Germany Langgaard, Antikrist: Soloists, Refrain, Opera-Ballet, and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin / Hermann Bäumer (conductor). Deutsche Oper, Berlin, 13.1.2024. (MB)

Manufacturing:
Director, Set designs – Ersan Mondtag
Revival director – Silke Sense
Costumes – Ersan Mondtag, Annika Lu Hermann
Lighting – Rainer Casper
Choreography – Rob Fordeyn
Dramaturgy – Lara Gebhardt, Carolin Müller-Dohle
Refrain director – Jeremy Bines

Solid:
Lucifer, A Voice – Thomas Lehman
God’s Voice – Jonas Grundner-Culemann
The Echo of the Air of Thriller – Valeriia Savinskaia
The Air of Thriller – Irene Roberts
The Mouth talking Nice Phrases – Clemens Bieber
Despondency – Maire Therese Carmack
The Nice Whore – Flurina Stucki
The Scarlet Beast – AJ Glueckert
The Lie – Kieran Carrel
Hatred – Philipp Jekal
Dancers – Ashley Wright, Giorgia Bovo, Ana Dordevic, Sakura Inoue, Vasna Felicia Aguilar, Yuri Shimaoka, Joel Donald Small, Shih-Ping Lin, György Jellinek, Miguel Angel Collado

Rued Langgaard’s ‘church opera’ Antikrist is a wierd beast. The opera’s first staging was in 1999 at Innsbruck. This, its fourth ever, was on account of premiere in 2020, however was delayed for 2 years on account of the pandemic. I used to be relatively stunned to see a revival in any respect, not to mention a revival with nearly no empty seats and an viewers so warmly enthusiastic. Limiting this season’s appearances to 2, of which this was the primary, appears to have been a canny transfer. I want I may have shared the viewers’s enthusiasm; as an alternative, the work left me bewildered, though the performances appeared glorious.

There are arguments for and towards doing one’s homework earlier than experiencing a musical work for the primary time. On this event, I didn’t, desirous to be stunned and to method what I heard with as few preconceptions as I may. Shocked I definitely was, above all by an opera seemingly with out plot, by a remedy of the apocalypse in some way devoid of dramatic curiosity. What we heard on the Deutsche Oper – and what, it appears, is at all times heard – is a revised model, from 1926-30. I’m tempted to say goodness is aware of what the unique (1921-3) was like, given (from what I learn) the libretto was fully rewritten and but nonetheless emerged nearly comically unsuited to music, not to mention drama, not to mention each; but plainly the primary model might have had just a little extra by way of plot. At any fee, Langgaard’s personal libretto was the figuring out issue each occasions within the Royal Danish Theatre’s rejection of the work, and it might be troublesome, except one have been a Langgaard cultist (maybe there are such folks), to argue towards that verdict. Not, I hasten so as to add, that the rating proved particularly convincing.

What we now have, right here given in a German translation by Inger and Walther Methlagl, quantities to little greater than quite a lot of largely unidentified figures – I established that one was the Whore of Babylon and one the Antichrist, and suspected one may be Lucifer, however past that was misplaced – denouncing the misplaced state of the fashionable world till an nearly literal deus ex machina places issues proper. It was by no means clear to me, although this appears to have been the fault of my slowness, from what standpoint this was being offered. A part of me hoped a Nietzschean flip may be taken, nevertheless it appears finally that Langgaard – I assume his ‘voice’ was offered right here as God’s – discovered throughout him filth and depravity and wished to inform us so at nice size (simply over ninety minutes, nevertheless it felt longer). It was as if the ranting of a deranged avenue preacher have been much less remodeled than transformed, modifying stored to the naked minimal, right into a libretto that in some way should then be set to music. It takes all types, I suppose, and there’s no intrinsic cause why a reactionary message, maybe particularly one so weird as this, mustn’t show fodder for drama; the issue is extra that it doesn’t. Maybe some discover a ‘rejection’ not solely of plot, not solely of characterisation, but additionally of drama itself. Once more, there isn’t a cause opera shouldn’t be postdramatic; a lot of it’s and has been, even avant la lettre. What Langgaard presents, although, appears extra incompetent than a optimistic alternative or an aesthetic.

Would possibly the ‘opera’ have been higher off as an oratorio? Maybe, though it might certainly nonetheless have required main surgical procedure, even a transplant or two. For there may be little redemption to be discovered within the music both. In the event you just like the sound of Wagner and Richard Strauss, however discover their musical arguments troublesome to observe, maybe the music ‘itself’ will enchantment. Right here, phrases uncomfortably near counterparts in Wagner dramas – all from a minimum of Das Rheingold onwards – are served up randomly with little to attach them, and far the identical is completed with or to Strauss. Some may name it a collage impact; I couldn’t assist however assume Langgaard would have been unlikely to outlive a Turnitin inspection. There are, to be truthful, extra promising, even modernistic passages, particularly when he writes purely orchestrally. (It’s, by the best way, troublesome to discern a lot sympathy for the human voice.) Hints – once more, arguably greater than that – of Hindemith appear extra amenable to one thing approaching sustained musical improvement, however finally they don’t lead anyplace. Perhaps that’s the level, though I concern I could also be clutching at straws.

What I can say is that the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, performed by Hermann Bäumer, performed with evident conviction and even pleasure, making as robust a case for the rating as is prone to be heard. The refrain, as ever nicely educated by Jeremy Bines, did likewise, as did the forged. Since neither work nor manufacturing gave a lot in the best way of clues as to who anybody was, I shall restrict myself to singling out some fantastic singing from Flurina Stucki as ‘The Nice Whore’. The opposite soloists have been glorious too, although, as have been the dancers, even when a few of the choreography – particularly that with out music, at first – proved extra puzzling than revealing. In that respect, one may say it suited the work.

Ersan Mondtag’s manufacturing definitely seemed good. (The set designs have been his too, and he had a minimum of a hand within the costume design.) To me it seemed as if Achim Freyer have been directing a sequel to La bohème. I’m not positive a modern-ish avenue inhabited by clowns was truly meant as a wry commentary on Langgaard’s claptrap, however to an extent it may very well be taken as such. What was meant by a automobile abruptly falling from the sky or the same aerial suspension of a giant determine of a male God with vulva I don’t know, however they gave us one thing to take a look at, as did detailed course of members of forged and refrain. I can solely applaud the Deutsche Oper’s braveness in granting us a uncommon alternative to evaluate this work for ourselves with such glorious performers. That mentioned, I can’t think about wishing to take action once more.

Mark Berry