Weinberg’s The Idiot acclaimed at the Salzburg Festival
The Idiot, Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s final opera based on the classic Dostoyevsky novel, received rave reviews for a new staging at the Salzburg Festival this summer. Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and a starry cast in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s compelling production.
“There are times when you leave the opera house unable to speak. When the combination of text, music, motion and imagery reaches a level of such complex perfection that you can’t find words for the way you feel.” So wrote the Financial Times of the Salzburg Festival’s new production of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s The Idiot, powerfully staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski. The composer’s retelling of Dostoyevsky’s novel was the last of his seven operas, completed in 1987 but only reaching the stage posthumously in 2013.
In Dostoyevsky's title character Prince Myshkin, Weinberg found a mirror image of his own fateful life experiences. Weinberg had to endure the war, persecution by Hitler and Stalin, the murder of family members and imprisonment in the Lubyanka state prison in Moscow. However, his creative powers, which also found expression in other operas such as The Passenger, Lady Magnesia, We Congratulate and The Portrait, helped him achieve personal and artistic freedom, culminating in The Idiot.
The Salzburg Festival production was conducted by Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, who has done so much to champion the revival of Weinberg’s music, at the helm of the Vienna Philharmonic. The cast included Bogdan Volkov as the saintly but unfathomable Myshkin, Ausrine Stundyte as the haunting heroine Nastasya Filippovna and Vladislav Sulimsky as the volatile Rogozhin. The acclaimed production by Krzysztof Warlikowski employed ingenious designs by Malgorzata Szczesniak, conquering the unforgiving spaces of Salzburg’s Felsenreitschule.
“Five stars for The Idiot at Salzburg Festival – an unmissable opera of love and manipulation… Mieczyslaw Weinberg turns Dostoyevsky’s dense novel into a work of depth and nuance… Rarely is an ensemble performance so gut-wrenchingly interwoven… The Idiot is so good that it hurts.”
Financial Times
“Weinberg’s last opera whittles the Dostoyevsky novel down to its essence, asking the question: What rules the world, compassion or evil?... As recovery jobs go, it doesn’t get better than the resources and prominence of Salzburg. And The Idiot, a well-done opera done well, comes out sounding like it absolutely deserves a place in the repertoire.”
New York Times
“With the current new production, the Salzburg Festival has probably set the most important milestone in The Idiot’s recent reception history. The imposing performance reveals this opera in all its greatness as a masterpiece… Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla succeeds in creating a true miracle of sensual sound work full of detail and tension…”
Kronen Zeitung
“It is only now, in only the third production of the work, that you understand this music, its complexity, its emotionality. You can't escape it…. Krzysztof Warlikowski, a master of psychologically profound direction, vividly heightens the richness of colour in the story.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Idiot can be heard on a Pan Classics recording from the opera’s premiere at the Mannheim National Theatre, 17 years after Weinberg’s death. The performances were conducted by Thomas Sanderling, a close friend of the composer who, together with luminaries such as Gidon Kremer and Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, has done much to establish Weinberg’s position in the musical firmament.
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> Further information on Work: The Idiot
Photo: Salzburg Festival/Bernd Uhlig