{"id":963,"date":"2015-11-10T06:20:16","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T14:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/?p=963"},"modified":"2015-11-11T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T05:59:09","slug":"a-great-lulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/2015\/11\/a-great-lulu.html","title":{"rendered":"A GREAT LULU"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lulu\"<\/a>When the Metropolitan Opera rises to its own standard, no opera house in the world presents more engaging, exciting, or satisfying performances.\u00a0On November 5\u00a0the new production of Alban Berg\u2019s Lulu<\/em> fulfilled every aspect of the composer\u2019s complicated and difficult work. Anyone who comes to New York during its run should try to attend a performance.<\/p>\n

William Kentridge had a signal success a few years ago with Shostakovich\u2019s The Nose<\/em>, a production that I missed. What he did with Lulu<\/em> can only be called inspired, but much was expected. The surprise of last night to me came from the brilliant conducting of Lothar Koenigs, a recent replacement for James Levine. I had not had the opportunity to hear Maestro Koenigs conduct before (he is the Music Director of the Welsh National Opera), and his work was revelatory.<\/p>\n

Just as Levine in 1974 opened remarkable new aspects to Berg\u2019s Wozzeck<\/em> (and later to Lulu<\/em>), Koenigs brought to the work a sensuous, romantic sound that the opera often lacks, while never sugar-coating Berg\u2019s score. The sheer beauty of so many orchestral passages in this opera have never before in my hearing been so moving. Mahler hovered in the wings at the premiere, and the analytical, almost clinical approach favored by many German conductors vanished. The Metropolitan Opera orchestra, one of the world\u2019s greatest, has never sounded more expressive or varicolored. Musical moments occurred that I certainly had never imagined before.<\/p>\n

\"Mo.<\/a>

Mo. Lothar Koenigs<\/p><\/div>\n

One intriguing aspect illuminated by Koenig\u2019s conducting was the slight difference in the section of Act III composed from Berg\u2019s notes by Friedrich Cerha four decades ago.\u00a0Just as\u00a0Suessmayr\u2019s recits in La Clemenza di Tito<\/em> and Ernst Guiraud\u2019s recitatives in Carmen<\/em> do not have the brilliance of Mozart or Bizet, this section, though beautifully performed, did not quite have the musical quality of the rest of the opera.<\/p>\n

Kentridge\u2019s production, with Luc De Wit as co-director, Sabine Theunissen as set designer, Catherine Meyburgh as projection designer, Greta Goiris as costume designer, and Urs Schoenebaum as lighting designer, told the story, expanded one\u2019s imagination, never failed to fascinate, and made the almost four-hour evening pass in a flash (To indicate how great it was to me, I came to Lulu three hours after arriving from Paris so the performance began at 1 AM on my personal time clock.).<\/p>\n

The dynamic stage picture kaleidoscopically portrayed the plot. One great innovation came from the titles. They were displayed on the Met\u2019s normal system, but because the whole opera was played on a slightly elevated platform, they were also flashed on the elevated section, in one act on one side and in the next on the other. These subtitles kept one\u2019s eyes fixed on the amazing goings on. There was a grand piano onstage, first on downstage left, then on downstage right, theoretically played by a young woman who took many varied athletic poses seemingly added for an effect I cannot explain. The back drop, a wall that had many different openings in it was plastered with posters, drawings, and many extraordinarily apt projections. There were also at different times large words, some in German, some in English, projected on the wall. In the second act on stage left the wall opened to reveal a high staircase; in Alwa\u2019s apartment in Act III the confines of his living room were indicated. Nothing was totally specific, but there was never a moment when what one looked at was uninteresting. The coordination of projection and lighting could not have been improved. The costumes were striking. Dr. Schoen was most of the time dressed in a bright green suit, and Lulu wore most of the time wore a white dress, always revealing her shapely legs, sometimes a lot more than others.<\/p>\n

Marlis Petersen has created her Lulu in nine other productions, none of which I have attended.\u00a0But I\u00a0have heard a fair number of Lulus since my first in Santa Fe in 1964. No one has ever surmounted the incredibly difficult role so accurately and with such ease. Her frequent high notes that can sound like a scream always were hit straight on and accurately. Her Lied had particular emotional weight. Her acting throughout made her character completely believable. Reputedly, this is the last time Petersen will take on the role; anyone who can experience her live should do so.<\/p>\n

The whole cast was solid and completely in command of the difficult roles. Daniel Brema in his Met debut as Alwa sang with firm, strong voice, while his father, Dr. Schoen, found the German bass-baritone Johan Reuter an ideal interpreter. He looked right; he acted superbly, and his voice had an ideal color. The role of Lulu\u2019s father, Shigolch, received a properly run-down, lower class realization by Franz Grundheber, and Paul Groves made a believable, extremely well sung Painter, Lulu\u2019s second husband. Everyone in the cast lived up to their roles\u2019 demands, but a particular notice should be given to Elizabeth DeShong, whose diminutive size allowed her visually to portray the\u00a0School Boy\u00a0even with her adult voice.<\/p>\n

The remarkable Susan Graham enacted the Countess Geschwitz, a crucial though fairly short role. Before I have often seen this Lesbian character played as a caricature of sorts; she played her intensely, with feeling, and with predictable, extraordinary vocal grace.<\/p>\n

This was a great night at the Metropolitan Opera, filled with superb singing, a great conductor, and visual magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Metropolitan Opera rises to its own standard, no opera house in the world presents more engaging, exciting, or satisfying performances.\u00a0On November 5\u00a0the new production of Alban Berg\u2019s Lulu fulfilled every aspect of the composer\u2019s complicated and difficult work. Anyone who comes to New York during its run should try to attend a performance. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":971,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/operasleuth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}