Bertman, Dmitry - Stage Director

Opera Now. December, 2013
Artistic Director Dmitry Bertman, designated a 'People's Artist', is a force to be reckoned with in the Russian opera world - quirky, unpredictable, inspired and infuriating.

Helikon-opera continues to ply its loyal audiences with Bertman's productions, inspired by the likes of conceptual directors such as David Pountney and the Alden brothers in the operatic heydays of the 1980s. The company isn't afraid of walking on the wild side: recent projects have included taking a production of Wagner's early opera Das Liebesverbot to Beirut - the Lebanese initiation to Wagner's music. Another very Bertmanesque project accomlished this year was www.nibelungopera.ru, a typically original tribute to Wagner, set in the fuselage of a passenger plane (Valkyries as stewardesses) and using music from all of Wagner's operas.

 

Opera Now. December, 2011
Inspired by the 'Powerhouse' years of English National Opera, and trained in the straight-theatre techniques of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold, Bertman was really the first to introduce what has become known as 'Regietheater' to Russian opera.

 

Glyn Williams. The Opera Critic. November, 2011
Wagner's Das Liebesverbot... Helikon's directors Dmitry Bertman and Edwald Smirnov, together with conductor Vladimir Ponkin, are to be congratulated for bringing this delightful work to the Russian stage for the first time.

 

Stephan Mosch. Opernwelt. 2011
Dmitri Bertman, der Chef der Moskauer Helikon Oper, inszeniert das sensibel und unaufdringlich aus. Er initiiert bei diesem Duett sogar Körperhaltungen, die vorausweisen auf das Ende des Paares, das am selben Bert stattfinden wird.

Bertman ist ein mit allen Wassern gewaschener Regisseur. Er hat seinen Stanislawski intus, kann aber auch einen Thriller bedienen, wenn es sein muss. Für «Otello» nutzt er beides.

 

Girardi Enrico Corriere della Sera. March, 2009
La dimensione è appunto del carino e del fiabesco, come bene sottolinea la regia di Dmitrij Bertman. Che manipola un linguaggio scenico, visivo e gestuale assai rapido, televisivo, da spot pubblicitario.

 

John Keillor “National Post”. February, 2009
Bertman takes a rather simple story and injects it with Fellini-like significance that doesn't slow down the action or dampen the drama…

The director is interested in how the same sort of romantic problems pass themselves on from generation to generation. Bertman allows us to view the mechanics of our eternal erotic tragedy. The fresh and seamless execution of this production makes it absolutely necessary viewing for opera veterans and newbies alike.

 

John Coulbourn “Toronto Sun”. February, 2008
Under the masterful direction of Dmitri Bertman, creates a work of bleak but stunning beauty that pulses with life.

 

Robert Thicknesse “Opera Now”. January, 2006
Bertman is one of those producers, like Calixto Bieito, who enjoys (literally) an épatant reputation, and whose Helikon opera continues to try manfully to overturn a stultified operatic culture…

 

Rod Biss, New Zealand Listener. October, 2005
Bertman is the director that La Traviata deserves, he understands Verdi’s humanity and his particular sort of realism, and he matches the composer’s creative imagination with his own.

 

William Dart “The New Zealand Herald”. September, 2005
Bertman… finds opera one of the most erotic of all arts - "if we can't find an erotic experience in opera we are not doing it right".

 

Isabelle Truchon, “Le Bien Public”. November, 2004
Mais l’âme de ce Nabucco, c’est aussi et surtout, son metteur en scène, Dmitri Bertman, le directeur du Théâtre de Helikon, qui réussit à équilibrer, d’une part, les « trouvailles » de mise en scène, assez nombreuses pour que le public les remarque sans toutefois en être importuné, et d’autre part, un classicisme de bon aloi et un esthétisme incontestable.

 

Miguel Angel Lucas “Hoy”. August, 2004
El director ruso prepara cada montaje como si fuera el último de su vida.

Cree que hoy día la ópera abusa de lo artificial sin fijarse en el sentimiento.

 

Miguel Angel Lucas “Hoy”. August, 2004
A las riendas del montaje se encuentra Dmitry Bertman. El director ruso, acostumbrado a las puestas en escena lúdicas y delirantes, también resultó más sobrio que de costumbre. Planteó ‘La clemenza di Tito’ con senciliez y elegancia, basándose en la naturalidad y en fuerza dramática de la música, más allá de los efectos escénicos o los artificios operísticos.

Como no podía ser de otra forma, el espectácolo no estuvo exento de lo visión innovadora del director ruso. Bertman anima la obra sin traicionarla. Lo hace, además, con una gran economía. Donde otros gastarían el presupuesto en una escenografia impactante, él prefiere echar mano de la inteligencia y la imaginación.

 

Enrique Franco “El Pais”. August,  2004
No se arruga, pero lo pide todo. Resuelve la falta de recursos con imaginacion desbordante y fecunda, sus montajes son explosions de color, movimiento, accion, resoluciones poéticas. Es moderno, agil, busca publicos amplios, no tiene prejucios con el repertorio.

 

“Alerta”. August, 2004
Hablar de Dmitry Bertman es referirse a uno de los grandes creadores escénicos de la actualidad. La puesta en escena de sus producciones han supuesto un revulsivo en el panorama escénico del momento.

 

Erica Jeal “The Guardian”. May, 2004
His productions have sometimes been controversial, yet even though they haven't garnered universal approval - far from it - nobody seems to feel that they lack, in the words of one Canadian reviewer, "theatrical wallop".

…yes, there may be a touch of the Calixto Bieito about Bertman, whose international career, outside the Helikon, is burgeoning and whose Paris Hoffmann carried a rider proclaiming it unsuitable for children. When he talks about opera he's thoughtful, full of questions, seemingly wrestling with the whole idea of what to do with the art form. He approaches his new productions with respect for the music (he was a first-study pianist), and with a disregard for the idea of "concept" stagings.

 

George Loomis, “Financial Times”. May, 2004
Bertman says he doesn’t feel limited by an opera’s words, but always respects the underlying music.

 

Erica Jeal “Opera”. May, 2004
In Russia he’s known as something of an iconoclast, a director who’s not afraid – indeed, some say over-inclined – to experiment, and who gets results that some find thrillingly different.

 

“Orient le Jour”. January, 2004
Si l’art appartenait au monde de l’entreprise, le Russe Dimitri Bertman serait cité en exemple dans les manuels pour créateurs de start-up.

Il insuffle une énergie nouvelle et même de l’humour dans les grands opéras classiques. Plus question de s’endormir avant la fin de La Traviata ou de Nabucco, car ses mises en scènes... surprennent, séduisent, font rire.

 

Russian-British Cultural Association, 2003 RBCA News
Anarchic and iconoclastic to his boots, Bertman revels in outrage whether in traditional repertoire works or in new and undiscovered opera.

Bertman has never compromised on professional quality; the charm and originality of his theatre belies the demands he makes on his staff, his singers and his orchestra.

 

Angelo Foletto, “La Rebbublica”. July, 2003
La quaterna di Bertman, con spettacoli di impostazione non omogenea e nati in stagioni diverse, compendiava l’idea di lavoro collectivo, la vocazione eclettica, e la sorprendente vivacità produttiva del fondatore-regista stabile.

Un uomo di teatro di primissima forza e capacità realizzativa, Bertman è formidabile nel raccontare la tragica e struggente Lady Macbeth.

 

Giovanni Carli Ballola, “Il Mattino”. July, 2003
L’audacia con quale il soggetto dell’opere è stato rivisitato era pari all’efficacia dei risultati raggiunti : intatto ed esaltato ; anche mediante scene fortemente hard, ne scaturiva il suo truce, pessimistico nichilismo morale, in una realizzazione che della grande tradizione teatrale russa ha ereditato la perfezione tecnica e l’esuberante gestualità

Lq poetica teatrale di Bertman: rinnovare tutto per meglio concervare, si radicalizzava nella successiva « Dama di picche” di Cajkovskj… anche se di eguale intensità sperimentale.

 

S.V., “Corriere di Ravenna”. July, 2003
La libertà con cui Bertman e i « suoi” si appropiano dei capolavori della letteratura operistica russa, può apparire eccessiva ai cultori più tradizionalisti, ma non è mai irriguardosa e, anzi, testimonia della caparbia volontà di compenetrare il significato, mai invoco, delle opere proposte, cogliendone la ambiguità.

 

Oreste Bossini “Il Manifesto”. July, 2003
Bertman ha una qualità non indifferente, conosce la musica davvero bene. L’idea dello spettacolo nasce da un’attenta riflessione sul ritmo drammaturgico della partitura.

 

“China Daily”. October, 2002
Director Dmitry Bertman mines the darkest recesses of the human mind.

 

George W.Loomis, “Herald Tribune”. February, 2000
Like other Bertman productions, this one was inventive and executed with pinpoint precision. (“Lady Macbeth of Mzensk”).

 

Eric Dahan, “Libération”. July, 1999
A la différence de nombreux metteurs en scène d’aujourd’hui, Dlitry Bertman connaît la musique.