Gramophone Magazine
March 2021
Blu-ray of the Month

Stefan Kurt (General Wladimir Katschalow), Alma Sade (Tatjana), Vera-Lotte Boecker (Lydia Pawlowska), Dominik Koninger (Roderich Zirbitz), Tansel Akzeybek (Ito), Tino Lindenburg (Colonel Baltischew), Luca Schaub (Grand Duke Michailowitsch), Komische Opera Berlin, Jordan de Souza, Barrie Kosky

Czech-born composer Jaromír Weinberger, best known for his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper, was forced to flee to America in order to escape Nazi terror. Frühlingsstürme, staged in 1933 but soon closed down by the Nazi government, was the last operetta of the Weimar Republic. It is filled with cultural complexity, combining serious operatic style with light comedy, and presents a thrilling story involving a doomed love affair set against war between Japan and Russia. This lavish production is staged by the award-winning Australian director Barrie Kosky.

"This latest rediscovery in Kosky’s ongoing revival of Berlin’s operetta tradition comes with weighty historical baggage. It’s also a funny, gloriously theatrical entertainment, complete with showgirls, pyrotechnics and sizzling saxophones. No living director walks that stylistic tightrope with more intelligence and verve than Kosky...I can’t imagine a better demonstration of why this genre matters – or a more enjoyable one." - Gramophone Magazine, March 2021.