Opera Now www.operanow.co.uk May 2014 4.95 May 2014 AT THE HEART OF THE OPERA WORLD 20+ INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS INCLUDING STOCKHOLM S NEW DON GIOVANNI -----------------------HANDEL IN LONDON -----------------------FOCUS ON TUSCANY RICHARD STRAUSS & HIS DIVAS Who soars the highest? WIN! STRAUSS ON 22 CDS FROM WARNER SAXON ATTITUDES Great opera and fine wines in the heart of Germany PLUS Harrison Birtwistle Packing a punch at 80 Bulgaria s best Discovering Sofia Opera OMER MEIR WELLBER Maverick maestro ON0514_01_Cover.indd 1-2 16/04/2014 16:18:33
A razor-sharp intellect that fizzes with creative energy, combined with a charismatic presence on the podium, the 33-year-old Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber is not so much a rising star as a comet hurtling towards the sky. His passion for life and new ideas is positively infectious, even when he s discussing subjects as recherché as the influence of basso continuo on Mozart recitatives or his penchant for Biblical scholarship. Owen Mortimer talks to this live wire, who is already electrifying audiences in some of Europe s key operatic centres. Music has been the keystone of Omer Meir Wellber s life since his early childhood. Lessons on the piano and accordion led to an interest in composition, and by the age of 18 he had already graduated from the conservatoire in his hometown of Be er Sheva. Soon his music was being performed, broadcast and recorded in Israel as well as abroad, so it seemed a logical next step to take to the podium himself. I always felt that being a musician was the right thing. I never had a lot of doubts, but did it very seriously and dedicated myself to it from the beginning, he explains. Having said that, I was very good at physics and science, so I might have been a doctor instead I was even offered a place at medical school, but went on to study music. Right up until I conducted Aida at Israeli Opera with La Scala, my mother kept saying, Don t forget, you could also have been a doctor!. Although only a small city with a population of around 200,000, Be er Sheva is home to many immigrants who have settled from countries around the world. The range and quality of musical education is correspondingly rich, with the local conservatoire catering to around 3,000 students. This desert town, as he describes it, was the context for Wellber s earliest musical training, bringing him into contact with some colourful and unconventional personalities such as the composer Michael Wolpe. He is one of these idealists who live in a Kibbutz in the desert, says Wellber, who began studying composition with Wolpe when he was 10. It was an extremely important time for me a very romantic period of my childhood. This kind of environment in Israel is very special. Following his graduation in 1999, Wellber notched up an impressive series of performances with Tel Aviv s Israeli Opera, conducting everything from Mozart to Janáček. His big breakthrough, however, came in 2008 with the opportunity to assist Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera, having attracted attention in the Italian media earlier that year for his Aida at Padua s Teatro Verdi. Working with Daniel changed my life and made me an artist, says Wellber, who conducted new productions of Carmen (2009) and Tosca (2010) while in Berlin. As a result of his success on the podium, Wellber admits to having virtually stopped composing ( I am so full of other people s music, he explains), but the experience of writing music nevertheless continues to inform his approach as a conductor. I cannot put a finger on it, but I think the composition experience has given me another point of view that influences my interpretations. For example, I am very interested in how all the parameters connect within a score to form its architecture. When you start thinking in this way and convince the orchestral musicians to do the same, it influences the overall sound. The Staatskapelle orchestra in Dresden is so good that they understand this immediately. Every rehearsal is a big adventure it is so exciting! Understanding how the tiniest details fit into a bigger picture is characteristic of Wellber s thinking in general something he describes as Talmudic, referring to one of the central texts of Rabbinic Judaism, the Talmud. A key tenet of this approach, according to Wellber, is the idea that there are no mistakes, that everything has a meaning behind it. In his spare time he is currently writing a book examining Biblical texts and their significance in Jewish culture: I am analysing which kinds of experiences in the Bible are being experienced by the ear rather than the eye, he explains. This tells us a lot about the experiences themselves. For example, there is a passage in Exodus that translates literally as the people saw the voices, which is quite an extraordinary idea and very exciting. Such analysis focuses on technical aspects of the text rather than its meaning, which reveals many beautiful things. The same is true of music. I think it is very important to leave questions open rather than always seeking answers. Wellber s interest in religious texts also finds resonance in his belief in the spiritual value of music. Rather than following a particular creed, he says he believes strongly in religious moments, which can often be felt while playing music. It s something he wants to share with other musicians as well as audiences: My mission is to encourage people 14 www.operanow.co.uk ON0514_14_18_CoverStory.indd 14 16/04/2014 16:06:37
FELIX BROEDE Opera Now MAY 2014 15 ON0514_14_18_CoverStory.indd 15 16/04/2014 16:06:32
MAIN STAGE Omer Meir Wellber not to be passive. Unfortunately today s audiences are often passive it is difficult for people to sit for 90 minutes without checking their smartphone. As musicians we need to encourage people to come to the concert hall and stop. Friends sometimes ask me, What do you actually do in the concert hall? but to me that is the whole point: when else in your life do you have the time and space to give deep consideration to aspects of your life that often get overlooked? W ellber has been the general music director at Valencia s Palau de les Arts since 2011. His contract with Valencia ends later this year, however, and he has already begun shifting his focus to Dresden s Semperoper, where he made his debut in February with Richard Strauss s Guntram.This early and rarely performed score was included as part of the Semperoper s season marking Strauss s 150th birth anniversary. For someone who loves indulging in abstractions, what has Wellber made of the recent management upheavals in Dresden? (The incoming general director, Serge Dorny, fell out with music director Christian Thielemann and was sacked before taking office.) In Wellber s view, if people do not get along it is better not to try working together. Conflict may have its place in the context of a nation state, but for a theatre an artistic entity made up of 200 people it is useless if people spend all day fighting. Everyone needs to be working in the same direction. Hand in hand with this perspective, however, Wellber admits that creative conflict of a more positive kind can exist: It s all a matter of proportion. For example, Frankfurt Opera does some wonderful, very interesting productions. I m sure that there are a lot of disagreements between the music director and the Intendant, but as a visiting artist I feel that people are essentially working towards the same goals. People might argue over Is it red or is it blue?, but they are not asking Is it a colour?. Moreover, Wellber himself comes across as someone with strong ideas tempered by an enthusiasm for experimentation. He is positive about conceptually led reinterpretations of classic repertoire that explore important ideas through drama as well as music: I think tradition is very important, but it is only a good startingpoint, he asserts. We cannot count on it, but nor can we blame it.to have tradition doesn t mean you perform well or not. Similarly, he believes that constant hard work is needed to maintain and renovate tradition. In places like Vienna or Dresden you feel that tradition is being very well maintained, but nobody is sitting back and saying We have tradition and that s enough. The orchestra in Dresden is very open to new ideas for what you might call a traditional ensemble. Following the success of Guntram, Wellber is currently preparing a new Così I think tradition is very important, but it is only a good starting-point. We cannot count on it, but nor can we blame it. FELIX BROEDE The young maestro enjoys a moment of quiet reflection Opera Now MAY 2014 ON0514_14_18_CoverStory.indd 17 17 16/04/2014 16:06:41
fan tutte in Dresden that will form part of a full Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy. It is the first time he has conducted any of these scores, and he is loving the challenge of learning Così: I have engaged a specialist basso continuo player with whom I m preparing the opera, so he brings a lot of traditional knowledge which I am taking on board in order to know how to destroy it! I will be accompanying the recitatives myself, in fact, playing a fortepiano rather than the cembalo. Wellber is also planning to join all the recitatives with the orchestral numbers, bringing his compositional expertise to bear in a series of linking passages across the work as a whole. Guided by his Talmudic thinking, these additions ought to be well integrated into the work as a whole, nevertheless more conservative listeners might object to what they regard as tampering with Mozart s original music. For Wellber, however, this altogether misses the point he is trying to make: Life is beautiful and we should seize every opportunity to celebrate. I think any artist who wants something and then does it this can often bring about the kind of religious moment I referred to earlier. On the other hand, while we have a tendency to be very dramatic in our attitudes towards opera, it is important to be lighter sometimes too! n OMER MEIR WELLBER S DIARY May 18 to July 11 Sussex, UK Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin Glyndebourne Festival Sept 4 to Oct 25 Mozart Così fan tutte Sept 14 to 16 Strauss Daphne Nov 6 to 15 Strauss Daphne Dec 19 to 26 Munich, Germany Bizet Carmen Bavarian State Opera www.omermeirwellber.com Precision, passion and poise: Omer Meir Wellber on the podium TATO BAEZA FRANCESCO BARASCIUTTI 18 www.operanow.co.uk ON0514_14_18_CoverStory.indd 18 16/04/2014 17:18:27