Aribert REIMANN (b. 1936)
Lear - opera in two parts (1978)
Bo Skovhus - Lear; Katja Pieweck - Goneril; Hellen Kwon - Regan; Siobhan
Stagg - Cordelia; Erwin Leder - Fool; Lauri Vasar - Gloucester; Andrew Watts
- Edgar; Martin Homrich - Edmund; Christian Miedl - Albany; Peter Galliard -
Cornwall; Jürgen Sacher - Kent; Wilhelm Schwinghammer - King of France
Hamburg Staatsoper Chorus, Hamburg Philharmonic/Simone Young
rec. Hamburg Staatsoper, Germany 2014
Video 1080i 16:9, Audio LPCM Stereo 2.0, DTS-MA 5.1 Surround, Region
free.
Sung in German, subtitles English and German
Bonus: Making of Lear including interviews with Aribert Reimann and Simone
Young
reviewed in surround
ARTHAUS MUSIC Blu-ray 109064 [156.00 (opera) & 20.00 (bonus)]
This is the third recording of
Lear. The first and second were
made by
Deutsche Grammophon in Munich in 1978 and by
Oehms in Frankfurt in 2008. Now we have this video recording
from the first Hamburg production in 2014.
Lear was written for
Hamburg Staatsoper but was eventually premiered in Munich. This production
is a thus a sort of home-coming for Reimann as discussed by him and Simone
Young in the interesting bonus interview. Reimann's librettist Claus
Henneberg has shortened and somewhat reordered Shakespeare to suit operatic
conventions. That said there is little conventional about this dense and
extremely challenging work. As in
Medea Reimann pulls no punches and expects his
audience to concentrate almost as hard as the singers and orchestra. Added
to that the stage director Karoline Gruber has made decisions that, though
coherent, make things still harder. In marked contrast to the premiere
production in Munich with Fischer-Dieskau where the setting is much more
realistic (
a clip of
the finale is available on YouTube), this Lear appears as a modern
dictator in boots, breaches and braces à la Mussolini. The scenes are set
with various pieces of modernist paraphernalia including graffiti-covered
walls though thankfully no Perspex suitcases. Again, in a marked change to
Reimann's own instructions in the libretto, Lear's desperate
lament over Cordelia's body is here performed without a body.
Lear's family and hangers-on appear as modern, rich and immoral to a
man and woman; all except Cordelia who, as befits her part in this tragedy,
shows much compassion. Lear's collapse from easy power to
powerlessness and madness is brutally portrayed on the stage and in the
score. The Fool's role is also enhanced by directorial fiat and, says
Gruber, "Only Lear can see him - he remains invisible to the other
characters. As the protagonist's alter ego, he guides and directs
him. I consider him the personification of the inner force that drives
us." The music uses tone-rows as a 'constructional
element', according to the notes, which should alert the potential
viewer to the difficulties this score presents. Compared to
Lear,
Lulu, for example, is extremely easy listening. However the music
does work with the plot and not against it so that despite the percussive
battering it does sound coherent. There are moments of comparative
relaxation and at times great lyricism but by and large this has to be one
of the noisiest operas out there. Fortunately audio and video quality is
high and providing your sound system can cope this makes for an impressive
but exhausting operatic experience. Bo Skovhus is quite magnificent and the
rest of the cast are not far behind. Erwin Leder, the Fool, is better known
as a screen actor, he was the chief mechanic in
Das Boot for
example. Here he haunts the action wherein he is not obliged exactly to sing
but often to comment in a thin, nasal voice, sometimes speaking, sometimes
singing. The three sisters are all strongly characterized and the fact that
Regan and Goneril are very unlovable indeed, as portrayed, is a positive
benefit. There is no doubt that Reimann has added to the power of his
libretto such that the opera leaves one as drained as the original play.
This one may take no prisoners but it is worth the effort to watch.
Recommended, but not lightly.
Two notes for opera buffs: I can find no evidence that the film of the
first production of Reimann's
Lear has ever been issued
commercially but the YouTube clip referenced above, and at least one other
extract, shows there is a film. For the adventurous, Ondine have just issued
Aulis Sallinen's 2000 opera
King Lear on DVD.
Dave Billinge
