![\"Cast](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/rusalkaAndrisNelsons2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 An odd thing happened during the curtain calls last evening after a taut, riveting Rusalka<\/em> here at Bavarian State Opera<\/a>. The orchestra players made various signs of approval for the cast members\u2019 work, as is customary, and then essentially none for the conductor (and leading lady\u2019s husband). Their coolness was the more noteworthy given that Andris Nelsons<\/a> was making his company debut. Cheers from the house reflected the strength of the performance.<\/p>\n Why would this be? Nelsons is im Gespr\u00e4ch<\/em> for Kirill Petrenko<\/a>\u2019s job, and perhaps the players aren\u2019t ready to have their future mapped out so soon after the Berlin Philharmonic\u2019s poaching<\/a> of their GMD. Petrenko has, after all, lifted them artistically from the twenty-year trough that was Schneider<\/a>–Mehta<\/a>–Nagano<\/a>. Besides, his exit will grind along in slomo, with the vacancy not opening until Sept. 2020 and a substantial guest-conducting presence for him through the season that starts that month.<\/p>\n Then there is the irksome whiff of pre-planning. In 2015 the Boston Symphony Orchestra<\/a> oddly replaced its two-year-old agreement with the Latvian maestro with a partly retroactive one for 2014\u20132022. An \u201cevergreen\u201d clause in this continues its effect for a defined period unless it is canceled within a stated time, ipso facto<\/em> picturing such notice. Months after signing it, Nelsons moved with his daughter and wife, compatriot Kristine Opolais<\/a>, the Rusalka<\/em> star, to Munich\u2019s Bogenhausen<\/a> district, within walking distance of BStO, Germany\u2019s largest opera company. (It was in opera that Nelsons launched his career, in Riga.) At the same time, he accepted a second orchestra job, with a Feb. 2018 start, in Leipzig, just three hours north of here by train<\/a>.<\/p>\n At least one listener went to the performance not expecting revelations from the newly resident conductor. Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hanus<\/a> had presented Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s score so lyrically and so urgently at the 2010 premiere of Martin Ku\u0161ej<\/a>\u2019s wayward staging \u2014 which not incidentally propelled Opolais to fame, thirty years old and a year into her marriage \u2014 as well as on DVD<\/a> and in seasons following, that it seemed nothing more could be said. But Nelsons remolded it entirely, galvanizing long, long, telling lines that penetrated beyond the frames of the acts and into the musical silence of intermission.<\/p>\n Pictured from the Dvo\u0159\u00e1k cast are: Ulrich Re\u00df, Nelsons, Dmytro Popov<\/a> (a rich-toned Princ), Opolais (still an endearing Rusalka), Helena Zubanovich<\/a> (a Je\u017eibaba voiced to peel the silk off the walls), Alyona Abramova, G\u00fcnther Groissb\u00f6ck<\/a> (the almighty Vodn\u00edk) and Nadia Krasteva<\/a> (the enticing Ciz\u00ed kn\u011b\u017ena); front: Rachael Wilson, Tara Erraught and Evgeniya Sotnikova.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Bayerische Staatsoper<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: June 16, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n
Petrenko to Extend in Munich<\/a>
Bramall to G\u00e4rtnerplatz<\/a>
A Complete Frau, at Last<\/a>
MPhil Bosses Want Continuity<\/a>
Antonini Works Alcina\u2019s Magic<\/a><\/p>\n