News from Moerbisch -- 3 July

A ship will come: On July 9,  on Lake Neusiedl a huge cruise ship will be at anchor. It is 30 meters in diameter, weighs at least a ton and is the centerpiece of the stage for the new production of Johann Strauss' operetta "A Night in Venice" at the Mörbisch Lake Festival 2015.



After a recent drop in attendance, the Open -Air Festival is  now improving. 7,000 visitors  more than 2013 were counted last season and the upcoming spectacular new production of the turbulent carnival comedy is expected to continue this trend.

Director Dagmar Schellenberger has engaged audience favorites like Joesi Prokopetz and Verena Scheitz as the main character.  Tenors Herbert Lippert and Heinz Zednik will also set a good tone.  The show has flirting, intrigue and hectic action

Original German here

More good news: "Due to the recently covered forecourt of 5,000m2 on two levels for the upcoming season we can guarantee that also during unfavourable weather situations our visitors won´t be exposed to the forces of nature anymore."

SENSATION! 168.000 BESUCHER AUF DER SEEBUEHNE MOERBISCH 2014

(Sensation! 168,000 visitors to the lake stage at Moerbisch for "Anatevka", the Moerbisch version of "Fiddler on the roof". Most patrons had already seen the Broadway version. Lots of new patrons, including young people)

Die Intendantin der Seefestspiele Mörbisch im Burgenland (Österreich, Europa) Dagmar Schellenberger und ihr Team freuen sich über die gelungene Seebühnen-Saison 2014. 168.000 Besucherinnen und Besucher wurden in der Saison 2014 gezählt. Für Dagmar Schellenberger war es 2014 die zweite Saison als Intendantin und sie spielte in der Seefestspiel-Produktion "Anatevka" die Rolle der Golde.

Von den 168.000 Besuchern haben sich insgesamt 127.000 Besucher die Broadway-Produktion "Anatevka" angesehen. Der Musical-Klassiker "Anatevka" wurde in 23 Vorstellungen (21 reguläre Vorstellungstermine, 1 Generalprobe und 1 Sondervorstellung) von denen zwei regenbedingt abgesagt wurden, aufgeführt. Dies entspricht einer Auslastung von 91 Prozent. Zum Vorjahr konnte ein Besucherzuwachs von etwa 7.000 erreicht werden.

Dagmar Schellenberger: "Es ist uns dieses Jahr gelungen, unser Stammpublikum zu erfreuen und gleichzeitig viele Gäste anzulocken, die sonst nicht unbedingt nach Mörbisch kamen, vor allem viele junge Leute!" "Das bestärkt mich auf dem Weg", so die Seefestspiel-Intendantin weiter "traditionell inszenierte Operette in Mörbisch unregelmäßig auch mit klassischem Musical abzuwechseln."

SOURCE


Dagmar as "Golda"


The stage

Behind the scenes at Moerbisch 2014

The video below has just been released.  It gives us a look at preparations for the 2014 performance of "Anatevka" and events surrounding it.  I was pleased to see that a lot of the original "Fiddler on the Roof" music was retained.

But what I liked best was that we are given a few good shots of a cheery Schellenberger.  And she is looking remarkably good for a lady in her late 50s.  That North German climate she grew up in is very kind to complexions.

The poor thing looked quite tense in the 2013 interview -- understandably as it was her first year of running the show there. She obviously felt under great pressure to get everything right. She did make some substantial changes, I gather. Anyway 2013 did apparently go well so in the 2014 interview she is back to what I believe is her normal cheerful self. Good to see.

No subtitles, unfortunately.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DAGMAR SCHELLENBERGER from 06/04/2012


You might have seen Dagmar Schellenberger already, if you have been to our festival. In this interview you get to know her a little bit better.

My favorite operetta...

...is always the one that is currently occupying my mind, but I especially like the really opulent, classical pieces.

I like to relax...

...working in my garden. It has always been of great importance to me to have that possibility. Since I have moved to Burgenland, I even know about the cultivation of grapevines – I have some behind my house.

My family...

...supports me in everything I do. My daughter, son-in-law and my two (three by the end of this year!) grandchildren live in Berlin. For quick, spontaneous visits, that’s a long way. But fortunately nowadays there’s the internet and we can do videochats! In summer, they all come to Burgenland and visit the festival of course.

An on-stage-experince I will never forget...

...was when I actually broke my ankle during a show in 2000. I still finished singing „Les Contes d’Hoffmann“ and was rushed tot he Hospital afterwards. I needed surgery to put everything back in order.

My favourite dish...

... is nearly everything apart from herring. I particularly like a good steak every now and then.

What I like about Austria...

... ist the laid-back and humorous way people have about themselves. That made it really easy for me to feel at home here.

The fascinating thing about Lake Neusiedl is...

... how many colors it shows! According to time and light it might sparkle vividly yellow one moment and then turn into powerful red or majestic purple. This gem instantly put a spell on me and I am very glad to be able to live here now.

A review of Schellenberger's Bettelstudent

The review is anonymous -- from 2013. I am glad I now know who to blame for the wacky costumes. Something in period would surely have been better. What WAS the point of making the leading ladies look like beetles? -- JR

Dagmar Schellenberger must have felt tremendous relief following the premiere of Der Bettelstudent at this year’s Mörbisch Lake Festival. In her first year as the festival’s Intendantin, she was facing more than the usual pressures. Her predecessor was the enormously popular operetta star Harald Serafin, who had been in charge at Mörbisch for two decades, and who had been forced into retirement against his will (presumably because of mandatory age limits). He and his devoted fans were just waiting for Schellenberger to make a misstep.

On top of that, the soprano is a German now at the helm of one of Austria’s most popular summer festivals, and the old rivalries between the two countries still crop up from time to time. In any case, those hoping to see her fall flat on her face must have been sorely disappointed, as this year’s event proved to be a resounding success.

There was marvelous singing from the two tenors Gert Henning Jensen and Mirko Roschkowski as the Polish patriot, Count Opalinski, who had disguised himself as the student Jan Janicki, and his friend, Symon, the beggar student of the title.

With his imposing height and clear, radiant timbre, Jensen was ideal as the youthful adventurer who easily won the heart of Daniela Kalin’s charming Bronislava.

Roschkowski’s warmer, mellower instrument offered the necessary contrast to Jensen’s voice and was well-suited to the daydreamer who finds himself inadvertently caught up in a tangle of events.

Henryk Böhm made the ranting and raving Colonel Ollendorf the comedic center of the show, backed by an attractively singing quintet of his officers and Olaf Plassa as the jailer, Enterich.

Cornelia Zink sang Laura with a glowing, innocent soprano.

On the podium of the festival orchestra, conductor Uwe Theimer supplied plenty of lilting mazurka rhythms in the crowd scenes, but also took the time to highlight the score’s lyrical beauty.

This attention to detail was made possible by the new orchestra hall located behind the seating area, from which their music was fed to the stage area in an arrangement similar to that used at Austria’s other major lake festival at Bregenz.

Director Ralf Nürnberger’s wacky staging was matched by Susanne Thomasberger’s over-the-top costumes with towering wigs and enormous, ballooning hoopskirts.

In contrast, Yadegar Asisi’s unpretentious sets featured a simple city wall that blocked the lake view, and gigantic cabinet-like elements that stage workers opened up to reveal the buildings of Krakow.

Frau Schellenberger’s plans for the 2014 Lake Festival include performances of Anatevka (i.e., Fiddler on the Roof), as well as Mörbisch’s first-ever children’s music theater work composed specifically for the festival, to be performed in the new 300-seat purpose-built facility.

SOURCE

Der Bettelstudent

I recently watched the 2013 offering from Moerbisch, "Das größte Operettenfestival der Welt am Neusiedler See im österreichischen Burgenland" set in in Poland of 1704, as the show itself tells us.  It was written in 1882. I noted that Moerbisch have their own ballet company, as well as their own choir and orchestra -- up with the NY Met. So they obviously deserve the fulsome description of them that I have just given.  

It was a performance of the popular Bettelstudent by Carl Millöcker.  It was the first performance at Moerbisch with KS Dagmar Schellenberger as Intendantin.

The show

The performance had a lot in common with Gilbert & Sullivan.  About the first third of it was quite madcap.  I could have done without the big wigs and absurd gowns on the women but that was of course part of the comic setting.  I note that Harald Serafin also put women into wide gowns and absurd wigs on occasions so Schellenberger was within Moerbisch custom in what she did. I thought that it made the women look like beetles but the audience seemed to like it so I concede defeat on that point.

 

The gowns

The plot was typical operetta nonsense, complete with with deceptions and misunderstandings.  There was even TWO purloined letters.  No valuable pocket watches this time though.  So the plot lived up to expectations -- with some good twists towards the end

And the expected romance was also there -- though only in the second half. And the resolution of all difficulties at the end was also the expected operetta ending, but with a twist.  Instead of the lovers getting married, they were already married by that time! 

A good show.   I  see that it has been performed over 5,000 times since 1882.

The singers

I was particularly impressed by the very confident singing of Austrian soprano Cornelia Zink (as Laura) but with her elaborate costume and clownish makeup it was hard to see much of the woman behind the voice.  From the closeups of her face that we got, however, one could see that her facial expressions were very fitting.   I would have liked her to have got the sort of closeups that Schellenberger got at Moerbisch in 2004.  Even in the grotesque deshabille scene one did not get much of an impression of her.  So I am putting up a better picture of her below.  As I expected,  she looks good.

She is a doll!  Though she should pay more attention to her roots.

And the lady in the second string story did well too. Daniela Kalin (Bronislava) does not appear to be well-known but somehow transcended her garb and came over as a very attractive lady. We saw quite a lot of her in the deshasbille scene so that would have helped.  She reminded me of A.K. Wigger, which is high praise from me.  I predict she will go far.  Schellenberger obviously knows talent when she sees it (or hears it).

A very romantic show in the end and great fun for that.  I was sad that there was no big applause for anyone in particular at the end of the show.  I thought Zink deserved more.  The Saxon Oberst (Milko Milev) deserved more too. His was an unsympathetic part but he played it very well.

Zink in full voice

With her fake Prince

Some general reflections

After my first watching of the show, for subsequent viewings I did my usual trick of skipping the first few tracks and that got me straight into the interesting bit, which I really enjoyed.  

It's not always true but operetta performances often start with boring bits, partly for scene-setting purposes, I guess. The scene of men dressed up as ducks and dogs that introduced the 2004 Moerbisch performance of Graefin Maritza was particularly absurd.  I don't know what Harald Serafin had in mind when he put that on but I very nearly stopped watching the show at that point.  Maybe I missed a brilliant allegory but there was just no point to it that I could see.

A small absurd touch that I did enjoy in Bettelstudent, I missed the first time around:  The fake Prince arrives in a sedan chair to the sound of a steam train!  I really like the Moerbisch steam train (Heck!  I like ALL steam trains!) so even that allusion to it was pleasing.  Congratulations to whoever thought of that absurd idea.

A small thought.  The villains in Bettelstudent were Saxons.  As Schellenberger is a Saxon, I thought she might have changed that, but perhaps that would have been complicated. And why did they all have red hair?  A mark of villainy?

It was interesting that even in 1882 Millöcker was using speech "per du" for comic effect.  The whole custom seems needlessly complicated from an Anglo point of view.  I presume Millöcker wrote that segment.  It could have been a later interpolation, of course.

There was an odd bracket towards the end of the show commenting on the financial crisis among the  European banks in 2008+ but one rather wonders why.  The only message seemed to be that the little  guy gets shafted.  That is true but why did it need to be included in this show?  If it was meant to be humorous it missed its mark with the audience -- judged by applause.

A very small point that I should probably NOT mention is that the bishop in the wedding procession is emphatically portrayed as shaky -- as having Parkinson's disease, one imagines.  As politically incorrect as I am, I can see the funny side of that but many would not. Though respect for the clergy is very low in Western Europe generally these days so maybe the clergy could not complain. They have brought disrespect down on their own heads with various scandals.

Moerbisch 2013

2013 was Schellenberger's first year as Intendantin at Moerbisch. The video goes behind the scenes of the production concerned -- a version of Bettelstudent -- one with rather outlandish costumes, by the look of it. She is interviewed at some length -- in German