The rustling of the treetops, the murmuring of the brooks, perhaps the knocking of the woodpecker or the roaring deer in autumn – the natural sound of the forest is varied and often arouses romantic feelings. The instrument that comes closest to this effect is probably the horn, formerly also known as the French horn.
So it was appropriate to see how the horn’s melody arcs rose over the Nagelfluh walls at the beginning of the concert in the Gleißental climbing garden, and the warm timbres flowed softly between the tall trees. Dorothea Bänder, member of the ensemble of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, impressively played the solo part of Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, accompanied and in an accomplished dialogue with the Oberhaching Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gerold Huber. The Allegro, which has the charming, airy grace of many Mozart works, was followed by an “Andante”, in which the ribbons unfold a cantilever, dark timbre. In the finale, virtuoso hunts over ups and downs, including bird-like violin interludes, alternated with profound solo brass moments in which the horn revealed almost tuba-like characteristics. A little humor is almost always part of Mozart.
The visitors to her opera performances know that Ricarda Geary, who staged Henry Purcell’s semi-opera “The Fairy Queen” in the climbing garden in 2017 and is now also responsible for initiating this open-air concert, also has a sense of humor. The 80 or so visitors who found their place in the idyllic rocky backdrop near Oberhaching – more were not possible due to the pandemic – were once again able to look forward to a few nice ideas. The second item on the program was Handel’s semi-opera (or masque) “Acis and Galatea”, from which semi-staged excerpts were presented. In addition to the chamber orchestra, the Oberhaching Chamber Choir was also used.
Geary, who initially worked as a violinist, now took over the conductors, and the three vocal soloists Hannah Rabl (soprano), Michael Dietrich (tenor) and Ludwig Pichler (bass-baritone) were also challenged. The latter, known to the Oberhachingen audience through many appearances, acted in the role of the one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus, who is mightily jealous of the couple in love, the nymph Galatea (Rabl) and the shepherd boy Acis (Dietrich). Pichler had the opportunity to show his baritone class in some emotional scenes (“O shame, I’m caught up in anger”). Shortly afterwards he ended the young lovers’ vocal licorice dialogue in a dramatic act of violence. According to the myth, Polyphemus kills the young Acis with a stone, and that was also appropriately staged in Oberhaching: Finbarr Geary, who previously had two short staged appearances as a number boy (and carried the signs “Act I” and “Act II” through the picture ) it was incumbent on to carry out this murder with a rock prop: After Michael Dietrich got his smile under control at the tragicomic attack, he fell appropriately theatrically.
If it was Monty Python-like, the staging even increased in this respect: According to legend, the nymph Galatea transforms the boy’s flowing blood into a river, which Gerold Huber had described in his introduction as a fine erotic idea: “She can always bathe in it. ” Well, in order to make this development visually clear in Oberhaching, an artificial tombstone with the inscription “Acis: died July 29th 2021” was placed. When Rabl, who did not develop as vocal as her two male counterparts, had mourned when Galatea and initiated the magical metamorphosis, it spurted like a fountain from the tombstone – there was obviously a nozzle on the back and Finbarr Geary was pumping in the background, the initiator’s son, water through a hose.
Beyond these amusing scenes, the musical performance was also successful – although the acoustic power and sound homogeneity of the choir naturally suffered a little from the open-air conditions and the airy arrangement. The chamber orchestra, in which some individually outstanding instrumentalists took part, showed its class again with Handel’s “Water Music” at the end. Even then, not everything was perfect, but Gerold Huber, who repeatedly animated his ensemble to dynamic subtleties, was able to shine in the end, and rightly so.
After an encore it was of course over, also out of consideration for the animal forest inhabitants: As the mayor of Oberhachingen, Stefan Schelle, who was among the audience, explained at the end, a tawny owl lives near the climbing garden. And he likes instruments (such as the horn or the clarinet), but no applause.