Alexander von ZEMLINSKY (1871-1942)
Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) Op.17 (1922)
Arnold SCHOENBERG (1874-1951)
Accompaniment to a film scene Op.34 (1930)
Alma Schindler, Adelle Eslinger-Runnicles (actor)
Alexander Zemlinsky, Evgeny Nikiforov (actor)
Donna Clara, Infanta of Spain, Elena Tsallagova (soprano)
Ghita, her attendant, Emily Magee (soprano)
Der Zwerg, David Butt Philip (tenor) and Mick Morris Mehnert (actor)
Don Estoban, the chamberlain, Philipp Jekal (baritone)
Maids, Flurina Stucki (soprano), Amber Fasquelle (mezzo-soprano), Maliu Vaahtoluoto (contralto)
Companions, So Young Park (soprano), Kristina Häger (soprano)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin/Donald Runnicles
Directed by Tobias Kratzer
rec. live, 27 & 30 March 2019, Deutsche Oper, Berlin
NAXOS Blu-ray NBD0108V [95 mins]
I will go to my grave convinced that Der Zwerg is a cast iron, Grade-A masterpiece. However, I hope that, before I meet my maker, several more people have come to agree with me.
Zemlinsky’s opera packs a tremendous punch, both dramatically and musically. Part of that is down to the literary source, Oscar Wilde’s short story The Birthday of the Infanta. Like so many of Wilde’s stories, it’s a fable of cruelty that speaks with poisonous beauty, and the libretto distils that wonderfully. Zemlinsky’s music matches it perfectly, too, though. There is a rich, creaminess to the score that seems to act as the bridge between Mahler and Strauss; full of lush fin-de-siècle chromaticism, but still creamy enough to be attractive to listeners who haven’t yet learnt to love Salome. Furthermore, it packs all of its brilliance into 85 bristling minutes. Again, a masterpiece!
So why don’t more people know it, and why do so few houses produce it? I suspect it’s principally down to its length. It falls into that awkward halfway house category – a bit like Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta – where it’s too short to comfortably sustain a whole evening, but too long to find a natural companion piece. Most of the best loved one-acters are between 50 and 65 minutes, but Der Zwerg is a bit too long to fit with any of them. The only time I’ve seen it in the theatre it was coupled with L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, which just about worked as a pair of stories about wayward children. However, I fear that, until it finds its natural partner, it might remain a rarity.
This Deutsche Oper production opts for a slightly uncomfortable halfway house, presenting the opera alongside a dramatisation of an eight-minute piece by Schoenberg which he wrote to accompany a motion picture that had yet to be filmed.
Sadly, I didn’t buy director Tobias Kratzer’s staging choices, however. There’s an argument that Zemlinsky was drawn to the story because of his rejection by Alma Schindler (who later married Mahler), making her the Infanta in the tale and Zemlinsky himself the deformed dwarf. It’s an interesting footnote in the opera’s back-story, but Kratzer nails his colours unambiguously to the mast of opera-as-autobiography, and in so doing loses much of the universality from which the piece derives its power. As the Schoenberg plays, we see two actors playing out the roles of Alma and Zemlinsky, and we see their relationship breaking down. Then, when the opera begins, the setting is a sterile white concert hall, and the Dwarf himself is a conductor. Kratzer seals the deal, with a deafening lack of subtlety, by placing a bust of Zemlinsky in the concert hall in the final scene.
Nor did I warm to the central conceit of have two artists playing the Dwarf, one actor and one singer. Admittedly, you have to do something with the part: there can be very few tenors of the dramatically required diminished stature who could do the part justice. However, the interaction between the two becomes distracting and unfocused. Kratzer seems uncertain of how to deal with his own brainwave, and I was left rather baffled by what he was trying to do. Worse, he really fluffs the appearance of the mirror, what’s meant to be the story’s denouement.
Happily, there are no complaints about the musical performances. It’s great to see British rising star David Butt Philip shining on the international stage. His tenor voice is burnished and lyrical, with just a hint of heroism, and he suits the part brilliantly. Elena Tsallagova is a brittle, heartless foil as the princess, and Emily Magee balances her as a lyrical, humane Ghita, demonstrating none of the shrillness to which she can fall prey. Philipp Jekal is a bluff chamberlain, and the orchestral play brilliantly. Donald Runnicles, so distinguished in Mahler and Strauss, brings all of his insights to the score, shaping it beautifully, and holding it up to the light as though to admire it. The BD picture quality is excellent, and the surround sound is admirably clean and clear.
Still, Der Zwerg awaits its moment in the sun, and the visuals mean I won’t be rushing back to this performance. The best way to experience the opera remains James Conlon’s audio only performance from Cologne
(review), peopled by a cast of singers who have been inspired to give of their best, and who enjoy the work as much the conductor. May this opera’s game-changing UK production come soon!
Simon Thompson
Previous review: Stephen Barber
