Lulu - rinse and repeat

Lulu - Royal Opera House, 8 June 2009

This was a lot better second time round. With the pressure of opening night behind her, Agneta Eichenholz sang cleanly and securely throughout, Klaus Florian Vogt was more focussed, and the action progressed more confidently. I didn't even notice any amplification on the speaking voices, which I guess means it was done more adeptly this time.

And was it my imagination, or was did the singers move downstage to sing more often? Evidently some changes had been made, because Alwa was murdered (as per Berg's stage directions) this time, instead of committing suicide as Loy had rewritten for the opening night.

There were certainly fewer inaudible episodes. That was partly down to Pappano, who sat on the orchestra every time a singer opened their mouth. Lulu is hardly a classic 'singers' opera' in the bel canto sense, but that's how Pappano treated it, with the orchestra alternately blooming forth gloriously and shrinking into a backing band. Most strange, and often at odds with the drama.

There were, unusually, cameras at the front of the stalls as well as the back to capture this performance, presumably for future DVD release.The clarity of this simply-set production remains its strength, something I suspect will be even more obvious when it's seen on screen.

 

 

 

Comments

[Doundou Tchil]

There were terchnical hitches with the miking in the first performance but they wewre sorted out. It's interesting the idea that Dr Schon might have been seen to commit suicide but there were several shots (five in the score) which a suicide cannot do ! Looked like manslaughter to me. Dr Schon is running around recklessly with a gun, pointing it at everyone and pushes Lulu to the ground and there's a struggle. But the idea of suicide is an interesting one as Lulu brings out other people's projections. The Painter has a death wish which Lulu makes possible : Dr Schon is at the end of his tether, Lulu puts him out of his misery. Nice reading !

[mb]

I was there on the 8th, and if my memory is correct, Alwa did step into the box of light and kill himself. Considering Loy actually wrote this into the programme synopsis, he could hardly change it. (Nor should he have, it being a brilliant idea).

As for the painter's death wish, isn't that just concocted by Schon to stop the police asking questions?

[inter mezzo]

@mb - it was the Painter (played by Will Hartmann) who stepped into the box of light (which was supposed to represent a bathroom) in Act 1 and killed himself (both nights).

On the 8th, Will Hartmann reached up and sort of strangled Alwa in Act 3 (which is what the stage directions demand). On the first night, Alwa slit his own throat instead - which is what Loy wrote in the synopsis, but is not what Berg intended.

Who knows why they changed it, but they did.

[Mike Glendinning]

I was there for the performance on the 8th as well, and overall I thought it was a pretty fabulous night, although I'm afraid I can't agree with all of your comments.

I found the spoken voice amplification rather distracting, not least because of the change in timbre as well as volume. Surely one should be able to expect singers to project their spoken voice well enough to avoid this kind of artificial sound reinforcement?

The balance too, at least from my seat in the orchestra stalls, was not ideal and in many places I couldn't follow what was being sung from the stage because it was drowned out by the orchestra. Perhaps I need to get seats higher up in the theatre next time :-)

The cameras, however were well managed, I thought, and quite discreet at least compared to previous times they have filmed performances in the house (I seem to have been "lucky" and been at quite a few such occasions over the past few years).

[inter mezzo]

perhaps it's just a matter of where exactly you sit Mike. I was about halfway back in the stalls on the 8th, and the sound problems you describe (which were obvious to me on the first night) were really not obvious.

[mb]

Well I must be going mad then. I didn't know what would happen, and I came out going 'bloody hell- Alwa killed himself!' The power of suggestion perhaps.