Die tote Stadt

"It could hardly be better cast. Jonas Kaufmann is the recently widowed Paul, whose obsession with his dead wife Marie leads him to imagine that he has found her again in Marietta, a dancer he meets by chance; Marlis Petersen takes the double role. Simon Stone's production updates the opera to the present day, with an anonymous apartment replacing the original setting of the "dead city" of Bruges, and gives a cinematic quality to Paul's hallucinatory dreams. But it's Kirill Petrenko's impassioned conducting that really makes the performance compelling: he clearly cares passionately about every note of the score, its overripe romanticism and all".

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"Recording of the week: Both Kaufmann and Petersen are utterly fearless in squaring up to the formidable vocal and emotional demands of the central roles ... The third knock-out performance comes from the pit: Petrenko clearly adores this score, and ensures that every detail of Korngold's precociously brilliant orchestration comes across loud and clear".

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"Some listeners gladly wallow in the score's hyper-emotionalism and extravagant lushness, but three acts' worth echausts me ... Pizzi directs the work with welcome straightforwardness ... the camerawork misses a great many details onstage".

"The orchestra rather struggles with Korngold's heavy-duty technical demands, which seems to keep the tempos down ... Filming is enjoyable".

Vurdering (performance): 4/5.

Vurdering (picture & sound): 3/5.

"Editor's choice: While Stone's updated setting might upset purists, there's a depth and emotional intelligence to this staging that disarmed my initial resistance ... The central performances are magnificent, with Kaufmann giving a detailed, believably frayed portrayal of a man struggling to hold on to his dignity as his life unravels ... Petersen's performance is, if anything, even more compelling. She's a multilayered Marietta, with countless vocal inflections and small gestures revealing an underlying tenderness and sympathy ... The other roles are just as persuasive ... Petrenko in the pit, has an absolute command of texture and tension ... On every level, a glorious achievement".

"Korngolds opera 'Die tote Stadt' har længe været en favorit blandt operaelskere, men den er endnu ikke slået igennem i det almindelige repertoire ... Jonas Kaufmanns præstation i Simon Stones opsætning var en af de mest omtalte i 2019. Marlis Petersen var også formidabel i rollen som Marie/Marietta, Pauls døde kone og den nye kæreste, som han tror er sin afdøde kone. "Det er svært at forestille sig en bedre opsætning af 'Die tote Stadt' end den, der var i München", skrev New York TImes".

"Der formidable Kirill Petrenko macht Hör-Lust auf diese so seltsam zwischen letztem, spätromantisch dekadent sich verströmendem Welstschmerz und harsch psychoanalytischer Sachlichkeit sich auspendelnder Oper. Simon Stone inszeniert ... sehr stimmig ... Jonas Kaufmann singt den für ihn eigentlich zu hoch liegenden Paul mit erstaunlicher Kraft ... Marlis Petersen in der weiblichen Doppelrolle bleibt spielerisch die Somnambule als schöne Teilnahmslose, aber ihr glissandohaft die Töne anschleifender Sopran mit seiner penetrierenden Höhe hat eine lohnende Aufgabe".

"This is a work fraught with thorny challenges, all of which are intelligently handled by Holten and his team ... Without being ideally cast, Vogt and especially Nylund manage creditably in their near-impossible roles ... On the podium, Mikko Franck ... offering them wonderful support ... FNO's always excellent orchestra covers itself with glory ... Even with a good rather than great cast, I'd rate FNO's production as the current first choice for Korngold's opera on DVD".

"There is no audible sign that this not-so-mini Tristan of a role is too heavy for Klaus Florian Vogt's tenor, while Camilla Nylund's Marietta/Marie ... is in dream form, untiring, concentrated, rapturous of tone. A huge achievement. The orchestra encompass this far from easy (and, surely, unfamiliar) score with great panache for their chief ... This new release is undoubtedly a musical triumph".