Berg's Lulu Revived at the Met after an Eight-Year Absence, by Larry Wallach

Lulu


music and libretto (1935) by Alban Berg
based on two plays by Franz Wedekind: The Earth Spirit andPandora’s Box

Metropolitan Opera, May 8, 2010
directed by John Dexter
conducted by Fabio Luisi

Cast:
Lulu - Marlis Petersen
Dr. Schön - James Morris
Jack the Ripper - James Morris
Countess Geschwitz - Anne Sofie von Otter
Alwa - Gary Lehman
Schigolch - Gwynne Howell
Animal Tamer - Bradley Garvin
Acrobat - Bradley Garvin
Painter - Michael Schade
African Prince - Michael Schade

Lulu is an enigma. It is one of the greatest operas of the 20th century. Those two observations are not as unrelated as they might appear. The truth of opera is in its musically expressed emotions; the literal stories are inherently ambiguous, open scripts available to the personalities of singers and directors for interpretation. In opera, emotional conditions are their own reasons for being; causes and explanations take second place. As a result, the ‘meanings’ of operatic plots and characters can be endlessly redefined. Lulu is a particularly active site of contention, pulling into its powerful orbit many of the aesthetic, political, and social controversies that have characterized its time and our own. The emotions embodied in Berg’s extraordinary score rock us back on our heels and at the same time ask us to examine critically ourselves and our responses, ultimately our own identities. In a way that seems almost unfathomable, Berg brings together the antinomial theatrical aesthetics of Wagner and Brecht, and leaves them to fight it out once the final curtain goes down.

Read the full article on the Berkshire Review for the Arts!

Michael Miller