Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann

Abstract

Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Die Soldaten. DVD (Blu-ray). Ingo Metzmacher / Salzburg Festival. Directed by Alvis Hermanis. With Alfred Muff, Laura Aikin, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, Tomasz Konieczny, Renée Morloc, Gabriela Beňačková, Matthias Klink, Daniel Brenna, Wolfgang Ablinger, Boaz Daniel.Germany: EuroArts Music International, 2013. 2072584. $39.99. As its fiftieth anniversary approaches, Die Soldaten seems to be making a renewed bid for canonicity: it has been staged in six cities since 2002 and will be produced in two more in 2014. So it is an auspicious time to have a new production released on video, the first to be widely available since the Stuttgart production was re-released on DVD (Arthaus Musik, 100270 [2002, 1989]). With its excellent musical performances, detailed characterization, and straightforward direction, this performance, recorded at the Salzburg Festival in August 2012, stands as an eminently plausible record of an important and difficult twentieth-century work.