RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Lulu - Opera in three acts: completion by Friedrich Cerha
(1937/1979)
Patricia Petibon - Lulu; Tanja Ariane Baumgartner - Countess Geschwitz; Michael
Volle - Dr Schon; Thomas Piffka - Alwa; Franz Grundheber - Schigolch; Thomas
Johannes Mayer - Animal Trainer
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Marc Albrecht
rec. Salzburg Festival, Haus Für Mozart, Salzburg, Austria, 2011
Sound Format PCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround; Picture Format
16:9, 1080i; Regions 2-6: Subtitles in English, German, French, Italian and
several Asian subtitle languages**
Reviewed in surround.
EUROARTS/UNITEL CLASSICA 2072564 BLU-RAY [173:00]
This is a well produced disc with top quality sound and pictures. The menus
do suffer from music but at least the opening and closing credits are accompanied
only by audience noise. Brian Large's name on the video direction ensures
the very highest standards and he comes particularly into his own in the opening
of Act 3, of which more below. The camera-work throughout is outstanding.
The English subtitles are well synchronised to this complex and difficult
score, aiding understanding greatly.
Alban Berg did not live to complete Lulu, leaving its final act partially
scored but mostly composed. This performance is of the now well accepted completion
by Friedrich Cerha. Cerha had a fair copy of the short score to guide him,
plus the full score of 390 (out of 1326) bars of Act 3 along with sketches
and other material. What he has achieved is as full a realization of Berg's
intentions as is possible. Since Pierre Boulez and Patrice Chéreau
premiered this three Act completion in 1979 the old truncated two Act version
has dropped out of the repertoire. The present production was first given
at Salzburg in 2010 and according to the booklet essay - but not the box or
listings - this film comes from the 2011 revival.
Music of the Second Viennese School is rarely easy to listen to. Serialism's
creator Schoenberg has sometimes been labelled a great theorist rather than
a great composer, a label that makes one pause to think. His two primary followers,
Webern and Berg, took their own very different paths: Webern became the genius
of the atonal musical epigram whilst Berg followed the pointers left by Mahler
in his passionate and dramatic compositions of which his operas Wozzeck
and Lulu are the theatrical high points. Compared to Lulu, Wozzeck
is easy listening. In the unlikely event of someone buying this disc unaware
of what it contains, be warned it is strong meat for the ear as well as the
eyes. There are occasions when the intensity is almost overwhelming. Lulu's
outburst to freedom in Act 2 is one such. The Interlude between Act 1 Scenes
2 and 3 is another. Berg's music can hardly be called lyrical in the conventional
sense but it always comes across as deeply felt. Lulu's sordid life and even
more sordid death seem to matter.
The singing and acting of Patricia Petibon as Lulu is magnificent. She is
that rare creature, a singer with the face and figure of a model, who manages
to look utterly convincing as the femme fatale even when dressed in the most
alluring lingerie - as she is during much of Act 1. One does not have to wonder
why men fall under her spell and even die of it. She is matched by the superb
singing of Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as the Countess Geschwitz, Michael Volle
as Dr Schon, Thomas Piffka as Alwa and Franz Grundheber as Schigolch, not
to mention the rest of a great cast. The stage director Vera Nemirov has daringly
set almost the whole of Act 3 Scene 1 off the stage in the auditorium among
the audience, in the aisles, on the edge of orchestra pit and only finally
on the stage. Here we see the richest audience in Europe in the middle of
a scene of fraudulent share dealing and general social corruption. It is to
their credit (?) that they look only mildly shocked! This is a coup de
théâtre for Nemirova and a challenge for Brian Large's cameramen
and women. The sound and picture continue flawlessly wherever the peripatetic
cast wander. There are oddities in the staging: Berg's Filmmusik in
Act 2 plays without any film despite the clear film structure left by the
composer, but at less than 3 minutes this does not matter much; the seduction
scene at the end of Act 2 has Alwa ignoring both Lulu herself and Berg's libretto
by spending his time feverishly writing up an orchestral score. Presumably
we are supposed to see Alwa as Berg himself. Almost all of the staging and
costuming is dedicated to the service of this music. It is not necessary to
suspend one's disbelief as so often happens in current opera staging: here
one is gripped from beginning to the disturbing and bloody end.
Dave Billinge
A wonderful Lulu. Petibon is its true star in every respect. An outstanding
disc.