Germany Rimsky-Korsakov, The Golden Cockerel: Soloists, Dancers, Refrain and Orchestra of the Komische Oper / James Gaffigan (conductor). Komische Oper, Berlin, 3.2.2024. (MB)
Manufacturing:
Director – Barrie Kosky
Assistant director – Denni Sayers
Set design – Rufus Didwiszus
Costumes – Victoria Behr
Lighting – Franck Evin
Choreography – Otto Pichler
Dramaturgy – Olaf A. Schmitt, Meike Lieser
Refrain director – David Cavelius
Forged:
King Dodon – Alexander Roslavets
Prince Guidon – Pavel Valuzhin
Prince Aphron – Hubert Zapiór
Common Polkan – Alexander Vassiliev
Amelfa – Margarita Nekrasova
Golden Cockerel – Julia Muzychenko, Daniel Daniela Ojeda Yrureta
Queen of Shemakha – Kseniia Proshina
Astrologer – James Kryshak
First Boyar – Taiki Miyashita
Second Boyar – Jan-Frank Süsse
Dancers – Michael Fernandez, Lorenzo Soragni, Silvano Marraffa, Kai Chun Chung
Two productions, very totally different, of Rimsky-Korsakov’s final opera, The Golden Cockerel, inside two years: James Conway for English Touring Opera, which I noticed in Hackney, and now Barrie Kosky’s new manufacturing for Berlin’s Komische Oper in its non permanent dwelling in Charlottenburg. Each are skilled, although neither was deliberate, within the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ETO’s first evening lower than a fortnight after, the Komische Oper’s second evening falling as we method the two-year anniversary (though supposed for 2020 and thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic). Rimsky’s satire on tsarist energy and Russian imperialism within the wake of the Russo-Japanese battle might hardly be extra topical, then, and it could be tough, certainly perverse, to banish ideas of at the moment’s King Dodon from our minds fully.
In neither manufacturing, although, have been such concepts initially — and that’s arguably an excellent factor. Spelling out so clearly not often is, although there’ll all the time be exceptions. ‘Rimsky in Hackney’ gave an excellent introduction to the piece and performed fruitfully with concepts of orientalism. Although essentially given in a lowered orchestration, that proved surprisingly – for a composer and rating for whom orchestral color are so essential – little of an issue. A dated English translation, replete with ‘amusing’ rhyming couplets, provided extra of a barrier. This Cockerel, given in Russian, in full, and in wonderful fashion by James Gaffigan, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper, and a advantageous solid of singers, took a unique flip in Kosky’s manufacturing, which initially had me really feel slightly dissatisfied. Nonetheless, the extra I thought of it, the extra it grew on me.
What’s lacking? Russia, orientalism, and the ‘incredible’ color related to them, although definitely not fantasy itself; and a lot of the politics too. There’s nothing mistaken with together with the previous trio; there may be each purpose to take action. We will dwell with out them, although, for they may by no means disappear from what we hear — and all of them profit from or reasonably, in at the moment’s local weather, demand one thing in the best way of deconstruction. The politics are maybe extra of an issue — or have been for me. Absolutely a satire on battle and energy stands in a curious place if little consideration is granted both? Sure and no, although to begin with my reply, likely as somebody strongly inclined towards political theatre, would undoubtedly have been ‘sure’. As an alternative, taking his depart from the Astrologer’s declare – a deft manner of coping with the censor, who nonetheless refused to approve the opera – that this was solely a fairy story whose characters he had dropped at life, Kosky treats this all as Dodon’s dream.
A cop out, you may say: one of the drained gadgets in youngsters’s, not to mention adults’, writing. And sure, most of us could have felt cheated at, say, the tip of John Masefield’s The Field of Delights, although issues turn out to be extra complicated after we learn it within the gentle of Midnight’s Kids, which is not a dream. Right here the spur is to think about the work extra psychoanalytically. If this can be a fairy story, the dream permits a extra erotic but in addition a extra absurdist flip. Rufus Didwiszus’s designs disdain a palatial world of gilt for a panorama that may be a setting for Ready for Godot; Dodon’s clowning and dishevelment owe one thing to that world too. Victoria Behr’s costumes are essential right here too: Dodon stays the identical, however throughout him change, delineating levels of the dream-drama as a lot as character, arguably extra so. It will hardly be a Kosky manufacturing with out somebody in fishnets; right here the King’s males are horses on high and cabaret artists under. Some may complain we’ve got seen all of it earlier than, and maybe we’ve got, however inside this framework it is sensible.
Kosky additionally makes wonderful sense of the second act – as did Gaffigan – which I see I discovered ‘over-extended’ in Hackney. It arguably sits much less effectively with a political interpretation and, with out one thing else, might sound oddly unwarranted. Such a thought by no means occurred to me on this event; certainly, my ideas occasionally turned to Kundry’s revelations to Parsifal within the second act of that opera, an instance definitely well-known to Rimsky. The Queen of Shemakha turns into Dodon’s wish-fulfilment, and thus – in a twist of the ultimate revelation when the Astrologer owns that solely he and the Queen have been ‘actual’ – an inconceivable male fantasy, a siren who can not exist. I wonder if there may be room for each, and likely there can, however maybe then I may be complaining of an absence of focus. This opens up prospects reasonably than closing them, and for that, in addition to Kosky’s clear consideration to the truth that this can be a musical drama, with an orchestral rating and vocal components that demand dramatic consideration, we must always definitely be grateful. Likewise for the sense of thriller that attends sure shifts, not least in presentation of the ‘folks’, be they shadowy or downright oddball. A framework is offered, however there isn’t a try to dot each ‘i’ and cross each ‘t’. Goals might or might not ‘imply’ one thing; that continues to be largely as much as us. They’ll nonetheless definitely signify, if by no means fairly representing, needs and fears — which can be amenable to stronger political interpretation for tsars then and now. Observe the Queen’s expert troupe of dancing boys, but in addition the stark picture of the King’s son hanging from a tree, all for a ruler whose principal talent appears to be tilting at windmills.
Gaffigan’s command of color, rhythm, construction, and concord are excellent, revealing this as a very incisive rating with a number of interpretative – dramatic, in addition to ‘purely’ musical – challenges of its personal. The orchestra was on terrific kind all through: necessary, I believe, to underline, given the tendency to consider this firm’s values being extra on the ‘theatrical’ aspect. In fact, any opera firm that doesn’t bear witness to the multifaceted nature of the style won’t get very far: nobody goes to see an opera with out music, and if some reactionaries might declare to want to shut their eyes, their manufactured outrage offers the mislead that. Motifs imprinted themselves within the reminiscence, as did rhythms, timbres, and their mixture. Typically – typically – this drew us in, however it might distance us too: not precisely Verfremdung, however definitely an advantageous framing to the framing of our fairy story.
Equally necessary to that and a lot else was the superb solid. On stage virtually the entire time for a two-hour-plus efficiency with out an interval, Alexander Roslavets gave a towering efficiency as King Dodon. It’s not a straightforward factor to convey a plodding, in some ways unimpressive character to musical life, however that Roslavets definitely did, granting him sympathy in addition to absurdity, by equal focus on phrases, music, and gesture. Kseniia Proshina’s Queen of Shemakha provided old-style stardom, partly ‘straight’, partly in inverted commas, and pristine command of all of the vocal challenges Rimsky threw at her. James Kryshak’s Astrologer trod a advantageous line between sympathetic and virtually frighteningly unsympathetic and emerged all of the stronger for it. Margarita Nekrasova’s deep, unerringly ‘Russian’ mezzo-soprano, as close to a contralto as made no odds, was simply the factor for the housekeeper-turned-regent Amelfa. Julia Muzychenko introduced the Cockerel itself to vivid vocal life, in a advantageous partnership with Daniel Daniela Ojeda Yrureta’s onstage efficiency, which provided plentiful malice and ambiguity. As ever, there was a advantageous sense of firm, these singers and their colleagues all contributing to the better complete. What did it imply? What, certainly?
Mark Berry
