The ostensible justification for my being there.
A memorial service for Prof. Goetz Friedrich at the
Deutsche Oper. Performers: Michaela Kaune, Wolfgang
Brendel, Matti Salminen, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Peter
Seiffert, Hildegard Behrens, Daniel Barenboim, the
chorus, soloists, and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper
conducted by Jiri Kout.
Friedrich was a major cultural presence with many
productions at the Komische Oper and then the Deutsche
Oper, where he was Intendant and chief stage director
for twenty years. His most famous productions included
the Ring at Covent Garden and later at the Deutsche
Oper and a number of Wagner works at Bayreuth. His
death at age 70 on December 12 was considered premature
and a great loss.
As my friends had wanted me to breakfast with them,
I got to the Oper at about 10:55; no time even to
check my wrap - I'd no sooner scrambled into my
seat and dropped my Bean jacket on the floor (I
later discovered this is a major nono, and I had
just sullied an august occasion with my faux pas)
than the orchestra began to tune up.
The backdrop was Friedrich's Time Tunnel that was
the trademark of his 1984-1986 Ring (I saw it in
one of the newsmagazines back then; it looked silly
there but was remarkable close up).
The occasion began with the harrowing last scene of
Janacek's Katya Kabanova, rather anticlimactically
followed by a greeting by the company director
Andre Schmitz.
Then Michaela Kaune gave a luminous, memorable
rendition of Richard Strauss's September - I thought
this the musical gem of the day; but Wolfgang Brendel's
performance of the Evening Star song got the most
applause (well, not applause, which was forbidden by
the occasion: people coughed instead). I thought that
Brendel was not as impressive as Kaune; but I guess
tenors get more than their share of adulation!
There were other speeches and tributes, including
one by the head mayor of Berlin, but most notably
by Friedrich's widow Karan Armstrong, who gave
what was represented to me as a strong and literate
speech (in real life she speaks not a significant
amount of German, apparently); there was big
trouble recently when Christian Thielemann, the
music director, sensing Friedrich's waning of power,
refused to let Armstrong sing Sieglinde for him,
saying "there is no room for THAT WOMAN in MY opera
house." Friedrich is said to have told a friend,
"he is attacking me in my most vulnerable place -
my wife." Thielemann was noticeable by his absence
from the proceedings; he was not even in the
audience, and a subconductor (a celebrated one,
but still) did the honors of directing the orchestra.
Interspersed were these musical selections:
O Isis und Osiris, from Mozart's Magic Flute, sung
with great power by Matti Salminen.
Beim Schlafengehen of Richard Strauss, sung by one
of my great favorites from when I was growing up,
Gwyneth Jones. Unfortunately, she's older than I am,
and her voice has lost much of its luster, but the
depth of musicality continues to impress.
The Almighty Father song from Rienzi, sung by
Peter Seiffert, another local favorite but one
whom I can't warm to.
Mild und leise from Tristan und Isolde, done by
Hildegard Behrens, until recently a great diva
(right word for a Wagnerian soprano?) but who
has lost tone, control, and intonation, although
her high notes are still there, a little screechy.
She also wore an eccentric outfit and looked not
a little dotty.
The slow movement of the Schubert Sonata in Bb,
played by Daniel Barenboim, who had been given
his first conducting job by Friedrich in the 1960s
(I think). Much pathos, and he's finally learned
to achieve clarity with the left hand. The New
York Steinway piano helped.
And the final fugue from Verdi's Falstaff, another
work with which Friedrich had been long associated
(he directed the first Dutch performance in 1972
followed by a film in 1980).
- - -
After the memorial, there was a reception at which
I met Karan Armstrong's mother and various other
people who spoke English, including a refugee from
Chelsea (the town just south of the one I nominally
live in).