Salzburg Festival Part 5 - Beuys Own Birtwistle

Gawain - Felsenreitschule, 15 August 2013

Harrison Birtwistle's 1990's opera Gawain only made it on to the Salzburg schedule at a late stage, when it became clear that György Kurtág wouldn't deliver his commission on time. That may explain the bizarre production by Alvis Hermanis, which seemed to have been designed for another opera entirely.

The story of Gawain and the Green Knight comes from Arthurian legend. Sir Gawain accepts a challenge to strike a mysterious Green Knight with his axe and take a return blow a year later. Gawain beheads the knight, who picks up his head and leaves. Gawain's honour is tested when he fulfils his side of the bargain.

Hermanis finds something in the story to justify dressing Gawain as Joseph Beuys and re-enacting his famous 'Coyote' action amongst other works. He sets the action in a post-apocalyptic scenario peopled with snarling vagrants. This is more understandable. When the social order has broken down, acts of honour and chivalry take on a different meaning, though Hermanis's further implication of ecological disaster seemed as irrelevant as his Beuys parallels.

The direction seemed very detailed and specific, but by overlaying the story with Beuys references, Hermanis quite literally lost the plot. I was impressed by the projections which made it seem the Felsenreitschule walls were toppling down, less so by the chickening out from the whole beheading business.

Musically, it was excellent, despite (once again) excessive 'audio enhancement' turning every sound into a fortissimo. The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien became the third orchestra in the week to outplay the Vienna Philharmonic, with the reliable Ingo Metzmacher keeping everything in line.

I cannot imagine the opera being better sung - as you will be able to hear for yourself when much the same cast tackle it at the Barbican next May. There was only one survivor from the original production back in 1992 - Sir John Tomlinson as the Green Knight, thankfully displaying less of the bluster that has marred some of his recent performances. There is something to be said for a tailor-made role. Both he and the excellent Jennifer Johnston deserve a medal for singing the whole thing in moss-covered masks, too.

The title role is tough to make much of until the end, which Christopher Maltman did in his moving exploration of honour and heroism. As the omnipresent Morgan le Fay, Laura Aikin's stratospheric high notes were not overly tested but she made light of some difficult singing. It was good to see Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts back on form as King Arthur, even if he was distractingly wheelchair-bound for most of the evening.

Comments

[John]

I'm really looking forward to hearing this at the Barbican, but it is actually a successful opera? How does it compare to the Minotaur?

[SJT]

Quite similar in both mood and movement. I'm assuming that the Barbican will give the revised - i.e. cut - version, which takes out much of the static (but in the original staging, hypnotically beautiful) change of the seasons sequence. I don't think it will lend itself to the kind of hands-on semi-staging that "The Second Mrs. Kong" so memorably received at the RFH: but it might. No stark naked Gawain being ritually washed and purified, though, for sure (as I believe there wasn't at Salzburg either, in a supposedly "full" staging. Birtwistle's views on the production of his works bear some consideration hereabouts. But then, I'm one of the poor "nitwits" who care about such things, such a passé concern amongst the advanced thinkers out there).

[William Lau]

About the amplification problems at Haus fuer Mozart, the head of the sound department denied using any sort of enhancement. Perhaps intermezzo has got it wrong too? The engineers are always right and people who buy cheap seats on the balcony have no ears.

I wrote him a reply but they are already off for a one-month vacation. If you care to read what he said I could send it to you.

[inter mezzo]

I'll repeat what I said in an earlier comment: "There is no 'amplification' (in the old-fashioned sense) of any Salzburg concerts. There is 'acoustic enhancement', which can be effected without the knowledge of performers - see my previous post on the subject".

My earlier post (7 August) links to a published article *by the engineers who installed the 'enhancement' systems*. It offers a detailed explanation that can leave no-one in any doubt that the Salzburg sound is manipulated electronically.

[William Lau]

I guess I understood what you meant all the way. One might think that the head of the audio department tried to deny amplification (in the old-fashioned sense) while evading the "enhancement" thing.

But that wasn't the case. He flatly denied any "amplification", "enhancement" or "reinforcement". It's entirely the hall, that's what he meant. Of course I don't buy that.

And to ask you one more thing (as I haven't been to Felsenreitschule), do you feel that the manipulated sound comes before or after the apparently "real" sound? Or did the sound simply became a mish-mash?
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Intermezzo replies - The sound seems to come from above and behind, as well as from in front. Sitting near the back this is particularly obvious. It may be less so near the front. Of course natural resonance produces this effect as well, but not to so marked an extent. Any acoustician would tell you that none of the Festival venues are ideally shaped/structured for acoustic purposes, so you wouldn't expect full, rich natural resonance from them in any case.

I would add that I've been visiting Salzburg for several years (this was at least my 10th trip) and haven't been aware of the enhancement in previous years. It could just be that my ears have become more sensitive of course, but I believe that this summer they have 'turned it up', or whatever the technical term is.

[William Lau]

In my case the amplified sound came from the side walls, possibly from the loudspeakers, and BEFORE the actual sound. I could literally hear double.

In Norma there are more stage movements, and within the same number a singer (Bartoli mostly) would walk into some "sweet spot" and gets amplified, leave the spot and the electronic sound was gone.

Of course acousticians would say "seeing the loudspeakers or the mics makes you think there's amplification", and these days many acousticians like to throw out "psycho-acoustic" theories to dismiss claims by amateurs.

I agree that this year they have "cranked it up to 11". And that audio head recommended that I go to the Festspielhaus instead. I do like the Festspielhaus but it is kinder to orchestras (whether on stage or in pit) than to solo voices.

[SJT]

I would have thought that the biggest source of sonic change in the Felsenreitschule at least would have been the latter-day addition of a roof to what had always been an open-air venue (in the same sense as the Archbishop's Palace courtyard at Aix). Was that not the acoustic turning point?