for a lot of personal reasons, i have been looking forward to this opera ever since i heard it would be coming to the Met for the first time this season. first, it would be my chance to see maestro esa pekka salonen make his met debut.
formerly of the l.a. phil, currently of the london phil, he's a conductor i've been crushing on for many years now. second, the opera is an adaptation by the composer, leos janacek, sans librettist, of a dostoevsky novel called "the house of the dead."
a collection of searing narratives loosely based on his time in prison, i was completely stunned when i read this novel for the first time as an undergrad - and subsequently began my comparative literature studies in russian literature. third, it's the debut of renowned opera director patrice chereau - who not only staged a bayreuth ring cycle that is now legend, but also happens to be a film director. who happens to have made a film (not a great one, but made it, nonetheless) based on a novel called "intimacy" by hanif kureishi. his short story of the same name is one of my favorites.
so from the viewpoint of a writer, a director, an opera lover, a russian lit lover, a lover of great adaptations - the talent and material coming together for this production was truly prodigious. add to that the great reviews and i was shaking in my boots as i stood in line for rush tickets and the box office told me had a single ticket left... for me. hurrah!
but...
maybe they were all having an off day yesterday?
because the here's the thing. the show i saw last night had enormous potential. it started off with a stealthy bang, in fact. maestro salonen snuck into the pit without taking applause and dove right into the prologue, not giving you a moment to think. as your eyes adjusted to the darkness and janacek's opening chords began to swell, you saw figures appearing out of the mist. men, in chains, shuffling forward, holding an eagle. and the set - giant concrete slabs hovering high over the prisoners. there was no specific time or place, but instead a perfect, minimalist evocation of prison life. period.
i swear, i was close to tears for the first fifteen minutes.
but then i heard this god-awful noise that sounded like plastic cups being crushed over and over again in someone's hand. i looked around for the culprit with my hardest eyes and found no one. i realized, a few more minutes in, that the shackles on the men were making that sound. and it was interfering with the orchestra - this terrible plastic noise! really, monsieur chereau? really??
everything was a little downhil from there. the second act lost energy - it was as if singers and musicians alike had simultaneously gotten the sleepy-weepies. the second act is no time to nap! there were some fun comedic flourishes in the play within a play - men running around in drag playing loose women for prison entertainment. but for the most part - the singing felt really low energy and the orchestra seemed to come down to meet it - it started so strong maestro salonen. what happened last night?
the design was a real highlight. the smallest touch was felt in the minimalist layout. a single, florescent light hanging over a row of rickety metal beds conjured the saddest, most perfect, prison infirmary. a handmade eagle, made to fly by the hands of the singers - an amazing touch and insight. there were beautiful, incredibly meaningful moments of staging throughout. an explosion paper materials, newspapers and the like, are DUMPED onto the stage and then meticulously picked up by the prisoners (the met chorus, who by the way were
on last night, unlike everyone else).
it was a totally inspired. in another example, at the end of the second act, a black velvet curtain explodes downward as an ending to the sequence... but it fell a few feet short of the stage, letting the lights for the set change leak through to the audience. it didn't quite has as powerful an effect as it should have. it was an apt moment for a performance that all around, fell just a little bit short.
let me be clear. the production was never, not for a minute, terrible. i recommend it to everyone, as it closes very soon. and janacek's music is transcendent. it's worth it to go just for that. "from the house of the dead" just didn't quite live up to my expectations. at least not last night.
oh, and monsieur chereau? get rid of the plastic clunkers. thanks.
one of my biggest pet peeves in theater/opera nowadays is the superfluous use of video and projection. let's throw a couple of random televisions on stage and run black and white static on them - BECAUSE WE CAN. if the production works when you take out the video, then the video hasn't been used to it's fullest capability. i really believe that.
lepage take the boat lengthwise, across the stage, and then "dumps" faust out of the boat, letting him fall into "water" 3 projections deep. beautiful. poetic. perfect.
