The person in the middle of the front row (of 7) is Adam Fischer. To his left is Sesto, and second to his right is Tito.
Story. See previous post.
Adam Fischer - Conductor; Tito - Bernard Richter, Sesto - Michele Losier, Annio - Kangmin Justin Kim, Servilia - Katharina Konradi, Vitellia - Tara Erraught, Publio - Han Kim, Berenice - Anna Wrobel
We had seen this opera once at the Metropolitan Opera, back in 2012. Reading over that blog entry, the conductor was Harry Bicket, and Sesto's role was sung by Elina Garanca. I don't remember much of it. My remarks in that entry were generally neutral, except I thought the opera was a bit long.
Certainly the performance tonight didn't feel long. The performance started quite on time at 6 pm, and ended at 8:30 pm, and there was a 30-minute intermission in between. By opera standards it was a short two hours. That has to be attributed to how engaging the performance was.
A major reason for that was how well the singers did. For the 2012 performance I recorded the confusion caused by Sesto being sung by a woman, and Annio by a countertenor. Sitting in the Met balcony I had trouble seeing who was doing the singing. Today I was less confused, probably because I knew the story better, and I was close enough that I could often tell which individual was doing the singing. My other complaint with the Met performance was that Tito took forever to decide what to do with Sesto's betrayal. Things didn't feel so tortuously protracted tonight. Perhaps the second act was shortened, or because I was more engaged?
To say there were different sets used for the different scenes is probably an overstatement. There is basically this "room" decorated differently to depict the different scenes. The only "complex" element was this hole being dug, probably to represent the uncertain fate that awaited Sesto in the second act. Four different words appeared: Delizia, Potenza, Tradimeto, and Clemenza.(delight, power, betrayal, clemency), describing the main theme of the segment of the drama.
We had seen Adam Fischer at the Met before. He did justice - and more - to the music score. At the Met there probably would be applause at the end of every "memorable" aria - and there were many - here Fischer seemed to strive for continuity. His arms were up most of the time (but the audience didn't respect that!), except on a few occasions where a pause to acknowledge a great job was warranted.
The production team also came on stage, this being the premiere for the season.
The acoustics in the hall was great. With 1690 seats, the opera house is medium size by European standards (smallest I have been to: Zurich at 1100 seats; largest: Covent Garden at 2250 seats). And that there were these walls behind the singers certainly helped with their sound projection. This performance was the premiere of a 10-performance run, so I was a bit surprised that there were quite a few empty seats. In fact I moved one seat over to have a less obstructed view of the stage. (Northern Europe has a lot of tall people.)
The Hamburg State Opera's non-imposing exterior. Other than the sign and the banners, it is just a building at a street corner.
Mahler was the music director of Hamburg State Opera for a few years.
The interior foyers (one on each floor) are functional, but not ornate.
View from my seat. I moved one seat to the right and had a clear view of the stage.
The seating capacity is 1670.
Today was our last day for our trip; we would be flying back to NJ tomorrow. We checked into a hotel near the Hamburg Airport so we wouldn't have to rush the next day. To attend this concert would mean taking the subway (or rather the U) into town again. Anne decided not to do it, so I went by myself. I ate a hamburger at a nearby place before the show, and picked up a muffin at the U-station close to the hotel on my way back.
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