Madrid, February 5, 2024.
Since 19th century, the opera world has developed a fascination, resulting in several operas composed, with the work of William Shakespeare. In 1816, Rossini premiered his Otello, Berlioz and Wagner made their own adaptations of "Much Ado About Nothing"; at the height of the grand-opéra genre, Ambroise Thomas composed Hamlet, which for a century was performed frequently in major opera houses, Gounod and Bellini made well-known adaptations of "Romeo and Juliet," and Britten made a well-known opera of "A Midsummer's night dream". However, the most famous operatic adaptations of the Shakespeare's works are undoubtedly those composed by Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff are masterpieces which are part of the operatic main repertoire. It is known that during his long career, Verdi was interested in putting King Lear to music. Already in 1856, Antonio Somma had a libretto prepared, but at the end, Verdi was unable to do so. He argued, among other things, that the cathartic storm scene, in which a crazed Lear is in a state of physical and moral misery, frightened him. It would not be until recent decades, when there would be some operatic adaptations of this classical tragedy. The most famous of them is the one composed that Aribert Reimann, commissioned by the great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau -who had previously proposed it to Benjamin Britten, but they couldn't agree anything-, premiered in 1978 in Munich, with the famous singer in the title role.
In its slow but successful initiative to stage the most famous operas of the second half of the 20th century, the Teatro Real premieres Reimann's Lear in Spain. This was already scheduled for April 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic stopped all non-essential activity in the world. Now, this premiere has been successfully done with an accomplished stage and musical team, in a run of performances which could be considered as historical.
Calixto Bieito directs this production from the Paris Opera and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a minimalist, dark staging that matches perfectly with the work. Bieito reduces the play to the characters' conflicts, intensifying them as the score does, by demanding an enormous physical dedication from the cast. After all, the characters find themselves in a tragedy in which feelings are pushed to the limit: the Goneril's evil, Lear's despair, the fall of Cordelia and Gloucester into disgrace, or the hatred that Edmund feels for being a bastard. The only set is a room with wooden beams of a very dark color, whose shape changes throughout the play, to recreate different settings, although during most of the second act the stage is empty. Being a work that also deals with greed and the struggle for power, the first scene in which Lear distributes the throne among his daughters is very symbolic, as he does so by breaking a loaf of bread into three pieces, to each of which the sisters launch themselves like hungry dogs. The scene in which the sisters gouge Gloucester's eyes out, or when Goneril subdues her husband by whipping him with her tie is shocking. In the same way, plastic beauty makes its way in the final scene, when Cordelia, dressed in a fuchsia coat, in one of the few exceptions granted to a bright color, reconciles with her father who lies half naked, with the entire stage empty, little illuminated, with the light only focused on the characters. In the final scene we witness the death of the sisters, and finally Lear's, who sits on the edge of the stage as the light dims.
Aribert Reimann, composer and accompanying pianist, is known for his operas about great theatrical dramas, such as Lear, Medea or The House of Bernarda Alba. Active since 1958, he is one of the most recognized alive composers in Germany. Recently, at 87 years old, he received an award for his entire career. His music is atonal, but surprising for being at the same time accessible, and with references to the German traditions of his century. Reimann does not invent anything, but he exploits his abilities very well: with his recognizable operatic language, despite his vocal difficulty, he is closer to Berg and Webern, so to say to the main audience, than his famous contemporary, the extremely radical Karlheinz Stockhausen, who at that time was developing his famous heptalogy, Licht. The music fits into the darkness of the work. How could some traditional operatic lyricism fit in the storm scene or in Gloucester's suicide attempt have been resolved well, with the intention to endure its popularity in operaatic history? For this reason, it can be said that this black story without hope finds its place in Reimann's atonalistic, expressionist and avant-garde music, whose viscerality pushes the characters and their performers to the limit, making them to scream and laugh bitterly, as well as singing. The play begins a cappella, with Lear dividing his fortune. We have very striking scenes such as the duo of the sisters when they conspire against their father, or the monologues of Edmund, who is always accompanied by the trumpet. In the most tragic scenes, the music is more cutting, strident, as when the sisters gouge out Gloucester's eyes, and the interludes of the first act are sonic explosions. In the more intimate ones, it becomes more evocative, less thunderous, recreating dark environments, hence it fits with the staging, especially after the thunderous scene of Lear in the storm, which while disappearing into the forest, a dark, suggestive interlude in which the woodwind have an evocative, calm part. Another example is found in the final scenes, in which the strings, especially the cello, perform a music whose intensity is reminiscent of Wagner's Tristan. The work ends with a bleak sequence that seems infinite, a nod to Berg's Wozzeck.
Israeli maestro Asher Fisch leads the Teatro Real Orchestra, which he takes to the limit, with this thrilling orchestration that hits the listener. The orchestra passes the test, showing that when working with a maestro who makes it to sound well, the result is spectacular. The male section from Teatro Real Chorus undertakes its brief off-stage interventions in its usual competent line, in addition to sounding ominous due to this position.
The veteran Danish baritone Bo Shkovus has sung this role in many theaters, such as in Paris, Florence or Hamburg. His mature, heartbreaking and guttural voice fits very well into King Lear's shoes, who, in addition, this production makes him sing in underwear for more than half of the show. Both on a vocal and acting level Shkovus renders a powerful convincing performance.
But without a doubt the star of the night has been Ángeles Blancas, whose performance of the wicked Goneril, the eldest daughter of the king, will remain in the memory of those who have attended these performances. Blancas, who twenty years ago sang Semiramide in this stage, has shown her vocal power, with the tone of a true dramatic soprano, with a generous vocal flow, superior to the rest of the cast, and her acting performance giving goosebumps, like an imperturbable, aggressive woman, of unlimited evil, haughty even in death. Reimann turns Goneril into the operatic successor to Wagner's Ortrud or Strauss's Elektra, requiring a Wagnerian voice to undertake this role.
Another veteran, Erika Sunnegårdh, plays the no less evil Regan, with a high voice still in shape and more feminine than her terrifying sister. Susanne Elmark, who sang Berg's Lulu here in 2009, is a soprano with a pleasant, lyrical voice, her Cordelia being the only light in the midst of such darkness, showing her amazing high notes in the final duet with the father. The bastard Edmund is played by another great veteran, the excellent German spieltenor Andreas Conrad, whose powerful voice could handle the score, adapting his voice to the first monologue, with excellent high voice. Lauri Vasar has been a positive surprise as Gloucester, as in Götterdämmerung two years ago, he was an insignificant Gunther, here he becomes a voice with an excellent and noble baritonal tone, which gives the character a unique nobility in his misfortune. Countertenor Andrew Watts, whose character has to sing coloratura, takes on the extreme role of Edgar very well, constantly switching from falsetto to his natural tenor voice. The rest of the cast, which among others, includes a Bayreuth regular such as Derek Welton in the role of Albany, sing with the same devotion to this play and this production. The important character of the Fool, in this play is a spoken role, and the 84-year-old German actor Ernst Alisch, who acted in this stage in Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel two years ago, recites his part with an ironic voice, in addition to appear half-naked throughout the show.
Despite the suspicion that it might be at first, an atonal German opera, by a competent author but who on the other hand does not invent anything, the result is that we are in front of an excellent and very theatrical work, possibly one of the last great German operas, so Reimann's prestige is justified. During the performances, I remembered at times the happy times of Gerard Mortier's tenure at this theatre, when he brought us some atonal works of this style. But also like in Mortier's time, the comments against this work, arguing that programming these "minority" operas does little favor to the Teatro Real, also have appeared in comments in their social media. Although there were a few desertions in the first act, at least from the mezzanine none were seen in the second one, the atmosphere was one of intense concentration on the work, and there were generous ovations for the cast, although there was somewhat a rush to leave, since the cast still on stage for the final salute when the applause began to subside.
From several people attending this performance, the feeling is to have attended a historical performance, so... Do opera fans and opera houses only live on ABC repertoire operas?
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