(no subject)
Recently, I seem to only post opera reviews, and even those have fallen away this season. Mostly, that's because it's been a very frustrating, disappointing season. Every opera, with the possible exception of Capriccio, has had some problems, some of them quite major. I was excited to finally see Tannhäuser, only to be disappointed by a terrible, ugly production with stupid sets. In a lot of ways, The Passenger was the opposite of that. The set was amazing, with the cruise ship above and the concentration camp below. Scene changes involved train cars rolled out on tracks across the stage. It was one of the finest sets I've ever seen at Lyric.
Too bad about the opera, then. I know von Rhein loved it, and it certainly has its defenders (or else it would never have been staged). Likely, we'll see more of it. It has all the markings of becoming an 'important' piece of art, one that everyone has to see. And that's what kills it. It's a ponderous 'message' opera. The only characters who are vaguely recognizable as human beings are the diplomat and his wife, both of whom are horrible people. The concentration camp inhabitants, on the other hand, are all clunky stereotypes: from the mustache twisting SS-men (introduced having one of those awkward "As you know, Heinz, it's sure is difficult killing so many people a day" conversations), to the blandly virtuous victims. They are an ethnic mix from across Europe (no German-speakers, though, only the bad guys speak German in this opera), each with a generalized tale of woe. The libretto is in five or six languages (designed, clearly, for an era of supertitles), so I was very thankful when they stopped singing in ones I recognized.
All of this sounds like a pretty harsh critique, I realize, for a piece of art set in Auschwitz. I realize it's tricky creating art about an important (and horrific) event like the Holocaust. This opera was originally written in 1968 (although not fully performed until 2010) when there wasn't much out there which memorialized Holocaust victims. I suspect that's why it's more of a university lecture than a dynamic piece of art. I do feel that the best way to memorialize someone is to show them as a true human being, which I don't think Medvedev's libretto does. I also felt that Weinberg's score sounded like a second-rate Hitchcock knockoff (it certainly didn't help that Davis was conducting). It really galls me that the Lyric can lavish so much money on this opera, while the two performances of Der Kaiser von Atlantis I've seen performed in Chicago have been on such shoestring budgets. Admittedly, Kaiser is probably too small for the Lyric stage, but it shows a subtlety (out of necessity, as it was written in a concentration camp) and a lyricism missing from The Passenger.
I have decided to renew my Lyric subscription, at least for another season. It took us several years to find seats we like, so I'm not ready to give them up. I don't think -e will be joining me for all of the operas of the upcoming season, though. She will almost certainly give Rosenkavalier a miss, and probably Wozzeck, too. If you are interested in seeing any of the upcoming season with me (and, clearly, don't mind me bitching about a disappointing opera), let me know.
Too bad about the opera, then. I know von Rhein loved it, and it certainly has its defenders (or else it would never have been staged). Likely, we'll see more of it. It has all the markings of becoming an 'important' piece of art, one that everyone has to see. And that's what kills it. It's a ponderous 'message' opera. The only characters who are vaguely recognizable as human beings are the diplomat and his wife, both of whom are horrible people. The concentration camp inhabitants, on the other hand, are all clunky stereotypes: from the mustache twisting SS-men (introduced having one of those awkward "As you know, Heinz, it's sure is difficult killing so many people a day" conversations), to the blandly virtuous victims. They are an ethnic mix from across Europe (no German-speakers, though, only the bad guys speak German in this opera), each with a generalized tale of woe. The libretto is in five or six languages (designed, clearly, for an era of supertitles), so I was very thankful when they stopped singing in ones I recognized.
All of this sounds like a pretty harsh critique, I realize, for a piece of art set in Auschwitz. I realize it's tricky creating art about an important (and horrific) event like the Holocaust. This opera was originally written in 1968 (although not fully performed until 2010) when there wasn't much out there which memorialized Holocaust victims. I suspect that's why it's more of a university lecture than a dynamic piece of art. I do feel that the best way to memorialize someone is to show them as a true human being, which I don't think Medvedev's libretto does. I also felt that Weinberg's score sounded like a second-rate Hitchcock knockoff (it certainly didn't help that Davis was conducting). It really galls me that the Lyric can lavish so much money on this opera, while the two performances of Der Kaiser von Atlantis I've seen performed in Chicago have been on such shoestring budgets. Admittedly, Kaiser is probably too small for the Lyric stage, but it shows a subtlety (out of necessity, as it was written in a concentration camp) and a lyricism missing from The Passenger.
I have decided to renew my Lyric subscription, at least for another season. It took us several years to find seats we like, so I'm not ready to give them up. I don't think -e will be joining me for all of the operas of the upcoming season, though. She will almost certainly give Rosenkavalier a miss, and probably Wozzeck, too. If you are interested in seeing any of the upcoming season with me (and, clearly, don't mind me bitching about a disappointing opera), let me know.