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Fire & Ice. Neither Wallmann nor Felsenstein, both born in Vienna, began their careers in the world of opera. Felsenstein started out to be an actor, drifted into opera directing in the 1920s. He took over the Komische Oper in 1947, speedily built it into the operatic showcase of a city that also boasts the East Berlin State Opera and the vigorously competing West Berlin Municipal Opera. In a kind of operatic cold war, Felsenstein's now classic productions of Carmen, Tales of Hoffmann, The Bartered Bride attract as many operagoers from West Berlin (where Fetsenstein lives for maximum comfort) as from the Eastern sector.
Director Wallmann started out as a ballet dancer, had to abandon her career when she fell through a trap door on the Vienna opera stage and broke her hip. She turned to choreography, gradually took on opera-directing chores, is now one of the most sought-after directors in Europe. She is an ardent admirer but not a disciple of Felsenstein, believes that his coldly analytical visions have no place in Milan's mistily sentimental house. Between them, Directors Felsenstein and Wallmann have done much to restore Puccini's fire-and-ice masterpiece to the fame it deserves.