A scene from Lulu, photo: www.lamonnaie.be
"Beauty, cruelty, compassion" are the three words used by Belgian Le Soir and La Libre Belgique to describe Warlikowski’s latest production of Alan Berg’s opera at La Monnaie
The piece which enjoyed its premiere showings on the 14th of October has met with a very enthusiastic reception of the local press. Le Soir commented, "Subject to choreography, very readable, with an incredibly powerful esthetic. These elements are gathered here to tear humanity apart, all with the cut of a surgical knife".
According to the daily, the great applause which followed the premiere showing was "awarded to Warlikowski for his sublime staging of the piece", as well as the opera’s author, the Vienna-born Alan Berg. Although Berg wrote Lulu in 1937, the piece is decribed by Le Soir as having "kept its relevance in 2012."
La Libre Belgique also notes the set design of the piece:
Among the raw yet refined decorations by Małgorzata Szczęśniak, at the centre of this performance, there is the dance, which embodies dreams of a teenage Lulu. In the second act she will come close to fulfilling them, although she will fall prey to her own demons.
According to the journal, it is with this one element of the story that "Warlikowski has created a world in which Lulu the girl-dancer accompanies each triumph and misery of Lulu the woman." La Libre Belgique notes that the director’s choice of means and metaphors evokes a very clear dimension of intense compassion, which is contrasted with growingly dramatic images of video projections in which Lulu hides behind "make-up, rubbish, and tricks". Barbara Hannigan as Lulu is "excellent, with a stupefying voice and whose dancing and singing is light and at ease". The rest of the cast also garners praise from La Libre Belgique, and the Polish director is acknowledged for his capacity of making song and theatre one in the performance.
The piece also garners a four/five star review from the Financial Times. Shriley Apthorp names the production a lavish and bold fresh take on Berg's piece. She goes on to point out that even though every new production of Lulu is forced to rethink Wedekind's take on the deadly child-woman, the new interpretation by Warlikowski ventures out further than many:
The risks have paid off. Warlikowski's busy layers of video, allusion to cinema, supernumeraries and subplots are a lot to take in, but it all adds up to a genuinely fresh take on the work within a framework of unfussy, direct storytelling.
Apthorn notes the excellent Barbara Hanningam, asking "Who else would look this good in nothing but lingerie and pointe shoes while singing each note with crystalline perfection?".
The Belgian Le Soir underlines the dark air of the performance and the everpresent death that seems to await at each corner. It also points to the figure of Lilith, the first Eve, which is there, demanding her own equal rights from Adam, vengeant and seductive towards men, whom she denounces for their aggressive impulses of domination. Lilith makes herself the instrument of their debasement, and the set design crafted by Szczęśniak renders this motif of Berg’s piece with excellency, making it "absolutely clear". Le Soir situates Warlikowski’s interpretation of Berg’s opera somewhere betweeen Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, between a "naturalism condemned to nihilism, and life that triumphs through the unleashed instincts."
Previous performances directed by Warlikowski in Belgium caused heated, albeit mixed reactions in the Belgian press. The two previous pieces staged by the Polish director in Brussels were Medea by Cherubinio and Verdi’s Macbeth.
Editor: SRS
Source: PAP, press release, Financial Times