But the last days were days of great emotion in Vienna. Closed on 12 March due to pandemic coronavirus “House on the Ringstrasse” as it is called in the Austrian capital, its Opera house, partially opened again in June, when the theater began to host concerts of soloists, under the piano, allowed for a government audience of 100 people. And on June 27 the season, and with it a decade Meier, ended with a concert with orchestra for the first time gathered together to be with young soloists, which Meyer opened the way share the stage. Most of them also leave the theater now: a new Directorate, headed by Bogdan Rossicum that comes to the management of the theater, strongly reduced and completely changed the ensemble of soloists, establishing a parallel youth program.
When Meyer for such a formal program in the theatre was not, but the Director constantly looking for young talents – according to his confession, he was listening to from 800 to 900 young singers a year at various competitions and auditions. So on the Vienna scene came a bright young Russian singers. A few seasons in the troupe of the Vienna state Opera worked Aida Garifullina. Until very recently sang the soprano Maria Nazarova. At the farewell concert was attended by Margarita Gritskova and Valeria Savino. In one of the previous concerts in June devoted entirely to Slavic music, sang tenor Paul Kolgatin. And next to them – young actors from Ukraine, Moldova, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Hungary, USA, Ethiopia, China, Korea and… Austria. Only in Saturday’s gala concert was a busy 35 soloists, and that’s not all, whom Meyer gave a strong career start.
“We could make the concert. But we decided to do a concert with my children”, speaking with a speech of thanks after the concert when he and business Director Thomas Platzer, who also leaves the theater, presented diplomas and ring of honor members of the Vienna Opera.
In the first part there are arias and ensembles from Mozart’s operas. And the second fragments from operas by Donizetti, Rossini, Wagner, Humperdinck’s and Verdi. The works of Mozart and German composers, conducted by Adam Fischer, and the Italian and French repertoire – Marco Armiliato. Especially joyful for all participants this evening, as an open dress rehearsal the day before, was again to see and hear the orchestra – from “decolonising time” it differed only slightly wider than chairs and that the conductor and accompanist greeted each other by touching elbows instead of the traditional handshake.
But the lack of completeness and sense of community in the hall, of course, felt. A chess-style Seating in the stalls, two seats in one row, the extra two seats simply removed. In the boxes of the dress circle – one person. Other tiers empty. The��Oh small tough audience applause. But listeners tried. In the final concert stream which will be available on the website for 72 hours since Saturday night, the audience stood up, welcoming and artists, and the protagonist of the evening – Dominic Meyer.
Thanks to the employees of the theater, Meyer said, “They work here because I love this house”. Of course, he was talking about himself. The love of music, the artists, the theater, of course, is different from this Director, and is celebrated by all, despite criticism of certain aspects of his leadership. In an interview for a special album dedicated to the decade of his directorship, Meyer described the work of the theatre Director as a “gardener, father, diplomat, psychologist, nurses, and guardian.” “I was looking for places in kindergartens for children of actors and helped them with citizenship – all this relates to the work,” says the outgoing Director.
At a farewell reception for journalists, which took place in conditions without citation to representatives of the press presented a lengthy report on the work of the Directorate over the past decade, with the statistics of visits and sales, the chronicle conducted the performances. So, over the past decade on the main stage were 110 47 operas of composers, left 53 Opera premieres, including two world, 32 ballet premieres and 10 new operas for children on a special children’s stage. The credit goes to the Directorate include the construction of the rehearsal scenes, the restoration of the historic theatre space, the organization of Internet broadcasts and installation in the hall of the individual tablets with subtitles in eight languages. And expanding the repertoire, on the one hand, to the Baroque, and on the other hand, in the field of contemporary Opera. Of course, the increased level of the ballet troupe under the leadership of the outgoing Director also of the ticket of Manuel legree. Of course, there was criticism: it is often a compromise of Opera stage direction did not satisfy either lovers of traditional productions, or supporters of avant-garde theatre.
of That legacy will survive the decade Meyer – the big question. The new Director of theatre Bohdan Roscic announced a radical upgrade of the basic repertoire – just for the next season at No. 10 the Prime Minister, the majority of which were transfers on the Vienna scene, the famous radical performances of the past over the past decades at many leading stages throughout the world. Replaced all the management of the theatre, recruited basically a new ensemble. Essentially embarked on the denial of the “Meyer era”. For the first time since 2014 in the theater will appear and the main conductor will be Philippe Jordan. If you still do not intervene coronavirus, in autumn we will see the new Vienna Opera.
But, in the final Saturday gala concert giving praise to Meir in the absence on stage anyone of the current members of the government��Elista of Austria, former President of the country Heinz Fischer wished the new team “same success” as what made the outgoing team. And in this wish you could hear not only a form of politeness, but ambiguous hint.
