{"id":7905,"date":"2024-02-15T20:44:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=7905"},"modified":"2024-02-15T20:44:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:44:21","slug":"mourning-does-not-become-elektra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/?p=7905","title":{"rendered":"Mourning Does Not Become Elektra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soon \u2013 if I don\u2019t run out of steam \u2013 we will celebrate together the tenth anniversary of this website, and with this small jubilee various other anniversaries, both sad and happy. However, let me once again put my nose out of our backyard and point out that various eras are coming to an end across the operatic world: entire generations of musicians associated with a particular performance practice are passing away, the splendour of companies that were supposed to last forever is fading, great projects initiated years ago are coming to a close. What is also coming to an end is Antonio Pappano\u2019s musical reign at the Royal Opera House. The conductor, in the prime of his life and at the height of his creative powers, is leaving the legendary Bow Street building after twenty-two years to take the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra in September. In January Pappano bid a symbolic farewell to the ROH audience, choosing for his final premiere a work by the same composer and prepared with the same director with whom he triumphed in 2002, when he opened his first London season as Covent Garden\u2019s Music Director. From Ariadne auf Naxos<\/em> to Elektra.<\/em> From a magnificent, colourful staging of an opera the creators of which deliberately juxtaposed the world of Greek myth with Wagner\u2019s ideal of boundless love, to a dark study of revenge derived from Sophocles\u2019 tragedy. A brilliant closure of the collaboration with the German freelancer Christof Loy, with whom Pappano has come a long way \u2013 from the youngest-ever boss of the ROH to the acclaimed architect of the London company\u2019s undisputed greatness.<\/p>\n

This time I went to London in a semi-official capacity, making it a social occasion as well, and after the performance I was able to share my impressions about the musical and theatrical side of the farewell event as much as I wanted. I knew Ariadne<\/em> \u2013 revived at the ROH four times, last time in 2015 \u2013 only from video recordings, but I always thought it was an outstanding production. I was surprised, like Pappano, that for so many years he had not decided to have his \u201cown\u201d Elektra<\/em>, even though during his reign Strauss\u2019 one-act opera had appeared on the London stage several times under different conductors and in staging by other directors. I expected from the very beginning that the production would attract extraordinary attention of both critics and music lovers. I decided to come to see the third of the six scheduled performances \u2013 after the general slackening and decline of form that usually accompanies the so-called second premiere, at a point when the singers are beginning to identify with their characters and the conductor is coming to a full understanding with the ensemble he is leading.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nina Stemme (Elektra) and Sara Jakubiak (Chrysothemis). Photo: Tristram Kenton<\/p>\n

However, I could not have predicted that Nina Stemme would withdraw already after the first performance to be replaced by the Lithuanian soprano Au\u0161rin\u0117 Stundyt\u0117 (in the end, the Swedish artist returned to the stage for the last two performances). The London audience, discouraged by the scathing reviews of Stemme\u2019s performance at the premiere, was beside itself with joy. I was reserved, having seen Stundyt\u0117\u2019s portrayal of Renata in Prokofiev\u2019s Fiery Angel<\/em> in Warsaw. It was nearly six years ago, the singer was just over forty, but already at that time her voice was tired, had too much vibrato and unattractive colour. Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed by the London Elektra<\/em>, although I suspect that Stundyt\u0117\u2019s intelligence and uncommon musicianship won the hearts of some English music lovers, who were charmed by her fragility and unexpectedly gentle take on the eponymous heroine of Strauss\u2019 opera.<\/p>\n

The problem is that this is probably not what Pappano and, especially, Loy had in mind. Loy this time created an unambiguously dirty staging, set in the static space of an unspecified bourgeois residence in Vienna during the Strauss-Hofmannsthal era. In this concept, Elektra \u2013 with her heart seething alternately with love, hatred and desire for revenge \u2013 does not wander around the palace in rags. Dressed in a modest black-and-white maid\u2019s uniform, she coexists with the rest of the palace staff in the home of Klytaemnestra and her lover. She sneaks out into the coal-smeared courtyard with the Oversser and five Maids, for whom the ultimate freedom is to be able to crouch, even for a moment, on the steps of the staircase leading to the rear of the queen\u2019s residence. We can only guess what happens inside the palace: the world lost by Elektra after Agamemnon\u2019s death hides even deeper, behind one of the doors in the faintly yellowish-lit corridor. This space \u2013 positioned by the set designer Johannes Leiacker on a low mezzanine floor of the building surrounding the courtyard and perfectly lit by Olaf Winter \u2013 creates a striking impression of inaccessibility. Behind the high windows something is still going on, but in dead silence. The space of human relationships is suggested primarily by the costumes, especially of the three female protagonists: Elektra, relegated to the role of a servant; Chrysothemis, locked in a schoolgirl\u2019s dream of normality (wearing a girlish, pale pink dress that looks as if it has aged with its owner); and Klytaemnestra, guilty of her two daughter\u2019s misfortune\u00a0 (wearing sapphire silks and a white fur stole, the sumptuousness of which cannot hide the passage of years or the inner ugliness of the character).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Karita Mattila (Klytaemnestra) and Nina Stemme. Photo: Tristram Kenton<\/p>\n

Such a staging \u2013 minimalist, far from being literal, operating primarily with symbols \u2013 has no room for a fragile Elektra and Stemme probably did not portrayed her as such. It is difficult for me to objectively assess Loy\u2019s concept, because I suspect that the weakening of dramatic tension may have been caused by the sudden cast change, rather than any shortcomings on the director\u2019s part. With Stundyt\u0117 in the title role, Elektra came across as more delicate and in some ways less determined than Chrysothemis. The scene in which she recognised Orestes was indeed touching, but it didn\u2019t touch the hearstrings the way it should have; even the eerie waltz in the finale, when Elektra can no longer hear anything but the music coming from within her, seemed strangely cautious and shaky.<\/p>\n

Of course, I can\u2019t put all the responsibility on Stundyt\u0117, who was brought to London at the last minute and had to add Loy\u2019s instructions to her experience of recent productions by Warlikowski and Tcherniakov. There is this snag though \u2013 the Lithuanian soprano should not have taken on the role of Elektra in the first place. In no way does her voice resemble that of a \u201ctwenty-year-old Br\u00fcnnhilde\u201d demanded for the part: instead, she is a mature Tosca who has strayed into an unsuitable repertoire, being cast in Strauss and Wagner operas thanks to her musicality combined with fine stage presence and good acting skills. Stundyt\u0117\u2019s soprano has a limited colour palette and lacks not only volume, but also the necessary intensity, traits that put Inge Borkh \u2013 whose voice was relatively small, but had exceptional dramatic potential \u2013 among the greatest Elektras of all time. Much better than Stundyt\u0117 was Karita Mattila, a singer with great charisma, with which she skilfully masks the limitations of her inevitably aging soprano: although in the mezzo-soprano part of Klytaemnestra she had trouble projecting her voice in the upper and lower registers, she nevertheless managed to maintain her characteristic consistency and smoothness of sound across the scale. The thankless role of Aegisth was well sung by Charles Workman, whom I appreciate not only for the beauty of his voice, but also for his complete freedom and lightness of phrasing. \u0141ukasz Goli\u0144ski made a very successful ROH debut as Orestes. His is a resonant and deep baritone, golden in tone and wonderfully developed in the lower register. If he can be faulted for anything, it would a few intonational lapses, which can be put down to the earnestness of his interpretation. At least decent performances came from the rest of the numerous cast, led by the five Maidens (Noa Beinart, Veena Akama-Makia, Gabriel\u0117 Kup\u0161yt\u0117, Ella Taylor and Valentina Pusk\u00e1s) and Lee Bisset in the small role of the Overseer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nina Stemme. Photo: Tristram Kenton<\/p>\n

I left Chrysothemis for last, because it\u2019s been a long time since I had to deal with a singer who would take control the entire stage from her first entrance on the word \u201cElektra!\u201d. Sara Jakubiak was superior to Stundyt\u0117 in every respect: her commitment to the character she created, the beauty of her voice, her phenomenal vocal technique and her extraordinary freedom in carrying out the tasks assigned to her by the director. I only hope \u2013 judging from the American singer\u2019s career so far \u2013 that Jakubiak will not listen to the remarks of some reviewers who, having recovered from the initial shock, would like to cast her in the title role. God forbid: hers is a dark, powerful, but still lyrical soprano, crystal clear, floating over the orchestra like a voice from another world, impeccable in terms of production, the only one in the entire cast thanks to which the audience was able to marvel at the elegance of phrasing combined with a clear, deeply thought-out delivery of Hofmannsthal\u2019s text. Had it not been for Jakubiak, I would sum up the vocal side of the London performance as generally decent, but unmemorable with few exceptions. Her portrayal of Chrysotemis was a memorable experience, somewhat unfairly overshadowing the other qualities of this altogether successful staging.<\/p>\n

Pappano conducted the whole in line with Strauss\u2019 own original instruction: \u201cas if it were Mendelssohn\u201d. He resisted the temptation to go for an extremely modernist reading of the score in terms of a persistent dramatic crescendo, an overwhelming cacophony of sounds, which many conductors further emphasise with a deliberately \u201cdirty\u201d sound of the various orchestral groups. Instead of the contrast between black and white, we got myriads of shades of love and hate, revenge and chaos, doubt and hope \u2013 and with them unexpected layers of lyricism, so often disregarded by contemporary conductors and so longingly remembered by admirers of Georg Solti\u2019s legendary interpretation with Birgit Nilsson in the title role.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t get a new Nilsson, but no one dared doubt that Pappano was saying goodbye to the ROH in a style worthy of his greatest predecessors. Another circle is coming to a close. And I will soon share with you my impressions from La Monnaie, to whose glory Pappano contributed greatly before taking over the reins at the Royal Opera House; and from the English National Opera, which will soon disappear from London\u2019s musical map. Let\u2019s hope that this year I will witness the birth of new delights more often than bury irretrievably lost hopes.<\/p>\n

Translated by: Anna Kijak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soon \u2013 if I don\u2019t run out of steam \u2013 we will celebrate together the tenth anniversary of this website, and with this small jubilee various other anniversaries, both sad and happy. However, let me once again put my nose out of our backyard and point out that various eras are coming to an end … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-mangusta","4":"post-7905","6":"format-standard","7":"category-posts-in-english","8":"category-wedrowki-operowe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7909,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions\/7909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atorod.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}