We had a new production of Mozart�s "Il Seraglio" last season. Daniel Harding conducted. There was a fixed setting in the orchestra, means, we were not allowed to switch service. Well, my colleague did the job. But we have got a new conductor since, Harry Bicket, of whom I reported the review he received (Tohuwabohu !). He had some extra rehearsal. My friends from his country told me, his reputation were like "harmless nobody".
The production is very, very strange on stage. I played it the first time yesterday evening. As the singers come from several non German speaking countries & have had real difficulties to speak the German dialogues in this "German Singspiel", the producer decided to arrange a story around with a Turkish female interpreter & amplified voice telling the story as even the German text of the singers was nearly not understandable. She was assisted by another Turkish lady painting at the projector, so one could see the map of the serial & the harem & the way Belmonte & Pedrillo took to free their loved Constance & Blonde. The German spoken text of the Turkish guide was mixed with Turkish words. When we arrived at the pause, she invited the audience to go to the cafeteria, and after the performance her assistant wrote the names of the singers to be seen in the back, when they came out to make their bow. Constance had to sing her famous aria "Martern aller Arten .... " (torture aria !) sitting on a swinging sofa, but not just sitting, sit in the typical "tailor posture", which is absolutely terrible for singing. Etc.etc. means, the producer has no idea about, and the singers have no chance to refuse such insane actions. But it is not my business to critic the production. But there are musical things, which are typical for such "naseweiss" young conductors like Daniel Harding. First: before he arrived for the first rehearsal, he insisted that all horn parts in Bb were "alto". So I went to meet him before the first rehearsal, pointing him to the score where the horns would stay higher than the oboes in these numbers, which could not be. But the new publishing committee at Baerenreiter, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, had decided such. Harding bowed in & accepted my advice, leaving just the one single number in Bb alto (No. 8 ), which is really harmless. But all of them have not discovered the mistake in the two Vaudevilles in the first act & in the Finale, where the horns run together with the trumpets. The trumpets stay in C & play written "e". The horns have just written "e", but there is no sign to change the transposition from F at the beginning of the numbers to C as it should be. It was forgotten in the new score & in the horn parts. But nobody noticed that until when I played it yesterday, no conductor, not my colleagues. How about the Mozart feeling ?? Special, those self esteemed specialist with the stick ? There are more mistake in this edition, and they have not been discovered or corrected by the conductor. There is a little March (no.4) which is not by Mozart definitely even the number of measures corresponds to his numberings, but it sounds so poor that it cannot be Mozart. We never played that in earlier productions, but today we have a strong tendency to "revive dead corpses". Prof.Hans Pizka, Pf.1136 D-85541 Kirchheim - Germany Fax: 49 89 903-9414 Phone: 903-9548 home: www.pizka.de email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
