My thanks to the digital world
I like to think of myself as the last analogue person, because I will certainly never let social networks into my life, I also refuse to do many things that are contemporary, and I only manage with difficulty not to become furious every time an AI voice asks me to press this or that button or to leave it alone and complete my request online…
But our world also has its advantages. If you, as an opera and theater lover, stayed at home in the summer – for whatever reason – you were by no means lost (especially when it came to opera). The table was richly laid on the television screens and with the Internet streams on the computer.
Bayreuth: Tristan and Isolde
Salzburg: Everyman
Salzburg; Tales of Hoffmann
Salzburg: The player
Salzburg: The Idiot
Salzburg: Dudamel concert with Asmik Grigorien
Bregenz, Lake Stage: The Freischätz
Bregenz, Festival Hall: Tancredi
Munich: Tosca
Verona: La Bohème
Verona: Turandot
Pesaro: Bianca and Falliero
Pesaro: The trip to Reims
Aix en Provence: Madama Butterfly
Graz, Schloßberg: Ring in one evening
St. Margarethen: Aida
Gars am Kamp: The Love Potion
Summer Arena Baden: Viennese Blood
Castle Plays Kobersdorf: The Servant of Two Masters.
No one will claim that it is the same to be there “live” or just to get information about what is on offer digitally – but in a much more convenient, cost-effective way. And I won’t list the occasions on which I was so happy to have saved the long journey and the money for the tickets – but it has been a few times…
And a lot of things were very interesting. I saw how an Icelandic director imagines “Tristan” and fills up the stage that others have played empty; I saw the hard, clear, but also completely lackluster view that master director Robert Carsen has of “Jedermann”; I had an endless amount of fun on the Bregenz lake stage with Stölzl’s deliciously cheeky, imaginative “Freischütz” (yes, you can edit like that, especially in a place like that). What you can’t do is what happened in Salzburg with “Hofmann’s Tales” – such a brutally destructive production should be punished (and the lead singer along with it).
I found it somehow original how time stood still in Baden near Vienna. If Dr. Arthur Schnitzler or Friedrich Hofreiter had gone to the Baden Summer Arena with his wife Genia and kuk officers, “Wiener Blut” would probably have looked exactly the same as it does today (just without a sunroof for rain). You have to accept that… and smile understandingly instead of mocking or cursing.
Thank you, digital age, with which I am often at odds, but I know what I owe to the achievements of our time. In this case, a rich cultural summer.
Renate Wagner
