Director Klaus Intestine, wearing a shawl and coat, walked the frigid viewers of the Sofia Opera throughout a latest rehearsal of Salome, exceeding lighting and visible indicators. It was only a few days earlier than the evening’s opening and he was optimistic.
“New York can deliver you enormous, lovely power,” he mentioned. “That is adrenaline – not a hectic feeling, however a sense of alive.”
The 61 -year -old GUT, who was born in Germany and has spent the larger a part of his profession in Europe, has gained recognition for his experimental, demanding method to operas new and outdated. He now brings these emotions into his MET debut by directing new manufacturing of “Salome“This opens on Tuesday.
Impressed partially by Stanley Kubrick’s filmEyes wide closed“Intestine infuses the opera, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s decay from the biblical historical past, with components of psychological thriller. Males’s figures stroll in equal masks on a black and white scene.
Intestine mentioned he wished to emphasise the suffocating guidelines of Victorian society depicted in Wild’s play. He focuses on telling the again historical past of Salome, the 16-year-old princess and the step-daughter of King Herod, presenting her as a sufferer of abuse and trauma that’s obsessive about John the Baptist, finally demanding his head.
“I wished to revive this strong system – the invisible strains across the approved and what’s not allowed,” Intestine mentioned. “It is a portrait of a younger girl rising up on this world together with her unusual guidelines caught in a household jail.”
Salome is likely one of the most emotionally charged and demanding works by Opera. For Intestine’s manufacturing, Met has organized the soprano Elza Van Den Heever within the title position; baritone Peter Mati as John the Baptist (recognized in Opera as Johanaan); And tenor Gerhard Seagal as King Herod. Met Music Director, JanikConducts.
Met’s Met’s debut comes considerably in his profession, however that is the start of a protracted -term relationship with the corporate. Sooner or later seasons, MET will import its manufacturing for 2023 on Handel’s Opera -oratorio “Seeds“Co -production with the Bavarian State Opera and its production of JanuFa’s Janacek, which premiered the royal ballet and opera in London in 2021.
Peter Gelb, Met Normal Supervisor, has recognized GUT as certainly one of Europe’s most stock administrators, saying his “dedication to a coherent story” separated him.
“There aren’t so many administrators who’re good sufficient to be authentic, however they’re additionally capable of inform the story in a method that doesn’t require a information to grasp what you see,” Gelb mentioned.
Intestine was born in Frankfurt and grew up in what he described as a “quiet, wealthy ambiance.” As a toddler, he handled the film Tremendous 8, however felt he was not uncovered to the darkish realities of life. He moved to Munich for school, studied philosophy, literature and theater, with goals of turning into a movie director.
On the age of 20, he had Epiphany for the opera whereas working as a digital camera assistant in Bayreuth manufacturing, the German competition, which Wagner based practically 150 years in the past. On this type of artwork, Intestine noticed a method to mix his pursuits in music, theater and visible artwork.
“Immediately he snapped,” he mentioned. “My passions gathered.”
He rose shortly within the European theater stage, with nicely -known productions of up to date operas reminiscent of “Kronaka del Luogo” by Luciano Berio on the Salzburg Competition in 1999. He acquired reward for his unconventional method to the classics, particularly from Stos and Wagner, together with the Ring.
When Gelb approached GUT for putting a brand new Salome, he already had manufacturing underneath his belt on the surgical procedure of Deni in Berlin. However Intestine wished to create one thing fully completely different for his Met debut.
“It is boring for me to do the identical,” he mentioned. “I want threat.”
Initially, Met Salome was deliberate as a co -production with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the place in 2021 it premiered in 2021 after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, MET Sliced With Bolshoi and constructed your individual kits in your manufacturing.
For his Salome, Intestine mentioned, he wished to offer the title character a way of company – to indicate that she was “not solely the puppet and the product of her training.”
“That is Salome’s biography – the event of a younger man,” he mentioned. “I used to be in search of one thing that anybody might contact.”
Nézet-Séguin mentioned Intestine made Salome freshly related, with a holy mild on abuse of youngsters and weak individuals. “He manages to emphasise a narrative that he actually tells of our time,” mentioned Nesset-Segwin, “with out worsening the opera in any respect.”
The dance of the seven veils, one of many decisive scenes of the opera, is commonly portrayed as a striptease. However within the model of Intestine, the dance is a second of studying, as seven variations of Salome, together with Van Day Haver, depict the horrors of her upbringing.
Van Day Haver mentioned that Intestine had created a “dance of the fragmented thoughts, of the unconscious.”
As “a six-foot tall man who is meant to be within the physique on the age of 16,” mentioned Van Day Hiver, it was initially tough for her to inhabit the character. However, she mentioned, she was aided by Intestine’s clear imaginative and prescient for opera and an emphasis on working as an ensemble.
“You’re at all times a part of a larger story,” she mentioned. “You’re a part of a desk, of an image.”
Within the foyer of Met, Intestine just lately rose to the morning solar earlier than heading for rehearsal. Though he has not labored on Met, he’s no stranger to New York. In 2023 he introduced a present referred to as “Doppelganger” to Park Avenue army armyPlacing Schwanengesang’s Schwanengesang’s Schwanengesang as a dream at a troopers’ hospital.
He first encountered Met within the Nineteen Eighties when he got here to New York for an internship at CBS. Then, as a younger man, he shook with the normal, cheeky look of some productions. However he was interested in music. Many years later, he appreciates the power and focus of Met singers, orchestra, employees and crew gamers.
“Meta is large, however generally it feels very intimate,” he mentioned. “I really feel nice pleasure and gratitude. I really feel at residence.”
