Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk: Soloists, chorus and orchestra of Nationaltheater-Mannheim Conductor:Wolfram Koloseus. Director: Tilman Knabe. Sets Alfred Peters, costumes: Kathi Maurer, 09.07. 2006 (BM)

The German Rhein-Main area had a welcome alternative to offer during this past weekend of World Cup play-offs and the football establishment's sponsored opera gala featuring Domingo, Villazon and Netrebko in Berlin. What’s more, since September 2006 is also the centenary of Shostakovich's birth it was a refreshing change to the ubiquitous Mozart celebrations. His opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was performed on July 8^th at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, while Germany was playing for 3^rd place, and at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim on July 9^th, the night of the final game.

The work has become famous as a result not only of the notorious and musically explicit sex scene, but also of the ominous Pravda article entitled “Chaos instead of Music”, purportedly written by Stalin himself after attending a performance at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. This had a near-fatal impact on the composer’s life and career from then on, steeping him in such despair that he even contemplated suicide. Nonetheless, he was never to succumb to the same fate as his “hero” Katerina Ismailova, even when scores of colleagues spoke out against him and betrayed him. His friend Isaak Glikman remembers the following statement made by Shostakovich during the era of Stalinist cleansing: “Even if they chop off both of my hands, I shall continue to write music – I will just have to hold the pencil between my teeth.” But he never composed another opera.

The excellent production in Wiesbaden opened last year, realistically directed by Manfred Beilharz (who succeeded in particular in staging a very effective wedding scene, during which the guests all of a sudden turn into omens of death.) A clear-cut set and straightforward costumes by Bernd Holzapfel, planted the action squarely in 19^th century provincial Russia in keeping with the libretto.

Milana Butaeva in the title role was able to convince her audience right from the start, thanks to the sheer volume of her voice and very strong stage presence. Her soprano did tend to sound a bit harsh in the higher registers, but this only served to generate compassion for her character, the passionate murderess, as was Shostakovich’s intention. The composer himself was the husband of a brilliant nuclear physicist, who died tragically at a fairly young age (according to the great pianist Svjatoslav Richter, she was “the cleverest and most pleasant of his wives”) and to whom he dedicated his opera. Lady Macbeth shows that the composer had the courage to criticize the situation of women in 19^th century Russia in this work, and more significantly to denounce Stalin’s ideal of Soviet women as selfless mothers.

There were also other singers worthy of mention in the Wiesbaden cast, especially Dan Chamandy as Serge (dressed in a macho undershirt ) with his radiant tenor, as well as some outstanding voices in supporting roles: Sandra Firrincieli as Sonjetka and Tom Mehnert the Old Prisoner were also noteworthy. But the best thing about the whole evening was the theater’s colorful, vibrant chorus (rehearsed by Thomas Lang) and its orchestra, bursting with gripping tempi and rhythms and playing spectacularly under Fabrizio Ventura. Even during the most brutal scenes, the brass fanfares were never too vociferous, thus allowing the soloists to make themselves heard at all times, and the lyrical passages were emphasized to great effect with a supple string section and exquisite oboe and English horn solos, in particular during the final act.

The following evening, up and coming director Tilman Knabe’s version was on the bill in Mannheim. Admittedly, some of his ideas were ingenious – particularly the camera lens zooming in on individual scenes and lending a cinematic touch to the production – but on the whole, his vision was irritating and pretentious. It all seemed like a bit of an insult to his audience’s intelligence, since most of us are probably quite capable of recognizing the meaning of the violent and often pornophonic passages in this music, where the composer deliberately avoided sounds pleasing to the ear, even without this exaggerated number of “clues” shown on stage. Knabe is quite right when he says that none of the brutal and raw elements of this work should be glossed over; but saying that is one thing and disregarding the text is quite another. It was well-nigh impossible to feel any empathy whatever for this sex-crazed, bulimic woman in the midst of a modern-day Russian mafia environment, making this reading more than just a little offensive to women. Sadly, no cliché was too annoying to be included in this production, as became apparent when Katerina and Sergei 'did it' over the dead body of her strangled husband, which they had disposed of in a plastic bag in the cellar – no comment.

Nonetheless, this production does have two great advantages. First and foremost, a truly superb performance by Jayne Casselman in the title role. Her bronze-hued, warm soprano is exquisitely suited not only to the dramatic but also to the lyrical aspects of her part: and I would even go as far as to say that she actually demonstrates how lyrical it really is, even more so than the benchmark-setting recording by the great Vishnevskaya on EMI. Her colleague Mihail Mihaylov is also more than admirable as father-in-law Boris. 

Secondly, the opera is sung in Russian, the language for which Shostakovich once composed his music, something which is audible in almost every single phrase – with all due respect to the excellent German translation by Morgener/Schoenbohm used in Wiesbaden.

 

 

 

Bettina Mara

Pictures: © Hessisches Staatsoper and National-Theater, Mannheim


Note: Simon Morgan reviewed the Wiesbaden performance in 2005 HERE (Regional Editor)