die tote stadt

„Die tote Stadt at the Hannover Staatsoper was a triumph — in a new production both thought through and original.

With this staging of Korngold’s masterpiece, the Hannover Staatsoper has pulled off a master coup. Ilaria Lanzino’s direction needs no morbid Bruges. It goes straight to the psychological and psychoanalytical depths hidden in Julius Korngold’s libretto, without straying from the text or from the music’s restless, shimmering drive. She simply takes what is already there and pushes it to its limit.

In Hannover, Marie has cut her wrists in a bathtub before the opera even begins. Through her diary, which Paul finds, he — and with him a captivated audience — learns the truth of her life. She was an artist, a singer broken by the expectations placed on her. Pressured and controlled from childhood, even within a marriage that should have been her refuge. Depression, and finally suicide, were the result. Every detail is precisely imagined. The hollow, idealised woman of Paul’s memory breaks apart into many selves, and in doing so becomes human. Ecce homo. The premiere on 9 May ended in a genuine operatic triumph, rightly shared by all involved.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​„

★★★★★

Backstage Classical

„Ilaria Lanzino explores the characters’ inner worlds with remarkable depth. For almost three hours, the production revolves around bitter-sweet truths, the relentless flow of memory and consciousness, and a woman who was only partly the person her widowed husband wishes to remember. An evening that is both thought-provoking and unforgettable. (…) Lanzinos concept uses keen psychological insight to explore the characters’ innermost thoughts and emotions. Lanzino has clearly studied the libretto with great care; her interpretation of Marietta as the other side of Marie’s coin is fully supported by the text. A study of human nature with Freudian depth“

Die Opernwelt

„Instead of illustrating the theatre-cliché of `the dream´, the director immerses herself deep in the inner life of her protagonist. Visual Theatre at its most visceral and compelling.“

HAZ

„Director Ilaria Lanzino interprets Korngold’s piece consistently as a psychological chamber play. The focus is not on external reality, but on Paul’s increasingly fragile perception of a world made of memory, projection, and obsessive grief. The first part of the evening in particular develops an enormous force of attraction. The scene in which Marie sings her famous aria in front of a burning piano in a dead forest is especially striking — an image of almost archetypal force. The subsequent shift into the great comedians’ scene is all the more effective, which Lanzino stages as a darkly glittering showpiece with a gondola, further intensifying Paul’s nightmare spiral.(…) The staging turns the weaknesses in Korngold’s libretto into something rich: written in the shadow of Freud’s Vienna, the text only brushes against the psyche, never quite breaking its surface. Lanzino doesn’t rush to fill those silences with answers — instead she creates striking, dreamlike images, riddles left open enough for each viewer to read in their own way.(…) Hannover succeeds with a visually powerful and musically ambitious “Die tote Stadt,” whose aesthetic coherence and emotional force leave a lasting impression on the audience.“

Opernglas

“This is a production of a very high and engaging standard, which works with interesting and accessible means and is thoroughly convincing. The final act, as a highly apt dramatic climax, takes place directly at Marie’s funeral. At the end of it, Paul himself climbs into the white bathtub-coffin, having left Marietta behind in the black coffin. A huge round of applause for everyone involved.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“

Operablog

„An unconventional interpretation. The Staatsoper Hannover marks another highlight in the generally remarkable inaugural season of Intendant Bodo Busse with the premiere of Die tote Stadt. Through the felicitous collaboration of conductor Mario Hartmuth, director Ilaria Lanzino, and set designer Martin Hickmann, the evening becomes a sensation greeted with storms of applause.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“

Orpheus Magazine

“A compelling “Tote Stadt”(…)With the integrated support of the abstract set and with emotionally charged lighting, director Ilaria Lanzino told a visually powerful story. Intriguing videos underlined Paul’s mental imbalance by suggesting a black-and-white foggy lake with trees, but upside down, as if reflected in a mirror. Lanzino’s tightly controlled Personenregie brought together the outer and inner layers cogently.“

Seen and Heard International

„Not every opera evening is amusing and “merely” entertaining. Sometimes — and this can do one’s soul a great deal of good — you are ambushed by the extremities of human experience, reaching far beyond the „whodunit“ territory. (…) ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ A dense web of dream, fantasy, and perhaps reality too. (…) The production opens up vistas into one’s own inner self and its imaginings — those that sometimes keep us from sleep. This is especially striking near the end, when what can only be described as a legion of Marias or Mariettas appears on stage: all members of the children’s chorus wearing identical wigs evoking Marie/Marietta’s hairstyle. Who is who? And what will become of me — the defenseless Paul?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“

NMZ

„Die tote Stadt in Hannover: visually fascinating, psychologically subtle, musically outstanding. (…) A nuanced, exuberant stage direction, with wonderful set design and fitting costumes. The applause was — deservedly — enormous. This is an event worth every single moment.”

GFO - Hannover

„Thanks to director Ilaria Lanzino, "Die tote Stadt" now stands as a compelling audiovisual event, bearing a distant resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic classic, "Vertigo" (1958).“

Marc Hairapetian - Spirit

Stage direction: Ilaria Lanzino

Stage design: Martin Hickmann

Costume design: Vanessa Rust

AI-Artist: Max Schweder

Light design: Johannes Volk

Fotos: Bettina Stöß