By: Susanne Zobl
Smiling faces, bravos, a quiet humming along to the familiar melodies, shoulders gently swaying to the beat: pure waltz bliss can be experienced until September 1st in the Baden Summer Arena with “Wiener Blut” by Johann Strauss (son).
With his last production as director of the Baden stage, Michael Lakner demonstrates how operetta can completely captivate an audience. He takes the genre seriously. He doesn’t mess around, but celebrates lightness. The fact that “Wiener Blut” is only a “pasticcio” made up of several instrumental pieces that have been rewritten for singing means that one “hit” follows the next.
This makes the plot seem irrelevant. And that’s a good thing, because it’s pretty ridiculous. The young wife Gabriele only returns to her husband, Balduin Count Zedlau, the ambassador of Reuss-Schleiz-Greiz, when she finds out that he is cheating on her. His prime minister knows nothing about this marriage, and thinks Zedlau’s lover is his wife and the real Zedlau is his extramarital partner. The chaos of affairs extends through all levels of society.
Erich Uiberlacker has created an attractive scenario that can be transformed from a villa into a city palace and into a wine tavern with velvet private rooms with minimal alterations. The cast is splendid: Sieglinde Feldhofer portrays Gabriele with mischievous nobility and convinces with her expressive soprano. Clemens Kerschbaumer is an authentic Balduin. Verena Barth-Jurca makes you sit up and take notice as Pepi. Nicole Lubinger credibly portrays the jealous lover Franziska Cagliari.
Andy Lee Lang entertains as their father with couplets about the EU and the government and delights as a pianist. His dialogues about the Viennese dialect with Franz Frickel, who as Prince Ypsheim-Gindelbach lets you hear the genuine Saxon idiom, are brilliant. Beppo Binder completes the cast brilliantly as the servant Josef. The choir and ballet complete the cast admirably. Michael Zehetner leads the orchestra unobtrusively with verve. The warm applause is well deserved.
