Christ Lag in Todesbanden © Richard Hubert Smith |
Viktor Ullmann’s opera Der
Kaiser von Atlantis oder die Tod-Verweigerung (The Emperor of Atlantis or
The Refusal of Death) is an astonishing work. It would be so, even if we had no
idea about the circumstances of its creation, but it was written in the
Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp. The libretto is by a fellow inmate, the poet
Peter Kien. The work was actually rehearsed in the camp, but never performed as
the Nazi’s saw the piece as a satire on Adolf Hitler (probably correctly). It
is a short work, lasting only 50 minutes, and rather tricky to programme. For
their performances of the work English Touring Opera prefixed it by a
performance of Bach’s cantata Christ Lag
in Todesbanden. Director James Conway linked the two works and this made a
satisfying musical whole because Ullmann finished his opera with a version of a
Bach chorale.
Ullmann’s orchestra uses a variety of unusual instruments
including a banjo and a saxophone and Iain Farrington had orchestrated both
Chadwick’s song cycle and the Bach cantata to use the same orchestra with (I
think) the banjo player doubling on guitar.
Towards and Unknown
Port was sung by children from St Mary’s and St Johns’ CE Primary School,
London and Hendon School. They sang from memory, and the work was staged with
the children as refugees. Chadwick’s setting tended to the simple and melodic,
but the combination of the astonishing texts written by the child poets with
the directness of the child singers deliver was profoundly affecting. No, this
wasn’t a musically perfect performance, the children were deliberately chosen
to be very varied. But this didn’t matter, it was the wonderful commitment and
power that the children invested in the words which spoke volumes. The
centrepiece of the cycle is a terrible poem where a child describes the
soldiers coming for the family and taking the adults away. Here delivered with
great simplicity, directness and intensity by a series of soloists. The performance was followed by a discussion between Anita
Lasker Wallfisch, cellist and
concentration camp survivor, and Jessica Duchen.
Ullmann’s score for The
Emperor of Atlantis is eclectic with its inclusion of a Bach chorale as
well as cabaret and dance elements. Director James Conway and designer Neil
Irish, built on this to create a horrific no man’s land with references to
concentration camps, war and circuses. The brilliance of the setting was that
it all seemed horribly familiar but strangely distorted, perhaps The Cabinet of Dr Cagliari was in there somewhere too.
They opened with a performance of Bach’s cantata Christ Lag in Todesbanden, sung by four
refugees (Katie Bray, Rupert Charlesworth, Paula Sides and Calllum Thorpe) to
the Emperor (Richard Mosley-Evans), Death (Robert Winslade-Anderson) and Harlequin
(Jeff Stewart). With Farrington’s re-orchestration the Bach sounded strangely
different and distorted, much like the setting. With its message of Life’s
ultimate victory over Death, it formed a very fitting prelude to the Emperor’s
proclamation of total war. Conway linked the two further by having
Winslade-Anderson and Stewart reacting to the various sections of the cantata
which refer to life and to death.
Screens and curtains were used to alter the playing space
and everything was done at the front of the stage, ensuring that we could hear
all the words, though there were basic text summaries projected at the side of
the stage. The Bach was sung in German with Harlequin lifting up home-made subtitles, the Ullmann in Sonja Lyndon's English version in Henning Brauel's edition.
The opera was introduced by Callum Thorpe, as the
Loudspeaker, with Katie Bray as the Drummer, Rupert Charlesworth as the Soldier
and Paula Sides as the Maiden.
Katie Bray (Drummer), Richard Mosley-Evans (Emperor), Jeff Steward (Harlequin) © Richard Hubert Smith |
Mosley-Evans was not a portrayal of Hitler, instead Conway
and Irish had gone for a previous generation and with his uniform and helmet,
Mosley-Evans evoked Kaiser Wilhelm II and Emperor Franz Josef. Stewart wasn’t a
harlequin but a clown, a very sad and elderly clown. As Death, Winslade-Anderson,
who was born on Jamaica, wore flat white make-up which evoked for me some classic
Voodoo images.
Winslade-Anderson and Stewart very much formed a double act,
reinforcing the rather grim cabaret image, with Winslade-Anderson even doing a
soft shoe shuffle. They were both wonderfully grim, easily moving from the
cabaret moments to the darker elements. The piece is very much based on the
German tradition of serious composers taking cabaret and pushing it further.
Jeff Stewart (Harlequin) and Robert Winslade-Anderson (Death) © Richard Hubert Smith |
Thorpe, as the Loudspeaker, had the responsibility for
taking multiple roles, whilst keeping the Emperor up to date with the grim
reality of the progress of the war, another moment where Conway neatly balanced
humour with darkness underneath.
Katie Bray was brilliant as the Drummer, first proclaiming
war and then attempting to lure the soldier and the maiden back to battle. The
soldier and the maiden, touchingly played by Charlesworth and Sides, were finally inclined to choose life, rather than
death.
As Death feels ignored by the Emperor, then he chooses to go
on strike, leaving the casualties to pile up as the non-dead. We never see
this, but Conway and Irish hint at things via the gothic distortion of the
visuals.
At the end, Winslade-Anderson’s Death makes a reappearance,
through the window of the Emperor’s room, a stunning use of space. He persuades
the Emperor to be the first. This was Mosley-Evans’s moment. Prior to this, the
role of the Emperor had been mainly hectoring, but now Mosley-Evans got a long
and moving farewell, touchingly sung.
Finally the four refugees reappeared, now in their
underclothes and sang Ullmann’s version of a Bach chorale with his pointed and
spicy accompaniment. Conway and Irish managed to neatly convey that the four were
about to go into the gas chamber, without ever pushing the image.
Conductor Peter Selwyn and the Aurora Orchestra, were to the point throughout the evening, ensuring that the diverse variety of styles cohered into a satisfactory whole. The Ullmann was beautifully played, with some nicely pointed moments.
With their productions aimed at economic touring, ETO often
give us interesting and acceptable versions of well known works. Sometimes they
hit pay-dirt and create something which is powerful in its own right. This is
what has happened here. There was no thought that this was a touring company,
no feeling of cutting down. Here was a brilliantly powerful and intensely
moving staging of Ullmann’s work, one which balance the serious and comic
elements. Conway and Irish evoked the idea of concentration camps but did not
push it down our throats, there was something subtle underlaying their grim
exaggerations.
I have nothing but praise for the cast, who encompassed
everything asked of them, gave us some moving Bach singing and neat soft shoe
shuffles. This is certainly a performance to go down in the annals.
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