2023-12-06 05:45:06
Most actors say it: playing a villain is much more enjoyable than slipping into the skin of a character who is good in all respects. “They are complex,” explained Christoph Waltz to Temps in 2015, before continuing: “Think about opera, they are the most beautiful roles. Who is most interesting in Tosca? Cavaradossi or Scarpia? Scarpia, obviously! Because he’s the bad guy? No, because he is an adversary, he embodies the drama, the conflict. » Two years previously, the actor had made his directorial debut on an opera stage, the Flanders Opera, then directed by Aviel Cahn.
Truth in comedy
Arriving at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2019, the Zurich resident asked him to rework this staging of the Knight of the Rose, the opera by Richard Strauss created in 1911 with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. A comedy of manners that he approached like chamber theater in order to highlight the psychology of the characters. “Comedy is a fabulous way to tell the truth,” says the actor. Between these two versions of Knight of the Rose he also rubbed himself against Fidelio by Beethoven and Falstaffalso Verdi.
The Rose Knight by Strauss in the production by Christoph Waltz when he created it at the Flanders Opera ten years ago, and from which he will take the basis for the new production at the Grand Théâtre. He approaches this opera as chamber theater in order to highlight the psychology of the characters. — © Flemish Opera
To the public who think that Tarantino revealed it, Christoph Waltz likes to remind that he was successful from the start. In the 1980s, he became known both in cinema and television, in Austrian and German productions, and on stage, between the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he was born in 1956, and the Schauspielhaus in Zurich. Son of a theater decorator and a costume designer, his destiny was mapped out. But before following the teaching of the great Lee Strasberg, emblematic director of the Actor’s Studio, in New York, it was lyric singing and opera that he studied in Vienna. Certainly, the flamboyant expressiveness of his playing is reflected. At the end of the 1980s, he notably toured in the Swiss co-production Sleight of handwith Jean Yanne and Ben Gazzara in the main roles, and under the direction of the Polish Krzysztof Zanussi in Life for life: Maximilian Kolbe.
Rain of rewards
He then experiences a slump, which he explains as follows: “This is what happens when you start to question your talent, when you start to wonder what could be, what could have been, what should be. be. That moment when you have enough experience to assess what it is, what you deeply desire.” Even if he considers this stage difficult to live through, he considers it healthy and necessary. And so at the end of the 2000s, after a few minor films, came recognition. After the Cannes prize, his flamboyant interpretation of Colonel Landa earned him multiple awards, including a Golden Globe and an Oscar. He suddenly found himself in demand from all sides, which allowed him, between two feature films, to finally rub shoulders with this world of opera which fascinated him.
Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, was the subject of Christoph Waltz’s second opera production at the Theater an der Wien, in the midst of a pandemic. — © Monika Rittershaus, DR
At the beginning of the 2010s, Christoph Waltz was hired by Roman Polanski (Carnage2011), Terry Gilliam (The Zero Theorem 2013) or even Tim Burton (Big Eyes , 2014). He also finds Tarantino for Django Unchained (2012), a mix of western and revenge film denouncing slavery. And as it is the bad guys who attract him, he becomes the mythical Blofeld, canonical enemy of James Bond, in Spectre(2015) et Dying can wait (2021). As comfortable in auteur cinema as in big productions, the Viennese is, at 67, at the top of his art. Two big names in world cinema have just called on him for filming announced for 2024: the British Stephen Frears, who will adapt the novel by his compatriot Jonathan Coe Billy Wilder and me retracing the filming of Fedora on the island of Corfu, and the Mexican Guillermo Del Toro, for a new rereading of the Frankensteinde Mary Shelley.
Following a master’s degree in History and aesthetics of cinema at the University of Lausanne, Stéphane Gobbo collaborated with magazines FILMet Cinebulletin before doing his journalism internship at Freedom. He then worked for The Weekly Then The weather, of which he currently directs the cultural section. A regular columnist for RTS, he was also general delegate for the Critics’ Week of the Locarno International Film Festival for two years.
Christoph Waltz German-Austrian actor born in 1956 in Vienna, started his career in German television series like Rex, chien flic or Inspector Derrick he was revealed in 2009 thanks to his role in Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino. Playing antiheroes wonderfully, he has been praised many times by critics and the public for his roles in Water for Elephants, Specter, Django Unchained or Big Eyes.
Meet at the Grand Théâtre de Genève
The Knight of the Rose
From December 13 to 26, 2023
The Knight at the Beach
Cinéopéra 2.12.23
Aperopera 7.12.23
Atelier public 9.12.23
Brunch 10.12.23
Lighting 12.12.23
Behind the scenes17.12.23
Intropéra45 minutes before each performance
https://www.gtg.ch/saison-23-24/le-chevalier-a-la-rose/
1701845643
#flamboyant #villain #Temps