Performances of Marc-André Dalbavie's opera 'Charlotte Salomon' in Salzburg

This August, I have attended two performances of Marc-André Dalbavie's new opera Charlotte Salomon in Salzburg : the third on August 7th and the fourth on August 10th.

The libretto by Barbara Honigmann, after Charlotte Salomon's own work Leben? oder Theater? mixes German, mainly used by the spoken character of Charlotte Salomon and French, used by the other singing characters. Charlotte Salomon and her singing double named Charlotte Kann, are dressed the same way, but the speaking character mainly remains seated on the left of the stage, narrating Charlotte's story. The singing characters move in a series of connecting rooms using only the first few meters in front of the very large stage of the Felsenreitschule. Several paintings of Charlotte Salomon are projected on the white set.

The music is rather inexpressive, continuously flowing gently towards an unexpected outburst that seems to have no connection with whatever is happening in the libretto. The simultaneous use of speaking and singing voice and of German and French language (with German and English subtitles) doesn't make the plot easier to understand. The vocal parts don't offer a great variety of styles and are rarely mixed together.

The performance lasts 2 hours and 20 minutes without a break, except a long pause before the epilogue, during which several members of the audience felt an urgent need to rush toward the exits. Most of the characters are always on stage, sometimes just getting busy in a dark part of the set.

All singers performed with dedication and commitment , but it wasn't enough to help the audience to feel concerned about the rather placid staging by Luc Bondy.

The cast was the following : Johanna Wokalek (Charlotte Salomon), Marianne Crebassa (Charlotte Kann), Jean-Sébastien Bou (Doktor Kann, ein Arzt), Géraldine Chauvet (Franziska Kann / Eine Frau), Anaïk Morel (Paulinka Bimbam), Frédéric Antoun (Amadeus Daberlohn, ein Gesangspädagoge), Vincent Le Texier (Herr Knarre / Lageroberst), Cornelia Kallisch (Frau Knarre), Michal Partyka (Professor Klingklang / Ein Kunststudent / Dritter Nazi / Ein Polizist), Eric Huchet (Der Papst / Der Propagandaminister / Der Kunstprofessor / Erster Nazi / Ein Mann / Zweiter Emigrant), Annika Schlicht (Eine Kunststudentin aus Tirol), Wolfgang Resch (Zweiter Nazi). The composer conducted the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg.

Next February in Gelsenkirchen, another stage work on the same subject will receive its world première performance : Michelle DiBucci's dance opera Charlotte Salomon - Der Tod und die Malerin.

Today : world première of Marc-André Dalbavie's 'Charlotte Salomon' in Salzburg

Today, the second opéra composed by French composer Marc-André Dalbavie will be performed for the first time in Salzburg at the Felsenreitschule.

 

 ‘A person is sitting beside the sea. He is painting. A tune suddenly enters his mind. As he starts to hum it, he notices that the tune exactly matches what he is trying to commit to paper. A text forms in his head, and he starts to sing the tune with his own words, over and over again in a loud voice until the painting seems complete.’ This is how Charlotte Salomon describes the genesis of her fascinating series of paintings, Life? Or Theatre? The young Jewish artist had fled to southern France following the Kristallnacht pogrom in Berlin on the night of 9/10 November 1938, where she joined her grandparents. She was living in Villefranche when the Second World War broke out. Afraid of the troops who were drawing ever closer from Nazi Germany, her grandmother threw herself to her death from an upstairs window. Her grandfather then told her that when Charlotte was nine her mother had ended her life in the same way. Even worse, she now discovered that a whole series of other relatives had committed suicide. Charlotte sensed that if she, too, was not to fall victim to the family curse or to go mad, she would have to do ‘something altogether insanely special’.

(reproduced from the Salzburger Festspiele website)

Dalbavie's first opera, Gesualdo, based on the life of the famous composer was first performed in October 2010 in Zurich. His second opera has a libretto written by Barbara Honigmann, after Charlotte Salomon's own work, then translated into French.

The cast includes Johanna Wokalek, Marianne Crebassa, Jean-Sébastien Bou, Frédéric Antoun, Vincent Le Texier, Cornelia Kallisch, Eric Huchet. The composer conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Luc Bondy directs. The first performance will be broadcast live by Austrian radio Ö1.

Program of the 2014 Salzburg Festival

Seven operas will be performed in Salzburg next Summer :

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni (production from Zurich, September 2009)
conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf
- Marc-André Dalbavie : Charlotte Salomon (world première)
conducted by the composer, directed by Luc Bondy
- Richard Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier (new production)
conducted by Franz Welser-Möst replacing Zubin Mehta, directed by Harry Kupfer
- Giuseppe Verdi : Il Trovatore (new production)
conducted by Daniele Gatti, directed by Alvis Hermanis
- Franz Schubert : Fierrabras (new production)
conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, directed by Peter Stein
- Gioachino Rossini : La Cenerentola (new production)
conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi, directed by Damiano Michieletto
- Gaetano Donizetti : La Favorite (in concert)
conducted by Nello Santi

In addition, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the prelude, second act and Isolde's Liebestod in concert with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the singers Waltraud Meier, Ekaterina Gubanova, Peter Seiffert, René Pape and Stephan Rügamer.

With just a few works, less than any opera house of international reputation would produce in a complete season, the Salzburg Festival manages to present a wide range of works, covering the main styles of operas history has produced.