Post by Bob Harperhttps://www.classicstoday.com/big-opera-feud-to-say-dick-or-not-to-say-dick-that-is-the-question/
Since the complete review isn't available to read in English,
the above article is misleading. I'll take it that the real
controversy is the reviewer's description of the porn-style
production of the opera, but Classics Today deleted two
paragraphs of description of the production. It is
Politcally Correct in Germany that old opera must be
"subversive" or it will not be allowed. So Offenbach is a
recent victim to PC, to go along with the hateful attacks
on Mozart, Wagner, etc.
Here's more excerpts, I suppose this is the original review,
from Google Chrome translate:
https://www.welt.de/kultur/klassik/article198788335/Schlaflos-in-Salzburg-Hier-schlackern-die-Glieder-hier-muss-man-sein.html
It continues with Jacques Offenbach . Here a rare guest. However,
for his 200th birthday, it may be his first, best known but also
heaviest operetta: "Orphée aux enfers". The house for Mozart has
been transformed by the Berlin amusement guru Barrie Kosky into a
rancid quirky revue theater. In front of crumpled fabric backdrops
in gray, a sexboulevard piece that is always the same is waltzed
down, squeaky, slightly asynchronous.
The brilliant actor Max Hopp is responsible for this. He plays not
only in Theo-Lingen-succession the Hans Styx, who drips with Lethe,
who makes in this shrieking-krawallschachtelig-klamottösen "Orpheus"
even the universal speaker and the sounds: Oink-oink, trapp-trapp!
And in the end, the phalli and vulvae are thundering as rhinestones
fireworks under the devilish cancan rock.
Funny is that, ordinary, and speed has it. Old Mezzo Anne Sofie von
Otter gives public opinion as a Swedish pastor's wife, but the horny
gods world makes it a line through the virtue bill. And unfortunately,
the well-oiled puppet mechanism quickly runs empty, again and again
make fat women in tight corsets in various Separees legs wide.
That's just an Offenbach page. I notice in Kosky's seventh (!)
Staging of the season (five to follow in the coming, not to mention
revivals) the wear and tear. But for the all too respectable Salzburg
is the verjuxte banger, the much needed humor bomb to laugh. And
Enrique Mazzola lets the Viennese play really rough-sounding, even
dirty. Chapeau!
Budenzauber with Oedipus Short relaxation break in the press office
at the free coffee with the most beautiful panoramic view in the
world, then in the "Oedipe" grounds, directly below in the
Felsenreitschule. A wonderful, austere piece by composing violinist
George Enescu , since 1936 he has gone to any fashion. Ancient greek
with Christian sinners heaven ride at the end. Under the cautious
Ingo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic plays dream-transfigured,
string-strong with bucolic flute tones. A seraphic requiem.
Christopher Maltman sings when he replaces the monster baby he will
eventually become, starting with the second act, with distinctive
heroic baritone tones. Although not himself unmusculated, he was
pumped up with plastic muscles to a comic boxer. Achim Freyer,
85-year-old creator of surreal Salzburg festival worlds, wants it
that way. His spiny dollhouse magic has also become elderly. You
can see well-known ideas in the threadbare shuffle, also here there
are dicks and monster tits. Freyer tells only brave, he does not
offer a truly interpretative solution. First signs of fatigue.
Luckily, there's the latest Netflix series in the hotel room, a
jazzy thing from Japan: "The Naked Director." Two episodes are still
going.