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H.W. Henze, Elegy for Young Lovers: Soloists, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Conductor: Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano, Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao 29.1.2009 (JMI)

Production Teatro delle Muse d’Ancona and Teatro San Carlo de Napoli

Director: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Sets and Costumes: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Lighting: Vincenzo Raponi

Cast:

Gregor Mittenhofer: Giuseppe Altomare
Doctor Wilhelm: Roberto Abbondanza
Countess Carolina: Christa Ratzenböck
Toni: John Bellemer
Elizabeth: Talia Or
Hilda Mack: Isolde Siebert
Josef: Jon Ariño

Picture © Sandro D'Ascanio
 

The personality of Emilio Sagi, artistic director of Teatro  Arriaga,  is gaining more and more clarity and tThose who followed his work at Madrid Teatro Real, will know his predilection for the work of Hans Werner Henze. During his time as artistic director at the Teatro Real we had the opportunity to see Die Bassariden and  L' Upupa and in this, his first season in Bilbao’s Teatro Arriaga, he comes back to Henze, this time with  his Elegy for Young Lovers. It was a risky decision, since Henze is not part of the operatic tradition in Bilbao, but Sagi’s decision has proved to be the right one.

A friend of mine, a true opera lover, said to me at the end of the performance “I did enjoy it, but I do not know why”. Certainly, this is not the sort of work to excite a traditional opera aficionado. There are no arias and no melodies, but despite this it works. The opera was performed without intermission, which meant people had to remain in their seats for two hours and twenty minutes - which is longer than Act I of Gotterdämmerung and is almost the same length as Wagner’s  Holländer, when performed as originally conceived. In my opinion, this tactic worked because Elegy is a play of the highest quality, a true thriller from the fertile imagination of its authors, who have brought to the stage a series of most original and surprising characters.

If Richard Strauss was fortunate to work with Hofmannsthal (there is a reference to him in this opera), Henze was even more fortunate in his collaboration with  Wystan Auden and Chester Kallman, who for me were the true stars of this opera. Theirs was an excellent and engrossing  libretto, which was enhanced by Henze’s music. On this occasion his usual rich orchestration was reduced to a chamber orchestra of 25, among them 7 percussion players. For me this is the most interesting of the Henze operas that I have seen.

The production by Pier Luigi Pizzi  had the merit of being at the  service of the drama, as if it were a true theatre play. The sets were very simple with a cyclorama at  the back, where we could see the mountain (itself almost a protagonist in the opera), while the action took place in an open space by a hotel, near a forest. As usual, Pizzi was also responsible for the props, and in this case they were more than simply elements of atrezzo (set dressing), and for the costumes, which were very well designed to show the complex psychology of the different characters.  Pizzi’s productions are always elegant, aesthetically pleasing and  in good taste, while his stage direction can be less pleasing. On this occasion, however, it was different as his direction of the actors was remarkable, with each character clearly delineated.

This was a low budget, high quality production. Worthy of mention is the solution that Mr. Pizzi finds for showing the death of the young lovers, by simply moving a piece of white silk to symbolize the snow that buries them. Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano, a young and energetic conductor, was very good and gave an interesting musical interpretation of the score. Her belief in this music enabled her to transmit her conviction and energy to the reduced orchestra under her. For me, both conductor and chamber orchestra were surprising and very pleasant discoveries.

This is not an  opera which demands great singers, but instead requires a group of singing actors able to give  life and credibility to their different roles. On this occasion all the artists on stage were well suited to their parts.  From a vocal point of view, the light soprano Talia Or produced a good impression  as the young  Elizabeth, as did tenor John Bellemer as the young  Toni, and  Christa Ratzenböck, as Countess Carolina.

Less  interesting from the vocal point of view, but outstanding as interpreters, were Giuseppe Altomare as the Poet  and, for the most part, Isolde Siebert. Ms Siebert played  the most original character in the work, the widow Hilda Mack who has spent the last 40 years waiting for the return of her husband from the mountain,  while she kills time knitting and serves  as source of inspiration to the poet with her fantastic visions.  Roberto Abbondanza was good in the role of Doctor Wilhelm.

The Teatro Arriaga had empty seats, which isn’t unexpected for this kind of opera. Very few people left during the opera however and at the end there was a very warm reception for the artists, mainly for Maestra Ramos Triano, Mr. Pizzi and the “widow” Isolde Siebert.

José M Irurzun


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