"König des Glücks" in Germany

SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
“Mozart Applauded”

“This is an ingenious piece. Anyone who will not go to see Wolfgang Staribacher’s adaptation of Mozart’s opera “Il re pastore” entitled “König des Glücks” will have missed a rare, exciting show…

“The keyboardist Staribacher with a predilection for the accordion adapted the opera in what must seem a totally offbeat manner at first sight. Bound together by text passages full of puns penned by Friedhelm Kändler (and beautifully spoken by Anne-Isabelle Zils), the most musically interesting passages of “Il re pastore” were strung together into a number opera whose sequence of loud and soft, fast and slow titles followed the laws of a pop concert. Thus, Staribacher took Mozart’s idea of distilling the poor original libretto into a purely musical drama one step further…

“The original sound was turned into a “crossover opera” by reinstrumentation (brilliant musicians on violin, viola, bassoon, bass, percussions, along with the maestro’s accordion), skillful streamlining of the score, and discreet amplification that still clearly changed the original sound. This sound carried the four fantastically selected voices of the four actors:

“Katia Guede’s dark soprano lighted up radiantly and Annette Koch was playing lightly with the coloraturas. While Christian Wolf with his rock voice suddenly evoked a strong taste of Zucchero in the audience, the Afro-American countertenor Charles Maxwell finally prevailed with his androgynous sex appeal and simply incredible range from baritone to the heights of a soprano…

“Acting on a refinedly frugal stage, dressed in costumes both typical of the roles and highly fashionable, the production transformed Mozart’s music into a present-day experience in every detail on the visual level, too…

“This “König des Glücks” brought together everything happiness is made of: love of music, the courage to take risks, a feel for sound and timing; and, most importantly, Mozart was not betrayed. He certainly would have enjoyed it.”

ABENDZEITUNG MÜNCHEN
“Rock Me, Amadeus: Mozart Lives”

“Taking the risk of showing an innovative opera production from Europe more than paid. Excited and inspired, Munich’s society was stomping and clapping hands at the premiere of “König des Glücks” at the Deutsches Theater…

”’A show full of courage, wit, imagination, lust of life, and sensuality’, raved composer Eberhard Schöner about this defiant opera with the rocking Mozartband who already had been celebrated enthusiastically at the world premiere at the Festival of Vienna 1999…”

“Up-tempo Pastoral Play”

“A serenade, please. Can’t you get a serenade in this joint? – Dressed in humble black, a woman walks along the edge of the stage. Actress Anne-Isabelle Zils tells everyday stories, philosophizes about loneliness and entertainment. Some of it is in rhymes, there is a touch of slapstick, and loads of puns in the vein of Eugen Roth. (Texts by Friedhelm Kändler.) What does all this have to do with Mozart?

“The answer is: a lot. All you have to do is want to see it. The way Wolfgang Staribacher translated Mozart’s early opera into the sonic language of today’s pop music and gets the message of this opera seria – you only have to talk together – across with love and imagination, he must be an expert on and lover of Mozart’s music…

“You may but do not have to know the story. The incidental texts explain the meaning of what is sung in Italian. You are welcome to laugh, and the arias poised as they are between serious and pop music are beautiful… The ending is ingenious: a hot serenade that fades out softly with rhythmical finger-snapping. 90 captivating minutes for anyone who is still capable of going to the theater with no prejudices…”

TZ München
“Dance the Wolfgang”

“Staribacher knew exactly what to borrow from Mozart’s music, discovered rock-style riffs and folk music roots and arranged them for an uncommon lineup… The accomplished musicians and confident improvisers do better justice to Mozart’s intentions than many an honest-to-God regurgitator…”

“A Wiggle Enchants Munich’s Society”

“A night full of grand emotions, a night of happiness – that’s what the premiere of “König des Glücks” was for many prominent spectators… “A journey to the universe of Mozart” as Wolfgang Staribacher had promised. And that was what the enthusiastic spectators got. Cheering, stomping, endless applause, and a charmed audience…

Some lost their heart to tall, blonde Annette Koch, a mezzo-soprano and true diva, others to Charles Maxwell, a dark-skinned countertenor with a four-octave range who sways his hips like Michael Jackson…”

SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG MAGAZIN
“Powerful Paws”

“Crossover fans, hold your cheers. Jazzed-up Mozart for once doesn’t come across easy, softened, and cosmically chirping but shows the power in his paws…”

BAYRISCHE STAATSZEITUNG
“A Fascinating Experiment”

“Great works of the past have always inspired adaptations by later generations. Shakespeare pillaged Plutarch, Bach rewrote Vivaldi… In our days, though, with epigones abounding, the culture of adaptation, or, in gentler terms, acculturation is proliferating almost tropically… As for Mozart, the accepted wisdom up to now was Lutheran: ”...they shall let it be…” However, highly musical Wolfgang Staribacher convinced the audience at the Deutsches Theater who were worrying about Wolfgang Amadeus that at least “Il re pastore” can survive the transfer from the residence of the prince-archbishop of Salzburg of 1777 to the world of rock’n’roll with no damage.

Seven enthusiastic musicians, all of them true virtuosos, get down to Mozart’s notes with accordion, Hammond organ, violin, viola, bassoon, electric bass, and drums – and as it sounds less and less like a mere reinstrumentation but more and more like re-composed, syncopated Mozart filled with a feeling of present-day life, the experiment becomes more and more fascinating… When Christian Wolf, a fantastic blues singer, appears, turning the opera divas into sexy go-go girls and making the drummers blow their tops, the drive intensifies, hell breaks loose, the audience goes mad and starts cheering…”

“ROCKIN’, SEXY AMADEUS”
WDR 3 and “Die Welt”

… At the time he wrote “Il re pastore”, Mozart was playing around with the forms of opera, tried things out, and did not yet have the stamina for and psychological mastery of his great operas. The unfinished, fresh, and creative quality of this music tempted the Vienna based Mozartband to adapt “Il re pastore” and stage it under the title of “König des Glücks”. What interested them most was not the story but the emotions in the arias and ensembles. There is no plot anymore and the show designed by Claudia Weinzierl has the open form of a number show, but that is an asset as the fragility of the dramatization opens up direct access to the emotions.

The composer and bandleader Wolfgang Staribacher translated Mozart’s tunes to a present-day musical idiom, a crossover of classical, rock, jazz, contemporary music, and musical. Although attempts like this often end up as trivial, this show is different. With his unfailing knack, Staribacher gave every tune a form that is perfectly adequate to it. This is why one never gets the impression that Mozart would be parodied, alienated, or even violated. As incredible as it may sound, these guys from Vienna are really a Mozart band as they play in perfect tune with his spirit and the pieces keep their emotional power and even gain in honesty.

The band takes center stage. Each musician plays a leading role. Of course, they act together with the singers, firing them up, sending good vibrations, egging them on. Passion radiates from the faces of the instrumentalists, one-hundred percent devotion. It is a seething, banging, sobbing, coveting, laughing, and triumphant power station that plays in a finely nuanced, gentle style in spite of all the energy.
“Doing is taking chances”. This is also the theme of the incidental texts full of puns written by Friedhelm Kändler. An actress walks on stage in a tattered hooped skirt, an underdog of the court society, one who is not allowed to socialize with the others. She talks about loneliness and desire. In the course of the show, she finds the power to do something, i.e. to take chances. She removes the remnants of the hooped skirt and begins to radiate… You believe everything she says. The same is true for the singers:
Annette Koch, a seductive blonde in an X-rated costume. With untamed gusto, she plays a noble slut, a coloratura queen whose singing conveys elegance and eroticism along with maliciousness and neurosis. Her rival and perhaps her other side is Barbara Karolyi, the maternal type, warmer and softer, a soprano who effortlessly moves back and forth between her musical and opera voices, a feat that takes exceptionally confident technique to accomplish. Darius Lee Booker contributes tender falsetto sounds while Christian Wolf completes the quartet with his rough, powerful rock voice that reveals rage, power, and a great tenderness.
Why does nobody improvise anymore on today’s classical concert scene? All great interpreters and composers during the baroque, classical, and romantic eras did, and spontaneity was highly appreciated. The Mozartband from Vienna does it across all genres, pulverizing the wall between serious and pop music that is meaningless, anyway. Their overwhelming lust to play follows only the laws of musical taste. I never heard such sounds as Vladimir Kacar from Serbia produces on his bassoon before. He is the only wind instrument player in the ensemble and delivers sensational solos with an impressive richness of color. The mood at the Theater Aachen was that of a rock concert even though the show was basically an experimental opera. Hopefully, this is a success that points the way for the future, a creative alternative that is rocking, sexy, sophisticated, and popular.

“Up-tempo Mozart Rock in a Maelstrom of Emotions”
Aachener Zeitung

A delicate, shimmering sound fills the hall, the air seems to vibrate and charge up electrically. A narrow figure in scintillating blue-green silk becomes visible. The strange man (percussionist Yogo Pausch) approaches, holding two exotic percussion instruments in his hands, becomes louder, and disappears along the inclined, white circular catwalk. By the time Anne-Isabelle Zils walks on stage dressed all in black, with a torn red hooped skirt, the audience is excited, asking themselves what may happen next… What had first been performed at the Festival of Vienna in 1999 did not fail to have the desired effect in Aachen, either. The production by Dirk Diekmann in cooperation with Claudia Weinzierl is witty and powerful, profound, and easily accessible. There is nothing like a plot at all, but you are eagerly waiting for every scene, every new scheme that captures the mind and senses… Colors and light effects create moods. The musicians play passionately, each one an excellent soloist with almost inexhaustible energy and zest, conducted by bandleader Wolfgang Staribacher, himself ecstatically devoted to playing the accordion. Sparks seem to fly when Annette Koch and Barbara Karolyi in their charmingly surreal costumes meet for their duel of powerful voices, two resourceful artists with a strong charisma. The show is about love, eroticism, and happiness…
Into this maelstrom of colors, sounds, and emotions, Anne-Isabelle Zils recites the cheerfully melancholy texts by Friedhelm Kändler with just the right amount of irony, confidence, and aggression. It is a strange mixture of philosophically pensive contemplation about life, mankind, and its desires that plays with words in astonishing and funny ways, dealing, for instance, with an actor who wants his audience to stand up so they can sit down again. The joke here is a pun that only works in German where the words for “sit down again” and “resist” are tongue-in-cheek homophones. In any case, the audience at Aachen complied happily.
An enthusiastic audience appreciated “König des Glücks” with frenetic applause and was treated to several encores. Staribacher proved again how young Mozart can be. A cheerful performance of a successful experiment.

“KÖNIG DES GLÜCKS WITH ACCORDION AND FALSETTO”
DPA

While most opera houses on the rivers Rhine and Ruhr are closed down for the summer, the Aachen opera house is raising hell already. A rock group moved into the opera house with a Mozart interpretation entitled “König des Glücks” and pulled the first-night audience out of their seats. Note that the stalls and balconies had not filled with youthful rock fans but mostly middle-aged opera enthusiasts. The musical and literary wit, brilliant voices, and virtuoso sounds that came across from the stage for an hour and a half was quite unique…

“MOZART BEAMED TO THE AGE OF BOOMING BASS”
Grenz-Echo

Most monument figures stand on a pedestal that is too high for vandals to climb. Anyone who frees the venerated from their isolation or removes them from the time location assigned to them, must expect to meet resistance. The musician and composer Wolfgang Staribacher risked it anyway. Viennese-born Staribacher had good reason to lower his musical idol W.A. Mozart respectfully from the altar of veneration and beam the legacy of the most spiritual of all classical composers from the stylistic standards of the 18th century to the present age. He reconstructed, re-instrumented , fantasized, and improvised… The joint work of the kindred spirits Wolfgang Staribacher (composer and musical director), Claudia Weinzierl (design and production), and Dirk Diekmann (staging) was first performed at the theater of Aachen. The audience’s almost unanimous response was, “wow!”
Listeners and spectators will quickly realize that this is a total work of art that includes everything that life, love, and feeling are made of. It is a search for the vibrations of happiness that flow from creative freedom. Wolfgang Staribacher and his band are on the trail of authenticity. At the crucial moments, when the masks are dropped, they are there as musical counselors. They unite to create furious, lyrical, or cheerfully melodious sound structures. They paint in water-color style and model massiveness. They join to form little islands of poetry and activate the subconscious with stomping rhythms and racing time… The compositional transitions between the master of tonal harmony and the Mozart fan Staribacher are like sliding tracks between two worlds that become one in the daring feat of free creation.
In front of the vaulted color projection screen on the set, Annette Koch’s high-profile mezzo, Barbara Karloyi’s expressive sound, the clear high notes of Darius Booker, and the blues timbre of Christian Wolf join in triumphant, electrifying sonority. The striking, bizarre, and rich costumes (by Irene Schiller) are visual points of reference for every wandering eye…
Smiling in rapture, Wolfgang Staribacher is standing among the musicians playing with inner verve and runs his fingers over the keys of his accordion. Mozart has moved them all and sent them into a kind of trance…

“OH MOZART, HOW ROCKING YOU CAN BE”
“Honey and Pepper at the Stadttheater Aachen
Regioblick Aachen

Rock merged with opera, and the spoken part added a massive touch of life philosophy, aphorisms, and hidden malicious remarks that made the audience laugh and applaud during the scenes. This production of the Mozartband had only been performed earlier in Vienna and Munich. In Aachen, people of all ages came and were charmed. Much of the credit goes to the virtuoso musicians whose performances of both written and improvised parts were unbeatable. The playing was truly masterful, and full of real joy. And the singers! They were all loved by the audience and all of them got several curtain calls. All in all, it was a mixture of enigmatic spoken disputation, honey (the arias), and pepper (the rocking grooves behind them). This was a triad that got what it takes. Honestly, everything was just perfect. The show ended on the words, “that’s it for now”. But that was not really the end. Ten minutes of standing ovations followed, then four encores. Well, that’s it for now.