When Kirsten Harms signed her contract as the new Intendantin of the
Deutsche Oper Berlin in May 2004, she ended a period of serious turmoil for the
largest of the German capital's three opera houses. The company had been leaderless
since her predecessor, composer Udo Zimmermann, was forced out early in
the 2002–03 season after holding the job for barely more than a year,
during which he presided over one artistic failure after another and managed to
turn almost all of Berlin's artistic community against him.
In a climate of severe budgetary constraints and constant competition between
the Deutsche Oper, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Komische Oper Berlin, each day
without a new Intendant did harm to the image of the house —
notwithstanding the fact that the Berlin Opera Foundation, established in
January 2004 to secure the future of all three companies, guaranteed that there
was no immediate threat of closing down the house.
For several months, there had been rumors that the city government's Senator for Cultural Affairs, Thomas Flierl (*), favored Harms over other candidates. For good reason: During her eight seasons running the Kiel Opera, the 48-year-old director from Hamburg turned a low-profile provincial house into one of Germany's most exciting and talked-about companies. Her imaginative staging of Wagner's Ring cycle won critical praise throughout the country, as did her cycle of Strauss operas and a series of works by Franz Schreker. Perhaps even more importantly for the Senator, Harms had mastered the handling of drastic budget cutbacks — an essential skill for administering the notoriously underfinanced Deutsche Oper.
One of Harms's major tasks will be to redefine, or rather recreate, the image of a company that was once considered one of the world's leading opera houses. That reputation had already begun to fade during the final years of Generalintendant Götz Friedrich, who ruled the organization like an absolutist patriarch until his death in 2000. In the minds of most Berliners and most German opera aficionados, the Deutsche Oper is still his house. Kirsten Harms, the first woman ever to head a major opera company in Germany, has to change that — and shortly before her first season at the Deutsche Oper's helm began, andante contributor Jochen Breiholz, a correspondent for the Berlin newspaper Die Welt, talked with her about how she plans to do so.
Jochen Breiholz: What's your artistic vision for Deutsche Oper?
Kirsten Harms: I don't have some inflexible image of how opera has to be or what it has to look like. It's all about the creative process — about a dialogue between the artists, my dramaturgs and me. Everything will develop out of this dialogue: the works we choose to perform as well as how these works are being interpreted. For me, the development of a production, from the first ideas to the premiere, is always a Gesamtkunstwerk.
One of Germany's former chancellors, Helmut Schmidt, once said: "If you have visions, go see a doctor!" I'd go see a doctor if I stopped having visions!
JB: How many new productions do you want to present each season? And how many of them will you direct yourself?
KH: We are increasing the number of new productions by two, which makes six altogether. Four of them will be works of the classic repertoire, while the remaining two will be rarities, discoveries, unusual or forgotten works. I myself won't direct at all in the beginning. Starting in 2006–07, I will stage one piece a season; before then, the seasons have already been scheduled by my predecessors anyway.
JB: Some of the more than 50 productions in the Deutsche Oper's repertoire are more than 30 years old. Do you intend to get rid of them and slim down the repertoire?
KH: Naturally the repertoire has to be put to the test: productions that are worn down to an irreparable degree or that are by today's standards outdated and simply too old will be discarded. But there are a number of legendary old productions that I would like to restore. Parts of the set could be repainted or rebuilt, and the lighting might need some retouching, but I think there's plenty that's worth preserving.
JB: How will you approach the heritage of Götz Friedrich? After all, 28 of the repertoire's productions are his.
KH: Götz Friedrich was one of my teachers. I deeply admire, respect and cherish his work. But time moves on. We have to create something new.
JB: What are your criteria in choosing a director?
KH: For me, it's all about the story — the story has to be told in an unpretentious, straightforward and gripping way. I'm not interested in directors who are considered hip or trendy just because they've done something totally new or outrageous. I'm not interested in the surface, but in what lies beneath. I like directors who think in a "theatrical" way and work with a love for precision and detail — directors who have something to say. As an artist, you've got to take a stand. Why not do something that is an absolute no-no in the German Regietheater scene — like showing the forest in Siegfried?
JB: In the schedules of Berlin's three companies, one can find most works of
the standard repertoire in at least two versions. Both the Deutsche Oper and the
Staatsoper have all of the ten main Wagner operas in their repertoire; if you
want to see Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Figaro,
Carmen, La traviata, etc., you have a choice between three
different stagings, one at each house. Is this variety a blessing or a
curse?
KH: Of course it's wonderful if the audience has the chance to see and hear different interpretations of the same opera. What's wrong with having three Traviatas? On the other hand, there are many Verdi operas that haven't been shown in Berlin for years. I have a strong affinity for rarely-performed works: There's so much to explore! But then the pressure to sell tickets narrows the repertoire: they say that with unknown works it's not possible to fill the house, the audience would stay away. At the Kiel Opera, I proved that that's not true. Just think of Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac: it was a smash hit!
JB: International stars are one way to fill a house. What role will they play at Deutsche Oper?
KH: Stars are important, sure. But my budget sets very clear limits here: it's simply impossible to cast every production with international A-list stars. And quite frankly speaking, I believe in the ensemble system. There is no better thing for an opera company than to have a roster of great singers you can work with continuously, over several seasons. Singers who don't travel all the time and just drop by for one production, but are based at the house and take part in developing a company's signature.
JB: When your name first popped up as the Senator's favorite candidate for the Deutsche Oper, you said you would only accept the job if you would be working together with then-Generalmusikdirektor Christian Thielemann — who said that he would stay only if his orchestra got more money. When he subsequently left for the Munich Philharmonic, he lost all the sympathy he might have had, especially among the press: we all agreed that his ultimatum was nothing but an excuse to leave the company and blame it on someone else and that he had always complained a lot but never really did anything for the Deutsche Oper. What consequences does Thielemann's drop-out have for the company? And how likely is it that the orchestra will actually get a raise if the Senator says he doesn't have another cent to spare?
KH: It's certainly regrettable that a gifted conductor has left the house. On the other hand, it's the chance for a new beginning. And of course the debate about the orchestra members' fees is not off the table just because he's gone. It's important to realize that this is not just about money: it's about status and recognition. The musicians want to be acknowledged as a first-rate orchestra; I will fight for that goal.
JB: Do you believe your tenure at the Kiel Opera prepared you for what lies
ahead at the Deutsche Oper? After all, the house is notorious for backstage
intrigues. Isn't it like jumping out of the goldfish bowl and into the shark
tank?
KH: No! When I directed Rossini's Semiramide here in 2003, I got a different impression. Everyone involved in the production did a great job; they just gave everything to create something special together. And even if I should encounter a shark or two, I'm a child of the coast and I know how to deal with sharks.
The Deutsche Oper opens its 2003–04 season on 9 September
with a concert performance of Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante. For more
information on the season and the company, visit www.deutscheoperberlin.de.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to an editing error, this sentence
originally stated that Christine Weiss is Berlin's Cultural Senator. Thomas Flierl is the city of Berlin's Senator for Cultural Affairs; Weiss is the German federal government's minister of state for cultural affairs. We regret the error. Click here to return to corrected sentence.
