Search - :: Leos Janacek - From the House of Dead / MCO, ASC, Boulez, Chereau (Festival Aix-en-Provence 2007)

A searing and memorable final production from Boulez and Che

Mike Birman | Brooklyn, New York USA | 04/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Janacek's final opera, composed in 1927-28 and given its posthumous premiere two years later, is based on the Dostoyevsky novel written in 1861-62 in which the author renders his own prison experiences. The story as seen in the opera is not presented in a linear fashion, rather it is like a Robert Altman film such as Nashville or Short Cuts where an ensemble cast presents several intertwined stories of a disparate nature and with varied emotional impact. Janacek chose six characters and their compelling stories to focus on, reducing the novel's sprawling, amorphous structure into a more manageable form. The selection by Janacek is masterful: we are drawn into this bleak world with its ever-present despair and random violence because we identify with the plight of the inmates. It is a world later visited by Kafka, cold gray prison walls functioning as real and metaphorical agent of enslavement. It is the perfect paradigm of the twentieth century.



Janacek's music is astringent, slightly dissonant but tonal and often strangely lyrical. The amazing musical renaissance of his final years, one in which he discovered his true musical voice during his sixth decade, is reminiscent of Rameau. This uniquely modern lyricism and his expert choice of material makes Janacek one of the most important opera composers of the early 20th century. If you are unfamiliar with his work, this DVD is a fine place to begin. It is a superb performance in every way. Boulez conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor with his typical steely precision. His emphasis on sonority is perfect for this opera. Voices and instruments are sharply defined, crystalline in sound but without brittleness. The conductor's musical vision is like an edifice built of soft marble: the structure is polished and solid, adamantine but pliable. The effect is both warmly human and coldly monumental. It is a fierce, incendiary performance that will leave you marveling at how much impact a 100 minute opera can provide.



In director Patrice Chereau's brilliant 2007 production, all of the singers are splendid. This is a true ensemble performance. The costumes are nothing more than the filthy rags of the gulag. It is not pretty, nor should it be. The set consists of towering gray prison walls enclosing a drab, depressing prisonyard. The angular walls suggest a massive, impersonal labyrinth. The sole symbol of hope in this sorrowful opera is a tattered wounded eagle: much like Beckett's solitary tree, with its single leaf tenuously fluttering in the breeze, in Waiting for Godot. The images are searing but disturbingly familiar, for this universe is also wounded. The random brutality we witness is life in its most basic and cruel guise. We spend all of our lives trying to keep this version of life at bay. We don't always succeed. This opera is for those times. You won't soon forget this masterful production.



The opera was filmed in July 2007 in high definition and looks splendid. Sound in PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 is crystal clear. The DVD contains a 48 minute bonus making of film as well as the 100 minute opera. There are the usual DGG menus.



One of the finest DVDs of the year, this is an exemplary performance that is most strongly recommended.



Mike Birman"

The living dead

C. Boerger | Columbus, OH USA | 04/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Prior to watching this, I had never seen or heard this opera before, but I like Janacek, love Dostoevsky, so I thought I would give it a try. Good call. From the House of the Dead is a bleak but essential opera, and Stephan Metge's film of Patrice Chereau's dank, foggy, severe staging makes for a powerful viewing experience. Almost from the first note I fell in love with Janacek's score. The composer has created a brilliant melange of lyricism and dissonance where the orchestration is more important than the vocalism. The singing in this opera is non-melodic, at times sparse, austere, almost conversational. What melodies there are are all contained within the instrumental portion of the score, it's Janacek's schizophrenic orchestration that sets the mood, creates tension and individualizes the characters. And the tension rarely comes to a stop, even when very little is happening onstage.



Based on Dostoevsky's experiences in a Siberian prison camp, Janacek's opera has no real story, although it begins with the imprisonment of a nobleman and ends with his freedom. Not much happens over the course of three acts, yet we learn about the lives of some of the prisoners, the crimes they committed that brought them there, almost uniformly crimes of passion(Janacek, wisely, doesn't ask us to sympathize with the crimes, he only wants us to respect the incarcerated as flawed beings). There is a strange lack of regret among the men, almost as if the years of being jailed have beaten much of their feeling out of them, other than their loneliness, plus traces of anger and sadness for what's been lost. By the time we meet them the men are threadbare, submissive, seemingly robbed of their passions, a far cry from the hotheads sent to prison for giving in to their violent desires. Yet these men are far from dead. They tend to an injured eagle and revel in its eventual freedom, show an interest in each other's histories, and enthusiastically perform a couple of pantomimes that, like Hamlet's play within a play, have relevance to the bigger picture. Occasionally, they turn their suppressed rage against each other. They even form bonds, the most of touching of which develops between the nobleman(the newcomer among the bunch) and a young, heartsick prisoner who seems to have captured the sympathies of almost the entire population. Although the details of their friendship are given only a small amount of attention, at least in the larger scheme of the opera as a whole(the older man teaches the younger to read and write and through this becomes a paternal figure), the audience has no trouble feeling empathy, and being moved by their bittersweet separation which comes at the end of the piece. This is partly because of Janacek's music, his mastery at subtly painting an emotional connection, a dramatic minimalism so to speak(this opera has not a trace of melodrama except for that which is contained within the various prisoners' narratives) and partly because the prisoners as a whole converge into a single collective character, forcing the audience to connect with each experience. No prisoner's story has any real precedence, and yet they all manage to be effective. Hence, the title House of the Dead becomes ironic; the prisoners, despite their disenfranchisement, despite having a good deal of their vitality drained out of them by years of isolation, are still very much alive.



This production takes place before an audience, but it looks more like a film than the typical taping of a live performance, and the audience doesn't even realize that it is live until the curtain drops on the final act. Chereau and Metge have created a stark look for the film, effectively creating a sense of imprisonment and deprivation, which contrasts to a certain extent with Janacek's mood-swinging music, running the gamut of emotions, but is appropriate for the overall feel of the piece. There is little hope in the narrative and therefore in the lighting, sets, costumes or camerawork; even the ending, when both the eagle and the nobleman are released into the wide open, is handled in a delicate and non-commital manner rather than being celebratory. Nonetheless the opera and film do manage to be uplifting, in their own way, and the emotional effect is as overpowering as Verdi or Wagner while lacking those composers' sweep(which would have been inappropriate here). Despite the subject matter, this work of art goes beyond simply being disturbing, thanks to the fact that it is empowered by a heart and a soul."

A powerful Z Mrtvého Domu

T. C. | 04/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best opera DVD I watched lately.



From the House of the Dead is a great 20th century opera, realizing miraculously the essence of Dostoevsky novel Notes from the Dead House. There is no narrative to the opera as a whole, but individual characters narrate episodes in their lives, which are focused on the reasons for their imprisonment.



The very unique team of conductor Pierre Boulez and stage director Patrice Chereau has done it again after their legendary collaboration in the late seventies Bayreuth Ring. This is a powerful and very moving production of the opera. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra plays outstandingly for Boulez, who said lately that this is the last opera production he will participate. From the House of the Dead is definitely a great choice. Every one in the large cast of male singers is excellent both in singing and acting. Boulez and Chereau decision to give the role of the young prisoner Aleyeya to a tenor (The young German tenor Erik Stokloßa) proves to be a brilliant idea. One should mention John Mark Ainsley who does an especially great job as Skuratov.



Urgently recommended!!

"