At the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre conductor Teodor Currentzis and director Valentina Carrasco have brought the final of three works by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte to the stage, drawing to an end this home-grown trilogy which was created by the theatre three years ago. How does it all look now, and what will the final word be, asks Yulia Bederova.
The first two operas that were brought together for the Perm Mozart — Da Ponte cycle — Cosi Fan Tutte and Le nozze di Figaro have already been to Moscow, earned their Golden Mask awards (the latter received an award only for the orchestra’s fortepianist Maxim Yemelianychev, whose performance could not go unnoticed by the jury), they are contracted for release on CD by Sony Classical (Don Giovanni will be recorded immediately after a series of premiere performances) and have earned an international reputation: Le nozze di Figaro recently won the prestigious European Echo Klassik award in the category of «Opera Recording of the Year (17th/18th century opera)». Musically all three works are united by the «Teodor Currentzis» style and the indispensable participation of the soprano Simone Kermes (in Don Giovanni she will appear on the recording, as well as Nadine Koutcher singing the part of Zerlina) — it is a sample of Currentzis’ equally authentic and individual style, musical material that has brought the MusicAeterna ensemble a full complement of early instruments for which it has not only developed a fierce passion, but great mastery as well, and has become the thing that we now know as «Perm Mozart», which is widely appreciated across the world on the classical stage as a truly remarkable phenomenon.
In terms of the stage, all three performances are very different. If for two years in a row the direction and scenography were exclusively tailored for Currentzis’ vision, offering a framework for the music through solid direction in a conventional manner, then the performance from one of the members of the radical directors group «La Fura dels Baus Argentine» — the Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco — does not only demonstrate «a woman’s touch», but changes the relationship between theatre and music and brings a more refined balance to the trilogy. There is at least some semblance of parity between the stage and the orchestra pit, so the opera cycle, it can be said, is not only an accomplished musical project, but an accomplished theatre project as well.
At the same time, down in the orchestra pit we find a recognizable Currentzisian Mozart — detailed and dynamic, with a very specific, graphic timbre profile, fast-moving tempos, accented reverberating clatters on the first beat of the bar, unexpected drops, pauses for air, then running — the melodious sound of that unique combination of old wooden instruments, natural brass and the vocal line. The hypertrophied acting in Currentzis’ Mozart looks like actors singing at the drama theatre. But what is surprising is that Currentzis’ Don Giovanni, for at least the first performance (and we know well that Mozart’s scores in the hands of Currentzis may change and be improved between performances) came across more quietly, more carefully, and, surprisingly, possibly more lyrically. The games between the timbre and the phrasing results in the opera being darker than the others, which is logical, yet this new lyrical intonation appears suddenly in an equivocal and frightful drama, which is possibly explained by Currentzis’ gentle treatment of the image of Don Giovanni. In the wonderful booklet which accompanies the performance (where can also be found academic musicological texts, extracts from important essays, a full translation of the libretto by Alekei Parin, a serious analytical text by a psychologist on the Don Juan type, a short retelling of the many film plots based on the Don Juan figure, and the rules that the various protagonists of these films lived by, including Don Giovanni himself: «Love? Shmuv! Monogamy? Shmanogamy!» or «I always raise a glass ‘to freedom’! Just to freedom. Not to love. And you may love — love one and other.»), and includes a long interview with the conductor, in which we learn the tremulous sadness that Currentzis feels for Mozart’s hero, his elusive freedom and his great love: «The most important thing about infatuation is that it proves your existence. When somebody is in love with you, you know, ‘He sees me, therefore I exist».
Meanwhile in Valentina Carrasco’s setting there is not so much love as a struggle between life and death, rules and freedoms. During the finale we see on the stage the grim victory of the living dead and plastic statues (it’s amazing how people clad in a range of orthopaedic devices can so easily engage and sing at the same time as unfastening and buckling their bandages and corsets). But the performance proclaims the victory of freedom and life. And if in the finale of the first act, where a masquerade and Mozartian masks appear in a society of free people of the most diverse types, all orientating towards the music sung by the choir «Viva la Liberta», its finale brings a crushing of non-normative citizens by mannequins armed with crutches, yet after the performance all the participants and stage directors take their bows under a huge banner with the words «Viva la Liberta» spread across the stage. The entire theatre stands — there is no need to describe the ovation — everyone understands what it is all about, even the slogan, as big and bold as it is, is not political, but rather social, artistic and emotional.
Carrasco’s production contains a simple idea (that freedom is better than bondage and that death is final), simple visual metaphors (people in orthopaedic devices — representatives of the norm, half-dead mannequins), eye-catching bright stage positioning, much scathing, easy wit (buffoonery that does not induce nausea, a rare thing and of great value to the opera theatre), and this dramaturgical design fits well on the Mozart — Currentzis score, damaging nothing in its wake. The crowds of people and mannequins on the stage do an excellent job appearing in the tangled walls, in various costumes, as they make sudden appearances and clever disappearances. And the outlines of the scenographic doll factory allow the characters to be more gentle within the scene — not alone with the aria and musical ensemble. Besides, the hell that Don Giovanni is sent to at the end is not only tangible but also genuinely sinister: the transformation of a living person into a doll (who then has its hands and feet torn off) — is a story that is filled with both cinematic richness and traditional horror.
The stage language of Don Giovanni is both verbose and sensuous, and Currentzis’ musical language is also lush, richly detailed and passionate. In addition to the successful parallelism in this advantageous production there are more discoveries made. Not only the episode between Zerlina and Leporello from the moralistic Viennese version, which has never been seen on the stage in Russia. It is also about singers and actors, Currentzis’ «finds», who might be lacking in technique, but can realise his tendency towards exquisite gem-cutting, resulting in a bright and elegant style — led by the Permian soprano Nadezhda Pavlova — a wonderful Donna Anna. In her company is the dramatically expressive Natalia Kirillova — Elvira, terribly touching in her misfortune; Boris Rudak (previously a participant in the Bolshoi Theatre youth programme, and now working with the Perm theatre) in the tremulously sung and brilliantly played part of Don Ottavio (here he is a rejected youth rather than the traditional Mr. Dull persona), Fanie Antonelou (her Zerlina is a seductive and aggressive maiden with a dark drawling soprano voice — it will be very interesting to see how Nadine Koutcher performs the part — maybe it will be even more beautiful), Yuri Kissin — a careful Masetto, Mika Kares — a lyrically beautiful Il Commendatore, Guido Loconsolo is an impressive Leporello and Simone Alberghini is simply Don Giovanni in all his lively charm and vocal freedom. That said, the second artistic line-up is made up no less fastidiously. Is this not the perfect cast, when the guest stars, both European and home-grown troupe members form a perfect ensemble? When the performance is such a special, unique product both locally and internationally — this is truly valuable. And when the regional premiere is an important international event of real importance. This is normal practice on the world stage. It would be a real shame for the Russian theatre to disappear from the scaffolding of international classical music, just after having been properly presented, and it would be equally sad to lose the meaningful dialogue with your own local audience.
The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre has scheduled performances of The Tales of Hoffman, Prince Igor and The Shostakovich Project for the new theatre season. But if the funding cuts to the theatre that have been announced by the Ministry of Culture are implemented on the 1st January to reduce funding to just one opera, one ballet and one children’s production a year, then the current plans for the theatre in this and in later seasons will not be realized. The Russian theatre is at risk of becoming trapped in an orthopaedic corset due to underfunding and the state plan for its repertoire. Having already started to play the role of the dummy, and unable to wait patiently for these unfathomable events to unfold, which contain an artistic message for any audience in any circumstance, which are not produced by fluke but with consistent regularity. It would be a hell where hands and feet are torn off — and not just for the Perm Opera — it’s unlikely that others will get away without crutches.