The public greeted by a burst of applause the vocal and dramatic work of Michael Hendrick, whose powerful and generous delivery was a guarantee of the poor widower’s vitality but whose somewhat dark timbre nevertheless managed to express the character’s distress.
Die tote Stadt – The Dead City by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Nancy – National Opera of Lorraine
While it is true that many characters die in opera, it is very rare for an opera to make death its main subject. Die tote Stadt – The Dead City by Erich Wolfgang Korngold raises the distressing question of the omnipresence of Mary, a dead woman, in the thoughts of Paul, her husband, to the point of invading him and completely blocking his life. After a long struggle with himself, helped despite himself by Franck his friend and by Marietta, a dancer he met by chance in the street who resembles Marie like a double, he painfully decides to return among the living.
In Bruges, every day feels like All Saints’ Day” according to Georges Rodenbach, the author of the novel that inspired the composer. He gives a lot of importance to the parallel between the dreary and dark side of Bruges, the “dead city”, the “museum city” steeped in devotions, and the depressive vision of the widower turned towards his past. Yet contrasting with the darkness, the sadness of bigoted Bruges, expresses a life full of joy, libertine, erotic, symbolized by Marietta – a dancer dressed in red – and her friendly and eccentric troupe. The lush orchestra accompanies this vital force. Paul is torn between loyalty to his dead love and his sexual attraction to Marietta, between the past and the future, death and life. His pain is accentuated, fueled by the guilt, the censorship that religion places on him.
Unlike Willy Decker’s staging (see Webthea on May 9, 2006 and October 19, 2009) which cuts the scene in depth over two or three shots, Philipp Himmelmann chose to represent everything on a single shot – in a set by Raimund Bauer- with six identical boxes (three boxes in a line on two levels) sealed together, where he placed his main actors without any of them ever being in the same box as another. This undoubtedly required a lot of work: although we cannot see each other, the coordination of the actors’ gestures is perfect. But this undoubtedly also allowed the daring postures of Marietta and Paul, which would perhaps have been more difficult to interpret if the actors had played close to each other. We can also note that the staging has eliminated practically all religious symbols in this setting (procession, crosses, chasubles, etc.).
The fact that the performance is presented continuously – two and a half hours – helps to maintain the intensity of the emotion, but the power of the orchestra and the voices were such that the canonical cuts between the three acts would have been welcome , all the more so since the composer had planned at the start of each act an orchestral introduction sufficient for the audience to be able to connect with the story without difficulty.
Enchantment in the pit and the stage
The considerable size of the orchestra and the variety of instruments used – Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an orchestrator without equal – produced incredible combinations of timbres and, if the composer remained faithful to tonal music he did not deprive himself of include dissonances in the score in order to illustrate Paul’s dismay or Marietta’s annoyance. Under the direction of Daniel Klajner, during the last performance, the Nancy Symphony and Lyric Orchestra, overflowing with energy, without excessive pathos and respectful of the score, a little messy perhaps at times, effectively magnified the doubts and the certainties of the characters.
The audience greeted with a round of applause the vocal and dramatic work of Michael Hendrick, whose powerful and generous delivery was a guarantee of the poor widower’s vitality but whose somewhat obscure tone nevertheless managed to express the character’s distress. In complete contrast, the Finnish soprano Helene Juntunen -Marie and Marietta- whose luminous tone and astonishing ease in moving from the lyrical to the tragic register made her two characters considerable assets. Thomas Oliemans–Franck performed elegantly, as did all the actors in the Marietta troupe. Only Nadine Weissmann struggled somewhat in her task, particularly at the start of the first act.
Die tote Stadt opera in three acts, libretto by Paul Schott based on the novel “Bruges-la-morte” by Georges Rodenbach. Production of the Nancy Opera. Directed by Philipp Himmelmann. Decor by Raimund Bauer. Musical direction by Daniel Klajner. Singers: Michael Hendrick, Helena Juntunen, Thomas Oliemans, Nadine Weissmann, André Morsch, André Post, Aurore Ugolin, Yuree Jang, Alexander Swan. Nancy Opera on May 9, 12, 14, 16 and 18, 2010.
by Jaime EstapĂ i ArgemĂ
Webtheatre.fr