Switzerland Beat Furrer, Das Grosse Feuer: Soloists, Extras Affiliation of Zurich Opera, Cantando Admont, Philharmonia Zurich / Beat Furrer (conductor). Zurich Opera, 23.3.2025. (MF)
Zurich Opera, who commissioned this work, brings to the stage the world premiere of Das Grosse Feuer by Swiss-born composer (and conductor, on this case) Beat Furrer.
Furrer units to music the libretto by Austrian author Thomas Stangl which is in flip primarily based on Eisejuaz, a novel by Argentinian journalist and author Sara Gallardo (1931 – 1988). Whereas on a journalistic project on the borders of the Argentinian Gran Chaco forest, Gallardo had met Eisejuaz, an indigenous shaman introduced up by Christian missionaries. Initially, the account of her encounter with Eisejuaz appeared as a newspaper article. Gallardo went on to develop the fabric into the eponymous novel which was first printed in 1971. Eisejuaz is by now thought to be a literary basic in Argentina. The ebook is ready in opposition to the backdrop of colonial exploitation in northern Argentina, describing the oppression and cultural alienation of the indigenous individuals.
Fifty years later, the opera tells Eisejuaz’s story as an inside monologue from the protagonist’s perspective in non-linear narration. Time ranges, actuality and goals overlap. The singers carry out concurrently and alternately in German and Spanish. Pressured, as a baby, to flee from the forests in escape of famine to town of white males, Eisejuaz grows up in a Christian mission. His life stays torn between the 2 worlds. On the one hand, he’s deeply rooted within the animist spirituality of his indigenous neighborhood. Having to work in a sawmill, he hears the voices of the wooden and stays related to supernatural animal angels. However, introduced up by Christian missionaries, he’s a religious follower of Christ the Lord. A ‘voice of the Lord’ tells him to save lots of a human life. He initiatives this mission of unconditional charity onto Paqui, a white racist with nothing however disdain for the indigenous individuals. Eisejuaz encounters Paqui mendacity within the mud, dealing with demise. Pushed by his mission, Eisejuaz saves Paqui and cares for him till Paqui betrays Eisejuaz by impersonating a grotesque saviour determine. As a consequence, Eisejuaz loses his spouse, his house, his cultural orientation and finally his life. All of this tragedy however, the opera’s ending leaves room for the opportunity of salvation.
Beat Furrer develops the opera’s musical cosmos out of the narrative type of a number of voices. He combines instrumental and vocal sounds of a staggering array. The orchestra acts as a resonating house and creates an online of various voices. It sings, screams or whispers, as does the refrain, which is a personality in itself. By his personal account, Furrer developed the opera from a choral precept. The twelve-voice vocal ensemble was the place to begin of the composition. Choral spheres representing the songs of the forest woods are carried ahead by solo protagonists, permitting for a growth of broadly spaced polyphonic and largely atonal constructions.
For this Zurich premiere, Furrer might depend on the Austrian ensemble Cantando Admont, based a decade in the past and nonetheless led by Swiss born Cordula Bürgi. Cantando Admont are specialists on up to date items, together with specifically Furrer’s choral works, but in addition on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century vocal music. Their sound is extra three-dimensional than a standard opera choir’s, not least resulting from their mastery of previous tunings, microtonality and overtones. The rating transcends the same old separation of choir and soloists. The supporting roles emerge from the vocal ensemble after which mix in once more, permitting for fluidity that displays Eisejuaz’s lack of orientation. The equally etheric and uncooked range of musical expression, stress and dynamism created by Philharmonia Zurich underneath the baton of composer Furrer himself and the vocal magicians of Cantando Admont is spellbinding.
The principle character Eisejuaz is sung, shouted, murmured and aspirated by formidable English baritone Leigh Melrose, an acclaimed specialist of recent and up to date works. He’s on the stage for the complete two hours of the efficiency with out interval. A Herculean process he delivers admirably, to the joy of this reviewer and the complete viewers. The opposite major roles, specifically villain Paqui carried out by Andrew Moore, Eisejuaz’s lover Aquella Muchacha (Sarah Aristidou) and Ayo, the opposite shaman (Ruben Drole), are fiendishly demanding as nicely, even when the performers will not be on the stage the complete time.
Co-directors Tatjana Gürbaca and Vivien Hohnholz illustrate the chilling parallels to present political developments and up to date life with out overstating the plain. Eisejuaz finds himself in a world out of steadiness, represented by a large tilted rotating disc, and dominated by mendacity pied pipers equivalent to Paqui, hypocrites such because the missionary Reverendo (Hugo Paulsson Range) and brutes equivalent to Selim (Christoph Brunner). The protagonist has misplaced, or is made to lose, his reference to nature and is pressured to depend on faux information. The timeless contemporary-style costumes (Silke Willrett) are of eerie simplicity. They distinguish between the creatures and spirits of nature in brown/inexperienced tones and the colonists in gray blue, including to the unease hovering within the environment. The setting requires open senses and notion of element, the kind of consideration it could profit us all to convey to the world.
With Das Grosse Feuer Zurich opera extends an invite to take a uncommon auditory, visible and sensory trip. I might urge anybody who can to simply accept it and performances run till 11 April.
Michael Fischer
Manufacturing:
Director – Tatjana Gürbaca
Co-Director – Vivien Hohnholz
Set – Henrik Ahr
Costumes – Silke Willrett
Lighting – Stefan Bolliger
Vocal ensemble conductor – Cordula Bürgi
Dramaturgy – Claus Spahn
Solid:
Eisejuaz – Leigh Melrose
Paqui – Andrew Moore
The previous Chahuanca 1 – Cornelia Sonnleithner
The previous Chahuanca 2 – Helena Sorokina
The previous Chahuanca 3 – Piroska Nyffenegger
Aquella Muchacha – Sarah Aristidou
Selim – Christoph Brunner
Lucia 1 – Friederike Kühl
Lucia 2 – Patricia Auchterlonie
Mauricia – Elina Viluma-Helling
Reverendo – Hugo Paulsson Range
Ayó – Ruben Drole
Gomez – Piotr Pieron
Pocho Zavalla / Yadi – Ferdinand Junghänel
A lady / Voice of a nurse – Filippa Möres Busch
A Hunter / The Bus driver – David de Winter
Limping Previous Man – Bernd Lambauer
