Sarah Wegener - Georg Friedrich Haas Morgen und Abend © ROH 2015, photograph by Clive Barda |
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 28 2015
Star rating:
After listening to the opera, I felt as if I had spent some time inside someone else's mind, not comfortable but fascinating
We caught Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas's new opera Morgen und Abend in the final performance of its premiere run at Covent Garden (28 November 2015). Based on a novel by Jon Fosse, Morgon og Kveld, Haas's opera sets a libretto by Fosse translated into German by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel, with passages in English by Damion Searls. The cast included Christoph Pohl, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Helena Rasker, Sarah Wegener and Will Hartmann, directed by Graham Vick with designs by Richard Hudson, lighting by Giuseppe di Iorio and projections by 59 Productions. The opera was conducted by Michael Boder.
Klaus Maria Brandauer © ROH 2015, photo by Clive Barda |
Klaus Maria Brandauer is of course an actor so Olai's monologue in the first scene was a melodrama, and rather disappointingly Brandauer was amplified. Whilst Chrisoph Pohl as Olai did interact with other characters the second scene's focus was mainly on him. Jon Fosse's libretto was full of circularities and repetitions, as the characters mulled over and got used to things, both characters in a state of change. Haas's music emphasised this as he used a series of seemingly slow moving sustained chords as the fundamental basis for the opera's sound world.
Christoph Pohl, Will Hartmann - Morgen und Abend © ROH 2015, photograph by Clive Barda |
But there were longeurs too. Hass's word setting seemed to be rather stolid and anti-naturalistic which rather wearied after a time. It would be fatally easy to dismiss Haas's score as unmemorable, certainly a few people around us walked out. But for the remainder who stuck with it, the end, when if finally came, was cathartic. This is a score I would like to hear again and to ponder. Certainly, even though with a cast of just six the piece filled the auditorium and did seem built on a scale for a large opera house.
Christoph Pohl - Morgen und Abend © ROH 2015, photograph by Clive Barda |
Graham Vick's production was understated and gave the piece space. Richard Hudson's sets and costumes, and even the make-up, wee grey/beige and the bare stage had simply a few properties, a chair, a boat, bed and an umbrella which were used with telling detail. There was a revolve which went round with deceptive slowness and the boat pivoted itself as the revolve went round, before finally breaking free (a nice piece of clever stagecraft which hinted at metaphor). The English surtitles were also projected onto the rear of the stage in a manner which seemed to interpret the words as well.
I didn't love Morgen und Abend but it intrigued me. Haas writes with a confident and definite voice, and his partnership with Jon Fosse has yielded a remarkable examination of the eternal verities of birth and death. After listening to it I felt as if I had spent some time inside someone else's mind, not comfortable but fascinating.
The opera is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 next Saturday (5 December 2015) which means it will be available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days after that.
Elsewhere on this blog:
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- Capturing hearts: Ermonela Jaho as Leoncavallo's Zaza with Opera Rara - opera review
- Deft lightness: Gounod's La Colombe - Cd review
- Thomas Tallis: Chronology, Contexts, Discoveries conference at Sidney Sussex College - conference report
- Birthday treats: Roderick Williams & Florilegium at the Wigmore Hall - concert review
- Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, Spohr: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen - concert review
- Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen - CD review
- Difficult to imagine it being done better: Mozart's Il Re Pastore - CD review
- Stylistic dichotomy: Gluck's Orfeo from Laurence Equilbey & Franco Fagioli - CD review
- Jazz inspired: The Britten Sinfonia at Saffron Hall - concert review
- Astonishing: Stockhausen's In the sky I am walking - concert review
- Two seasons: Music by Oliver Davis & Vivaldi - CD review
- Still resonantes today: L'ospedale - opera review
- Comic, unnerving: Biedermann & the Arsonists - opera review
- Loquebantur: Music from the Baldwin Part Books - CD review
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