Going out with a “Boum!" at Komische Oper

By Hugo Shirley, 02 November 2020

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“an impassioned statement bristling with barely concealed indignation at the new restrictions”

Reviewed at Komische Oper Berlin, Berlin on 31 October 2020

Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein

Komische Oper Berlin

Alevtina Ioffe, Conductor

Barrie Kosky, Director

Klaus Bruns, Costume Designer

Tom Erik Lie, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein

Ivan Turšić, Fritz

Christoph Späth, Prince Paul

Jens Larsen, General Boum

Christiane Oertel, Baron Grog

Alma Sadé, Wanda

Tijl Faveyts, Baron Puck

Chor der Komischen Oper Berlin

Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin

Barrie Kosky directs a ferocious new Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Zenaida des Aubris, 31st January

Shostakovich's opera is laid bare in Berlin, to devastating effect, with a distinguished cast led by Ambur Braid.

****1

Masks and obsessions: Evgeny Titov’s Salome at Komische Oper Berlin

Zenaida des Aubris, 22nd November

Salome is faceless and the Dance of the Seven Veils becomes a sardonic commentary on seduction in Komische Oper Berlin's austere new staging.

****1

Opulent minimalism: Kosky directs a new staging of Akhnaten

Zenaida des Aubris, 23rd March

Barrie Kosky's new production of Philip Glass' Akhnaten for Komische Oper at the Schillertheater removes any egyptological references.

****1

A blade too dull: Kosky directs Sweeney Todd at Komische Oper

Elena Luporini, 17th November

With a brand new production by Barrie Kosky, Komische Oper Berlin's first venture into the Sondheim repertoire mostly falls flat.

**111

Kirill Serebrennikov’s Marriage of Figaro challenges Edinburgh

David Smythe, 16th August

Komische Oper Berlin's The Marriage of Figaro is staged at the Edinburgh International Festival with a strong cast headed by Penny Sofroniadou and Peter Kellner.

****1

Kosky's Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will at Komische Oper

Elena Luporini, 22nd March

It takes two to tango... but what about vaudeville? A rerun of Barrie Kosky's production of Oscar Straus' Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will owes most of its charm to the two leads.

***11

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Hugo Shirley

Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic in the UK, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and has a PhD in musicology from King's College London, where his thesis focused on Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Going out with a “Boum!" Barrie Kosky's socially-distanced Großherzogin von Gerolstein