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At last Vienna has its own summer operetta
festival. Wiener Blut at the Palace of Schönbrunn
is on a high artistic level… What unbridled comedy…
Vienna’s summer is all the richer for this operetta
festival.
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As far as the production is concerned,
this Wiener Blut, directed by Volker Vogel, is probably
the best of all the summer operettas currently to be
seen in Austria. In no other is the ambiguity of the
genre so evident or the comedy so brilliant… The
enthusiastic young ensemble plays with verve…
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Director Volker Vogel has polished
up the farce for Schönbrunn and discreetly strengthened
the wit of the dialogue… ably conducted by operetta
specialist Herbert Mogg with élan and charm.
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In the Schönbrunn Palace theatre…
the production of Wiener Blut proves that the piece
can work to the same happy comic effect as it did in
Vienna in the period around 1900.
The production does not fail to make
an impression. The three hours fly past…
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Vienna and Austrian have a new house
for operetta – perhaps the finest in the country:
the baroque theatre in the palace of Schönbrunn,
enlivened with a transfusion of Wiener Blut.
The qualities of Wiener Blut are wonderfully
evident at Schönbrunn: it’s not operetta
business as usual, but a rapturous comedy with brilliant
music.
The ensemble is an unalloyed pleasure…
The conducting of Herbert Mogg is expressively eloquent,
full of colour, precise in rhythm and melodically elegant.
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At last we have a Wiener Blut which
fulfils all the requirements one should expect in a
successful performance of an operetta. Precision and
spirit from the orchestra… Singers of insinuating
refinement who draw the best from the numbers with poetry
as well as verve.
…A production which shows faith
in the piece, without ever slipping into conventionality
or routine.
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An especially treasurable Elysium of
the lighter muse awaits the operetta enthusiast in Hietzing.
With a production characterised by great lightness of
touch, fleet-footed wit and extreme precision…
[and] conducting of refinement, rhythmic precision and
an instinctive rightness of expression… This is
operetta at its best, cleansed of operetta clichés.
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This summer there was also operetta
in the theatre of Schönbrunn Palace. „Wiener Blut“
was presented in classic style in the glorious baroque
theatre. The singers made a fine ensemble; outstanding
were Cornelia Zink as Franziska Cagliari, especially
impressive vocally, and Iva Mihanovic, notable for her
stagecraft as Pepi Pleininger. The company’s own
orchestra played with beauty and subtlety under Hebert
Mogg.
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...Operetta can be more than just operetta:
it can be sophisticated comedy with music... The Schlosstheater
Schoenbrunn -- an historic jewel, lovingly restored
-- is the ideal venue for „Wiener Blut“. This
was Strauss of the highest quality, musically refined,
rhythmically eloquent, with an easy-going precision.
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