After watching from a distance some belated but spectacular fireworks originating (I was told) at Somerset House, I went to the new production of Lulu at English National Opera.
I have already seen this production in the cinema. The distinguishing feature was the drawings by William Kentridge which were projected on the backdrop. After a while I didn’t pay too much attention to them (for the reason given below), though some made an impression, such as the drawing of Berg himself, apparently looking on at the opera he never lived to see staged.
More to my liking was the mute actor, Joanna Dudley, who was on stage throughout, interpreting the events through her body language. She was very impressive, not least in her ability to sustain some of the attitudes she adopted. Although I could imagine that, as with Berg’s music, with only slight changes she would have been intolerable. (The other, male, mute actor didn’t do much for me. He was dressed as a butler and often struck the absurdly bent-over pose some people adopt when they are trying to move unobserved and which has exactly the opposite effect.)
At this well-attended performance I was seated in the Upper Circle, in the middle of row E. The drawback with this was that the orchestra didn’t come across as strongly as they would have done in the stalls or dress circle. So rather unusually for a performance of Berg, the singers dominated. Perhaps this was not a bad thing as Lulu herself was not hugely powerful.
Another problem with my location was that in Act II the projected drawings were not completely visible because the top of them disappeared into the safety curtain; so, for example, I could not identify any of the faces. In addition, the mime artist was now on stage right, and the head of the person in front of me often blocked out either her or the main action. This problem disappeared in Act III along with the neighbour to my left. Perhaps he was suffering Bergnot or, conversely, was a purist who would not accept the completion of Act III; more likely he felt he needed an early night to nurse the cold he was clearly suffering from.
I was happy with all the performances, which included Willard White (last heard as Elijah at 3 Choirs) as Schigolch. Kudos to ENO for a very informative programme, including Cerha’s account of what the completion of Act III entailed. I was left pondering as often why a composer whose music is not exactly lacking in emotion was drawn to such a chilly subject; did he regard it as a challenge?
There are loads and loads of reviews and other blog posts about this. Here are some of them:
