(sung in English)
Coliseum
Julietta – Julia Sporsén
Michel – Peter Hoare
Clerk in the Bureau of Dreams – Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts
Man in a Helmet/Seller of Memories/Convict – Andrew Shore
Man at Window/Waiter/Beggar – Henry Waddington
Little Arab/First Gentleman/Bell Boy – Emilie Renard
Old Arab/Grandfather/Old Sailor – Gwynne Howell
Birdseller/Fortune Teller/Old Woman – Susan Bickley
Fishmonger/ Grandmother – Valerie Reid
Young Sailor – Anthony Gregory
Second Gentleman – Clare Presland
Third Gentleman – Samantha Price
Richard Jones (director)
Antony McDonald (designs)Ricardo Pardo (associate set designs)
Matthew Richardson (lighting)
Philippe Giraudeau (choreography)
Chorus of the English
National Opera (chorus master: Martin Fitzpatrick)
Orchestra of the English
National OperaEdward Gardner (conductor)
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| Images: Richard Hubert Smith The Chorus |
Julietta (or Snář,
‘The Dream-Book’) was based by Bohuslav Martinů on Georges Neveux’s play Juliette, ou La clé des songes. An
initial French setting was discarded in favour of Czech, though this being ENO,
the opera was of course performed in English, David Pountney providing a
translation, which on several occasions quite mystifyingly confused singular
and plural pronouns. (Julietta has
been performed before at the Coliseum, the first English production having been
given by the New Opera Company in association with ENO, conducted by Charles
Mackerras.) Michel, a Parisian
bookseller, is searching for Julietta, her voice having attracted him since his
previous visit three years before to the coastal town in which the action takes
place. It quickly becomes clear to him and us that none of the townsfolk has a
memory extending beyond a few minutes; Michel’s ability to remember sets him
above them. A contrast is constructed between Julietta’s world of fantasy – she
wants to hear of a past that never happened, in which she and Michel were
lovers – and Michel’s world of reality. Having shot her upon her flight from a
forest meeting, Michel is advised at the ‘Central Office of Dreams’ (!) that he
has been dreaming and resolves to escape. However, hearing Julietta’s voice, he
follows what seems to have been the route of other dreamers he has met at the
office and return to her. The opening
setting returns, in contrast to the end of Neveux’s play – and the original
French version – in which Michel remained uncertain as to whether to return to
the world of dreams.
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| Michel (Peter Hoare) |
That, I am afraid, makes the
opera sound considerably more interesting than it is. Surrealism dates, of
course, and tends to lend itself best to something snappier: a song, perhaps,
or even a song-cycle, something more filmic, or a visual artwork (if ‘snappy’
may be stretched that far). This three-act opera dragged, the composer’s
attempts at soaring lyricism remaining stubbornly earthbound. That is doubtless
partly a matter of the subject matter: it is difficult to care about such ‘characters’
and their wearying silliness. However, whatever Martinů’s devotees may protest, I
think it is also a matter of the
composer’s music itself. There is a great deal of his music I have not heard,
an important proviso, yet everything I have has seemed similarly anonymous, its
manifold derivations failing to cohere into a greater whole. What sounds most
interesting, or rather least uninteresting, here are the passages that sound a
little like (very) watered-down Janáček. Attempts to signal (relative) modernity
by parading hand-me-downs from Stravinsky and Prokofiev fall flat. There is
certainly compositional craft in the orchestration, and interest in the
considerable use to which the piano is put, but so what, if there is nothing to
say? To complain about an artwork being derivative is doubtless indicative of a
post-Romantic world-view; well, so much the better for (post-)Romanticism.
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| Michel and Julietta (Julia Sporsén) |
The music seemed well
performed. If there were times when I could imagine Edward Gardner having exerted
a tighter grip on proceedings, his direction was alert enough, though the
orchestra sounded a little tired during the third act. Julia Sporsén proved as
radiant as one could have any right to expect as Julietta, even if it were
difficult not to wish that she were singing Janáček or something else more
worthwhile. Peter Hoare did his best with what must be the tiring role of
Michel, imparting as much credibility as the work would permit. The rest of the
cast all performed creditably, often more than that. Susan Bickley offering
luxury casting in the small roles of birdseller, fortune teller, and old woman,
Andrew Shore likewise in three small roles, perhaps most notably the seller of
memories who tries to convince Julietta and Michel that they holidayed together
in Spain. I was especially impressed by Anthony Gregory’s lyrical tenor as the
Young Sailor, who asks Michel for Julietta’s shawl – here, it seemed, more of a
scarf: whether staging or translation erred, I cannot say – so as to compete with
his elder colleague. Again, I hope I shall hear him more gainfully employed
elsewhere.
The work in its general
surrealist plotline might have been written to play to Richard Jones’s strengths.
The designs (Antony McDonald and Ricardo Pardo) were arresting, deriving from imaginative
use of a giant accordion, whose music we hear at the opening. Yet in the
absence of anything to care about, we were left, hardly surprisingly, with a
series of stylish images. First seen in Paris ten years ago, Jones’s production
has now made it to London. Let us hope that he and a talented cast will next be
offered something more substantial to which to apply themselves. There is a
host of works that languish unperformed or under-performed; Martinů has had his
chance.