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Lulu
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, April 9, 2001
Debut : Christine Sch?fer, Andrew Gangestad, Robin Blitch Wiper, David Brimmer
Lulu (26)
Alban Berg | Alban Berg
- Lulu
- Christine Sch?fer [Debut]
- Dr. Sch?n/Jack the Ripper
- James Courtney
- Countess Geschwitz
- Hanna Schwarz
- Alwa
- David Kuebler
- Schigolch
- Franz Mazura
- Animal Tamer/Acrobat
- Stephen West
- Painter
- Clifton Forbis
- Physician/Professor
- Mitchell Sendrowitz
- Prince/Manservant/Marquis
- Graham Clark
- Dresser/Schoolboy
- Jennifer Dudley
- Theater Manager/Banker
- Richard Vernon
- Journalist
- Richard Hobson
- Servant
- Andrew Gangestad [Debut]
- Girl
- Robin Blitch Wiper [Debut]
- Mother
- Diane Curry
- Policeman
- David Brimmer [Debut]
- Clown
- Abraham Marcus
- Conductor
- James Levine
- Production
- John Dexter
- Designer
- Jane Dutton
- Designer
- Jocelyn Herbert
- Lighting Designer
- Gil Wechsler
- Stage Director
- Paul Mills
Act III edited and orchestrated by Friedrich Cerha
Lulu received five performances this season.
Review 1:
Charles Michner in the Observer
Alban Berg's ?Lulu? is perhaps the ultimate in operatic transfiguration. Based on two profoundly pessimistic plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind, it is an opera that has, as used to be said about pornography, no socially redeeming value. Its title character is a girl from the gutter who rises to the social heights only to be sent to prison for murdering one of her husbands, and who dies at the hands of Jack the Ripper. The men in her life are, by turns, insanely jealous, weak of character, desperately greedy or shamelessly exploitative. But out of this material, Berg wove a musical fabric whose kaleidoscopic vividness of color, intricacy of musical ideas and rhythmic urgency make "Lulu" a good candidate for the 20th century's supreme work of the lyric theater.
The Met's current "Lulu" is a revival of one of the company's best older productions ? a triumph of the house's pictorialist approach to masterpieces. More than 20 years after John Dexter's staging was first seen (in 1977), it looked, on [first] night, as good as ever, with the slightly exaggerated, suffocating clutter of its "fin-de-si?cle" interiors and careful period costuming by Jocelyn Herbert, and its luridly oppressive lighting by Gil Wechsler. James Levine, who may be unrivaled among today's conductors for the highly charged security of his approach to Berg, was in the pit. The cast included such outstanding Bergians as James Courtney in the double role of Dr. Sch?n and Jack, Franz Mazura as Schigolch and Hanna Schwarz as the Countess Geschwitz. And in the young German soprano Christine Shafer, the production had a Lulu who more than held her own against her unforgettable predecessors, Teresa Stratas and Julia Migenes-Johnson.
I sensed that Ms. Shafer was suffering from a cold, and indeed, she canceled her second performance. But even though her voice sometimes had trouble projecting strongly, she brought something new and powerful to the role ? a dangerous vacancy that went to the heart of the character as an object of fantasy, an unconscious catalyst for mayhem. Eye-catching in her copper-colored coiffure, refreshingly unkittenish in manner, she was never quite in focus ? a quality that can drive men mad. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to Ms. Schafer is that she, the performer, remained invisible behind the beautiful blotter of her fa?ade. Indeed the clearest image that I was able to draw from this disturbingly fuzzy-edged femme fatale was that of the closest thing to a Lulu in our time ? Marilyn Monroe.
Search by season: 2000-01
Search by title: Lulu,
Met careers
- James Levine [Conductor]
- Christine Sch?fer [Lulu]
- James Courtney [Dr. Sch?n/Jack the Ripper]
- Hanna Schwarz [Countess Geschwitz]
- David Kuebler [Alwa]
- Franz Mazura [Schigolch]
- Stephen West [Animal Tamer/Acrobat]
- Clifton Forbis [Painter]
- Mitchell Sendrowitz [Physician/Professor]
- Graham Clark [Prince/Manservant/Marquis]
- Jennifer Dudley [Dresser/Schoolboy]
- Richard Vernon [Theater Manager/Banker]
- Richard Hobson [Journalist]
- Andrew Gangestad [Servant]
- Jane Dutton [Designer]
- Robin Blitch Wiper [Girl]
- Diane Curry [Mother]
- David Brimmer [Policeman]
- Abraham Marcus [Clown]
- John Dexter [Production]
- Paul Mills [Stage Director]
- Jocelyn Herbert [Designer]
- Gil Wechsler [Lighting Designer]