Vienna Opera Competition: David and Goliath now fight with Belcanto

Two Bellini, please! Normally, you would express a request like this in your local bar. In Vienna, which has seen itself as the world capital of music since Mozart's time, such a request can currently also refer to the artistic services sector. In February, the small but fine Theater an der Wien and the mighty Vienna State Opera offered two different new productions of Bellini's "Norma" within a week of each other.

A classic bel canto battle. And the audience, who are still particularly fond of opera, had been discussing this excitedly for months: where would the scenically more interesting, musically more harmonious, and overall higher quality "Norma" be performed? Which opera house would emerge victorious from this artistic showdown?

The two combatants, who are facing this direct comparison unplanned - as is being emphasized everywhere - seem at first glance like David and Goliath. The State Opera is the top dog in the industry, the figurehead and flagship of the Austrian federal theaters. Almost 650,000 visitors were attracted in the 2023/2024 season, 40 percent of whom came from abroad. The house has a capacity of a good 2,100 visitors and is almost always full. In the current season, 45 different opera and 7 ballet productions are being shown. A study by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce recently attested that the State Opera made an overall economic contribution to the gross domestic product of 296 million euros. The house has been run since 2020 by Bogdan Roščić, who previously held senior positions at international classical music labels.

In comparison, everything at the Theater an der Wien is a few sizes smaller. In the traditional main house on the Naschmarkt, which can accommodate around a thousand visitors, eight stage productions are being shown this season, each in stagione mode, i.e. en bloc, and twice as many concert opera performances. Soloists, choir and orchestra are booked separately for each production, usually the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra take turns in the orchestra pit. The celebrated director Stefan Herheim has been the artistic director of the city-run house and the associated Vienna Chamber Opera since 2022. The Norwegian prefers to focus on rarities.

His house was the first to compete in the "Norma" competition. Herheim, however, inherited the project from his predecessor: Roland Geyer wanted to show Bellini's masterpiece in May 2020 in a new production by Vasily Barkhatov, with Asmik Grigorian in the title role; the corona pandemic thwarted the plan. In the production, which will move to Berlin's Lindenoper in April, the Russian director will portray the celebrated soprano, his ex-wife, as the foreman of a factory where statues are made for the ruling military regime.

Instead of verbena in her hair, Grigorian as Norma now wears Eastern Bloc grey, and instead of the moon, neon tubes illuminate the gathering of the oppressed and their leader in the fight against the Romans. Asmik Grigorian, the great singing actress, shows and lives the Gallic Druid priestess here as a modern woman, pale but still combative, wedged between two systems and abandoned by the father of her children, the military man Pollione.

Grigorian has dedicated her foray into the realm of bel canto - it is said to be a one-off adventure - to her Lithuanian mother Irena Milkevičiūtė, whom she describes as one of the greatest sopranos of her time. Grigorian has long been emulating her, and she actually succeeds in creating a Norma who sweeps the audience into the vortex of her despair. The singer is not aiming for a homogenous, beautiful sound, but rather for emotional urgency and truthfulness.

Freddie De Tommaso's Pollione also offers more verismo than bel canto, with his tenor conquering the theater like a force majeure, but also knowing how to touch with intimacy and tenderness. Aigul Akhmetshina as Pollione's new flame Adalgisa stands out with the intense glow of her mezzo in the duets with Grigorian - which is no mean feat. It's a shame that Francesco Lanzillotta only leads the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to an average interpretation.

His compatriot Michele Mariotti spurs the State Opera Orchestra on with much more energy: taut, wiry and nervous, the Italian portrays the tension in the overture to "Norma". In Cyril Teste's production, the gathering of the Gauls oppressed by the Romans takes place in an emergency camp in a large industrial building. Close-ups of Norma and the children playing are projected live onto a transparent surface in front of the scene, bringing individual fates closer.

In contrast to Barkhatov, who also foregoes an antique-style ambience for his production, the Frenchman also gives space to poetry: swaying treetops are reminiscent of Irmin's sacred grove, of the redeeming power of nature, and Valérie Grall's stage design delights the eye with picturesque images. An earthy, woody scent specially created by Francis Kurkdjian even adds an olfactory dimension to the overall work of art.

"Norma" is sung at the State Opera in a much more even, modest and bel canto style than at the Theater an der Wien: Biedermeier instead of Belle Époque, ornamental garden instead of vocal tinder. It would have made more sense the other way around. Federica Lombardi's muted, soft soprano in the title role is a completely homogenous beauty, while Juan Diego Flórez's tenore di grazia remains mostly harmless due to its limited dynamic range. Vasilisa Berzhanskaya presents herself as the most versatile and adaptable: her Adalgisa - a role in which the young Christa Ludwig once had to hold her own alongside Maria Callas - grows beyond the pious innocence of the country and achieves dramatic power.

In terms of both the stage and the music, the comparison between David and Goliath ends up being quite surprising - with an enriching draw. The winner can be seen not only by the audience but also by the composer Bellini: the great melodist who knew how to transform human suffering into fragrant cantilenas, backed by string pizzicatos, as sweet as the peach cocktail of the same name.