Opera: Who will be the new boss at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden? – Culture

Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden is looking for a new artistic director. Because the old one, Matthias Schulz, will move on to Zurich. Next to the one in Munich, the opera house is the most famous and prestigious in Germany. In addition, in the 79-year-old music director Daniel Barenboim, it has had a conductor at its helm for 30 years who is much more famous than his colleagues in comparable positions worldwide. Neither the high-flyer Gustavo Dudamel (Paris) nor Antonio Pappano (London), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (New York), Riccardo Chailly (Milan), Valery Gergiev (St. Petersburg), nor Philippe Jordan (Vienna) are so well known, neither the local colleagues Kent Nagano (Hamburg) or Vladimir Jurowski (Munich), not to mention about 80 other chief opera conductors in Germany. The successor at the Lindenoper has to get along with Daniel Barenboim first and foremost.

There are still two years to go before the move in Berlin, but the preliminary stages in the classical music scene are long, so someone has to be found soon, time is of the essence. As usual, such negotiations are conducted behind closed doors, so it is difficult to speculate on names. However, the requirements profile of an opera director can already be clearly established today; it is one that differs significantly from that of previous years. It includes new management skills, changed personnel policies and the beginning of struggles for financial resources that are becoming increasingly scarce.

First of all, however, the demands of working with conductors, singers and directors become apparent. For example, following the line of Barenboim, who often had important and controversial opera directors work at his house, will be difficult for the newcomer in Berlin. Simply because many opera directors, still mostly men, seem to have similar tastes. Directors like Kirill Serebrennikow, Simon Stone, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Andrea Breth, Christoph Marthaler, Romeo Castellucci, Claus Guth and Christof Loy are engaged everywhere. These are all directors who radically transfer the usually very old repertoire pieces into modern living environments. None of them fall for historical costumes, at most with ironic intentions.

Today’s opera urgently needs to show that it is not an elite event

In contrast to these fantastically up-to-date directorial overpaintings, conductors and singers insist on precise craftsmanship. While it is obvious in the direction that today is being negotiated, this is not so obvious in the music, but it is the case nonetheless. Not even Anna Netrebko or Jonas Kaufmann shine through diventum and sublime genius. Conductors and singers today prefer to present themselves as everyday people pursuing a profession. The hype triggered by Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan and most recently Edita Gruberova is a thing of the past. This also applies to the successor.

Ever since it was invented 400 years ago, opera has meant making theater with music. Music is instrumentalized in the opera in order to analyze, understand and fathom people through play and sound. Realizing this basic idea in a contemporary form will also become central in Berlin. Munich State Opera Director Serge Dorny, who has only been in office since this season sets the standards and shows how it can be done. He expands the repertoire without sacrificing standard pieces, he connects everything to everyday life, to youth and openness, without excluding fantasy, eccentricity and musical cuisine. This is neither spectacular, eccentric nor scandalous. Dorny aims at the center of a society that is currently dissolving into the most diverse communities, he tries to define opera as the lowest common denominator of all circles, no matter how disparate. After all, as one of the most expensive public undertakings, opera is paid for by all citizens through taxes. Today’s opera, which is an insurance for its continued existence, must show through its program that it speaks for and about all people and not just for an educated middle-class or financially well-off elite. The new director in Berlin will be measured against Munich.

Currently there is less demand for artistic directors than for opera managers

Recently, singer, manager and director Rolando Villazón was brought up for the Lindenopern post, but he immediately denied it. Villazón, once a gorgeous tenor but retired prematurely due to vocal problems, would definitely be a counterpart to Barenboim in terms of popularity. But he is closer to the old bourgeois glamor opera than to modern opera management, his programs at the Salzburg Mozart Week are clear.

At the moment, however, fewer artistic directors than opera managers are in demand, and that is the next point on the requirement profile, since the large houses in particular are increasingly being managed like medium-sized companies and not always to the advantage of art. Programming, bringing plays, directors and musicians together, is still a central activity, but it is no longer the sole factor that determines the profile and success of a house. The acquisition of third-party funds, the development of new opera-goers, also young ones, is essential.

Open detailed view

In 2018, public theaters in Germany received 2.75 billion euros in grants. That accounts for 80 percent of the houses’ budgets, less than 0.2 percent of total public spending, almost four million opera tickets were subsidized, so the houses are three-quarters occupied. But will it stay like this? As a result of Corona, the city Munich has now cut its cultural budget for the second time, Mannheim canceled the subsidy for its Philharmonic Orchestra. Opera houses also fear that the grants will soon no longer flow to the usual extent. The artistic directors will therefore increasingly appear as petitioners to politicians and the public, who are unconditionally merciful to them, and will have to develop good ideas as to why opera, a highly cultural variety, is still central to Germany. Marginalization cannot be ruled out.

There is also the threat of another kind of marginalization, which many institutions complain about, because the relationship between live arts and traditional media is currently changing. Fewer and fewer of the current new productions are portrayed by reviews in newspapers, the television stations have been keeping away from the topic of opera for a long time and have pushed it into the culture channel Arte. In this way, a hitherto central access to a broader and actually urgently needed public slips away from the houses. They counteract this with CD labels, digital concert halls, print publications and an increased presence on the Internet and in social networks. In this way, the opera scene is building up a parallel world beyond the media mainstream. However, it is still unclear whether this can be a solution or whether, on the contrary, it will promote the disappearance of opera operations from Germany. But every artistic director will have to go this route, including the new one in Berlin.