The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams

Compozittorre — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:55:58 GMT

ENO production of The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams.

Before anything else, I want to notice, that I am not going to say anything about political connotations of this opera. There has been said enough. Anyone, who is interested, can start reading about that following this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Klinghoffer

Just my own impressions of this particular performance by ENO (on the Wednesday, 7th of March 2012) and the music, then…

And first of all let’s speak about dynamics. My attention was fixed by co-existence of slow choruses and dynamic action scenes. Don’t get me wrong – there are some fast choruses as well. What I mean is - at times, the pace of the performance starts galloping, achieving almost the speed of an action film. To the extend, that you almost forget about music… ( How many of us, coming out of a cinema after watching an action film, realize, that there was no music. Or was there?... ) And then, the speed drops down to a meditation. Well, it was confirmed by the composer in the beginning of opera’s stage life (more than 20 years ago), that the structure was akin to those of Bach’s passions. Shall we take it as a try to marry meditation with action? I did not find it working very well together. Well, imagine a meditating yogi: he sits still for a while, then jumps and starts running around. Then slows down, sits and drifts into meditation again… No. For me it does not work.

Someone mentioned somewhere on the net, that this opera lacked drama. (???) Well, Drama in general is too broad a subject to delve into it in here, but it could make an interesting topic for an article, though. Speaking in short - plenty of drama in there, to my opinion. The main characteristic of a drama - having a death of the main character in a libretto. If there is a death – there is a drama. Regardless of the speed of a narrative. And what could be more dramatic than the passions? But when things develop too quickly, like in an action film, then opera looses its operatic qualities and becomes something else. That was what happened here. The tension… the suspense… - it is all good… when it is all balanced. If it is not – then we feel uneasy… unbalanced. Unbalanced! That’s the word I was looking for – unbalanced. It is indeed extremely difficult to achieve balance in a long piece of music. Especially, if it involves a detective element.

Back to the music! Beautiful, serene and spacious accompaniment, which is almost not an accompaniment, but a different and self sufficient score in itself. Like the vocal melodies were not belonging there. Anyway, they were so difficult to remember – I tried and failed. But, surprisingly, I still remember the accompaniments. John Adams’s accompaniment is more "melodic”, than a melody. It seems, that this is a common feature of modern vocal music based on not rhymed texts. All modern operas are alike in this respect. To my opinion - this is the weak point of a modern opera; actually, not only opera but any modern vocal non rhyming music. No memorable melodies. Really. Boring.

A "side” note: I am not implying, that you must remember melodies. Not at all. But where there is a good one – you do remember it. Regardless, of you want it, or not. That is the main characteristic of a great melody – it sticks to your mind. Cannot get rid of it…

What about "Klinghoffer”s fast bits of music? Well – they are fast. And noisy. And chaotic.
Sometimes I wonder, what is more difficult to write, really chaotic music ( you give a pencil and a score paper to a chimp and you supposedly will get some really chaotic writings as a result). Or, you carefully structure and balance the "chaos” on paper, so that it looks and is heard as chaos.

So… meditative, quiet, minimalistic (transparent?) against loud and chaotic – two polar opposites – two pillars of Adams’s "Klinghoffer”.

Another aspect of an opera, which, as an opera composer myself I am very interested in, is staging. And stage design in particular. Because, if you have a simple, but efficient and beautiful design, you can have great staging. Or is it vise versa? If you have great design – you can make great staging? But it all starts with the composer and librettist anyway. Libretto of "Klinghoffer” was by Alice Goodman. No producer can jump over the music and the libretto. (Only directors are allowed to… J)You have what you have. You have to make it work. In this case we have staging by Tom Morris and designs – by Tom Pye. And since we started talking names – the conductor was Baldur Brönnimann, the choreographer - Arthur Pita. I do not know other names. If you are so keen – they are all in there – on the net. I just wanted to share my thoughts on design. This opera’s particular design. Photo / video background is a common place these days. It works. And it is easy and quick and very simple to transport on a tour. Best solution? Maybe. Not always. Here we have it, and here it works. Also here is clever use of two mobile walls, moving around and displaying a projected graffitti, or pictures of a desert, or the walls of a cruise ship… or some documentary explanation notes (in case you did not get it from action… or from a leaflet).

Choreography. No. There is no ballet, or even a dance for that matter. But there are some unusual ( by unusual I mean unnatural ) movements on the stage. The ones you do not make every day of your life. So it is all choreographed. Efficiently. To the point. And it complements greatly the minimalistic and meditative score. In fact, I think Adams’s music could form great ballets. And symphonies. Yes, he has some orchestral music, but they are not symphonies, to my knowledge. Or are they? Unfortunately I have not heard any of it yet. They are on my wish list.

That’s about it. To say more I would need to look at the score.

So it general – good work. Solid. Not without some uncertainties, but what is?

Simon Baccanegra.

Compozittorre — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:24:18 GMT

Simon Baccanegra.

Simon Boccanegra was not my favourite opera of Verdi’s and I had not intended to see it in the foreseeable future. But something happened, which changed my mind - at one of London’s summer parties I have met Gleb Filshtinsky, a lighting designer. He and his friend Dmitri Tcherniakov were in the final days of completing the new production of the Simon Boccanegra for ENO and the premiere was only in a couple of days. So I got curious and decided to have a go. Just to see the lighting design, specifically.

I am not going to list all the makers and shakers of that particular production. I am sure you will be able to find all the names on the internet. And also I am not going into any details of the actual performances on that day. Everybody has their own taste and ideas, so I leave it at that. What I wanted to say – was the following...

During the performance (it was actually dress rehearsal) I had two surprises. The first one– the music sounded like it was written by a young composer, just beginning to write operas. It was very simple, very melodic and totally within the rules of composition and harmony of that time. Surprise indeed, considering that it was Verdi’s 21^st opera, after such giants as Nabucco (1842), Macbeth (1847), Rigoletto (1851) and La Traviata (1853). The ENO orchestra, under batton of Edward Gardner, sounded very good. A bit too loud at times, even covering the voices... but good. I can understand Edward – Verdi’s music begs to be performed loudly and proudly J Or maybe it was just my impression after listening too many modern operas with inept orchestration and chaotic music...

The second surprise was – the transfer of the action into modern day (well, not very modern-modern, but definitely into the end of 20^th century). Not the transfer itself, but the courage of the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov to actually do it. The music is very simple, the action is very ancient (pirates and stuff). All of it does not sit very well with modern surroundings. In fact, the music and the set design on the stage clashed. And lighting helped to make that clash more evident. I was disappointed. If it was to be set in a modern day, it should have been at least with some shocking details, like machine guns, mobile phones... or may be some vampires... etc. There was nothing of the sort. The set was very scarce and simple, almost like in a prison. What was shocking – it was the forced marriage of the set and the music. The performance went on regardless...

It was wrong. But, at the same time – it was right. Justified. May be there should have been some more details to make it more justified, or, at least more evident for being right... Hm-m-m...

On my way home I was still thinking about it. The music was still ringing in my ears and the images were unforgettable. The lighting certainly made it look different. What was wrong?!?!?!

And then it came to me. It was not an opera about 19^th, or even 20^th century Italy. It was about Russia around 1990 – 1995. After Perestroika. Oligarkhs were dividing the country’s assets between them. All you need to do – is to change the names, put some Russian names instead of Italian and that’s it. All drops into proper places. And the stage set – very soviet like, austere and boring...The music still clashes with the set, but at least I understand now why.

The talent of Dmitri Tcherniakov spotted the potential of the "Simon Boccanegra” and used it to convey his own ideas... to have his say... and the set and lighting design of Gleb Filshtinsky helped a lot. Congratulations! Well done!

But my-my!!! The old Verdi, the grey haired genius... in the middle of 19^th century writing an opera about Russia in 130 years time... Well, actually not only about Russia. Similar situations were, or could have been in some other places, in some other times... So now I am thinking about Simon Boccanegra as an opera-archetype, as a symbol of a situation, which could happen anywhere, anytime. I can easily imagine this opera set on some distant planet, at any time in the future, or indeed in the past... with some weird characters’ names and unbelievable stage decorations... And the music could be still Verdi’s... that old man, that grey haired genius...

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Composer Serge Noskov

The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams

Simon Baccanegra.