25 August 2011
— Estonian premiere as part of Tallinn Cultural Capital of Europe, Noblessner foundry in the harbour of Tallinn
Reviews
»This approach worked and created the atmosphere of metaphysical barrenness.«Mike Amundsen on EPB Newsmore…
»The partially preserved Art Nouveau elegance, the powerful Stalker effect of the grimy halls and the amazing sound offered a great variety of options that even Pirita Convent could not have provided. (...) Nicola Raab wants to show us the end of the era of an industrial society, leaving us with the question of whether the new generation is able to keep watering its garden until the wounds inflicted on the nature heal like the body of Amfortas. Silvery pipes rust away, the Knights carry their pieces like memories, at the same time covering the metal with a white towel.«Klaus Billand for parsifal estonia
»Eine tolle Aufführung,
die man nicht versäumen darf!«Julia Hanekker in der Rundschaumore…
»Was diese Produktionen in ihrer ganzen Unterschiedlichkeit verbindet, ist Raabs grenzüberschreitende Leidenschaft fürs Musiktheater jenseits der Kategorien von U- und E-Musik.«Hermann Weiß in der Welt am Sonntag»Vom Geist der Leichtigkeit durchweht.
Die Regensburger Inszenierung (…) ist absolut hörens- und sehenswert.
Ein Genius der Leichtigkeit durchweht die Premierenaufführung im Haus am Bismarckplatz. Schwerelos dahinschwebend wie Seifenblasen setzt sich das aus Intrigen und Liebeshändeln gewirkte Spiel in Gang. Kein derber Klamauk wird hier getrieben, vielmehr sorgen leichtgeschürzte Pointen und Gags immer wieder für Heiterkeit im Publikum, das ganz adäquat reagiert nicht mit lauten Gelächter, sondern mit verhaltenem Kichern und Glucksen.
Man erlebt einen Theaterabend im Geiste von Rossinis spritziger Musik, bei dem die Szene stets im Detail auf die Töne aus dem Orchestergraben reagiert, (…) Einhelliges Urteil des Publikums. Dieser neue ›Barbier von Sevilla‹ macht dem Regensburger Theater Ehre, und verdient das Prädikat absolut sehens- und hörenswert.«Gerhard Dietl in der Mittelbayerische Zeitung
»Opera for body and soul.
In Nicola Raab’s (…) production the story is moved from fifth century Egypt to Paris and the time when the opera was written. This enhances the degradation from theatrical luxury to desert and impoverished nakedness as well as it sharpens the purpose typical of its time the unmasking of the ego. The scene when Thaïs leaves behind her creative existence and steps out of her boudoir, in which she has been completely emerged (you can almost not tell where she ends and the interior begins), is also one of many magically beautiful moments.
Breath-taking!
The final phrases cut through everything such as mirrors and names and contours—in order for something else to appear. A human being in all her undefined fullness.
Let us call her Thaïs.«Martin Nyström in Dagens Nyheter
»Das begeisterte Publikum erhielt einen unverstellten Blick auf die Geschichte. Bravo!«Markus Hennerfeind in Wiener Zeitungmore…
»Director Nicola Raab and designer Anne Marie Legenstein have set the work within a group of abstract, sliding grey monoliths, which give it a military feel but also suggest the coldness of Paramore, the Wingrave mansion, and overwhelming claustrophobia. The ghost of the dead child haunts Owen, clutching his legs. With a quick movement of the monoliths, we are in Coyle’s schoolroom, dripping with toy soldiers, or in a park, or any number of locations in Paramore. A dinner table scene is effectively suggested with the cast standing in a line, each holding silver serving items (Sir Philip wields a carving knife and fork), while Owen remains empty handed, palms outstretched and upturned. Locked inside one of the monoliths, the dead Owen is revealed clad only in a loincloth, suggestive of a Michelangelo Pietà.
It seems that Owen’s time has come.«Larry Lash on musicalamerica.com»Eine Rarität, die unter die Haut geht.
Brittens ›Owen Wingrave‹ überzeugt in der Kammeroper.«Opal/Kurier»Essentielle Konfrontation mit dem Mut des Widerstands - mit fast 40 Jahren Verspätung endlich in Wien Benjamin Brittens ›Owen Wingrave‹ in einer exemplarischen Aufführung.
Der (...) Abend beeindruckte das Publikum zu recht tief. Er ist in hohem Masse sehenswert.«Renate Wagner in Neues Volksblatt
»Brilliant, full of ideas and coherent, Nicola Raab put this creepy opera on the workshop-stage, at best supported by designer Duncan Hayler.
Perturbed by the story, but delighted by the music, the staging and the performers, one emerges from this world premiere.«Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung»Nicola Raab’s production, with every detail perfect, is tangy and fast, the grumpy characters scarily alive; at least up to the final showdown, when the whole nightmarishly beautiful set collapses altogether and turns into a graveyard. Across the sky flickers a film of the marriage of the 2 lovers that will never take place.
A magical opera that makes you hear, see and laugh.«Liechtensteiner Volksblatt»A Vile, Idiotic Opera
The Marathon Family, a new opera buffa by Serbian composer Isidora Žebeljan, contains perhaps the most vile, reprehensible, disgusting, idiotic and amoral characters and plot in operatic history, and I loved ever one of its 88 uninterrupted minutes.
Also starring were Duncan Hayler’s set, and Nicola Raab’s direction, together a stage-manager’s
nightmare.«musicalamerica.com
»It is a beautiful story with some of Adams’s most beautiful music. He has also finally found a director, Raab, who matches his aesthetic.«chicagocritic.commore…
»If all this was gorgeous to behold, it would not have impacted us as strongly as it did without Nicola Raab’s masterful direction. First, without ever unduly cluttering the stage, Ms. Raab has devised meaningful and poetic movement for the large chorus and corps de ballet.«operatoday.com»…beautiful, richly colored stage pictures at the hands of director Nicola Raab, whose "Beatrice and Benedict" last season for COT was also lovely to look at, and set and costume designer George Souglides. The transformation scenes are first hypnotic visual poetry. And choreographer Renato Zanella has found wonderful ways to animate Adams' score onstage with nine gifted dancers.
There are two beautiful streams of artistic creation here…«
»a spirited production by Nicola Raab«Die Pressemore…
»Nicola Raab’s production full of temperament makes fun of the essential ingredients of the history of theatre with aplomb… the audience laughs. But it’s no comfortable delight.«Opernwelt»Nicola Raab’s job it is to reduce this piece to a common denominator, and in the first half she succeeds mainly by means of irony, in the second half, when chaos is starting to dominate the plot, quite simply through her readiness for total absurdity.«Der Neue Merker
»like stars on a summer night«John von Rhein in Opera Magazinemore…
»For any opera company staging Berlioz’ elusive Beatrice et Benedict, the trick is keeping the audience’s sympathy for the squabbling lovers in keen dramatic focus while allowing the refinement of this magical score to twinkle around them like stars on a summer night. Chicago opera theatre’s new production, (…), carried off this delicate juggling act very nicely.
Nicola Raab updated the action to Sicily at the end of World War II, (…). The director’s primary innovation was to replace the sung recitatives of the original with spoken dialogue taken directly from Shakespeare’s ›Much Ado About Nothing‹, on which the opera is based. The singers had no trouble switching between sung French and spoken English.«John von Rhein in Opera Magazine
14 February 2007
— Austrian premiere and first performance since 1746 Exhibitionhall Semperdepot, Academy of Fine Arts
Wien
Reviews
»Hitverdächtig!«Karl-Heinz Roschitz in Kronenzeitungmore…
»Ebenso grossen Antiel Am sieg des Werkes hat die Regisseurin Nicola Raab (…); sie hat Respekt vor dem Libretto, den Figuren, ihrer Geschichte. Sie rezitative werden mit einer Intensität gespielt als handle es sich um Theater, für die Arien gibt sie den Protagonisten Zeit, die volle Bandbreiet der Emotionen zu entwickeln.«Dr. Renate Wagner in Vorarlberger Nachrichten