Lulu

Berg Lulu opera to a libretto by the composer. Directed 2009 by Christof Loy at Royal Opera House. Stars Agneta Eichenholz, Michael Volle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Jennifer Larmore, Gwynne Howell, Peter Rose, Philip Langridge, Heather Shipp, Will Hartman, Jeremy White, Kostas Smoriginas, Vuyani Mlinde, Monika-Evelin Liiv, Frances McCafferty, and Simona Mihai. Antonio Pappano conducts The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (concert master Peter Manning). Designs by Herbert Murauer; costumes by Eva-Mareike Uhlig; lighting by Reinhard Traub; movement direction by Thomas Wilhelm; film direction by Robin Lough. Released 2010, disc has 5.1 dts Master Audio sound. Grade: C+

This Lulu was reviewed as a live show in the September 2009 Opera News by George Hall. He praised the orchestra and conductor while warning of the minimalist design. Colin Anderson in the July/August International Record Review discusses the live performance and the DVD in a full-page essay. He states this was a "production ripe for filming" and generally supports it. 

Lulu in its current version was first performed in 1979. It a long, complicated, and sophisticated work with challenging modern music. Someone said an opera is a play where people sing about sex and violence. That definition fits Lulu. But this is not in another sense a normal opera, which usually has a cast of characters (included at least one you care about), a conflict, a climax, and an happy or sad ending.  Lulu has a lot of characters,  and you don't care about any of them. But is fascinating to see how they all come to ruin except for the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, who then declares that she will abandon her past life, go to law school, and become a champion for womens' rights. (In another version, Lulu says this about 20 seconds before Jack rips her open.) So now you maybe get the picture: this is a comedy. From what I can tell from recordings, people don't laugh at this in the opera house. But in a home theater, I laugh at this a lot, and loud! Give it a try.

We now have two versions of Lulu: a colorful, "rich" Salzburg show and its polar opposite, an almost black-and-white, Spartan Royal Opera House production. So let's briefly discuss the pros and cons of both, and use the this mini-review for both of them.

In the Salzburg version, Veri Nemirova is quite successful in supporting the singing and acting with sets, costumes, and props tha help make sense of the dense libretto. A newcomer to the opera with the aid of a synopsis has a fighting chance of following the pageant of disasters. Taking mercy on the viewer, Nemirova avoids injecting surreal or bafflingly clever elements in the show. Then "Large takes charge" to give the home viewer a dazzling video with superb picture quality and picture content

Maybe the most confusing part of this opera is Act II, scene 1, after Dr. Schön marries Lulu and his home life disintegrates into chaos. Nemirova manages with the use of skillful visual images to get me through this.  In contrast, I find this scene in the ROH version to be baffling. I also liked the way Nemirova and Large depict the Act III, scene 1 Paris party scene 98% in the midst of the audience. It took a lot of nerve and skill to bring this off, and this change of approach helps avoid the onset of monotony in this long opera. But the dull look of the ROH show stays the same for 3 hours, enough to wear out all but the most fanatical opera fan.

The severe mise-en-scene of the ROH show puts a huge burden on the singers to act out the libretto intelligently. Fortunately, the cast is superb, and they troop on magnificently. But director Loy then throws too many curves at the cast and audience. For example, in Act I, scene 2 the painter goes into another room (to cut his throat). Schön then calls for an axe to batter down the door.  Loy leaves the painter on the stage in the midst of the other singers. But the business with the axe stays in as well, which makes no sense unless (1) you know the opera really well, (2) stay on your toes, and (3) figure out fast that Loy is trying to make you look like a fool. At the end of the opera, Lulu as prostitute has three customers.  She had 3 husbands.  The first customer is played by the same actor who played her first husband, etc. OK, when the second customer appears, you see he is played by the same actor who played the painter. But he still has the same blood on his shirt that we  saw when he cut his throat as the painter. The problem is that this is inconsistent with the character of the second customer. (He is a tough customer, but Johns don't walk in covered with blood). This depiction of John 2 is Eurotrash cuteness, which deserves to be slapped down!

At this point I've done enough to register my irritation at the ROH directing. A should also mention that the ROH orchestra and Pappano do a magnificent job with the music. I love the German subtitles (which Kultur is too cheap to provide). So if you work hard enough, you can make sense out of this show notwithstanding the director.

In summary, if you are just starting to learn Lulu, the Salzburg version is a vastly better choice for you than the ROH version even if you are buying the Region A version with its mediocre sound quality. Let's hope the dts-HD Master Audio sound with the Regions B and C versions will be better. The ROH version would be a good choice if you are an audiophile as well as opera lover or if you are already an expert on Lulu and are tired of the more gaudy versions you have seen.

I'm giving the grade of "A-" to the Salzburg Kuture disc. I'm giving the same grade to the EuroArts disc but will update it later if the sound is as good as we hope. I'm giving a "C+" to the ROH version on account of boring direction.