Final applause at the opera festival. The decorative curtain weighing 400 kilograms with 120 gold tassels is now finally closed and everyone wishes “happy theater holidays!”. Anyone who has ever been there behind this magnificent curtain when an evening at the opera comes to an end has certainly experienced disenchantment. There are singers hugging each other, exhausted, the make-up has run off, sweat stains are clearly visible under the armpits of their costumes, because this is high-performance sport. And where just before there was still mysterious darkness, everything is now bathed in glaring, illusion-free working light. Following an invisible orchestration, immediately after the performance the stage technicians begin to loudly dismantle the backdrops and stow them away in lattice boxes. Everything is then transported by truck to the State Opera’s huge storeroom in Poing. On the last opera evening of the season, there is a radical farewell here.
After a grueling season, there is probably also a lot to do in terms of mental hygiene for new director Serge Dorny: the corona-related failures, the strange audience, the scandal surrounding ballet boss Igor Zelensky and other war-related upheavals surrounding Anna Netrebko or Teodor Currentzis, as well as the death of the conductor Stefan Soltész, who collapsed during a performance. Peace should return to the big house for a few weeks. Only craftsmen and the porter hold the fort in the National Theater. And when it’s scheduled, the large chandelier is also polished.
But already in mid-September, life awakens again in the State Opera. In the era of Nikolaus Bachler, the glamorous stage dinner, that charity event for Munich’s wealthy and celebrity nobility, was traditionally the – exclusive – start of the season The name of the sponsor, UniCredit, should always be included. This short festival in early autumn is one of the souvenirs from the previously long-time director of the opera in Lyon, France, which he is now bringing to the people of Munich in addition to the opera festival and the new “Ja, Mai! Festival” in spring.
Soloist at the opera for everyone in Rosenheim: the Bulgarian star soprano Sonya Yoncheva.
(Photo: Wilfried Hösl)
The start of the season, when the gong strikes almost synchronously with the Oktoberfest O’zapf rite, leads back out of the state capital into the administrative districts of the Free State. The State Opera is eventually apanaged by the entire Bavarian taxpayers. In 2021 it was “Opera for everyone” on Karlsplatz in Ansbach, but this year, on September 16th, the entourage from Munich will be stopping off in Mangfallpark in Rosenheim. Jonas Kaufmann lured last year, who then had to withdraw due to a tracheitis and was quickly replaced by colleague Piotr Beczała. The world-class soprano Sonya Yoncheva will sing at the free open-air concert in Rosenheim. The State Orchestra plays under the direction of Daniele Rustioni, whom the Munich audience has discovered as their new favorite on the podium in recent months. In addition to UniCredit, BMW is also named as a sponsor.
At the first September Festival in 2021, the Brunnenhof was the scene of the spectacle, this time the State Opera is presenting itself in the pretty Kaiserhof of the Munich Residenz with its staff of masks and props. That means taking good care for the next carnival.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The State Opera will once again be very accessible for the people of Munich: on the afternoon of September 17, in the pretty Kaiserhof of the Munich Residence, you can find out everything you always wanted to know about props and make-up, artists from the State Opera, the State Ballet and the State orchestras, but also creative people from all over the city stand together on the stage and mingle with the audience. Also on offer are children’s programs, opera guessing games and a costume flea market. And next door in the National Theater you can feel like part of the State Opera Choir at a sing-along concert.
Axel Ranisch, the all-rounder from Berlin, turns the State Opera into a cinema when his film “Orpheus in Love” premieres here. In 2015 he staged the family opera “Pinocchio” at the house, here with choir director Stellario Fagone (left).
(Photo: Robert Haas)
A novelty for the State Opera: At the September Festival, the National Theater becomes a cinema when Axel Ranisch celebrates the premiere of his new film “Orpheus in Love” (September 17, 8:30 p.m.). The all-rounder from Berlin, actor, filmmaker and self-confessed classical nerd (his podcast “Klassik drastically” is cult), was brought to the State Opera by Nikolaus Bachler himself after he had seen Ranisch’s cinema debut “Dicke Mädchen”. In 2013 he staged “The bear/La voix humaine” for the house, in 2015 the children’s opera “Pinocchio”, in 2017 Haydn’s “Orlando paladino” and in 2021 Wolf-Ferrari’s one-act play “Il segreto di Susanna”. In his film, which he produced especially for the State Opera, he retells the oldest material in opera history, with music by Monteverdi, Wagner, Puccini and John Adams. The story: The young call center agent Orpheus falls in love with the petty criminal Eurydice. Actors and singers of the house and the Bavarian State Orchestra perform.
Musical theater can unfold its magic anywhere, even in the stalls of the Nationaltheater. The children’s play “How the fish found the sea” can be seen there at the September Festival (premier on September 24). Inside the auditorium, a reunion with current ballet productions such as Sharon Eyal’s “Bedroom Folk” and a creation from the “Today is Tomorrow” series. Then the only thing missing is the opera itself, which should be celebrated: there is Haydn’s “L’ Infedeltà delusa”, Verdi’s “Don Carlo” and the Britten opera “Peter Grimes”; Jonas Kaufmann, who will soon be heard more often at the house, is to sing the title role. In the second season under Serge Dorny, which will again demand a lot from everyone with, according to the motto, “songs of war and love”.
Information about the UniCredit Septemberfest and the free admission tickets for “Opera for All” in Rosenheim can be found at www.staatsoper.de