OperaWednesday on 4 November 2020 presented a real curiosity: the highlights from Die Rheinnixen by Offenbach. The performance at the Sándor Hevesi Stage of the Eiffel Art Studios was streamed live from 8:00 p.m. on Facebook and Origo.hu.
Offenbach is frequently considered to be a composer merely of operettas and other light musicals who produced only one truly serious piece: Les contes d'Hoffmann. The French composer, however, composed more than 650 works altogether, and his first opera, Die Rheinnixen (which includes the famous Barcarolle theme familiar from the later Hoffmann) has been unjustly forgotten. The piece depicts a country shattered by internal warfare through an unusual love story. Composed with astonishing richness, this sparkling and glittering work combines poetry and politics, dreams and reality and the supernatural and the realistic. The work was given its Hungarian premiere at the Erkel Theatre in 2018.
The highlights in the OperaWednesday series was directed by Andrea Kováts and Orsolya Magyar with costumes by Gergely Zöldy Z. The performance featured Gergely Boncsér (Franz), Géza Gábor (Gottfried), Bori Keszei (Armgard), Csaba Szegedi (Conrad), Andrea Ulbrich (Hedwig) and László Bartal (piano). The performance was narrated by Dániel Mona.
The performance can be seen HERE.
Photo by Péter Rákossy