Munich Opera's Festspiele 2005 - Final week tips

La Calisto is an early music lover's dream. The show is strangely set and the music is foreign to the modern ear. You have to know it already to love/appreciate it. I, for one, left after the first half but that was also because the Prinzregenten theater is not airconditioned. I give this production a weak two stars out of five- unless you love Monteverdi, then you get a strong three out of five. July 22, 26.
(couldn't find a synopsis).



Orphée et Eurydice. Haven't seen it. July 28.
Synopsis.

Lulu is a sexy show. The music is very modern (Berg) but you get wrapped up in the tale and enjoy the ride by the time it gets going. Not a must see but definetly worth it. Four out of five stars. July 29.
Synopsis.

Simplicius Simplicissimus. I don't know anything about this show. The entire production is borrowed from Stuttgart, including the singers, conductor, et. al. One show, June 27 at the PrinzRegenten Theater.

And we finish up with Die Meistersiner von Nürnberg on July 31st. This long long show is the staple of German opera appetites. It is about singers who sing for the hand of a maiden in a singing contest, and it praises German art in the end. I haven't seen this one yet but I will be in it next season so I will find out then. How many stars?- well, how many hours can you sit through? It is about 5 hours long including breaks.
Synopsis.

Faust's the most performed opera in the world. You really can't go wrong with it. I haven't seen this production but I plan to this week. The music and story are great. July 27, 30.
Synopsis.

(whew)

Reviews of earlier shows: Munich Opera's Festspiele 2005

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thanks
-prof

Can't have that... I found this info really useful. Thanks!

thanks! I do want to go. Let us know if more will be broadcast on radio, too!

Judging by the boos and angry shouting last night, at least one person in the expensive seats thought that they had... The main problem seemed to be that they use puppets and a taped German commentary in between the singing to tell the story. I found the audio quality and the actual lines pretty poor (why not use Goethe's words if they're going to do it that way?), and they sometimes actually spoke over the music too. I'd recommend the production though - as well as the great singing there's so much to visually take in you'd really need to go a couple of times to fully appreciate it. (You can get standing tickets for 9 Euros (take small binoculars with you if you want to see the details), or if you've a student ID you can try to get left-over good seats for 8 Euros at the Abendkasse).

I don't know why people have to boo though - I think it's pretty rude and unfair to the performers, particularly as there's enough written about this production to warn them that it's not going to be traditional (although admittedly it's in German, so tourists from other countries might not have known about it).

how difficult is it to get decent seats last minute without a student card? i would love to check out lulu tomorrow but don't want to stand through the performance

They seem to have tickets left in all price ranges at the moment (EUR 97 / 85 / 70 / 53 / 38 / 23 / 11 / 8), so you'd probably be able to get something relatively cheap at the Abendkasse. Scroll down this page for details.

(I only mentioned the standing tickets for Faust because the cheaper seats seem to have sold out for the 30th, so it's either 9 Euros or the next available costs 92 Euros).