Le Prophete Deutsche Oper Berlin
Nov 26th 2017
I saw this after the Budapest Huguenots but it did not have the near revelatory impact that that production (and the work itself) did. Wagner is long but Meyertbeer, certainly in the first two acts of this, is long-winded an there was a fair degree of what I call ‘musical knitting’…lots of notes following on from one another but in a somewhat woolly and undefined way and never really getting anywhere; I find some of Richard Strauss’s music like this too.
Frankly, the first two acts were, musically, dramatically and staging-wise, dull, dull, dull. There was no energy from the orchestra or the singers and there was a sense of going through the motions – and these motions were not particularly interesting either.
However, it did get better. This may be a reflection of the construction of the story with events speeding up and at the same time characters being established and so one got far more involved in the drama. The staging and in particular the use of the dancers was highly effective and involving and it made the telling of the story and the establishment of bigger themes and ideas more striking. There was a Brechtian element (as long as I am not misusing that much abused term) in the use of the Angel of Death figure. This put a universal twist on the story; in the opening acts, it seemed only to be about the characters and as these were not particularly musically well and originally established and the relationships were not drawn with a great degree of originality and fire, the inevitable result was that involvement was lacking.
The multi-tiered staging with much happening and the eye cleverly guided to what was significant was excellent and the use of the Brechtian slogans was coldly effective and not as irritating as it can be when overdone. I did feel that there was an attempt to ‘universalise’ the story and this was one of the most effective aspects of the whole evening.
The ending of the work, from a staging point of view, was very impressive but while this strongly suggested transcendence: unfortunately, Meyerbeer’s music in no rose to the occasion. As a result there was a disappointing, disconnect between what I saw on the stage and what I heard. Wagner and perhaps a few others can ‘do’ transcendence’ – Meyerbeer not so much!
I am conscious that I have not mentioned any singers – they all rose to the challenges of the music and had as effective a stage presence as their musical and dramatic depiction allowed – but is both of these elements are on the weaker side, the overall impact was, I felt, necessarily limited. I did like very much the muted colours consistently used in the production and this was one of the more successful elements as it helped to establish a degree of universality.
An enjoyable evening and good to be able to see this work -but one can understand why it is not often revived…