Euryanthe 2004Edinburgh International Festival
Read more about the opera Euryanthe
The libretto Weber set in London for his final opera Oberon has always come in for criticism, but it may be that Weber's initial feeling was that it improved on its predecessor, which was produced in Vienna a couple of years before. The 2004 Festival made a feature of the works of Weber, and the full-length mature operas were all given in concert. Euryanthe gained enormously from the presence of Stuart Skelton as Adolar and Christine Brewer, in amazing form, as the villainous Eglantine, a dry-run for Wagner's Ortrud. The title role had been planned as a debut role for Anne Schwanewilms, who sang it at Glyndebourne in 2002, but she dropped out, and Gabriele Fontana had a great success as a short notice replacement. Festival regular Neal Davies was also an excellent proto-Wagnerian villain. In fact this piece does hve many foretastes of Lohengrin.
Opera at the 2004 Festival
Edinburgh's major visiting company in 2004 was from Germany, but a Festival newcomer, the Hanover State Opera. In a mere four performances they presented the work of three of Europe's most controversial 'concept' direction teams. The single performance of Il trovatore, never presented at a previous Festival, was directed by the never-dull Catalan Calixto Bieito, whose production of Celestina for Birmingham Rep was also seen at the Festival. Peter Konwitschny's production was of Nono's massive Al gran sole carico d'amore, while Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito took a fresh look at Pelléas et Mélisande, given two performances to end the visit. The final opera was Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, presented by Opera North in a co-production with Emio Greco I PC. There were four operas given in concert at the Usher Hall. A stimulating series gave a survey of the three major Weber operas - Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon. The first two had not been seen in Edinburgh in half a century. There was an excellent Bartók evening, including Duke Bluebeard's Castle. The final offering saw a vintage cast assembled for Strauss' Capriccio.
