Where are the days when folk comedy and cabaret were the fourth pillar of criticism and control in the state? The times are not so far away when one would be a bit over-, perhaps also understated or simply clear, thought director and puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, who was commissioned to (quite) adapted Karl Kraus translation to the present day of the Theater an der Wien in the Museumsquartier (MQ).
Lima must not become Vienna
“Free censorship” is the name of the main medium in his state, which is of course not Austria, but, as required in the original: Peru, which, however, as can be read in the aesthetics of well-known election posters, must not become Austria. A viceroy (Alexander Stromer), who governs the country but is actually even more interested in the beautiful women in the state, is supposed to see to that. A rogue or a rogue, who thinks of a deputy politician in Austria, although thinking about cross references is such a thing in this production, the fine blade has something of a wooden hammer that drives every gag through the ring.
But why not take part in an operetta evening in which the aesthetics and language of association seem to have been borrowed directly from the Franz Nowotny films “Exit I” and “Exit II” – and which in any case works more convincingly than a society made of old money. In the 19th century, no one could do operetta as an outlet and medium for self-satire better than Offenbach from Cologne, who had gone to Paris.
“La Perichole” at the Theater an der Wien
Around 150 years ago, Jaques Offenbach was the hottest composer in Vienna – now his works are being rehearsed at two opera houses: in the Volksoper and in the Musiktheater an der Wien – in the latter “La Perichole” premiered on Monday.
We play state
The viceroy of Peru actually governs his country in the same way politicians would like it to be in other areas: You play the functioning state and feel comfortable in it. Or has to feel good in it. In this way, the viceroy, in disguise, encounters a people that any provincial governor would imagine. To the question: “How do you find the government?” comes the answer: “Excellent. Especially the ministers, one better than the other!”
Two actors in the background take care of the message control in Peru: Don Pedro, embodied by Gerhard Ernst, who has good reason to distribute meat loaves in the state, after all, he is supposed to look like the popular butcher from TV advertising, whom he embodies so convincingly would have. Panatellas (Boris Eder) again has the function of controlling the narratives in the state – and pretending to the viceroy that everything in the country works.
But the viceroy has a life outside of the state – and so he falls in love with a beautiful blonde with an incomplete pedicure in the scene being played. Perichole, the hungry girl from the lower class (Anna Lucia Richter), who is traveling with her sweetheart Piquillo (David Fischer), is tempted by the “Threepenny Opera” and then prefers gorging to morality, as she does in pitch of the 19th century sings: “What passion can one expect/When one loves oneself and starves to death?”
Offenbach and the new formation of the heart
In the end, Offenbach’s heart education prevails. Not in the spirit of Rousseau, but from the changes in the audience in the 19th century: those from below sometimes have a turn at his happy ending, which until then had only been reserved for the high classes.
Notice:
“La Perichole” can still be seen on January 18, 22, 25, 29 and 31 at the MusikTheater an der Wien in the MQ.
With Habjan, everything ends in a form of state operetta and in front of the “sideways glances” of the broadcaster PRF, which may well mean public Peruvian television. In front of the camera, the head of state acts like a man of the heart and is observed by a prisoner in the form of a puppet, who can only insufficiently comb his gray hair behind his ear. He only has twelve years to serve, says a voice with an unmistakable intonation.
Low-threshold, brisk, rough
The old man’s joke is almost eliminated from this operetta, which is what it wants to be across all parts: a big state outfit, which in parts overtakes a known reality, but is always in speed competition with reality. Offenbach, the master of tempo, is the ideal driving force for this form of confrontation, which is the best folk opera and best folk theater: easily accessible, brisk – and also rough. If the farmer disguised himself as a millionaire in expensive jackets in other houses, the actors of the state operetta come to themselves here. The APA rightly saw a “bat” with a lot of frogs in this performance. And if you have a Don Pedro as a court farmer, then you use him in such a way that he transfers every aria to the couplet after the meatloaf – “haaaa-looo!”.
The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jordan De Souza performs with great musical joy and a desire to ride out when the deviations from the original go as far as “Careless Whispers”. Sometimes, as the director also knows, the punchlines lie in the street – and you can probably pick them up. Magnificent in this requirement: The Arnold Schönberg Choir, which shapes the tempo of this production in terms of singing, dancing and comedy. “We’re not like that,” they sing at the end – and in the city on the beautiful blue Danube they know that
rather the opposite is true.
