“Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh ich wieder aus.” (I came a stranger – I depart a stranger)
Hello!
My husband and I were fortunate to get tickets to the première of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Landestheater in Coburg last Saturday. I like classical music but not quite as much as my husband. Honestly, I haven’t listened to a lot of Schubert’s pieces. However, I am always open for something new, especially culturally. I found it helpful to read a bit about the piece to get a good idea of what it is all about. My husband on the other hand wanted to enjoy it without too much background information which I thought was amazing because Schubert’s Winterreise is performed in German which is not my husband’s mother tongue.
Franz Schubert (31 January 1797-19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer. He corrected proofs of Winterreise a couple of days before he died (most likely complications from syphilis). He was 31 years old.
The performance was staged by Bodo Busse who focused mostly on the actors and the music. He kept the stage scenery minimalistic. Gefrorene Tränen (Frozen tears) was depicted as water in a bathtub, the cold winter night as a freezer. The 24 poems are performed by the tenor and three silent actors who accompany him while he wandered through his inner winter of sadness and suffering. The protagonist is thrown back and forth between childhood and family memories which keeps the play entertaining and interesting.
Bodo Busse decided to change the original piano cycle of Schubert’s Winterreise and used a composition by Hans Zenders who transferred this piece into a beautiful, modern treat with a completely new twist. Personally, at points I was able to feel the tenors suffering and pain – it was simply that good. While listing to the poems it seemed that I traveled with the protagonist through this journey called life with all its ups and downs, memories, hopes and fears. I always try to find explanations for everything and of course I needed to do so for the three silent actors. The elderly woman was most likely his mother or his lost love. The elderly gentlemen might depict his father or an elderly version of the tenor. I thought about the third actor as the protagonist’s alter ego or sometimes even his evil side who he tries to fight at points. Or maybe I am completely wrong. 🙂 Beauty and meaning is in the eye of the beholder after all.
Overall, it was an amazing, fresh performance for the twenty-first century with wonderful melodies, passion, thought and no compromises.
Two additional performances are on Sunday, 24 January 6pm and Saturday, 20 February 8pm.
Der Leiermann was my favorite poem of the composition. If you are not able to see the piece, listen to Schubert’s Winterreise here.
Thank you for reading my blog.
