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The premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Bavarian State Opera in autumn 2019 was received with great enthusiasm by press and audience. In Simon Stone’s tense production, Marlis Petersen (Marie / Marietta) and Jonas Kaufmann (Paul) sang the leading roles, and the Bavarian State Orchestra played under Kirill Petrenko. Joshua Barone wrote in the NewYork Times after the premiere: “The comeback of the work may have reached its peak at the Bavarian State Opera. It is hard to imagine a better performance for Die tote Stadt than the one in Munich”. The line between dream and reality increasingly dissolves when Paul, grieving for his deceased wife Marie, meets the dancer Marietta. Because of her outward resemblance to Marie, Marietta becomes a projection screen for Paul’s erotic desires, whose mourning takes on cultic traits: The carefully preserved lock of hair of the deceased is kept like a relic. After a nerve-wracking “vision” with cathartic effects, Paul is finally grounded in reality. He is able to leave the city of Bruges as the place for his death cult. The original work title “Triumph of Life” is indicative of the protagonist’s personal development. A few weeks before the immensely successful premiere of Die tote Stadt, none other than Giacomo Puccini described the then 23-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold as “the strongest hope of new German music”. Arias such as “Glück, das mir verblieb” and “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” belong to the concert repertoire of numerous opera singers because of their melodic urgency and radiate far beyond the fame of Die tote Stadt. This production is the first audiovisual release of the newly founded label Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings. Available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. |
