Los Angeles Opera has hitched its wagon to Barrie Kosky, the ultra-creative Australian director (and intendant of the Komische Oper, Berlin) who caused a sensation last season with his eye-popping production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” that presented the opera as a dazzlingly original combination of a vaudeville show and a silent movie.
Kosky’s second offering is a seemingly mismatched double bill of Henry Purcell’s baroque opera masterpiece “Dido and Aeneas” (composed in 1689) and Bella Bartok’s 1918 psycho-sexual thriller “Bluebeard’s Castle.” The pairing was not my idea,” Kosky admitted at a pre-performance news event. But he certainly embraced it.
The result is a dazzling collision of styles and dramatic impulses that push the boundaries of the operatic envelope in a manner that makes for great opera theater. And in these two productions, Kosky creates indelible stage pictures that reference such masters as Ariane Mnouchkine of Le Théâtre du Soleil, and the most dynamic choreographer of the late 20th century, Pina Bausch.
To give you an idea of how much time separates these two operas, the year “Dido and Aeneas” had its premiere at Mr. Josias Priest’s Boarding School for Girls in Chelsea, the British parliament confirmed the abdication of James II and Peter the Great became Czar of Russia. In contrast, the year that “Bluebeard’s Castle” saw its premiere in Budapest, Hungary, the carnage of World War I finally came to an end.
What do they have in common? They are both tales of fatal attraction.
In “Dido and Aeneas” (drawn from Virgil’s “Aeneid”), Dido, the Queen of Carthage, finds a newly arrived voyager on the shores of her kingdom — none other than the recently defeated Trojan, Aeneas. He is temporarily homeless, but his fate is to travel in order to found the Roman Empire, leaving poor Queen Dido in his wake.
The opera (in verse) juxtaposes the ecstasy of young love and the pain of a broken heart with the comedic elements of a masque — a form of amateur dramatic entertainment, popular among the nobility in 16th and 17th-century England, consisting of dancing and acting performed by masked players.
The action in L.A. Opera’s production (following performances in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt) features a linear white (almost two-dimensional) set designed by Katrine Lea Tag consisting of a crenulated wall and a single bench that runs the entire length of the stage. Tag also designed the production’s wild costumes.
Within this limited playing space, Kosky creates a mad world that is part Purcell, part Fellini, including a trio of gender-bending countertenor witches led in the campiest of styles by Operalia winner John Holiday.
There are several times when Kosky pushes the envelope right to the breaking point, but just when you’re ready to throw up your hands, the mood turns serious, propelled by the impassioned performance of Irish soprano Paula Murrihy as Dido and the robustly masculine presence of baritone Liam Bonner as Aeneas.
The music is performed on period instruments in a raised pit where the conductor (Steven Sloane) and the musicians are often visited by the cast.
Murrihy (who has appeared in all three previous productions) is remarkable, the embodiment of love turned to pain and ultimately death. Her final lament (as directed by Kosky) provides one of the most heartrending scenes you will ever see. It is a brilliant theatrical coup, the secrets of which I shall not reveal here. I will, however, hint that Kosky allows his singers to make emotionally motivated gasps, moans and cries that go beyond the printed score.
In “Bluebeard’s Castle,” flatness gives way to vastness. The entire stage area is comprised of a slowly rotating white circular platform surrounded by total black. Costumed in contemporary dress (in tones of black and grey), Bluebeard (Robert Hayward) and his would-be wife Judith (Claudia Mahnke) appear locked in an awkward embrace.
The orchestra (now at full strength) takes on a shadowy portentous quality in the low strings as Bartok’s dance of death begins (as one patron pointed out, just in time for Halloween).
We discover that Judith has left her family to follow the man she has fallen madly in love with, swearing to do anything to bring light into the shadowy fortress of his castle and break down the barriers to his heart.
And secrets he has, hidden behind a series of seven locked doors, here represented as seven chambers of Bluebeard’s clearly disturbed psyche.
He tries to dissuade her, how seriously is debatable. But she is determined to break down all the barriers. And one by one, each represented by a different orchestral setting, they do come down.
The action (reminiscent of the stylized dance dramas of Pina Bausch) is choreographed in a vocabulary of telling gestures and intense interactions. The hidden chambers: the armory, the treasure room, the vistas of Bluebeard’s kingdom, a lake of tears, and the secret garden are each distilled down to a point where their simplicity speaks volumes.
“Dido and Aeneas” and “Bluebeard’s Castle” represent the beginning of what L.A. Opera plans to be a long-term relationship with Barrie Kosky. Get on board now. It’s going to be a memorable ride.
Jim Farber is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
