For their last opera production this season, De Munt once again called upon the help of Christophe Coppens. After his success story Foxie, the creative polymath this time took on a double bill by Béla Bartók.
Duke Bluebeard's Castle was transformed into a mysterious mirror palace. In this way, Coppens, like librettist Béla Balázs, constantly kept you guessing. "True or not… Outside or inside" thunders the speaking voice in the prologue. But what do concepts like inside and outside mean when you don't even realize where the characters are actually standing on stage. Judith wanders like a ghostly apparition through the castle, while Bluebeard remains unreachable in the central chamber. In this way, Coppens' setting also emphasizes Bartók's music. The vocal lines of the two protagonists rarely, if ever, overlap. Always searching, without really finding each other throughout the entire opera.
Those vocal lines are masterfully performed by the duo Gubisch-Jerkunica. Especially the Croatian bass amazed me enormously. He performed most of the opera sitting down and yet that didn't hinder him in any way. Fantastic how he portrayed his character from the wheelchair as a tormented, lonely soul, without falling into a crippled role. Not to mention the fantastic sound that Jerkunica produced while sitting, that was phenomenal. Admittedly, Judith's vocal lines are much more lyrical than the recitative style that Bluebeard usually relies on. Although Nora Gubisch certainly put on a beautiful performance, I might have expected just that little bit more from her (in collaboration with her husband Alain Altinoglu).
The lighting, which is incredibly important in the only Bartók opera, was a bit too much flickering to be completely convincing. It started absolutely sublime, with Judith's bright torch reflected everywhere in the mirror palace. In this way, the leading lady was immediately "the sun in the palace", a foretaste of what would come later in the music. But Coppens also departed from the traditional color pattern associated with the seven secret chambers. In itself not a problem, as he solved this originally by varying seven times instead between revolving doors, balconies, cellar holes and other door openings. Yet Coppens would have done better to break completely with the color tradition. As it stood, he remained stuck with a blood-red primordial cliché that bathed the stage in a ridiculously vermillion light.
The boundary between kitschiness and kitsch
Perhaps that bright light was just a foretaste of what was about to happen in the miraculous Mandarin. Screaming neon lights, K-pop-like prostitute costumes and a pimp in a bright red Adidas jogging suit created a gigantic contrast with the psychological fairy tale opera. The mysterious mirror castle was transformed under the bright fluorescent colors into an ordinary brothel. The shock value that comes with a production of The Miraculous Mandarin was further emphasized by a travesty role for Vincent Clavaguera-Pratx and the illusion of nudity through flesh-colored outfits for the three prostitutes. A well-considered choice by Coppens to break with the tradition of functional nudity, and thus shock more than with actually naked dancers.
Coppens mastered the pantomime humor at times brilliantly. For example, dressing the prostitutes with gigantically enlarged naked body parts was a brilliant idea. Yet the director crossed the line of the kitschily acceptable a bit too often. The completely over the top led effects shown when throwing out the young soldier and the old man were not only disgusting (you can still justify that in this context), they also diverted attention enormously from Bartók's music. Especially at these moments, with its shrill melodic lines and deafening crescendos, the music should have been given the leading role. Altinoglu let his orchestra fade a bit too much under the obtrusive décor. A pity, because in the opera the Munt orchestra had made its mark well.
Fortunately, such missteps were rare, and after the appearance of the mysterious lead character, the production once again became the hoped-for gesamtkunstwerk. The lighting effects that gave the glowing mandarin its magical character were otherworldly beautiful. Dan Mussett put on a disturbingly credible pimp alongside the dance duo Pham-Skarpalezos (who both made their debuts at De Munt) and Alain Altinoglu brought music and ballet back into balance. It was also nice how Coppens connects the two works with a little wink, though you'll have to go to Brussels yourself to see it, I come from a no-spoiler generation.
The Bartók double-bill turned out to be a convincing double success. The balance between music and stage tipped out of balance at times, and as a musicologist I'm sensitive to that. Yet I'm happy to overlook it in this glittering direction. One thing is certain, I will never walk through a mirror tent again in the same way.
- WHO: Symphony Orchestra and Choir of De Munt conducted by Alain Altinoglu with among others Nora Gubisch and Ante Jerkunica
- WHAT: Béla Bartók - Duke Bluebeard's Castle & The Miraculous Mandarin
- WHERE: De Munt, Brussels
- WHEN: Friday 8 June 2018
- PHOTO: © S. Van Rompay