Last year when I saw, here in Leipzig, Germany, a production of Wagners first opera Die Feen (written when he was 20!) I didnt have much to say about it except that it was beautiful and that I had loved seeing it (and the rare opportunity of seeing it). Now Im back, a year later, and I have seen it again, and I have quite a lot more to say about the opera and this production (and Im curious as to why I was so reticent a year ago!). First, as to the opera itself: its almost never performed, and in that regard I could repeat, but wont, most of my comments in relation to Wagners 2nd opera Das Liebesverbot which I saw here in Leipzig a week ago. I think it is useful to quote Denis Forman, from his excellent (1994-2000) book The Good Wagner Opera Guide: If Die Feen were revived today - and it should be - it would come off as a pleasant evening of simple opera going. Arindal and Ada have a top-class aria each, there is one complete scene (Act III Sc 1) which would bear comparison with what the Italians did in the same style and although longish for its weight (2 3/4 hours) it is seldom boring. The ludicrous plot is a heavy disadvantage. Frankly I would go further: I think Die Feen better than much of the Italian opera that we get all gooey about, for example the awful Turandot and many others. All that being said, it is on the face of it likely that the ludicrous plot is a heavy disadvantage and it is on that thought that I must turn to this particular production. As anyone who could be bothered reading my opera commetaries knows, I am inherently suspicious of innovative directorial interventions that subvert the intentions and character of perfectly good operas (such as the ridiculous Der fliegende Holländer in Oslo this week!) but in this production French director Renaud Doucet succeeded in giving integrity and meaning to an otherwise silly plot without contradicting anything that the young Wagner had written. Here I must digress briefly to mention a series of books that I read over 30 years ago called The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson, in which (to abbreviate hugely) Thomas Covenant is a leper, an outcast, who drifts into an alternate world where his white gold wedding ring allows him to wield a powerful magic, and in stages to defeat the bane of the arch destroyer of that beautiful world. I dont know whether Renaud Doucet knows about this work, but he employs a similar idea in this production. In the opera as written (again to abbreviate brutally) Arindal, the heir to the throne of the mythical kingdom of Tramond, is transported into the fairly kingdom, and falls in love with Ada, the fairly princess, with whom he has two children: the story (though it is horribly more complicated!) revolves around whether she will move to the earthly realm to be with him as he assumes his intended role as king, or whether he will give all that up to stay with her in the fairy kingdom. To overcome the apparent ludicrous character of that plot, Doucet constructs a third frame outside (but as I say not contradicting) what Wagner wrote, by positing Arindal as a suburban bourgeois in an apartment, apparently bored with his wife and retreating into a fantasy world which may or may not truly exist around him. He first is transported into the romantic mediaeval Tramond, and then into the Fairy kingdom, so that all the action of the opera (on both its earthly and fairly levels) occurs outside the imposed primary reality of the suburban guy Arindal and his family and friends. I was so pleased to observe that this directorial intervention into Wagners original scheme worked beautifully, including a lovely twist at the end which I leave unmentioned to (perhaps) surprise someone who might read this post and one day see the same production. As I expected, the Gewandhausorchester under conductor Matthias Foremny was luscious, and the chorus was sensational. The cast was mostly the same as when I saw this show a year ago, and the two principals, Dutch tenor Arnold Bezuyen (Arindal) and German soprano Christiane Libor (Ada) were both stunning in their two big and very demanding roles, as were the many others in lesser roles. The sets were complex, ever-changing and beautiful, and the costumes were equally beautiful, perfectly fulfilling the fantasy of the narrative. I was thrilled in every way to see this production again tonight, and I enjoyed it even more than I did a year ago. I hope that I one day get a chance to see it again.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 01:20:51 +0000
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