A scene from "Lulu", photo: Bernd Uhlig / La Monnaie
Following a controversial staging of Verdi’s Macbeth and a very enthusiastically received Meadea, the Polish director returns to the La Monnaie with a new production. The premiere showing of Lulu by Alan Berg is presented on Sunday, with a subsequent meeting of Warlikowski with the audience
The previous productions directed by Warlikowski in Brussels, which were rather revolutionary and outrageous in terms of form caused mixed reactions from the Belgian press. The critics praised the musical side of the performances, while their judgement of the various "formal tricks"was rather reserved. The reviews wrote about a clear and concise cast and an interesting manouver which had Macbeth portrayed as a soldier returning from the Vietnam War and gave the psychological drama a political depth. How will the current opera production be received by the audience?
Warlikowski once again cooperates with the renowned British conductor Paul Daniel. The title role of Lulu is performed alternately by Barbara Hannigan and Kerstin Avemo. The singers are accompanied by the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra.
Warlikowski made his debut as an opera director in 2000 with a production of Roxanna Panufnik’s piece called The Music Programme. That same year he directed Verdi’s Don Carlos, and more operatic stagings soon followed: Ignorant i szaleniec (The Ignorant and the Fool) by Paweł Mykietyn (2001), Ubu Rex by Krzysztof Penderecki (2003) and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck (2006), whose libretto was based on the drama from Georg Büchner. His most recent opera performaces are Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris (2006) and The Makropulos Affair by Janáček (2007) which he directed at the Parisian Opera. In 2008 Warlikowski was the first post-war Polish director to stage Wagner in the West. 2009 had him direct Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger. And in June, 2012, the director cooperated with Teatro Real, Spain’s most significant opera stage to present his own contemporary version of the baroque Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi from 1642.
Lulu is an erotically scandalous opera about the secret love of Berg for Hanna Fuchs-Robertin. Berg left the piece unfinished upon his death. The composition was revealed only after the death of the wife of Berg in 1964, and it was completed by Friedrich Cerh and first staged in 1976.
The current production will be staged ten times this season at the La Monnaie. A few months later, another Polish director, Mariusz Treliński will make his debut at La Monnaie with a staging of Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. In October is will be presented to the Warsaw audiences at the Polish capital’s National Opera. The two stagings at La Monnaie thus mark a significant expansion of Polish directors’ international opera productions. Jacek Merczyński thus comments in an article for the Rzeczpospolita daily:
The third, equally significant staging by a Polish artist is the production of King Roger by Karol Szymanowski, which is scheduled to take place at the end of November at the Bilbao Opera. Directing the piece is Michał Znaniecki, who cooperates with this theatre regurarly, and Łukasz Borowicz is to conduct the libretto. The leading role is played by Mariusz Kwiecień, who also performed as King Roger in the recent production of the piece staged in Santa Fe in the summer of 2012. Later this season, Krzysztof Warlikowski takes his Madrid performance of Poppea and Neron by Monteverdi to the Montpelllier stage, and he will also take Cherubino’s Medea which he previously staged in Brussels, to the Parisian Opera. The Berlin Staatsoper is to bring back Warlikowski’s adaptation of the Life of a Libertine by Stravinsky. Michał Znaniecki is also expected to direct a series of performances following the Portuguese showings of King Roger. His plans include a staging of Don Giovanni in Trondheim, Puccini’s Turandot in Masad and the Masque Ball from Verdi in Tel Aviv.
Editor: SRS
Source: press release, Rzeczpospolita