So, the news in brief. Mixed feelings about the production, which in certain ways is extremely striking - the stage-within-a-stage in the dream sequence, the stunning projections and shadowplays of the procession, the brief glimpse of Marietta's 1920s showgirl glory at the end of Act 1, and Paul's momentary hesitation on the threshold as he leaves at the very end. Never sure, though, about productions that show one thing while the text tells you something totally different - eg references to the beauty of Marietta's hair when she is walking around Paul's room with a shaven head. But the imagery is concentrated, the concepts focused and mainly appropriate and the walking houses are a super touch.
I think the singers could have done with a break after Act 1 - the three-act version is a preferable format. But Nadja Michael, despite a little awkward intonation on high, does have the power, the presence and the legs for Marietta; Stephen Gould's voice is big enough to carry off Paul's massively demanding role, and when it's a case of standing and delivering he does so to the manner born; and Gerry Finlay stole the show with the Pierrot Tanzlied.
(But I dream of the ideal Paul, with voice, drama, heart and soul, and he exists, if he could be persuaded... PAGING MR KAUFMANN...PAGING MR KAUFMANN....)
Some concern in the extended first half that everyone was running out of steam, including Metzmacher, whose conducting often felt episodic, failing to shape and build the tension across the long spans; eg Paul's first aria describing his meeting with Marietta came over with little sense of its narrative structure, and that wasn't our tenor's doing but our conductor's.
In the second half (well, the last third), second wind seemed to take hold: the procession and the Paul-Marietta scene alongside it were utterly electrifying. And there the full symbolism of the production, perhaps indeed the unconscious symbolism of the opera itself, came shining out: the war of the 19th versus the 20th century...the strictured, superstitious, hypocritical 19th, transfixed by an idealised and unrealistic past, when faced with the glamour, free spirit and sexual liberation of the 20th, is so threatened that it can only strangle it.
And the terror that Paul may not represent only the 19th century, but the wilfully barbarian 21st.
As for mourning... I still can't comprehend how Korngold could have created such a marvel of human empathy at the age of 20. He was only 23 at the time of the premiere in December 1920. Was it the air he breathed, Vienna in the First World War, the crumbling world, the death of childhood, the end of an era? Or did he just...know - and most of all, have the musical technique to reach directly into his audience's hearts when conveying that empathy?
There was a great deal I didn't understand in the opera when I first studied its 'musical and dramatic structure' in 1987. Now perhaps I understand a little better.
What I still don't understand is why I first gravitated to this, of all operas, in good times, student days, well before coming to terms with bereavement became such a dominant theme in my life (both my parents and my sister died within a few years of each other).
Today is the 15th anniversary of my mother's death.
"The end is not as abrupt as that. Your name is still spoken. Your face is still remembered. And what you said, and what you did, and what you failed to do, these are still remembered... As long as one is left who remembers you, so long is the matter unended...until you are quite forgotten...you will not be finished with the earth even though you are dead."
(Ferenc Molnar, Liliom - quoted in the ROH programme...)
5 comments:
I promise to really post on this experience because it was special in many ways! He was 20 when he composed this!!!???? WOWWW!!
I found the music totally captivating and beautiful and the theme totally unsettling. My Paul was Kerl and oh boy am I with you on this one :-) I couldn't agree more that the power I heard lacked the balance of the softness and passion, the emotion that Jk has in tonnes and tonnes. I often felt the singing was too harsh for the music (not with Finley, of course, who by the way also had the best diction of all!). It felt obsessed, but seldomly full of passion, mad but more like in insane then in desperate love or lost desire. Or maybe i just misunderstood the whole thing????
Also agree that the conducting sometimes lacked "Schwung". It flowed just too harmoniously. Loved the percussion effects through and the double room effect on stage. Found the contrast between her baldness and the text also disconcerting. At its initial moment it was very effectve in poducing impact but then was just out of place.
Definitely a captivating experience!
Glad the weather finally relented so that you could go see and hear this.
I totally agree about using the 3 act version. The 2 act version does two things:
1. Punishes the tenor
2. Cuts out most of the incredible Act 2 prelude--I saw this production in San Francisco and I really missed the crashing gongs, celesta/harp chords etc.
I wish the Deustche Oper production with Karen Armstrong and James King (now THAT'S a Paul, at least in terms of voice, despite the lack of engagement with the text) that I have on an old VHS tape would be released on DVD.
What a great opera, I hope you can make it to Los Angeles when James Conlon conducts it sometime in 2012 (March or April, if the other Recovered Voices operas by Zemlinsky, Braunfels and Schreker that have/are being done are any indication).
Jessica, I'm so glad you got to see it in the end. For all the stengths (loved the spinning houses too)and weaknesses (a bald Marietta!) of the production, it's still deeply moving to see it staged; even more powerful than on disc. My partner and I were both choked with emotion by the final scene.
I wasn't too happy with the first two acts being run together either, for the same reasons as Henry, but also because we lost the fantastic ending to Act 1. But I read (I think in Brendan Carroll's book) that Acts 1 and 2 were elided at one or other of the opera's twin premieres - so presumably EWK sanctioned it?
Halldor, yes, the end of Act I is terrific too, it's a shame that gets lost in the two acts running together.
I am currently in Berlin so forgive tardiness in adding to this discussion. As the only Korngoldista who didn't get to see the ROH staging of Decker's production , I cannot really comment except to say that, apparently, the bald Marietta is meant to symobolise the perverted Marietta in Paul's dream (so the assistant producer said, anyway, at the Insight evening on Jan 13).
It is also true that Acts 1 & 2 were often joined before WW2 with EWK's sanction, usually if the theatre could not manage a church organ!
I doubt Mr Kaufmann will learn this role though I agree that he would be sublime. The tenor who sang it in Venice (Stefan Vinke) was astonishing. Not only a true heldentenor but also capable of some wonderous lyric tenor singing. He sang the role uncut - and never tired. The production by Pizzi was fascinating. It will be staged in Palermo in April & if any of you can get there, I recommend it as a much more romantic antidote to Herr Decker's floating houses and moving walls. Even though I saw it in Venice, I am planning to go. It was that good!
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