“Everyman” celebrated in 2024: The last tango on the table
Published: Sunday, Jul 21st 2024, 00:30
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The off-the-shoulder evening dress with a golden floral pattern is made from the same fabric as the Everyman's tuxedo. The splendid partner look emphasizes the union of the like-minded couple during their intimate kiss. In this year's production of Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival, the frivolous duo live their rich life more unabashedly than ever before as a perpetual party. But when the two of them dance a tango on the table at the big festive dinner, the first pensive tones creep into Jedermann. Death is coming for him and it's time to take stock: were the millions raked in really the meaning of life?
"Bravos" for the lovers
Everyman" by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) is a two-hour moral sermon for more humanity and less materialism in life. This year it is particularly poignant. And that is due to the leading actors, the very enthusiastic ensemble and a very successful direction. In any case, the premiere of "Jedermann" at the start of the Salzburg Festival was enthusiastically received by the audience. The Austrian Philipp Hochmair as Jedermann and the Swiss actress Deleila Piasko as his Buhlschaft were celebrated with "bravos".
The popular Hochmair, who was greeted with applause from the audience at the beginning, is playing the role for the second time. In 2018, he stood in for Tobias Moretti, who was ill at the time. Hochmair impressively managed the balancing act between the super-rich man who was unscrupulous all his life and only thoughtful shortly before his death.
Piasko's presence was convincing. Rarely has the central love duo of the play seemed so passionate. Christoph Luser in the double role of the Good Companion and the Devil and Dominik Dos-Reis as Death also received particularly loud applause.
Atmospheric staging
The Canadian Robert Carsen has staged the play in a highly atmospheric and straightforward manner. He largely dispensed with a stage set and relied on the effect of the baroque Salzburg Cathedral as a backdrop. The play's appeal that it is not money and greed, but faith and good works that give meaning to life and comfort in death seemed all the more powerful.
Benko and his associates
The production is particularly timely in Austria. Rarely have people had such deep insights into the volatile and fluctuating lives of billionaires as through the deep fall of the ex-super-rich René Benko. In retrospect, his former real estate empire seems to have been built on sand, like a blueprint for a life without substance.
220,000 cards
A total of 220,000 tickets were issued for 172 performances over 44 days in Salzburg this summer. When putting together the program, a sentence by the writer Albert Camus was the inspiration: "I revolt, therefore we are."
One of the highlights of the music program - and at the same time another subject a là Benko - could be Prokofiev's opera "The Gambler". Director Peter Sellars brings the story of greed and quick profits to the stage. The star soprano Asmik Grigorian and US tenor Sean Panikkar, who are closely associated with the festival, can be heard in the leading roles.
At the Schauspiel, director Thom Luz is staging a theatrical version of Stefan Zweig's anthology "Sternstunden der Menschheit", in which historical events involving famous men such as Napoleon or Lenin are presented as the result of errors or coincidences. Nicolas Stemann presents his version of the ancient blood and revenge epic "Oresteia" from texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Opening by Khrushchev's granddaughter
The festival will be officially opened on July 26 with a ceremony at the Felsenreitschule. Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Communist Party leader Nikita Khrushchev, will give the opening speech. She is considered an expert on contemporary Russian history and politics as well as an astute analyst and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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