Author: Jos Hermans
It is difficult not to compare Frankfurt's production of Le Grand Macabre with Jan Lauwers' production in Vienna, which premiered during the same period and which relied on completely different aesthetic principles. György Ligeti claimed that he preferred the English version, which emerged during the reworking for Salzburg (1996) because he felt that swearing was more civilized in English. Surely he can't have meant that seriously! I liked the German version which was performed in Vienna much better. I find The English version more matter-of-fact and less funny.
"Nothing is more absurd than reality," director Vasily Barkhatov says in the program booklet. Those who have been paying close attention over the last three years can imagine something about that. "Beware of ideologies," dramaturg Maximilian Enderle says. By this he suggests that Michel de Gelderode would have produced his "Balade du Grand Macabre" under the impression of the growing danger of National Socialism. You also read it in the press comments. But de Ghelderode was a sympathizer. He lost his job with the municipality of Schaarbeek in January 1945, when he was removed from his post through disciplinary proceedings for his behavior during the German occupation. He was accused by the municipal administration of Nazi propaganda by collaborating with Radio Brussels during the war. A year later, his situation was settled by royal decree.
Is Nekrotzar really an angel of death or a charlatan? Ligeti left it open; he even adapted the text of De Ghelderode for it. Ambiguity was his trademark. Recognizing charlatans is not a strength of our times, after decades of submission to waves of fears over global warming and feigned pandemics. "We might think of Nekrotzar as a disease that presents itself as deadly but turns out to be harmless," Valentina Carrasco remarked quite prophetically in 2009 when she directed the play for La Fura dels Baus in Brussels. In Ligeti's version, it is Nekrotzar who brings the message of the world's doom. Here, in Frankfurt, it's the media. Again very recognizable, isn't it ?
"Everything is wrong, everything is blurred, nothing is clear. This is very important because we are in a country and a place that is completely disorganized and chaotic," Ligeti said of Breughelland. Bharkatov has situated it in the United States, not a crazy thought for a Russian director. We notice it in the impressive opening image : Zinovy Margolin sketches a highway intersection with stationary and (from the orchestra pit) violently honking cars. A billboard displays advertisements and news updates about the approaching comet of doom. However, Barkhatov has not dared to include the real Nekrotzars of our time, charlatans such as Al Gore and Anthony Fauci. His Nekrotzar is an undertaker who also ventures into writing after-hours parables of doom and here takes his big chance and puts on a priestly garb. Simon Neal sings it with plenty of voice but also without a shred of self-irony. A coffin slides out of his car. The infatuated couple Amanda and Amando (originally Clitoria and Spermando) who have eyes only for the intoxication of the erotic, find their love nest there. Pete the Pot (Peter Marsh) has fled his hotel headlong in a yellow cab in briefs and bathrobe.
The second scene shifts our gaze to the trailer of Astradamors and Mescalina, a seemingly dead-normal couple who, in the face of death, venture into their first experience with drugs (mescaline, I presume). This greatly weakens the character of Mescalina, the oversexed fury and Breughelian Dulle Griet, but the game-like video projections of both their hallucinogenic trip tracks well with Ligeti's wacky music. Their infant son buries his attention in his ipad. Claire Barnett-Jones was not able to give much profile to Mescalina and the voice became very thin in the lower parts of the part. Alfred Reiter as Astradamors sounded very mechanical but the deep notes all made it through.
The third scene is the strongest. The bickering duet of the two ministers is sacrificed to the scene where they welcome guests to Prince Go Go's party, "The last party on earth." All of them are iconic figures (costumes: Olga Shaishmelashvilli) most of whom are mentioned in the libretto such as Napoleon and Dzhengis Khan. All sorts of precious details and small scenes, which made up the charm of the Viennese production, disappear in this way because of Barkhatov's choices. Kilos of white powder are snorted. An Elton John-like figure takes a seat at the central harpsichord. Once again, the Gepopo chief is the mechanical puppet whose frenzied coloratura recalls both the Queen of the Night and Ella Fitzgerald. Anna Nekhames, the strongest soloist of the evening, gives a virtuoso rendition of it. The scenic climax is achieved when the chorus shouts "our dear sovereign" twenty times and the feast degenerates into a rave party with dancing disco lights, featuring Prince Go Go (counter tenor Eric Jurenas) at the turntables as disc jockey. The interlude (Nekrotzar's entrance) surprises with the devil's quartet (violinist, bassoonist, clarinetist and flutist) as oversized cupids on stage. At the moment of the expected impact of the comet, the lights fail due to a sizzling short circuit. Ha ha ! The final image is for Nekrotzar watching the images of violent rioting on a TV screen. Those who really want it will find a doomsday scenario somewhere to send waves of fear down the spines of the people of Breughelland.
Thomas Guggeis was not able to convince me to the same extent as with his exceptionally balanced reading of Don Carlo. At times there was little detail in the orchestral sound, the car horn toccata sounded rather sloppy, the doorbells were barely audible, the high brass hurt the ears in the second scene. After intermission there was more balance in the orchestra. The interlude of the third act had an alienating charm, introduced by an understated ostinato in the double basses. Nice and controlled clusters of brass sounded in the transition to the fourth scene. The gongs to herald the end of the world coming from the auditorium also sounded very nice.