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| Bluebeard (Guido Jentjens) and Judith (Alelheid Fink) Photos: Thomas Brenner |
Bluebeard’s
Castle
Bluebeard
– Guido Jentjens
Judith
– Adelheid Fink
Der
Zwerg
Dwarf
– Heiko Börner
Donna
Clara – Jihyun Cecilia Lee
Ghita
– Arlette Meißner
Don
Estoban – Alexis Wagner
Maids
– Naomi Schäfer, Andrea Zabold, Christina-Mirl Rehm
Girls – Neung Mi Lee,
Seung Min Baek
Infantin’s playmates
– Women of the Chorus & Extra Chorus
Das Orchester des
Pfaltztheaters
Conductor – Uwe
Sandner
Director – Urs
Häberli
Sets – Thomas Dörfler
Costumes – Ursula
Beutler
Lighting – Manfred
Wilking
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| The dwarf (Heino Börner), Clara (Jihyun Cecilia Lee) and Don Estoban (Alexis Wagner) |
Double bills often work
best when some thought has gone into the pairing. Zemlinsky’s Der
Zwerg (The Dwarf) is often twinned with the composer’s other
Oscar Wilde opera, A Florentine Tragedy, and last years
production in Lübeck (see here) made a good case for linking the two
completely different stories. Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle
makes an interesting coupling for Der Zwerg. There are
parallels between the two composers, born a decade apart and both
finding refuge from the Third Reich in the USA but dying within a few
of years of emigrating. Both operas are based on what might broadly
be termed ‘fairy tales’, though definitely from the darker end of
the spectrum. Both also involve themes about revelation and
self-revelation: Bluebeard’s innermost secrets are progressively
revealed through the seven doors of his castle; the dwarf finally
discovers the truth about his ugly appearance and dies from the pain.
And both Bluebeard and the dwarf seek love but are betrayed by,
respectively, self-deception and thoughtless leading-on.
Urs
Häberli has made no attempt to link the two operas in his staging,
and they inhabit visual worlds as different as their musical ones.
Bluebeard’s castle is a split-level wall in shades of blue-grey, in
which six of the seven doors are incorporated into the Mondriaan-like
squares and rectangles (the other, for the lake of tears, is in the
mezzanine floor). In fact I think this must be the first production
I’ve seen which actually has physical doors, as opposed to other
analogies for the openings on Bluebeard’s mind and realms, though
the ‘contents’ are left to the imagination with changing colours
of lighting. The interaction of the two characters is naturalistic
and well directed, and there is a parallel in the baring of
Bluebeard’s soul in the way he gradually removes garments – coat,
gloves, jacket, waistcoat – as his secrets are uncovered; the fate
of Judith, on the other hand, is to end up veiled and covered up
along with the former wives. There was a sense that Adelheid Fink’s
Judith was going through the motions for this last performance in a
three-month run, and her slightly squally singing (the opera was
given in the standard German translation by Wilhelm Ziegler) and
unengaged acting detracted from the overall performance. Guido
Jentjens’s Bluebeard, though, was richly sung and his fine acting
projected much of the character’s pain and disappointment.
The Dwarf was a
visual treat, with Ursula Beutler’s costumes giving a whimsical and
contemporary twist to Renaissance Spanish court wear, with its
extravagant wigs and ruffs. The brightness and lightness of touch of
the direction only highlighted the ultimate tragedy, where the dwarf
the Infanta, Donna Clara, has been given for her birthday is
ultimately forgotten as another broken toy just at the moment his own
self-revelation kills him. Heiko Börner, who had sung Peter Grimes
in Krefeld only four days earlier (reviewed here), gave a gripping
performance of the title role – touching, searing and lyrical in
equal measure (and a better fit to his tenor than Grimes had been).
Jihyun Cecilia Lee caught the Infanta’s childishness that drives
the drama with singing that was bell-like in its clarity yet never
sounded precious. The rest of the cast was just as convincing. But
most impressive of all was the playing of the Pfalztheater’s
orchestra under Uwe Sandner – quite simply the most texturally
detailed, beautifully shaped and masterly performance of Zemlinsky’s
irridescent score I’ve heard in the theatre.
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