MUSICAL DIRECTION | Ulrich Nicolai |
STAGE | Nina von Essen |
DRAMATURGY | Heribert Germeshausen |
EXTRAS | Theater Heidelberg |
ORCHESTRA | Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg |
WITH: | Terry Wey |
Antonio Giovannini | |
Sharleen Joynt | |
Annika Sophie Ritlewski | |
Hye-Sung Na | |
Daniel Johannsen |
“In Eva-Maria Höckmayr’s cleverly modernizing and sensual interpretation, the story comes across as a psychological chamber play. The hooks of the baroque intrigue of obsession and big state scenery work as an absurd, decadent exaggeration even when its protagonists are in modern bourgeois party outfits. (…) Höckmayr and her team pass the last acid test for the success of an ambitious baroque production. Thus, one could hardly wish for a German premiere almost 300 years late beyond museum-like devotion!”
Die Welt, 30.11.11, Joachim Lange
“Director Eva-Maria Höckmayr carefully transports the piece into the present and stays very close to the music. (…) This is music theatre in the modern sense, developed entirely from the score that Emilia refuses the lieto fine , grabs a gun and mows down the entire company singing at the ramp. She sings the last line alone. (…) Many of the images in the second part are also ghostly, reminding us that more is being negotiated here than the potentate’s congestion of potency. (…) At the very least, it would not be surprising if a rediscovery of Scarlatti the music dramatist, were to emanate from Schwetzingen.”
Deutschlandradio Kultur, 25.11.11, Stefan Keim
“Director Eva-Maria Höckmayr (…) turns it into a differentiated psychological chamber play on Nina von Essen’s stage, which makes positive use of all the circumstances of the rococo theatre. The characters themselves are succinctly drawn, the whole is excitingly told and surprises with an unexpectedly tragic ending. The director presents a thoughtful, solid work that is thoroughly coherent even in the present day.”
Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, 28.11.11, Matthias Roth
“In Eva-Maria Höckmayr’s production and Julia Rösler’s contemporary costumes, we see a chamber play about life and death, which means nothing other than a psychogram of love. (…) There is no safe ground here. Love on the brink. It is the tyrannical men who make life so miserable. Trapped in their outdated code of honour, fatherland and pride, they deprive everyone else of the basis of life.”
Die Rheinpfalz, 28.11.11, Frank Pommer
“(…) an attractive piece, which met with broad approval at the Winter in Schwetzingen as a German premiere, because the scenic and musical realisation shows (self-)tormenting states of mind, which strip the characters of all statuary. Director Eva-Maria Höckmayr finds people of today and models them through individual typification. (…) a sophisticated, gripping performance.”
Mannheimer Morgen, 28.11.11, Eckhard Britsch
“The – from today’s point of view – strange plot is typical for the baroque opera, but with the German premiere the production makes plausible that the problems can be understood quite cross-temporally, because egomaniacal behaviour clouds the view and delusion can have abstruse consequences. (…) The start to the winter festival is very well received by the premiere audience.”
Opernnetz, 27.11.11, Eckhard Britsch