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Alban Berg, Lulu:  New production directed by Peter Stein (co-production with La Scala and the Vienna Festival).  Soloists and orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, Kazushi Ono conductor. Lyon, France. 2. 5.2009 (MM)

Laura Aiken as Lulu

The twentieth century was obsessed by sex -  at least as evidenced by three operas seen last week, Le Chateau de Barbe-Bleue and Hindemith's Sancta Susanna in Montpellier, and now Lulu in Lyon.  All three are in the shadow of the Salome (1907), the first of the recent century’s erotic operas.  This Strauss opera is of biblical subject, its horrifying specifics well within the expressive means of a hyper post-Romanticism.  Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle (1911-1917) on the other hand moves in archetypical and mythical spheres with the consequent obfuscation of precise sexual meanings, exploiting to the fullest a rich and complex, late-Romantic musical language.

Hindemith's Sancta Susanna (1922) is from this composer's so-called radical early period.  It is a tawdry tale (a young nun detaches Jesus' loin cloth and disrobes herself in the presence of her horrified convent sisters).   However Hindemith's prim modernized and still tonal musical language does not come close to breathing life and meaning into this silly sensationalism (Hindemith later withdrew this work from his oeuvre).

But Alban Berg's Lulu (1929-1935) takes an equally tawdry tale through the paces of an advanced twentieth century language and makes something of it.  Like Bluebeard's Castle and Sancta Susanna, Lulu is a process rather than a drama.  Lulu is the epicenter of a series of bourgeois sex scandals.  Her fatal attractiveness is the true perpetrator when, eviscerated by Jack-the-Ripper, she becomes the final victim of her sexual allure;  but not before seven or so other corpses have hit the floor.  As in Wozzeck,  Berg imposed a solid form for Lulu, here a mirror structure (the first half is replayed exactly backwards as the second half) within which his actors communicate in individual twelve tone rows.

Laura Aiken as Lulu  and Stephen West as Dr. Schön

Unlikely as it might seem, the contrived dramatic and musical complexity of Lulu, its absolute lack of charm, and its ludicrous story seem to fascinate rather than irritate audiences.  Such was the case at the May 2nf performance in Lyon when at the bitter end (four plus hours) the audience roared its appreciation. 

Lulu was American soprano Laura Aiken, a veteran of Lulu productions in Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris.  As an operatic femme fatale (which ladies are truly deadly) Mme. Aiken recently embodied the Lulu-like Manon in Hans Werner Henze's Boulevard Solitude in Barcelona as well.  Though no longer a young Lulu, she is a vocally resplendent and very musical one, still capable of the role's considerable physical demands.  Unfortunately she was at the disadvantage of costumes that were sometimes ugly and other times ridiculous.  And finally the musical brilliance of Mme. Aiken was at odds with Lulu’s mindless carnality; this conflict the daunting challenge of the role.

Dr. Schön was American bass baritone Stephen West, another veteran of Lulu productions (this same role in Berlin, Paris and Salzburg).  Mr. West succeeded in creating a Dr. Schön of sufficient size to tower over all the other lovers as Lulu's first, and as Jack-the-Ripper, her final lover.  Mr. West accomplished this with an almost buffo acting technique (though he is not a basso buffo, preferring the imposing dramatic repertory) and  while this  worked well to bloat physical size, it did not give Schön the stature of character or the basic intelligence needed to embody the bourgeois social stratum that Lulu fascinates and which Berg abhors.

Among Lulu's other victims, the Countess Geschwitz of Hedwig Fassbender stands out as Cadillac casting, though her two line ‘Liebestod’ to Lulu was far removed from the splendid Liebestod of her Montpellier Isolde.  To a man,  Lulu's male victims were convincing, their performances smartly delivered  -  especially striking were the Alwa of tenor Thomas Piffka and the trapeze artist of baritone Paul Gay.   Effective as well were the Artist of Roman Sadnik and the Schigolch of Franz Mazura.  Perhaps the one slightly sympathetic role is that of the young student, richly drawn vocally and histrionically by Magdalena Anna Hofmann.

The metteur en scène was Peter Stein. He situated the action between realism, caricature and cartoon.  Maybe the ridiculously dressed Lulu in Dr. Schön's drawing room was meant to resemble a clown, and the sets for this scene to be a caricature of Bauhaus architecture and interior decoration.  But these ugly, sleek images were at visual odds with Berg's quite beautiful musical process.  On the other hand,  the red drenched color of the otherwise bare cartoon space of Lulu's Paris apartment was right-on, and Mr. Stein's staging of this magnificent ensemble scene where the sexual tensions were transformed into financial tensions was elegant in its complexity, just like Berg's music.  Smaller scenes were caricatures of realism, though in more effective moments,  the staging movements hinted at serial resolutions (actors may possibly have been driven into stage spaces by process rather than by mere dramatic motivation -  perhaps this is too much to have hoped for).

The conductor was the Opéra de Lyon's music director, Kazushi Ono who boasts many credits for conducting difficult twentieth century music.  Musically this evening did not catch fire, with the exception of the big third act ensemble.  This was probably not Maestro Ono's fault (though one cannot be sure) but rather the failure of Mr. Stein's production to create a poetic world or an appropriate tone for his Lulu that would enhance Berg's score. Make no mistake though, Mr. Stein is a smart director so  perhaps we can lay some blame for this rather more irritating than fascinating evening onto Berg and his zeitgeist.

Michael Milenski 

Pictures © Bertrand Stofleth

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