Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots
- Episode aired 2006
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Beautifully sung and lots of fun
The Mozart 22 series has been an interesting experience but also somewhat of a mixed bag. There have been some jewels like Mitridate Re Di Ponto, Il Sogno Di Scipione, Il Re Pastore, La Finta Giadiniera and Idomeneo and some very good ones like Cosi Fan Tutte, La Finta Semplice and Apollo and Hyacinthus, but also some decent but promise-more-than-deliver outings like Die Zauberflote, Le Nozze Di Figaro and Don Giovanni and some stinkers like Ascanio in Alba, Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail, Abendempfindung and Lo Sposo Deloso/L'Oca Del Cairo(Zaide/Adama I also wasn't that impressed with, but because I felt I was being unfair on my judgement of the opera itself it was a little better on re-watch).
Die Schuldiekeit Des Ersten Gebots for me is one of the very good ones. The sets on the whole were interesting with the huge panels and the painting of the medieval town, and apart from the outrageous one- green dress with white wig(my mother, a stickler for colour co-ordination would have a field day)- for Justice the costumes are very colourful. The staging maintains the opera's religious theme while playing it as an entertaining comedy. On the most part it worked very well. There was one touch that I did find questionable, as fun as it was to watch I don't think the fight between the furry monster and the hunter during Mercy's Ein Ergrimmter Löwe Brüllet added much to the music.
I can't find much to complain about the musical side of the production. The orchestra play like angels under the efficient baton of Joseph Wallnig. The score is a pleasant one, not one of Mozart's best but an amazing achievement from an apparently 11 year old boy. The recitatives, trio and seven arias make for pleasurable listening. Of the singing, deserving the most praise is Christiane Karg as Worldliness, she is a riveting actress in a personification of the devil in this production and sings both beautifully and thrillingly, the right approach for the dangerous range of singing she has to adopt. Bernhold Berchthold sings sonorously and with authority in the role of Christianity, while Michiko Watanabe and Cordula Schuster's Justice and Mercy are charming. Peter Sonn proves to be a very gifted and musical singer as Christian, his Jener Donnerworte Kraft is just sublime and I liked the idea of having the solo trombone on stage dressed as an angel.
And while the opera ends on an incomplete note, the trio is beautiful music and you do still feel rewarded. All in all, a lot of fun and beautifully sung especially by Karg. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Die Schuldiekeit Des Ersten Gebots for me is one of the very good ones. The sets on the whole were interesting with the huge panels and the painting of the medieval town, and apart from the outrageous one- green dress with white wig(my mother, a stickler for colour co-ordination would have a field day)- for Justice the costumes are very colourful. The staging maintains the opera's religious theme while playing it as an entertaining comedy. On the most part it worked very well. There was one touch that I did find questionable, as fun as it was to watch I don't think the fight between the furry monster and the hunter during Mercy's Ein Ergrimmter Löwe Brüllet added much to the music.
I can't find much to complain about the musical side of the production. The orchestra play like angels under the efficient baton of Joseph Wallnig. The score is a pleasant one, not one of Mozart's best but an amazing achievement from an apparently 11 year old boy. The recitatives, trio and seven arias make for pleasurable listening. Of the singing, deserving the most praise is Christiane Karg as Worldliness, she is a riveting actress in a personification of the devil in this production and sings both beautifully and thrillingly, the right approach for the dangerous range of singing she has to adopt. Bernhold Berchthold sings sonorously and with authority in the role of Christianity, while Michiko Watanabe and Cordula Schuster's Justice and Mercy are charming. Peter Sonn proves to be a very gifted and musical singer as Christian, his Jener Donnerworte Kraft is just sublime and I liked the idea of having the solo trombone on stage dressed as an angel.
And while the opera ends on an incomplete note, the trio is beautiful music and you do still feel rewarded. All in all, a lot of fun and beautifully sung especially by Karg. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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- TheLittleSongbird
- Sep 1, 2012
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