skills as an administrator and planner rather than those of a conductor and director, Drese may be able to give the
... (1996 of 6512 Characters)
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