By HEIDI WALESON [Wall Street Journal, 10 July 2008]
The technical wizardry of the Lincoln Center Festival production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s “Die Soldaten” is spectacular. Initially produced by the RuhrTriennale Festival in Germany, the New York version is staged in the vast volume (200 by 300 feet, 80 feet high) of the Park Avenue Armory’s vaulted Drill Hall. The set (designed by Robert Innes Hopkins), a 250-foot runway, bisects the room and ends in a T; the audience seating, on a bleacher structure that flanks and straddles the runway, moves slowly back and forth on tracks beside the playing area, sometimes bringing the spectators to within a few feet of the singers.