Pape Pilgrimage - Some Musical Recollections

I returned yesterday from Berlin (see post below) and a trip that included a few days in Prague and an overnight in Dresden. Prague was a surprising delight visually and musically. Classical music concerts are presented regularly and conveniently in the early evenings and I took advantage of a couple of them. There is a chamber music concert at the church of St. Salvator right at the entrance to the Charles Bridge and on alternate nights, a vocal and organ concert at St. Francis Church nearby. The concerts are short with an emphasis on music everyone knows and times that can coordinate with an early and delicious supper at the many excellent cafes in the area. I saw the chamber concert on Monday November 10th at a cost of 450 czk (about $20). The church itself is quite beautiful and while not heated, provides heated pews for chilly guests. The concert consisted of many old favorites, the Pachelbel Canon, the Bach Air (Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring), both the Gounod and Schubert Ava Maria, and a couple of Vivaldi Seasons. It was presented at 5 pm, a great time to rest the feet from a day climbing up to the castle and allowing plenty of time to enjoy some Goulash or other wonderful dish for supper before collapsing at one's hotel. There is also a vocal and organ concert at St. Francis of of Assisi Church near the Charles Bridge and St. Salvator church. This concert is worth attending just to see the ornate baroque decorations. At this concert, a very competent mezzo, flautist, and organist presented every Ave Maria I know and a few others. While the concert was largely familiar music, there was a delightful punctuation of songs I was unfamiliar with. It's said Prague is a very musical city and I encountered the wonderful Bridge Band, a washboard band, playing You Are My Sunshine sung in Czech :~). They have a CD they will sell you.

I spent one day in Dresden, which is easily accessible by train from Prague. My main purpose in visiting was to see the beautiful Frauenkirche that Dresdeners have rebuilt from a pile of rubble created in 1945 by an Allied raid on the city. The church was rebuilt after reunification of the Germanys after the Wall fell in 1989 . It is cozy and full of sunlight and sunlit colors. I also strolled past the Church of the Cross, which I admit to wanting to see because it's where Pape began his musical career and training at the tender age of ten. Alas, my one afternoon in Dresden produced a closed church, although I understand the famous Kreuzenchoristers present a concert on Saturday evenings (on Saturday evening I had a long held ticket to Pape's premiere of Don Giovanni in Berlin). I did hear some wonderful street musicians at one of Dresden's cold but colorful Christmas markets. There was an excellent brass choir and a group of Russian Santas in blue not red, singing Russian carols in close and perfect harmony.

My trip was a ton of fun, very cold and physically taxing, producing many wonderful memories.

The one...the only...

...Rene Pape takes a bow as Don Giovanni, December 18th, Staatsoper unter den linden, Berlin

It was my great fortune to see Rene Pape in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Berlin State Opera this past Saturday, December 15 and Tuesday, December 18. I've seen Pape before as Philip in Don Carlo and as himself with the group, Chanticleer, at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. His Don Giovanni was quite marvelous, sung to perfection as usual, but a little wooden and tentative in the delivery. It's as if Pape can't imagine himself in the role of ladies' man, never mind that in real life female fans pant unapologetically. I've heard he's under appreciated in Berlin and I would concur. His lovely serenade to Elvira's maid and his duet with Zerlina did not produce the show stopping applause one would expect at the Met. On Tuesday night he finally found reward. At the end of the opera at the curtain call, each soloist came forward for a solo bow. When Pape came forward, the audience arose en masse, the first standing "O" of the night.

This was also my first opportunity to see and hear Barenboim conduct live. While Maestro is assuredly a master technician conducting without notes or score, getting wonderful sound from the orchestra, I had the feeling that he was conducting an orchestra where the singers were welcome to sing along if they wanted, not an orchestral accompaniment to an opera. Oftentimes it seemed that Pape's extraordinary voice was drowned out by a trombone or oboe, with Barenboim mindful only of the sound of his orchestra, not his singers. Also, the staging and sets were rather underwhelming, as if produced on a budget. But it was a wonderful opportunity to see Pape and I think he will come to own the role, as he does Philip in Don Carlo, Mephistopheles in Faust, and Marke in Tristan and Isolde.