Premierenkritik – Pınar Karabulut inszenierte IL TRITTICO an der Deutschen Oper Berlin

17 years ago, Il Trittico was last performed at the Behrenstraße house. It was directed by Katharina Wagner (who was 27 years old at the time) and received a resounding roar of anger from the most traditionalist conservatives among the attending DOB spectators; there was quite a commotion.

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Jetzt bestellte Intendant Dietmar Schwarz die multitalentierte Pınar Karabulut (36), die unlängst mit ihrer Parkdeck-Inszenierung von Turnages Greek an der Deutschen Oper Berlin debütierte, für die Regie zu dem Puccini-Dreiteiler.

Ich war bereits total für sie gestimmt, nachdem ich vor zwei Jahren ihren als Soap-Opera gefilmten Edward II. in der Mediathek vom Schauspiel Köln am Heimrechner verfolgte; geplant hatte sie eigentlich eine „normale“ Inszenierung der Palmetshofer’schen Übersetzung des Marlowe-Stücks, aber wegen Corona modelte sie alles, was ihr vorher für die Bühne vorschwebte, zu einer 6-teiligen Filmchenserie um; das fand ich schon genial gemacht.

Now she took care of the three big little operas with lots and lots of sentimentality and melodrama.

Il tabarro (Der Mantel)…
„I cannot reword“

Suor Angelica…
„I cannot reword“

Gianni Schicchi…
„…schließlich stellt in der Tradition der commedia dell’arte als eine Groteske und bitterböse Komödie den Menschen als Spieler und habgierigen Betrüger ins Zentrum.“

(Quelle der Kurzplots: deutscheoperberlin.de)

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The main idea of the staging was to understand the triptych as an overarching „plotline“ and to give it a general (and specific) „basic plot“ that looked and/or felt as universal as possible, similar to Love-Lust-and-Sorrow or Everyone-Goes-to-the-Grave. In this regard, she conceptually (and complicatedly) referred to Dante’s so-called three-step of his Divine Comedy, namely: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise; she then assigned these three stations to the Coat, the Sister, and the Schicchi, respectively, in that orderly sequence. This was and is obviously overly intellectual and did not work at all as a result.

Despite its intellectual framework, this eccentric, most eccentric, dare I say, most eccentric evening theatrically functioned, primarily due to Karabulut’s talent for logically arranging characters on stage, moving them, and motivating them to act with the utmost pleasure. The performing personnel could not and did not want to suppress their collective drive for the game, and so this overflowing positive mood spilled over – except for a minor derailment in the finale of Suor Angelica, where the title character shocked with a menstruation attack induced by suicidal herbal intake – and the audience seemed to have been ultimately out of control.

Both the stage design by Michaela Flück and (even more so!) the costumes by Teresa Vergho, at least for me, evoked the brightly explosive style of Herbert Fritsch, which had previously been somewhat of a trademark for him. There was so much to see, and I marveled at the gigantic hairstyles, the padding under the clothes, the painted and drawn masks, and so on. A visual extravaganza of the highest order!

Misha Kiria initially dominated the scene in Il tabarro as a blond-haired Heino-Hüne with an integrated killer instinct. His masculine counterpart (with a resounding „Italian tenor“: Jonathan Tetelman) was inherently completely helpless, and this should have been clear to his secret lover (Carmen Giannattasio) from the start. Only the deer with the largest antlers prevailed, and that’s just how it is in the animal kingdom.

Kiria räumte dann auch schauspielernd & stimmlich als Gianni Schicchi ab!

And actually, all other supporting or minor actors should be named – I will limit myself to my personal favorite protagonist Annika Schlicht; she performed – as the only one in all three plays – almost like a diva. If a theater is blessed with such a singer-actress, it already has half the rent paid. Brilliant woman!

In Suor Angelica, instead of dealing with nuns and novices, we were confronted with insect-like beings adorned with stylized deer beetle antlers, depending on their social status. Only Violetta Urmana (as Angelica’s evil aunt) disrupted this insectoid assembly by suddenly appearing; and she acted better than she sang.

After her magnificent performance as Angelica, Mané Galoyan also portrayed Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi’s biological daughter.

John Fiore leitete das puccinierfahrene Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, den übersichtlichen Nonnen- und Novizinnenchor studierte Jeremy Bines ein.

Eventaffin.

„I cannot reword“