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| Ales Briscein in and as "Der Zwerg" (photo: Kathy Wittman) |
Der
Zwerg (The Dwarf), a one-act
opera by composer Alexander von Zemlinsky, freely adapted by
librettist Georg Klaren from Oscar Wilde's short story The
Birthday of the Infanta, is the
third production in Odyssey Opera's “Wilde Opera Nights”. It
premiered in 1922 in Cologne, just as Zemlinksy had ended his
relationship with Alma Mahler (future wife of Gustav, as well as
subsequent spouse of architect Walter Gropius and of novelist Franz
Werfel). Artistic Director and Conductor Gil Rose refers to
Zemlinsky as “a brother of Korngold”, whose Die Tote
Stadt was presented so
memorably by the company last season. Korngold was the last great
prodigy of the romantic era, whose voluptuous music with its highly
melodic and expressive nature was one of two influences that inspired
Zemlinky. The other was the highly psychological and complex work of
Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Rose speaks of Zemlinsky's opera
as a rather “bizarre hybrid...a cocktail” that echoes Richard
Strauss. It was no wonder that Zemlinsky would respond to the kind
of scandalous Oscar Wilde story reminiscent of Strauss' own opera
Salome, which Der
Zwerg frequently sounds like.
It's in fact a tragic fairy tale, which, as so many such stories do,
ends grimly.
A sultan sends a dwarf (tenor Ales Briscein) as a
present to the royal eighteenth birthday celebration of the Infanta,
the Spanish princess Donna Clara (soprano Kirsten Chambers). The
dwarf falls in love with the Infanta, singing a love song to her in
which he imagines himself as her brave knight, all this while he is
described by others as a jest of cruel nature with his notable hump.
She toys with him, knowing he is unaware of his own physical
deformity, giving him a white rose as a present. He finds a mirror
when he is on his own, seeing his reflection (and his deformity) for
the first time in his life. When he tries to get her to kiss him, she
spurns him, calling him a monster. Heartbroken, he dies clutching
the rose, while the Infanta rejoins her party, which includes Ghita,
her attendant (soprano Michelle Trainor), Don Estoban, her
chamberlain, (bass James Johnson), her First Maid (soprano Erica
Petrocelli), her Second Maid (soprano Dana Varga), and her Third Maid
(mezzo soprano Vera Savage) as well as Friends of the Infanta (the
sopranos and altos of the Odyssey Opera Chorus). Don Estoban had
warned that truth could be the death of the dwarf, as God has created
us all blind to ourselves. For her part, the Infanta declares that
“for the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts”.
The performance was, as noted above, conducted by Gil
Rose, with his typical sensitivity, and superbly played by the Opera
Odyssey Orchestra. It was beautifully sung in German with English
titles by the cast of seven principals who seemed to revel in the
acoustically wondrous venue that is Jordan Hall. A standout was the
titular little person, sung and acted by Briscein (who was a hit at
the Boston premiere of Dvorak's Dimitrij last year), with his
stunningly impressive voice and facial expressions that convincingly
conveyed his character. Equally memorable were Chambers as the almost
mechanical Princess (a la Olympia in Tales of Hoffman) and
Trainor, who seemed genuinely surprised at the audience's
enthusiastic reception. In a city where people give standing
ovations to the openings of supermarkets, this one was indisputably
deserved. All of the soloists and chorus shone. The sound of a
hundred musicians on stage (the orchestra of seventy, chorus of
thirty, seven soloists and conductor) was extraordinarily thrilling.
It was, in the end, ninety minutes of lush post-Romantic music with a
story that was dark and compelling, with what the program notes
rightly state as a “score that magnified the text and educed the
drama's extremes of emotions” with “vocal leaps and bold
harmonies, horror and hysteria”. It was an apt production for Good
Friday from a company whose local presence every season can only be
described as.....gigantic.
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