A couple of years ago I finally got a mobile phone, which allowed programmable ringtones of a rather limited kind (monophonic, and with equal note values). I set it up to play the principal tone-row from Lulu, and have used this ever since. As it happens I haven’t heard any music from the opera since then, so I approached last Friday’s performance at the Coliseum with some concern. Would I find myself reaching for my phone all the time? Conversely, if anyone rang me up afterwards, would I interpret the sound as a memory of the opera rattling around in my head and ignore it?
In fact neither of these things happened, and I wasn’t much aware of this form of the row in performance. Either it is for the most part well buried in the score, as often with serial works, or my ear isn’t as good as I thought.
The Guardian‘s reviewer felt that the production had gone off the boil a bit in revival, though I thought it stood up well. This may be because in the meantime I’d been to a rather eccentric production in Wedekind’s home town of Hannover. I’m beginning to get used to Richard Jones’ liking for the 1950s – with in this case some nods to more recent popular culture.
I still feel the translator missed a trick with the name of the company whose shares crash and bankrupt the entire cast in Act 3; this was left as the Jungfrau Railway when it should of course have been ‘Virgin Trains’. Perhaps they feared a writ from Mr. Branson.
It was my first visit to the Coliseum since the building was refurbished. I haven’t been to ENO enough for the changes really to leap out at me, but it looked splendid.
This is my 100th posting to this blog. The Bath Festival starts on Friday and I hope to get to two or three concerts, which I’ll write about.