Christian Gerhacher never left the stage.
Like the main character in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, he could be. but, Simon McBurney’s cruel and pathetic work At the Aix-en-Provence music festival in France, Gerhaher was exposed from the beginning. He undergoes a tragic transformation from hapless soldier to devastated murderer during the opera’s 90 minutes. As Wozzeck puts it, another. “
This opera was painful to watch, as it should be. The baritone Gelhacher is a reigning song-singer with a scholarly attention to text and a chameleon-like ability to bring richly conceived characters to life, even for just a few minutes. This astonishing skill, under the control of operatic scale and McBurney’s strict, unflattering staging, marks the culmination of Gelhacher’s long and already acclaimed career.
With Simon Rattle leading the virtually invincible London Symphony Orchestra in the pit, “Wozzeck” is one of the miracles of opera, a harmonious fusion of singing, playing and conducting at an astonishing level. rice field.the best presentation This year’s X Festivalfor the 75th time.
It’s understandable and a bit disappointing that the festival’s apparent success was also the most traditional of its kind. McBurney’s Wozzeck could have been performed in any major opera house. But this kind of show isn’t the only thing that makes Aix a summer music destination.
No, its charm lies also in its departure from tradition. Without them, Aix would be another Salzburg rather than Europe’s most interesting opera festival. However, at this point in Pierre Audi’s tenure as artistic director, the word ‘opera’ is too restrictive for the label, and deals with a list of films and music from the past week. Also included are plays, concerts, and operas, including two of his new productions, each with very different characteristics.
Many summer festivals go beyond the usual concert halls and theaters and exist primarily for the enjoyment of music production. That’s part of the Aix ethos, but aside from a dress code that incorporates an abundance of rosé and relaxed linens, Aix is different at every turn: “What else can I do here?” It looks like you are asking.
Big changes happen every year. Not all were successful artistically (or for the audience) in this edition. Some of the things I saw were reckless and some were aggressive. But it was all worth discussing.
Even at the lowest point there were provocations, “Ballet Russes” Concert triple building of Stravinsky’s Ballets Russes music “Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring”, accompanied by three films, in a cavernous stadium in the hills south of Aix・Screened at De Vitrole. Pitt had, so to speak, the Orchester de Paris under the direction of music director Klaus Makella.
These movies were unique. Rebecca Zlotovski’s re-editing of his 2016 film Planetarium for Firebird. A fashion advertisement for ‘Petrushka’ by Bertrand Mandico that expands on questionable sex politics. And Evangelia Cranioti’s interpretation of “Rite,” which includes indigenous Brazilian imagery, queer homeless youth drug use, and bloody violence against transgender people, renders the savagery of the music so literal and evil. I treated it as a hobby.
Describing a heated moment in Stravinsky’s career, these ballets have such rich scores and flesh that I found myself shifting from the screen to the orchestra. But that turned out to be a problem too. Makella’s objective approach has yielded little success, but when it comes to leading players like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which debuted last December, and , the purpose of this festival is the Orchester de Paris.
What Makela draws from the Parisians is cleaner and more definitive than the “Firebird” and “Rite” he recorded earlier this year. But it was undermined, for example, by the deranged hell dance and the overly hesitant bassoon solo at the beginning of “Rite.” Struggling to clearly define an episodic style, “Petrushka” flattened layers of unsettling counterpoint as if honed in one fell swoop.
Dmitry Chernyakov’s direction was also uneven, but fairly consistent. “Cosi fan tutte” The festival’s annual Mozart piece is performed at the outdoor Alschweche Theater. Chernyakov’s treatment of the opera is Ingmar Bergman’s Cozy and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? replaced by the lovers of
Mozart’s score of bright, agile vocal writing is not easy for the aging singer, so Chernyakov’s concept necessarily took precedence over the music itself. But the cast bravely dealt with it. In particular, soprano singer Agneta Eichenholz, who played the role of Fiordilisi, sang a punitively long “Per Pieta” as it suddenly started to rain. But the shortcomings of the singers’ voices were also unfairly exposed, and they were rendered unreliable by the inconsistent baton of Thomas Hengelbrock, who leads the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra.
Most reassuring was the soprano singer Nicole Chevalier, who played Despina, married to Don Alfonso. Together they run resorts and couples’ retreats and derive pleasure from manipulating the sex lives of others. Chernyakov seemed to be heading towards the end of a new sexual desire. However, the finale turned violent and unjustified misconduct, turning the set’s luxury resort into a shocking snuff film scene.
Berlin’s Schaubuhne director Thomas Ostermeyer had more control over his directing, including works by Kurt Weil, Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann. “Threepenny Opera” A new French translation with refreshing corrections by Alexandre Patou. Musically, he energetically conducts his own ensemble “Le Balcon” in the Alceveche pit, as well as a new insert piece “Pauv Madame Peachum” written in the late 1930s for the French Revival. It featured a slightly altered orchestration by Maxime Pascal who did the same.
But Ostermeyer had so much control over the content, treating the text in line with the book, that it seemed polite. Presented by the Comédie-Française troupe, “Threepenny” was, in spite of its grit and modern appearance, traditional in the end. A director must know exactly what to convey with the film. Everything else, like here, is bound by the slogan of the recitation.
A more valuable portrait of Weyl could be found in the courtyard of the Hôtel Manier d’Oppede. There, pianist Kirill Gerstein, artist-in-residence of the festival, performed pieces by Weil and Hans Eisler, along with composer, conductor and arguably composer HK Gruber. The greatest living interpreter of this style. Their “Three Penny” selection in particular shows the best way to balance the song’s infectious melody and bitter text. Gerstein dances and plays nimblely, while Gruber grunts like a half-Sprechstimmer, wickedly rolling R’s on phrases like “beefsteak tartare.”
Aix’s opening week concert proved to be as satisfying as any stage production. For example, Gerstein and members of the Berliner Philharmoniker performed a chamber arrangement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, and the rarely seen pantomime “Ein Lichtstral” by Zemlinsky in a delightful mounting. . And at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory, soprano singer Asmik Grigorian joined pianist Lucas Genesis in a characteristically powerful, dramatic and well-thought-out recital of works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.
And then there was “Wozek”. Gelhacher wasn’t the only winner. Just appointing one of her colleagues, the soprano singer Malin Bystrom, for the role of Marie exudes her desperation and sympathy. And Rattle propels the score with transparent detail, shattering Mahler’s pathos and grandeur in the final instrumental interlude.
At that moment, I was reminded of the work of artist William Kentridge’s “Wozzeck”. The work has recently been performed at major French opera houses, the Paris Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in the United States. At the climax of the orchestra, Kentridge packs the stage with towering, overt and distracting images of war that exaggerate its effect.
At the Grand Théâtre de Provence, McBurney simply pulled the bare walls of the set closer together to create a shallow spare stage, letting the music speak for itself while spotlighting Wozzeck and Marie’s newly orphaned child. It was one of many unforgettable images of him on the show.
Elsewhere, McBurney’s rendition could easily be taken for granted without close scrutiny. Cleanly minimal, yet technically sophisticated, it is directed by choreographer Leah Hausmann. She moves large groups of performers so smoothly that she can conjure up a bar scene or erase it with magical brevity. .
I saw ‘Wozzeck’ for the last time in my week in Aix, and I’m glad the schedule worked out. The experiment had its fair share of value, but McBurney’s staging was proof of the opera’s indestructible ability to move, shatter, and shock on its own. Thankfully, the festival has room for both.
