"The word becomes the meeting point and the weapon"

After having staged Adriana Lecouvreur at the Oper Frankfurt in 2011, Vincent Boussard now approached Gluck's Ezio, a drama per musica that was premiered in Prague in 1750. "The word becomes the meeting point and the weapon", Vincent Boussard writes in his introduction to Metastasio's libretto. Vincent Boussard's staging became an absorbing and imaginative piece of work in which (as always with Boussard) the singers are in the centre of the concept and where music and text are ever supported with devotion. The opening night on 10 November 2013 also inspired the critics who reported abundantly on this production. Here are the highlights.

Darmstädter-Echo describes the modern and simple stage setting as follows (15.11.13): "In the Frankfurt Opera, the moderately modern staging by Vincent Boussard fits well the compositorically not very surprising piece. The stage director and his team go for purism. At the beginning, when Ezio comes back from winning the war, the stage is marked by black and white video projections of war planes. In the course, white figures that bring sea gulls to ones mind are hovering over the screen and find their equivalent in a sculpture that is floating in the room. The play gets some colour by the opulent costumes of the imperial family." Costumes, light and video are part of the staging concept, which the Rhein-Neckar underlines (12.11.13): "The artistically stylised costumes (Christian Lacroix), the scarcely used changes of the light (Joachim Klein), the sublte video installations (Bibi Abel) and the reduced guidance of the characters do not explain much, but convey emotions, give hints and especially attribute attention to the music." A frame that had kulturfreak.de convinced (16.11.13): "For the quite difficult scenic realization of the story of the victorious and sincere fighter Ezio who nearly loses his life due to an intrigue, stage director Vincent Boussard found simple and coherent images." In this atmosphere, music and text could unfold perfectly, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung emphasises (14.11.13): "The story was narrated so passionately - this mainly through the long da capo arias that usually do not convey tension of the story line either – that the main attention was basically focussed on the protagonists and how their gestures and vocal modulations merged and fused to a stage figure." Giornaledellamusica.it adds (12.11.13) that "Vincent Boussard found the right balance between arias and long recitatives in his sensitive and elegant staging." Furthermore, he succeeded in a precise characterisation of the single figures according to the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung (12.11.13): "The strength of the staging is the psychologically reasonable and at the same time effective guidance of the characters." Die Rheinpfalz shares this opinion: "The stage director sets special value on the precise characterisation of the figures and their relationship between each other. This creates a distinctive intimate theatre that is totally focussed on the protagonists." Feuilletonfrankfurt.de confirms this (13.11.13): "Psychologically convincing: the smooth, rough, violent and ambivalent figures have a great impact on the dramaturgic development of this complicated plot." Main-Echo states that suspense is even added (15.11.13): "Vincent Boussard proves by his artistical and psychological staging that this unknown opera seria can indeed cause goosebumps in a quality a first class thriller usually conveys." 

All in all, a successful staging "that in its best moments achieves the strict grandeur of the classical „Tragédie lyrique“ and even in some moments reminds of the pure magnitude of the classical stagings by the legendary-duo Chéreau-Peduzzi", according to die-deutsch-bühne.de (12.11.13). Opernnetz.de is enthousiastic about the inspired rediscovery of the opera (12.11.13): "An opera evening that digs out a real rarity from the treasure chest of the opera seria and has us reminisce upon suave, mild musical gestures and enchantingly beautiful arias." Bild Frankfurt (12.11.13) resumes: "Magnificent. Nothing bothers. The music is in the centre. Everything else serves. Christoph Willibald Gluck's Ezio in the opera satisfies every wish."

And the audience? "Enthralling musical theatre. At the end, there is enthousiastic applaus for all the participants, including the staging team." (omm.de, 12.11.13)

6 October 2013