The Cast

Antonio Vivaldi - Drew Sarich: Drew Sarich is always a win in my book and in this case it’s no different! He is amazing as Vivaldi and gets many opportunities to show off his vast and mighty rock tenor voice. But he also really gets to shine as an actor here! Some people criticise him for constantly playing the same guy in whatever role he is currently in. I can assure you, this is not the case. I didn’t see Krolock, I didn’t see Rudolf, I didn’t see Jesus, I saw Vivaldi. For me personally, Drew was the highlight of the evening. Whenever he was onstage, I was immensely entertained. This is also one of his funnier roles, I have to say. I know, it’s a piece about Vivaldi’s life but there is a surprisingly large amount of sass an sarcasm devoted to the main part and Drew sells it perfectly! He shows that he has great comedic timing. People who already saw the show will know what I mean when I mention that scene, where Drew really pulls out all of his comedy skills. Overall, it was great for me to see Drew again. The last time I saw him before that was Jesus Christ Superstar at the Ronacher, not last year’s show, the one before, so it was a great feeling seeing one of my favourite actors again. And as always, Drew gives a million percent and fully immerses himself into the role. Great casting choice, no regrets.

Carlo Goldoni - Boris Pfeifer: Another good casting choice here. This character is on stage most of the time so they really had to get a sense of good presence with this casting decision! And they have done so greatly. Whenever Boris and Drew are on stage together and interact with each other, the entire performance is elevated. This guy also has a great comedic timing and sells the role of a mischievous playwright really well! Definitely another highlight for me.

Kardinal Ruffo - Morten Frank Larsen: This role is SUCH a wasted opportunity. First of all, Morten is amazing as Ruffo as you really get the feel of a true antagonist from him. His deep voice combined with his look creates a commanding presence on stage. However, there is one problem with this role: He doesn’t show up as much. This is the antagonist we’re talking about here and we really don’t see that much of him. In fact, I can’t even remember if his character had any conclusion. Actually, I can’t remember if ANY character had a proper conclusion, but this I will talk about later. Morten Frank Larsen deserved so much more time on stage. However, he makes up for it with a kickass villain song, which is actually one of my favourite songs in the whole show. Great casting, great role, only too little stage time.

Annina Girò - Rebecca Nelsen: She was a good addition acting and singing-wise but I don’t really think the character herself is written in a very compelling way. Her biggest evolution is in her first scene and we see it happening very literally. However, I did get that she was supposed to be Vivaldi’s great muse, his inspiration for a while. This definitely came across and her self-confidence was very welcome. It was nice to see her trying to stand up for herself, especially in her big finishing number. However, as I said, not really my favourite character of the show. Rebecca Nelsen, however, was fantastic in the role. She has a great and powerful voice and deserves the applauding.

Paolina Girò - Julia Koci: She is great and probably one of the more interesting characters of the show! The whole point of her is being this watcher in the background, documenting everything while sadly being completely unnoticed and unacknowledged. Julia Koci captures this essence really well and this is why her solo is effective, because up until this time she hasn’t really had a presence. But she also seems to be the most loyal and faithful character in the whole show. I won’t touch on this in this review but will do so in the spoiler review. Overall, I was quite intrigued by this character and of course by Julia Koci’s delivery!

Caffarelli - Thomas Lichtenecker: This is the Herbert of this show. With that I mean, him being an absolute scene-stealer. We first see him in a scene where you can already suspect that he might come back and do some mischief. However, when he DOES get his big scene, holy shit! First of all, his costume is the most over-the-top thing of this entire show, and this is saying something because the majority of this show has a lot of over-the-top going for it! Thomas Lichtenecker is also amazing in this role. He isn’t on stage very much but when he’s there, you just know he’s there. 

Of course, there are some more cast members but these are the ones where I feel I can truly talk about in greater detail. Overall, the cast did not disappoint me!

The Story

The story is a mixed bag for me personally. When I look back on it, it sometimes feels like there were two versions of the show: a dark and serious one and an over-the-top crazy one and for the final version they were merged together. I know this isn’t true but it feels like it a bit. I mean, we’ve got dramatic and serious songs like “Sünder, du entkommst mir nicht”, “Lebenslange Haft” or “Komm, mein Kaiser” where you truly feel the tragedy and weight of Vivaldi’s life. But then we’ve got scenes that are just...weird. People who saw this show will know what I mean when I mention the sauna. But even those scenes are not all too bad. At certain parts though, the story felt a little too abstract to me. The main reason for me is the way characters are being handled throughout the show. In that, I mean that none of them really get a proper conclusion. I mean, they get A conclusion but it could have been so much more. The closest conclusion we get is that of Annina. Even Vivaldi himself just disappears offstage towards the end and his ultimate fate is revealed via quick exposition. My biggest issue though was Ruffo because we never really see him again after a certain moment. It just felt a bit like the creators were telling us: “Ah, you probably know what happened to these historical people anyway, so showing it to you on-stage would be unnecessary”. I personally didn’t. The only person I know for sure what happened to is Vivaldi. Everyone else...they just kinda left into obscurity. In pieces like Mozart or Elisabeth, we get to see what happened to the main characters. And if we don’t see their ultimate fate, we still see the ultimate character conclusion for this particular show. In Vivaldi, people just disappear from the stage to not be seen again eventually. Maybe I interpreted something wrong, but at the end, I had somewhat of a “...that’s it?” feeling. Even the ending comes a bit out of nowhere. It felt a bit like someone came to the creators mid-rehearsal and was like: “Guys, we’re about to close, can you hurry up?” Overall, the story is a mixed bag for me. It has its strong parts but ultimately, it left me a bit unsatisfied.

Costumes and Set

Costumes: THIS is where the weeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrd part of the show kicks in. Ok, imagine this: Take costumes from the classical opera, then add costumes from a rock opera, mix them together, get Tim Burton to direct the piece and make the final decision and there you have it. I thought Mozart! was going a bit extreme when combining History with modern day. Boy, was I not prepared for what I saw here XD This is taking modern-day weird costumes to a whole new level. Everyone has hairstyles like they’ve just visited the most hippy-like hairdresser in the country. Goldoni and Ruffo are the only two normal-looking people in the show. Everyone else...wow! I mean, it kinda fits the spirit of the musical but wow XD This is what I call over-the-top.

Set: The set design is actually quite decent in this piece. A lot of Vivaldi’s life is presented as a play within a play and thus they take full creative liberty with that. A lot of the set transitions look like stage-changes in a theatre, including backstage people coming out and carrying pieces on and off. We’ve got massive renaissance-like paintings setting some of the scenes and we’ve got reconstructions of actual places (especially the prologue and the ending have this). But I gotta give the set designers credit that they made sure to make every scene look different. 

Overall, the costumes are VERY weird and the set is quite nice to look at actually!

Music and Songs

Music: The music is actually one of the better parts of this piece. It is in many ways an experimental project, as it combines elements of classic opera with modern rock opera. Christian Kolonovits does manage to successfully intertwine those two...even to such an extent that this musical has been marketed via a pun: A BaRock Opera. That was...interesting to say the least. There was only one moment where I thought it was overdoing it a bit, and that was when Vivaldi’s Spring came up to be accompanied by heavy metal. It sounded like something from a YouTube cover video. But other than that, the orchestrations were really nice. And WOW, THAT is an orchestra, guys. Even the pit itself is gigantic but when I actually looked down to see how many people were playing instruments down there, I was very pleasantly surprised. This is how you orchestrate your piece, everyone!

Songs: The songs are also quite decent. Some of them really do get stuck in your head in the most positive way. My personal favourites are “Vivaldi rockt Vivaldi” (it’s a very catchy beginning, y’all!), “Lebenslange Haft” (another classic Drew song, where he gets the opportunity to properly show off), “Sünder, du entkommst mir nicht” (a kickass villain song for a very underused villain), “Scharlatan” (Goldoni’s golden moment and also a very catchy melody), “Die fünfte Jahreszeit” (Drew Sarich and Boris Pfeifer having a massive duet is amazing) and “Komm, mein Kaiser” (Drew really gets to show off his acting abilities in this one and this became my favourite song of the entire show because it’s not over-the-top or silly or overdramatic, it’s just one guy realising his fall from grace and increasing age, and it’s done so melancholic and simple, beautiful, if only more scenes were like this one). However, I do have one problem with them: SO. MUCH. REPETITION. I heard that that’s a thing on operas, that they repeat entire verses before wrapping up, but to me, it was more of an annoyance: after hearing about someone identifying themselves as an artist for FIVE times or so without hearing anything else, I am a bit annoyed. Seriously, like, some of the songs are 50% original, 50% repetition, aaaaaah XD But overall...the songs are actually really good, especially the ones that are not silly and over-the-top.

Overall