The Dead City - Korngold - English National Opera - 28 March 2023
Two and a half hours of hallucinatory opera written by the composer at the age of 23, kept a full house at the English National Opera in awe and surprise. The Dead City – Die tote Stadt – is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, with a libretto by his father Julius Korngold alias Paul Schott. It is based on the 1892 novel Bruges–la–Morte by Georges Rodenbach. The work of the young prodigy Korngold was so in demand that the world premiere of his first three act opera became a double premiere in Hamburg and Cologne – where Otto Klemperer conducted. The opera’s theme was overcoming the death of a loved one, a subject which resonated with audiences after the First World War and fuelled the work’s popularity. It became a great hit in the 1920’s touring the world including New York, but because of Korngold’s Jewish ancestry it was banned by the Nazi’s and had languished after the Second World War. The last few decades have seen an international revival of this work and the opera in English was first staged in March 2023 at the ENO by its Artistic Director, Annilese Miskimmon.
The story is about Paul who lives in his house in Bruges and who has not come to terms with the reality of his wife’s death some years before. He keeps a locked room – a Temple of the Past – with numerous mementos placed there in her honour. Only he and his housekeeper, Brigitta, have ever visited the room, until his friend Frank visits and is shown the locked room. The day before, Paul had met another woman, Marietta, who resembled his dead wife, Marie (it is somewhat of a shame that the two artists playing the roles of Marietta and Marie, bear no resemblance to each other in the production).
The relationship with Marietta, who is invited into his house, drives Paul into a huge state of anxiety and hallucination, and in this dream, he becomes jealous of Marietta’s visiting music and dance colleagues who he banishes from the house. Paul and Marietta spend the night together, but Marietta taunts Paul with his anxiety and he eventually strangles her in a fit of rage. This breaks Paul’s chain with Marie and the past. Marietta once more enters the room to collect her forgotten umbrella and to take her leave. The hallucinatory dream is ended, and Paul agrees to go with Frank to Bruges and leave his Temple of the Past.
A notoriously difficult opera to produce – perhaps the 2019 Munich production staged by Simon Stone with Kaufmann/Petersen being an exception – Annilese Miskimmon seems to have found an acceptable way of recognising and dealing with these difficulties. She is helped by her outstanding team; set designer Miriam Buether, lighting designer James Farncombe, Costume designer Nicky Gillibrand and movement director Imogen Knight.
Whilst the set consists of a rectangular living room, parts of the living room are mobile with the roof opening for Marie and her coffin to be lowered onto the stage and the back wall opening for the religious procession of nuns and priests. Miskimmon has form in working with nuns and priests – The Handmaid’s Tale! The majority of the opera is in the dream and imagination of Paul dealing with his relationship with his dead wife and his fantasy lover.
But is it really this production at the centre of the opera, or is it in fact, the glorious romantic luscious music that permeates the Coliseum throughout the evening? The Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits draws huge, wonderful sound from the lavish orchestral music which at times during Act II becomes overwhelmingly intense. The orchestra plays at the top of their form with a chorus that provides ample vocal support throughout the evening. The intense nature of the orchestration provides for a thrilling but, at times, overwhelming vocal output from the lead singers.
The Swiss tenor, Rolf Romei, as Paul, sings his fearsome role with dramatic interpretation despite an announcement of ill health which was probably the cause of the odd vocal misdemeanour. In the role of Marietta and the Voice of Marie is the British soprano Allison Oakes who sings her dramatic Wagnerian roles extensively in Europe and lives there as well. This is her UK debut which seems somewhat ridiculous, and the credit must go to ENO’s casting director, Michelle Williams, for bringing her ‘home’. Her career of singing large Wagnerian roles shone through in the complexities needed for the role of Marietta. The Norwegian baritone Audun Iversen was a glorious Frank, with an aristocratic virile tone and Sarah Connolly was a luxurious casting as the housekeeper, Brigitta. The rest of the cast Lauren Bridle as Marie, Hubert Francis as Graf Albert, Rhian Lois as Juliette, Clare Presland as Lucienne, William Morgan as Victorin and Innocent Masuku as Gastone were excellent in their roles.
It was a special night with plush overwhelming music, the sheer size of which was a huge surprise to many who were listening to this opera for the first time. For opera buffs this production is a must. It is no wonder that Korngold took his career to Hollywood and famously wrote the luscious scores of so many great films.
David Buchler
