Operetta “Sissy” in Bremen: alpenglow and royal drama | EUROtoday

It can tip over so rapidly. The Austrian gendarme had simply appeared endearingly innocent – performed virtually uncharacteristically by Martin Baum – then he rushes to the ramp and screams: “Everything is going down the drain here!” Underneath the enjoyable of the musical play “Sissy,” premiered in Vienna on December 23, 1932, fears and aggressions of probably the most present power lurk.

The new manufacturing of “Sissy” at Theater Bremen permits for such scary moments. But at the beginning, Frank Hilbrich’s approachable manufacturing with the gorgeous stage design (Volker Thiele) and the magnificent costumes (Gabriele Rupprecht) is a pleasure for anybody who desires to permit themselves a little bit sentimentality with alpenglow and a royal awakening of affection in the course of the Christmas season. The efficiency comes with only a few movie quotes – “Sissi! – Franz!” (massive snort within the viewers) — and tells the well-known story on the places Possenhofen and Ischl in a refreshingly unconventional means.

The Viennese violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, born in the identical 12 months as Thomas Mann and, like him, an emigrant to the USA in the course of the Nazi period, composed the piece primarily based on the comedy “Sissy’s Bridal Ride” to a libretto by Ernst and Hubert Marischka, lengthy earlier than they made the over-consumed three-part movie within the Nineteen Fifties. The success was “inevitable” for an viewers that longed for the supposedly ideally suited world of the monarchy, as Kreisler’s biographer Matthias Schmidt writes. After the premiere, the “Frankfurter Zeitung” suspected three causes for the applause: the presentation, the intonation of the imperial anthem, “perhaps also the dynastic magic.”

In the service provider metropolis of Bremen you will not win a flowerpot with “dynastic magic”, however the efficiency on stage is exorbitant, a well-rehearsed, joyfully lit firework show of appearing and singing, language and light-weight, meringue-like music. The persona and charisma of the singers and actors are considerably extra vital than the respective vocal topic. This was the case on the premiere, when the legendary actress Paula Wessely performed Sissy and was doubled within the singing numbers.

There is not any doubling in Bremen: with a disarming smile, sleek look and lengthy darkish brown hair, the younger baritone Arvid Fagerfjell performs the sissy. The tomboyish nature of the position lies within the barely angular actions, which distinction delightfully along with his pure attraction. Franz Joseph, portrayed by the tall actress Lieke Hoppe, positive aspects in stature and honesty because the handsome, awkward younger emperor in Sissy’s presence: “What’s your name? Sissy? Sounds kind of stupid. But it suits you.” You can see the mutual sympathy rising by the second.

Sissy’s dreamy music “I would love to be in love someday” unfolds in opposition to the gorgeous backdrop of wooded mountains, as could possibly be depicted in an previous coloured engraving by Ischl. The mixture comes dangerously near kitsch, however in Franz Joseph’s subsequent solo quantity, the jazzy trumpet sound of the Nineteen Thirties is current, soulfully nasal like in an American dance bar. Lush violins like these of Johann Strauss are a factor of the previous. Accordingly, Lieke Hoppe makes use of her melodious voice like a diseuse in a “modern” means, with a particular vibrato on the N consonant.

In Possenhofen, too, the genders are the opposite means round, which does not trouble the noisy crowd of kids: mother Ludovica (Christoph Heinrich, baritone) speaks humorless normal German in a deep voice, dad Max (Ulrike Mayer, mezzo-soprano) mimes Hallodri in Krachledernen and disrespectfully calls his imperial sister-in-law Sophie “Sofferl”. The marriage has hit a snag; the extra Max fools round, the extra severe his spouse turns into.

The shock appears all of the larger within the enchanting tango duet “Two old aunts dance a tango in the middle of the night” by the sisters Ludovica and Sophie, who share a heat dislike for one another. In a loopy pas de deux, the stress of envy (Ludovica) and management mania (Sophie) falls away. In the inserted quantity by Georg Kreisler, a descendant of Geigen-Kreisler, actress Susanne Schrader shines as Archduchess Sophie when she spiritedly cuts by means of her deep black court docket costume. As a putting anti-figure, she will get an additional look within the imply music by Georg Kreisler, “How nice would my Vienna be without Viennese” — Thomas Bernhard will need to have been glad.

The musical substance of the operetta is light-weight, a skinny varnish over seething political circumstances. Maybe that is precisely why the opposite younger couple’s illusion-free duet “Love comes, love goes” sounds so touching. Seriously and passionately, Nené (with a youthfully radiant soprano, Elisa Birkenheier) and the Prince of Thurn and Taxis (Fabian Dürberg) mourn their love, which shouldn’t be. What must also be highlighted is the conducting of Stefan Klingele, who not solely leads the colourful night sensitively, but additionally discreetly turns into a part of the motion on stage and accompanies him on the piano. The orchestra performs elevated on the again stage like in a dance corridor. The loving total efficiency will likely be remembered.