# Short review of Met HD Live broadcast of Berg's Lulu



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Just taking a short break from SWTOR to proffer a short review of the Met broadcast of Lulu I saw today in the movie theater.

Points:

--Kentridge is a most brilliant artist to do this production... allusions to cabaret, Pabst's film Pandora's Box, jazz, Hannah Hoch's cut-up collages, stark pen and ink drawings that contrast with the gray shades of morality/musical structure of the whole opera, ancient Greek and Roman art, German cinema of the 1920's and 1930's, and the economics of the Wiemar Republic (strange parallel to the stock market crashes of 1987, etc. etc.)

--Marlis Petersen was awesome in her vocal technique and dramatic acting. Barbara Hannigan is a competitor here... very touching in her final performance for that role...

--Taut conducting and brisk pace never dragged this production through. I wish that Met would move away from such conservative production to innovative ones like this one. Not strictly Regentheatre but regardless, such a wonderful amalgam.

--I can't wait to get this production on Blu-ray.

--This production was always exciting, both vocally and visually/musically. Never dragged whatsoever.

--You guys must view this.

Anyways, Lulu made me happy about what the Met is doing for this particular one. I wish that they did more 20th and 21st century operas.

In any case, see you guys some time. Just wanted to drop a short review here.


----------



## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

We miss you Albert


----------



## anmhe (Feb 10, 2015)

Would this be the production to view that could possibly change the minds of those previously unimpressed by this work?


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I'll offer my own review, too.

Marlis Peterson was amazing. I spent much of the show focusing on her vocal lines, listening to her lead us through Berg's monumental score. She always sounded secure. Johan Reuter was a very even Dr. Schön; I didn't buy his anger and despair. He played the Ripper the same way though, and for that role it worked well.

I don't understand why Lulu adored Schigolch so much in the first act, though maybe that gives a decent explanation of why he gets to stick around. She adores Schigolch, loves Dr. Schön, then cares less and less for her men until she is reduced to begging for customers as a prostitute. And finally meets her mirror in Jack the Ripper.

I loved the costumes and want nearly all of them. Susan Graham's lime and brown dress was glorious (and her Geschwitz was an impressive character, beautifully sung). I really liked Dr. Schön's lime coat with pinstripes over a brown suit, transformed to a line coat over a brown pinstriped suit for Jack the Ripper. Special mention must also be made of Alwa's sweater vest and tie combo. The women in Act 3 dressed in variations on Lulu was a fantastic move.

I don't have much comment on the silent Louise Brooks Lulu double and the silent butler; they were often off-camera. The animated projections were similarly interesting but we saw so little of them that I can't really say much more. I really wish I had been able to see this production in the house and/or wished they had been better at capturing it for the screen.

Another downside of the constant projections approach is that the film in the middle loses much of its effect. Lulu seducing the doctor was an interesting touch, but skipping Geschwitz's parts entirely made the following dialogue make no sense? I also missed the palindrome of the design.

I enjoyed the performance, really. This is a difficult opera, from many angles. Berg is not interested in distancing is from his characters in a way that many other opera composers are. Though in the end Lulu is killed off-stage; we have already seen her fall.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I agree wit most above, except for the release on DVD.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I'll be seeing the Encore on Wednesday. Sounds like a winner.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Schigolch is a complex character. He has been living with the child Lulu. Is he Lulu's friend, Lulu's lover, Lulu's father?... Maybe all the three at the same time?. On the other hand, Schön is also the lover of Lulu, since she was just twelve. He considers himself Lulu's master. 

He is not, but he is her nemesis, indeed. Lulu, in Berg's opera, is gifted with a halo of innocence, irresistible to most men. When she loses that innocence, after killing Schön, she starts her decline and fall, until her final death, at the hands of Schön himself, in the form of Jack the Ripper. 

A nice sample of Lulu's downfall in the opera are the three consecutive small roles of the Prince (fervently in love with Lulu), the Manservant (a hopeless worshipper) and the Marquis (a disdainful lover)


----------



## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

mountmccabe said:


> And finally meets her mirror in Jack the Ripper.


mirror in which sense?.. to me, Jack The Ripper is a new character appearing at the end of this opera, whom Lulu seems to truly like, unlike others before; she dies at the point when starts feeling human feelings as opposed to those of an animal she was before.


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

I see the power that Jack the Ripper has over Lulu as a mirror of the power she was shown to have over the various men of the opera; she is desperate to have him stay with her, begging him to stay even if he wishes to pay nothing.

The real-life character Jack the Ripper is used in the opera because he is infamous for killing women, and for never being caught (for these murders, at least). Current scholarship attributes to him five murders in 1888, though he had other alleged victims. And who knows what Wedekind circa 1904 and Berg circa 1935 counted as attributable to him, but Lulu is a party (of sorts) to the deaths of five men throughout the opera, Doctor Goll, Walter Schwarz the painter, Dr. Ludwig Schön, Rodrigo the athlete, and Alwa Schön.

Since Jack the Ripper was never identified (in real life, I mean) he remains a cipher, a mysterious force that killed women. Lulu is similarly a cipher, a canvas onto which men project their desires, until they escape or are killed.

The opera is structured around Lulu's rise and fall; it makes sense to me that it is capped by an image of someone she once was.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

It's very clear that the intention of Berg was to build _Lulu_ around symmetry. That's why we see her rise, and her downfall, mirrored, separated by the silent film, that is a palindrome in itself.

Lulu's three husband are also the three clients of Act 3: the Doctor becomes the Professor, the Painter becomes the Negro, and Dr. Schön (Lulu has somewhat killed herself, when she killed her lover), becomes Jack the Ripper.


----------



## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Aw, sorry I missed this. It looked interesting. I guess I will have to wait for the Blu-ray.


----------



## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

agreed this would have been a nice discussion to be in upon, but alas discussion is fleeting.


----------



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Indeed, there are many versions of Lulu I have yet to procure but the Barbara Hannigan version looks rather appealing.


----------



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Did you leave the theater whistling any of the tunes?


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Barelytenor said:


> Did you leave the theater whistling any of the tunes?


That's a bit harsh :lol:
On topic, for me it's a opera to see (once in 5 years) not to listen to randomly


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Barelytenor said:


> Did you leave the theater whistling any of the tunes?


I was not whistling anything but I did have some of Lulu's vocal lines in my head. There may have been some humming.

Not even joking.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Barelytenor said:


> Did you leave the theater whistling any of the tunes?


After I listen to Berg, my head is _always_ filled with his melodies. Heck, a lot of Lulu motifs just rushed through my mind as I wrote this.


----------



## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I have the same feeling.

To me, they have always been there, from my first hearing on. However, this is not necessarily the case for everyone. The musical language of _Lulu_ somehow disguises the beautiful post-romantic melodies with a cloak made of 12-tone fabric. And this can be a challenge for some traditional fans.

Maybe, they are easier to spot on the Lulu Suite, than in the opera itself:


----------

