Picture: Björn Hickmann
Even in our operatic age of continuous rediscoveries, it stays thrilling to attend the efficiency of a beforehand long-forgotten, not too long ago unearthed work, and doubly so to see it dropped at life on the stage fairly than simply in a live performance corridor. The Oper Dortmund’s staging of Clémence de Grandval’s 1892 heroic epic Mazeppa, rescued from obscurity by Palazzetto Bru Zane, supplied simply such an event.
De Grandval’s opera marked the third collaboration between the German home and Bru Zane, following their 2021 manufacturing of Ernest Guiraud’s Frédégonde (posthumously accomplished by Paul Dukas and Camille Saint-Saëns) and the 2024 staging of La Montagne noire (by de Grandval’s fellow compositrice Augusta Holmès). If the Dortmund outing was no grand homecoming for Mazeppa, an opera that might solely seem at regional homes however by no means made it to Paris throughout de Grandval’s lifetime, its staging was however a testomony each to Dortmund’s daring and variety of programming, and to Bru Zane’s success in cultivating fruitful inventive relationships. The dernière of this run may do each corporations proud, letting the appreciable musical qualities of de Grandval’s work and the prowess of the Dortmund home forces shine aplenty.
Certainly, a lot of the solid measured fairly favorably in opposition to the starry lineup of the Bru Zane recording. (Concerning sheer vocal manufacturing, that’s – the query of French diction was fairly completely different.) Within the title position, Mandla Mndebele lower a completely convincingly heroic determine, exhibiting off a noble, sonorous baritone that lower by means of the ensembles with ease, and softened to a charmingly gentle-toned Quelle paisible nuit in Act III. As Matréna, Anna Sohn, a veteran of Dortmund’s earlier Bru Zane coproductions, was a revelation: her soprano’s timbre is nice and luminous, but with placing energy and depth, lending a steely spine to Matréna’s considerably clichéd determine. It match properly with the equally headstrong scenic portrayal of the position, so placing a efficiency that it made for a robust argument for retitling the opera Matréna as an alternative. Sungho Kim’s steely-edged tenor was sufficiently ardent as Iskra, although just a little extra stylistic finesse to his fearless singing, and a much less overenthusiastic stage presence would have been welcome. Artyom Wasnetsov’s Kotchoubey was extra commanding in bodily than vocal stature, whereas Denis Velev’s Archimandrite, extra hippie than patriarch, was suitably authoritative and, consistent with the staging, fairly slimy a non secular chief. The Theater Dortmund’s Opera Refrain sang and acted with enthusiastic, unwavering dedication in a piece that commandeers their forces at appreciable size, their memorable Act IV anathema in opposition to Mazeppa delivered with blood-curling depth.
Picture: Björn Hickmann
Within the pit, main the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Common Music Director Jordan de Souza’s strong studying leaned wholeheartedly into the rating’s epic proportions, tending in direction of a barely angular phrasing. De Souza relished within the grandiosity of the group scenes probably the most, drawing a shiny, ahead sound from the brass and vibrant enjoying from the strings, making a fittingly monumental grand opéra soundscape (full with the colourful, spirited rendition of the Act IV ballet). However there was loads of extra finely spun, lyrical enjoying, too, notably from the woodwinds’ stunning contributions through the Act II Matréna/Iskra duet and within the beguiling cor anglais solo of Act III, totally realizing its uncommon second of quiet, enchanting grace.
That regardless of its musical values, the night was not an unmitigated triumph was maybe inevitable: de Grandval’s music is a sweeping, luxurious, and unquestionably well-constructed instance of late French Romanticism, however the identical can’t be stated of Charles Grandmougin and Georges Hartmann’s libretto. The story begins on the finish of Mazeppa’s well-known trip: the exhausted warrior is discovered and rescued by Matréna, daughter of the Ukrainian warlord Kotchoubey. From this fairly Wälsungesque assembly, a largely predictable story of affection, jealousy, and intrigue spins out. Mazeppa, wanting to punish his former tormentors, joins Kotchoubey’s expedition in opposition to Poland, and the Ukrainians elect him as their new chief. This honor is seen as a grievous slight by Iskra, Mazeppa’s soon-to-be rival in warring and in love. Pissed off by Mazeppa’s glory, Iskra accuses him of conspiring with the Swedes in opposition to Ukrainian freedom, and although Mazeppa defends himself, Kotchoubey turns into satisfied of his guilt. Issues come to a head at Mazeppa and Matréna’s marriage ceremony festivities, the place the bride first has to find that her father has been imprisoned and condemned to loss of life by her husband, then sees Mazeppa’s fall from grace as Iskra arrives with the Tsar’s order of exile. The opera ends on the Ukrainian steppes, with Matréna pushed to insanity by grief, and Mazeppa suffocating in his distress.
Sadly, this high-octane drama is opaque and abrupt in its improvement. Mazeppa’s alliance with the Swedes emerges as an accusation prompted by Iskra’s jealousy, an accusation that’s retroactively validated solely by a passing point out of Swedish troopers at Mazeppa’s marriage ceremony. Whether or not Mazeppa is a ruthless politician or merely an unlucky topic to the ever-changing whims of la peuple (as able to dethrone their beloved chief at a perceived slight as they had been to lift him up), then, is a character-defining query right here, and one which the libretto by no means fairly solutions. The difficulty is that Martin G. Berger’s manufacturing appeared to search out it troublesome to resolve somehow, too.
In Berger’s studying, Mazeppa tells the story of individuals’s craving for a robust, heroic chief, and their susceptibility for glittering self-representations which masks nefarious personalities. Earlier than Mazeppa would first seem wounded and in dire want of assist, he makes his debut on a film display (proven by Kotchoubey to his folks through the overture) as a white-knight-in-shining-armor superhero (Alexander Djurkov Hotter’s costume design mixes modern costume with sci-fi parts to wonderful outcomes). The awed folks want little prodding to elect the identical man who miraculously seems of their midst as their chief, their belief rapidly rising into deifying adoration. The libretto’s fast-paced, episodic construction bends properly to the Marvel film therapy that Berger topics the story to, with title playing cards showing all through the efficiency, sectioning the opera off into distinct thematic episodes crammed with grand reveals, betrayals, and tragic backstory montages (extremely clichéd, however successfully completed by Vincent Stefan). However whereas the shape match properly, the content material proved a difficulty.
The superhero story began to hopelessly stumble in Act 3: right here, Mazeppa’s (supposed) betrayal was become a stunning revelation that his heroic acts are only a hoax, engineered by and with the identical man who seems within the first film montage as his supervillain nemesis – fantasy and actual life maliciously blurred as a method for mass manipulation. Although Mazeppa’s speedy rise, corruption by energy, and inevitable fall from public favor (with Iskra instantly taking his place as a brand new, rapturously hailed hero) would alone have made for a compelling account of populism, this extra twist boggled the narrative with little payoff. Mazeppa’s heel flip match sick into the storytelling when his initially desolate state and his hesitation to just accept management had been performed completely too earnestly. Extra frustratingly, the precise objectives of Mazeppa and his puppeteer had been by no means defined – why they manipulate the folks, try for energy, or lead a nation to struggle is unclear.
It’s additionally troublesome to see why Matréna remained enamored with the person whom she unquestionably knew to be an entire phony, or why Mazeppa (in a jarring flip) felt the necessity to extract a vow of faithfulness at gunpoint from the girl who, minutes beforehand, had sworn like to him realizing he’s a fraud. (I used to be additionally stunned that extra is just not made from Kotchoubey’s place of offering the “opiate of the plenty” kind leisure in the beginning in type of the Mazeppa film.)
That the manufacturing acquired boggled down in its personal concepts is all of the extra unlucky, as Berger proved a really in a position director in different areas. Characters had been clearly drawn and the appearing by and huge impressed and plausible. Berger additionally rose admirably to the problem of coping with the refrain, not solely shifting them successfully across the stage (a talent not each director can boast of), however creating placing tableaus by means of intelligent blocking – aided in no small half by Sarah-Katharina Karl’s plain however remarkably efficient stage design (a looming, big black staircase) and Kevin Schröter’s atmospheric, dramatic lighting. The picture of the darkish stage bathed in blood-red gentle, with the wounded, tattered refrain strewn over the steps, skulls protecting their faces as they sing the glory of their warring chief, is one to remain lengthy in reminiscence: not a novel thought, however one communicated in an unquestionably gripping method. There, maybe, lay the spirit of the night: providing not an epochal achievement however, just like the work, one which’s however worthy of consideration.
Orsolya Gyárfás
Based mostly in Budapest, Orsolya Gyárfás has been publishing opera critiques in English and Hungarian since 2016. At the moment wrapping up a PhD specializing in Metastasian opera seria; normal pursuits and obsessions embody all issues Baroque, queer, Regietheater, and any given mixture of the above.
