A powerful Fiery Angel in Düsseldorf

By Matthew Rye, 17 October 2015

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Reviewed at Opernhaus, Düsseldorf on 16 October 2015

Prokofiev, The Fiery Angel

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Wen-pin Chien, Conductor

Immo Karaman, Director

Aída Leonor Guardia, Set Designer

Fabian Posca, Costume Designer, Choreography

Svetlana Sozdateleva, Renata

Susan Maclean, Mother Superior

Renée Morloc, Sorceress

Sergei Khomov, Agrippa van Nettelsheim, Mephistopheles

Florian Simson, Jakob Glock

Sami Luttinen, Faust

Torben Jürgens, Mathias

Boris Statsenko, Ruprecht

Volker Weinhart, Lighting Designer

Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Düsseldorfer Symphoniker

Reality wants augmenting in Daniel Kramer's Die tote Stadt

Eleanor Knight, 16th April

What's a director to do while we wait for technology to catch up with the complexities of the human condition?

***11

Duisburg’s Don Carlos rescued from a devastating deluge

Brian Angus, 17th May

What do you do when 80 tonnes of water flood your theatre, your sets and costumes? Rescue, reshape and present what you can. That’s what Deutsche Oper am Rhein have had to do in Duisburg.

***11

All the world's a stage: Xerxes as a comedy of backstage rivalry

Matthew Rye, 17th January

A revival of Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Xerxes in Düsseldorf makes for a rip-roaring evening of theatrical comedy.

****1

Stars and the score shine in The Count of Luxembourg

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 25th December

Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.

***11

Between two worlds: Wozzeck in Düsseldorf

Matthew Rye, 20th October

Stefan Herheim's eagerly awaited production of Berg's Wozzeck distances us from the emotional heart of the tragedy by portraying the story as a hallucinatory death-room experience.

****1

Die Zauberflöte in Düsseldorf

Edward Sava-Segal, 27th May

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute.

****1

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

All in the mind: a powerful Fiery Angel in Düsseldorf