“They are not a disco in Ischgl”

There were already simpler phases in which one could assume the position of director of the Vienna State Opera. Bogdan Roscic (56), who took up his new role on July 1, spoke to the APA about the question of whether he can start his first season despite Corona in September, why he has scheduled ten premieres, and what is the State Opera. . different from a disco in Ischgl.

APA: In light of the current crown crisis and the cinema restrictions that have now been announced, you have recently positioned yourself as a moderate voice. Do you really have that much confidence?

Bogdan Roscic: The current debate is suffering from the fact that everyone is talking about something else, but they pretend that there is a significant discussion going on. What are we talking about now? Study trials with some participants? Final rehearsals with orchestra and choir? September gaming operations? Restrictions on and behind the scenes or in the audience? This discussion urgently needs calm and clarity. The decree, which at least regulates the summer, has not even been written, and we have already recorded our needs. I do not have time to be outraged because there is a lot to do, for example, somehow save the preliminary samples for my first premiere to open the season. If Kiril Serebrennikow, from house arrest with an ankle bracelet, can bring the best “Cosi” I’ve seen on the Zurich Opera stage, then I won’t be disappointed if I have to improvise for a few months. But one thing is clear, starting in the fall, nothing will work with the restrictions discussed last.

APA: Is it part of the fact that your plans for your first season, whose start is to mark the premiere of “Madama Butterfly” with Asmik Grigorian on September 7, may be more of a wish than actual planning?

Roscic: Our game plan is based on pre-crisis planning. Now it is checked every night if it can take place. No one can answer the question. That is why I cannot reschedule an entire season for a new situation, the basic characteristics of which are not yet completely clear. This is an equation with too many unknowns. I still think I can start in the fall, but that’s not up to me. For the moment, I am exercising cautious optimism: I hope that development and relaxation will allow us to hit the curve until then.

APA: Apart from the essay requirements, at least you will have to do without the tourist audience for a long time …

Roscic: It is clear that financially the corona effect will not show as much this year after there is little time working and not playing, so certain costs do not arise. The question is what next season will look like. We are currently calculating what the one meter distance around each seat would really mean. We don’t need to discuss the 20 square meter garden plot for everyone in the auditorium; otherwise, we have 50 people in the house. That would be a grotesque scenario. In any case, our costs remain the same whether you play for one person or for 2,300 spectators. So when we play under restrictions we have to talk to our owner about lost sales. After all, we have an extremely high degree of coverage of our own at 45 percent.

APA: Otherwise, a scenario like that of federal museums would be conceivable: can you open it, but don’t do it for financial reasons?

Roscic: These are also formal questions. I do not know if the State Opera could say that we are not playing, although it will be allowed to play. But I reject it anyway. If an audience is guaranteed to be truly allowed in the house, playing is not unsustainable. We are not a disco in Ischgl, the value of which is only measured by the fact that it is always full and otherwise it does not cause any problems. Explain to the people whose taxes allow the State Opera that we prefer to wait for tourists to play. This house has its value for the life of your audience right now. Clearly, we sell around 30 percent of seats to tourists who also buy disproportionately expensive tickets. And no one expects these guests to return in September. So the question will be what we do with free places. Therefore, I propose to bring staff from the nursing or supermarket professions, who now work for us in high-risk professions, as guests to the State Opera. But for this, the owner must also make a clear commitment.

APA: Would you be programmatically prepared to unravel your coordinated staging packages and fill them with new people you can access on the site?

Roscic: of course! For example, if it is not yet possible for the International Opera Circus to travel again due to travel restrictions in September, it may mean that the ensemble opera is experiencing a new boom. If you look at how many stars live in Vienna, it could also mean that you join here in a whole new way. What we show must be at the highest level. In this regard, we certainly are not talking about simple reassignments in an emergency, but then you would have to plan from scratch so that we can show our best with the forces available.

APA: You have planned ten releases for your first season, many of which have been purchased. What was your motivation for this?

Roscic: The unusually high number comes from the fact that a discussion must take place about what constitutes a repertoire house today, especially since the Vienna system is relatively unique. A repertoire house plays certain works very often, this is a reality that cannot be ignored. Philippe Jordan and I decided to renovate many of these pieces at once. That is why there will be in-house productions, co-productions, and acquisitions next season, because this is the only way we can create this rapid renewal. These are reception story writing productions that define the style of directors that turn into regular repertoire productions with us.

APA: Can you keep up this high number of hits in future seasons?

Roscic: No, in the second season we are concentrating on our own productions, which include ambitious things like the start of a new Da Ponte cycle by Barrie Kosky. Acquisitions are not a new theatrical beginning that I would like to propagate. Also, 2021/22 is a special season because we go to Japan every four years, which is a great effort.

APA: What value do you give to the performance of the daily repertoire apart from the premiere round?

Roscic: The large number of premieres is nice, but it has to serve what defines a repertoire house. The truth of such a house lies in the hundreds of performances we play night after night. Its quality is the heart of the matter. The question is how to get there, and the responses from the individual addresses are simply different here.

APA: According to what criteria did you choose these ten works as a prelude to the renewal of the repertoire?

Roscic: Seeing the existing productions was, of course, an essential factor. And it is about filling the gaps in the repertoire, such as the Monteverdi trilogy that we want to start, or “The sequestration of the seraglio”, which was played almost 700 times in 2000 and has not been played since then.

APA: At the same time, with Philippe Jordan as music director, you also have a proven Wagner expert by your side. Will there be a new “ring” in the foreseeable future?

Roscic: The opera business is sometimes a little absurd: when I walk into my office the first time, I will have already planned four of the five seasons. (Laughter) Depending on the current state, we will start with a new Vienna “Ring” in 2024/25.

APA: Next season will bring some directors to your home, who will then continue to work in the following season. Do you deliberately choose the principle of the director of the house?

Roscic: The best in the world cannot become home managers. But there will be special relationships with some sizes: Calixto Bieito, Barrie Kosky or Simon Stone, for example. But there will also be directors who will not be known in the coming years. I don’t shop at the opera director’s Kohlmarkt. We are very willing to take risks.

APA: On the other hand, those who will not be in the orchestra pit are Teodor Currentzis …

Roscic: The relationship between Teodor Currentzis and the State Opera Orchestra has not yet developed and flourished. Until then, you will only experience it with your own orchestra, MusicAeterna. But details on this will only be available in due course.

APA: There is no premiere for your first season. How do you see the role of the State Opera in general?

Roscic: The first premiere under my direction will be in the fall of 2023, something quite spectacular, not least thanks to the staff, I can reveal … Otherwise, in addition to the premiere of Mozart and Wagner, there will also be pieces that have been become classic in all five seasons. of modernism in the 20th century. I consider this to be immensely important as a mediator between late late romanticism and often puzzled contemporary production. The condition for which we would have to fight would be, of course, that we only show premieres as we did a few centuries ago. Only in this way can something like the continuation of the canon succeed. How to get there from the status quo is another question.

APA: How do you respond?

Roscic: You have to take a radically different approach. The opera business would have to think about how to find smaller, lighter forms that could be discarded. But that also depends on a second place, where you can try things so you don’t push every new job for the Great House to fill up five times.

APA: Speaking of second place: Will you continue to use Walfischgasse for children’s opera?

Roscic: No. I want to bring children’s opera home. As a first step, we will do a “Seraglio kidnapping” as a theater for children. The next step is for the Vienna State Opera to leave its building and also to other places and other cities. Here, however, Corona caused a forced break in advanced considerations …

APA: With former Lower Austrian state councilor Petra Bohuslav, a former ÖVP politician will be at your side as commercial director, while you have been appointed by a SPÖ culture minister. Does this old-style proportional look bother you?

Roscic: Proporta optics cannot exist because it would have to be assignable to a party. However, as my former boss Gerd Bacher liked to say, I am a member of a one-man party with an admission ban. Second, everyone, wherever they belonged beforehand, is thrown into the boiling cycle of state opera in pure white and then only performance counts. Petra Bohuslav and I are already preparing together. I feel that we will work very well together and achieve much together.