Wagner Society in NSW Inc
Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, April 2006
These productions were part of the Staatsoper Festtage 2006, Daniel Barenboim's Berlin Easter Festival. The Festival ran from 8 April to 16 April and included three performances of a new Tristan , two of Parsifal first seen at the 2005 Festtage, an orchestral concert (Schönberg, Mendelssohn, Mahler) with Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin (the opera orchestra) in the Philharmonie concert hall, plus Barenboim himself giving two piano recitals in the Philharmonie, playing no less than the complete Bach, The Well Tempered Clavier books 1 and 2. A monumental intensive work effort by Barenboim. Karajan in his Salzburg Easter Festivals did not have to give recitals himself.
Tristan und Isolde - Wednesday 12th April.
The dreaded man in evening dress appeared before the prelude to announce that Katarina Dalayman, who had sung on the opening night to somewhat mixed reviews, was sick and would be replaced by Deborah Polaski, who had not had much rehearsal time. No loss here, we thought, until the actual stage movements required became apparent later. Also Michelle de Young (Brangäne) had a sore throat but would battle on anyway, plus Steurmann would have an understudy (Hanno Müller-Brachmann). Certainly no loss here. He had sung Amfortas in Parsifal
The production by theatre director Stefan Bachmann was dominated firstly by the setting, created by the world famous Swiss architecture firm of Herzog and de Meuron (Beijing 2008 Olympic stadium, Tate Modern Gallery London, Goetz Collection Munich, de Young Museum San Francisco, and the startling yet to come Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall on top of an old warehouse in the new HafenCity development).
The central feature is a thin rubber membrane across the whole back wall of the set, which is on a restricted stage, about half of the total stage height being used. All three acts take place in this structure. The clever thing, apart from the fabulous lighting effects, is a computer controlled hydraulic system which provides for finely controlled pressure changes behind the membrane, allowing all sorts of images to be created by indentations and protuberances.
The other dominating feature was an extra character, called Tristan II in the cast list and dubbed Tristan's soul by commentators. This was a silent role, played by Dominick Stein, a much smaller man than Peter Seiffert who sang a magnificent Tristan. This character did everything Tristan did, suffered, loved and died and appeared at key points in Tristan's experiences in the music drama.
Act 1
The membrane was curved in a concave manner in relation to the audience to suggest a ship's sail. We are essentially in a Night world, so it is red. Tristan and Isolde each make their first entrance walking backwards in from the side. Kurwenal (the gangly Roman Trekel) stumbles and staggers round like a dog or ape (Caliban in The Tempest came to mind). Isolde is dressed like an innocent 17 th -century better-off peasant girl (Agathe in Der Freischutz was suggested by one critic). Tristan has a heavy cloak. The potion was blood and Tristan and Isolde got it all over their mouths and Tristan II all over his clothes.
The rocking of the boat was suggested by synchronised movements of all cast members, but unfortunately Polaski got out of synch at times. I thought the curved sail sometimes alluded to the curved couch of Act 2. Mark appeared behind the membrane in shadow form at the end. All singing excellent (de Young's throat did not seem to be too bad) and orchestra in fine form. The sailors were only dimly seen behind the membrane. All the passion however was in the music, and Barenboim seemed to realize this, compensating for the frigidity on stage by a rather over passionate wild reading. You would not know it was a love story at all from watching the stage.
Act 2
With the harsh Day motif we have pale green, blue and harsh white as the dominant colour. The Tagesgesprach dialogue is conducted with Tristan and Isolde just standing side by side against nothing but flat bright blue. As the lovers sink down, the set becomes red for Night and convenient little hollows appear for the lovers to lie in. At this point Tristan II becomes 3's a crowd. When sprung in flagrante by Melot and Mark, Tristan is tied up by white straps. Mark walks behind, obviously tolerating Tristan's unfaithfulness. Melot runs Tristan through from the opposite side of the stage. Tristan II is not injured at this point. The goblet is visible on stage throughout. To have singers like René Pape as Mark and Reiner Goldberg as Melot is an absolute luxury. Pape in particular was very moving in a scene I generally find very slow.
Act 3
For this act you needed sun glasses. Stark white on white dominated 95% of it. The shepherd had angel wings. It was all about Tristan's delirious visions. The characters in his vision drifted across the stage and sometimes appeared as indentations in the membrane (Mark). Again Tristan II enters at the key moment, as the bandages are ripped off the wound. Blood spatters all over Tristan II. The goblet is on stage throughout. At the end no one actually really dies, and the apparent casualties finally help each other up. The Liebestod is sung to a colour of white chocolate, with some commentators suggesting birth trauma. After all Tristan does sing at the end of the anguish of the womb.
The interpretation follows both Ponelle at Bayreuth and Syberberg in his Parsifal film of 1982. Isolde does not die; she is the last vision of the dying Tristan. The double Parsifal of Syberberg represents the new Parsifal made wise through pity at seeing Amfortas' wound. The double Tristan is linked to the fact that we cannot observe our own final death from a bleeding wound, only our soul or another (Isolde) can.
In fact the whole is really only a dream of Tristan, like the [Götz] Friedrich Senta dream interpretation of The Flying Dutchman seen at Bayreuth in the 1980s. Wagner has often been said to have anticipated Freud and the analysis of Wagner's own dreams in the Gregor-Dellin biography are fascinating. The program book has an interesting design, an actual gaping wound in a heart (the paper cut apart) in white on white. Inside it contains several “these images may offend you' photos of dead bodies. In summary, quite an experience, but probably too dominated by the staging and too much death symbolism rather than love symbolism.
Parsifal - Sunday 9 April
The production was by the well known film director Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, Elementarleichen, Fantastic Four plus much else). The theme was relativity theory or time-space equivalence, taking as its point of departure Gurnemanz' lines in the first transformation scene “here time and space become one”. Set design Jens Kilian, video effects fettFilm (Torge Möller), lighting Franz Peter David. Much use was made of film and here perhaps one felt the influence of Schlingensief. Unlike in that notorious production, however, the effects were not allowed to distract from the performance but rather added to it. It was still Wagner's Parsifal . Even before the prelude started, the audience saw a black and white still photo of Adam and Eve (Genesis). But did time start with the creation or the big bang?
Act 1.
The prelude was accompanied by images of an ever closer approaching planet (not the earth) with various moons and I thought there was a suggestion of a Grail falling to earth. It was rather like the slow motion sequences in [the film] 2001 a Space Odyssey . The forest scenes were fairly conventional. Kundry's arrival was accompanied by a movie film suggestion of giant white galloping horses. The swan is initially convincing film but the also has the usual embarrassing bird-flu victim.
The first transformation scene was accompanied by images of the march of time, from the Pyramids, via Babylon , to World War II destruction, but the effect was somewhat diminished by the appearance of the hall of the Grail right at the start of the transformation music. The bell effects were weak.
Titurel was not in a tomb, but on a hill backstage with images of the Acropolis behind him. The Grail temple, front stage, already had collapsed columns. The knights were in Egyptian or Greek costume. The Grail communion ceremony consisted of Amfortas taking what looked like his heart out of his tunic, placing it on a large wooden butcher's chopping block, and the knights filing by, each chopping at bit off and eating it for rejuvenation (compare with Munch's painting das Herz ). All singers were excellent, especially René Pape as Gurnemanz and Hanno Müller-Brachmann as Amfortas. Kundry was sung and acted well by Michaela Schuster. Parsifal was Burkhard Fritz. Barenboim conducted at average pace (act 1- 1 hour 55 minutes). However, I thought he deliberately extended the rests, creating what seemed like very long pauses. He also gave Barbirolli-like groans in the prelude, clearly audible from row 7. The orchestra was fabulous and almost invisible. There was initially no applause, then a bit and finally total. In Germany , the tradition of silence after Act 1 seems to be waning, even at Easter performances of Parsifal (the same happened in Hamburg a week later on Easter Monday).
Act 2
Klingsor's tower was represented by just a red backdrop with Klingsor and spear at one side of the stage. The time- traveller Kundry was accompanied by devil images on film. The flower maidens wore Valkyrie style breast plates and sang very strongly. Kundry's Herzeleide narration was accompanied by movie film images of wombs, vaginas, mine pit heads and much murky lapping water. The “seduction/rejection' scene involved some minor strip tease. Kundry's past lives and her mocking of Christ were illustrated by scenes of Christ carrying his cross. The magic garden suggested in structure at least the Bayreuth 1882 original, based on the Palazzo Rufolo in Ravello. The spear throw and catch at the end was conventional, and the garden went up in flames. The wicked Klingsor was well sung by Christof Fischesser. Fritz and Schuster sustained their long central scene convincingly.
Act 3
Act 3 opened on a large Depression-era US city in winter (suspiciously like Manhattan or Chicago ). Gurnemanz sat on a park bench in the foreground. Ordinary people walked about, some wheeling babies in prams. A fire hydrant represented the spring. Much was made of the second transformation scene. A rush of movie images of world catastrophes, floods, tornadoes, bombings was followed by a trip through a time-space wormhole to finally reach a 2006 football ground with bovver boy neo-Nazi types, armed with heavy boots, steel bars and chains, representing the disintegrating knight fraternity occupying the stands. The wound healing, the redemption of Kundry, and the redemption of the Grail were accompanied by images of the new planet rising in the background. Finally, Kundry comes to sit next to Parsifal at the back of the football stand.
I believe that the new planet is meant to represent the Grail. No other Grail symbol appears at any stage throughout the work. I think what the producer was trying to get at was the time independence of Parsifal. Nineteenth century concepts of redemption can no longer have meaning for those who have been through the ghastly 20th -century. Nor can a Schopenhauerean denial of sexuality as the way to live be valid. The program notes refer to the 20th -century conflict of English materialism and German idealism and suggest that Parsifal and indeed the Ring and Tristan , (both strongly related to Parsifal ) need to be freshly interpreted as time flows by. Wagner's music is well recognized to be timeless, but it is only now that Wagner's theoretical prose work is being seriously studied, and its universal relevance is often being surprisingly demonstrated. In particular, the late work Religion and Art (1880) anticipated the replacement of religion, when it had become corrupted, by art. This was a feature of the 20 th -century, which is now being reversed.
Wagner, as well as anticipating Freud in Tristan and the Ring could even be seen to have anticipated Einstein in Parsifal . Overall, a very moving performance, dominated by Pape but well sung and beautifully played, with the visual imagery often resonating strongly.
In 2007 the Staatsoper Festtage will include no Wagner, indeed no opera. Instead the Staatskapelle Orchestra will play all the Mahler symphonies (1-9), plus the Das Lied von der Erde and the other major song cycles with orchestra, conducting shared between Barenboim and Pierre Boulez (1-12 April 2007). Great for Mahler fans.
Jim Leigh
This Page was last updated on:
22-Jul-2006
© Wagner Society in NSW Inc 2005 |