Original and full of humour With the Puccini one-act opera "Suor Angelica" Kirill Petrenko presents his first educational project in the Philharmonic Hall One expects an opera performance, semi-staged, in the Philharmonic Hall. One looks forward to a beautiful overture, played by an orchestra, but things turn out differently: several performers move on stage in Pina-Bausch dance theatre style, making strange sounds and fuzzing through their hair, while a young pianist plays Puccini melodies, which, however, always drift off into the jazzy. A look at the programme clears things up: Before the actual opera "Suor Angelica" by Giacomo Puccini, a "prologue" for solo piano by the Israeli composer Matan Porat, who himself sits at the piano, is heard. Now Kirill Petrenko comes on stage, and the piano prelude seamlessly merges into the overture to Puccini's one-act opera. An original start for a rarely performed musical theatre work. "Suor Angelica" forms the lyrical middle piece within the "Tritticco" (in English: triptych), which is framed by the tragic one-act play "Il tabarro" and the cheerful opera "Gianni Schicchi". The somewhat maudlin libretto is by Giovacchino Forzano. "Suor Angelica" is set in a convent near Siena at the end of the 17th century. The audience is confronted with the everyday life of the novices. Many things revolve around the misdemeanours of the nuns, who are severely punished by their teacher. At first Sister Angelica is shown as one of many, but in the course of the play she gradually becomes the protagonist. She comes from a noble family who was sent to a convent for punishment. When her merciless aunt visits her there to obtain a waiver from Angelica regarding the parental inheritance, Angelica learns from her aunt that her illegitimate son, whom she gave birth to before her novitiate, has died. After the aunt has left, Angelica falls into heavy mourning. She only wants to die to be with her child again and cooks a poisonous potion to kill herself. When she has ingested the poison, she becomes aware of the sinful act and she asks the Mother of God for mercy. Meanwhile, the church begins to shine, it opens up and reveals the view of a flock of angels. The Virgin Mary leaves the church with a blond boy who slowly walks towards Angelica, accompanied by the choir of angels. Angelica dies. For the vocal parts, which are covered exclusively by female voices, outstanding female singers from various nations from Berlin's music academies were engaged, while the orchestra was made up of scholarship holders from the Karajan Academy. Vocal support was provided by the Project Choir of the Vocal Heroes Chrogram. The artistic result was simply overwhelming. The American soprano Ann Toomey in particular delighted in the role of Angelica with the colourful range of her voice, as did the Swedish star singer Katarina Dalayman, who was won as a guest star for the role of Angelica's aunt; she performed with great emotional intensity and outstanding technique. The French singer Sarah Laulan also convinced with her velvety, full alto. The novices seem like dropouts of the present Nicola Hümpel's direction was original and full of humour. Together with set designer Oliver Proske, she provided a contemporary production of the historical material. The novices in their simple clothing, which was chosen by Nicola Hümpel far away from all nun clichés, looked a little bit like dropouts of the present time, who want to find themselves in a spiritual camp far away from everyday problems and yet fight each other often enough. A special feature of the actresses in this performance is that each of the 13 women comes from a different country and all five continents are covered. The pedagogical idea behind this is that people from different nations and cultures should come together, exchange their experiences and make music together. Through the use of video screens, the faces of the performers were regularly shown in close-up, which placed special emphasis on mimic play. In collaboration with the Russian world-class conductor they performed at their best musically. Wonderfully floating, full of dancing lightness and with a lot of warmth of heart they made Puccini's score sound. For the young amateur singers in the choir, too, the collaboration with such an empathic thoroughbred musician as Petrenko must have been a special moment in their lives. The way Petrenko communicated in all directions on stage showed that he is a highly experienced opera conductor who knows how to coordinate the various actors in a performance. There was plenty of applause for this in the sold-out Philharmonic Hall.

Kirill Petrenko conducts Puccini's "Suor Angelica" at the Education Project in the Philharmonie. The libretto is atrocious. A woman is forced into a convent, where she learns seven years later that her illegitimate child has long since died. Thereupon, in the greatest despair, she mixes herself a poisonous potion and may still be glad that the Holy Virgin saves her at the last minute from eternal damnation, which would have threatened her as a suicide - by lifting her into the celesta-flooded sky. As touching as Giacomo Puccini's music in the one-act opera "Suor Angelica" is, the material is strong stuff for people of the 21st century. That doesn't stop the Berliner Philharmoniker from choosing the piece - actually the middle part of Puccini's cycle "Il Trittico" - under the title "Faith to Face" as the first education project of new principal conductor Kirill Petrenko. Because it still has a lot to tell us today, he says, about humanity in inhuman surroundings and motherly love. And, of course, there are still women who have their children torn from their chests. "Nico and the Navigators" director Nicola Hümpel has all the actresses perform on a catwalk in the Philharmonie - originally Tempelhof Airport was planned. Today, her staging is especially in the padded supporting roles of the remaining sisters in this convent near Siena. UdK and "Hanns Eisler" soloists sing them convincingly, make individual characters out of them: the glutton, the shy one, the exalted one. Risk-free sound Composer Matan Porat, who himself sits at the piano, has written a prologue based on Puccini's first two bell notes, which gives each sister one minute to present herself gesturally. Live broadcasts on a large screen bring the action close to the viewer. Suddenly Kirill Petrenko stands at the podium. His movements are extraordinarily soft and flowing, elegant and suggestive. In this way he elicits from the musicians of the Karajan Academy of the Philharmonic a finely balanced sound that is also largely free of risks and rarely leaves the medium dynamic range. With handbag through the foyer Ann Toomey as the protagonist Angelica also takes no risks. She sings intonation-securely, but with a restrained despair, which could definitely be shown to greater advantage. One wishes her voice had a bit more substance in all registers. This is provided by the mature alto of Katarina Dalayman, who as the evil princess and Angelica's aunt walks on the screen long before her physical appearance, parks in front of the philharmonic hall, and walks through the foyer with her handbag. The meeting of the two women - one with low, long note values, the other with much shorter, more vital tones - is the high point and focal point of the hour-long work. It was the princess who once put Angelica in a convent. And she now brings her the bad news of her son's death, while the other sisters gather around Angelica like the Valkyries around Brünnhilde. That the aunt is aware of her guilt is revealed by the trembling with which she sips an aperitif at the bar at the end, back on the screen. As an educational project, "Faith to Face" is successful Conclusion: As an educational project, "Faith to Face" is a success. The production is modern, coherent, it gives students an opportunity to perform, and it also inspires the young people involved, especially the singers of the philharmonic's own Vocal Heroes Choir, for classical music. Nevertheless, the production is also affirmative, for it cannot criticize monastic life with all its constraints, permanent feelings of guilt and guilty conscience without at the same time exposing it. How we are to deal with the many unbearable materials in the opera, which so often end in the sacrifice and death of a woman, if we still want to listen to this music: That remains a problem that even this evening cannot solve.

A Star is Born" was my impression after the performance of Giacomo Puccini's drama "Suor Angelica" as part of the Berliner Philharmoniker's Education Program. For the first time, their chief Kirill Petrenko conducts an opera in Berlin, but with loud young, very talented people. They are the scholarship holders of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, who play their instruments with verve and almost like professionals. The choir of the Vokalhelden choral program also does a good job. The phrase "folk heroes" is intended to lower inhibitions and encourage young people to join the choir. The greatest astonishment, however, is aroused by the 13 female singers, vocal soloists and students from Berlin's music academies. They sing and play the sisters in this Marian convent. Singing in Italian according to Puccini, they create their roles with temperament, joy of performance and already well-developed voices. The newcomers to the convent first take off their colorful wardrobe, slip into the white convent garb and then sit together with those who have lived in the convent for a longer time on a long bench in front of Petrenko and the instrumentalists, but directly opposite the audience. On a large screen they can also be seen exactly from the front, whether they are angrily contorting their faces or singing their parts. Oliver Proske has developed the stage concept and this video technology, which in its permanent existence sometimes seems somewhat disturbing and distracts from Puccini's music. How it is sung, on the other hand, can be closely observed. Since everything is recorded directly, it is also evident that the young singers obviously have no stage fright. When they receive punishment for their minor sins, some, as is equally apparent, do contort their faces, but overall they all seem relatively content in this seclusion. Also Ann Toomey as the actual Sister Angelica (now written in German). She carries only one sting in her heart: for seven years she has never received word from her propertied family, who, after she gave birth to an illegitimate son, put her in a convent to atone for her "misdemeanor." Nor did she ever see her infant son again. But then her princely aunt finally comes to visit, the soprano Katarina Dalayman, who also sings mezzo parts. But only with a document that is supposed to regulate the redistribution of the property, since Angelika's sister is getting married. Ms. Dalayman portrays her as a person with a petrified heart who, when Angelica asks her about her child, pitilessly announces that it died two years ago. A world is now breaking down for Sister Angelica, and as Ann Toomey sings it, it goes straight to the heart. Her powerful, intonation-clean and sonorous soprano, which after lyrical passages now dramatically expresses all her despair, floods through the large, very well-filled Philharmonie. Yet despite the believable anguish, her voice never becomes shrill, even in the high range. Her intensely sung despair brings tears to the eyes of some listeners. She tears the notarial deed brought by her aunt into pieces and forms a baby figure from it, which she puts on her arm. She has never been able to hold her own son in her arms, now she wants to join him in heaven. She drinks a weed killer and remembers too late that hell is certain for a Catholic suicide. A new surge of despair overcomes her and again, pleading with Mother Mary for help, she delivers a gripping vocal performance. "A Star is Born," is my impression, which will probably be shared later by the audience cheering for her. During her farewell song and still afterwards, two sisters make out of her former clothes loud little graves for more babies formed out of paper. There seem to be many of them in secret. An impressive idea by the otherwise pleasantly restrained Berlin director Nicola Hümpel with her ensemble Nico and the Navigators. Petrenko, too, is restrained during the final applause in favor of the young artists, but rightly beams all over his face. Here are all the sisters in their roles: Ann Toomey soprano (Suor Angelica); Katarina Dalayman soprano (La zia principessa), Daniela Vega mezzo-soprano (La badessa), Fleur Barron mezzo-soprano (La suora zelatrice), Sarah Laulan alto (La maestra delle novizie), Aurora Marthens soprano (Suor Genovieffa), Qing Wang soprano (Suor Dolcina), Aphrodite Patoulidou soprano (La suora infirmiera), Alessia Schumacher soprano (1st alms seeker), Ekaterina Bazhanova mezzo-soprano (2nd almoner and 2nd lay sister), Yeo-Jung Ha soprano (1st lay sister), Bernadeta Astari soprano (1st novice), complemented by the spectacularly agile dancer Yui Kawaguchi (Suor Osmina).