Dusapin - Macbeth Underworld
La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday September 29 2019
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Thomas Jolly. Production assistant: Alexandre Dain. Sets: Bruno de Lavenère. Lighting: Antoine Travert. Costumes: Sylvette Dequest. Lady Macbeth: Magdalena Kožená. Macbeth: Georg Nigl. Three Weird Sisters: Ekaterina Lekhina, Lilly Jørstad, Christel Loetzsch. Ghost: Kristinn Sigmundsson. Porter: Graham Clark. Archlute: Christian Rivet. Child: Elyne Maillard, Naomi Tapiola. Orchestra and Women’s Chorus of La Monnaie.
In 2015, I recorded that Penthesilea, Pascal Dusapin's previous opera, was hailed as a 'triumphant masterpiece'. His latest, Macbeth Underworld, is just as satisfying and includes some memorable innovations. It's obviously hard to describe in writing what a composer's work sounds like, but for a start, what I wrote four years ago remains true: 'Dusapin’s score is of course, in the circumstances' (I meant with regard to the intensity of the subject-matter) 'not what you might call easy listening; but it is by no means intractable. The scoring is fairly conventional, but with emphasis on the lower register: contrabassoons, tubas, double basses...' In the programme notes, conductor Alain Altinoglu discusses developments since then:
'These days, in Pascal Dusapin's work, the drama is more focused and plays a more significant part, the orchestration benefits from the experience of his symphonic compositions (…) and vocal characterization is sharper (…) As far as the vocal writing for soloists is concerned, Pascal Dusapin uses, from time to time, quite a unique system: a long note with a text of several words but no precise rhythm. It's up to the singers to stamp their own tempo on the monodic phrase (…) Pascal Dusapin likes to surprise us with prosody that is sometimes contrary to the 'natural' rhythm of the language. Other vocal 'colours' used, such as singing with a lot of breath, with or without pitch, or sprechgesang – have been part of what I would call the classical vocal vocabulary since the 20th century.
'In his operas, Pascal Dusapin surprises us by creating characters that seem to come from some far-off place (…) In Macbeth Underworld there are the Three Weird Sisters, who always echo the chorus and represent Macbeth's desire. The lead soprano part calls for 'stratospherically' high notes I've never come across before in a vocal score! Instrumentally speaking, Pascal likes to add instrumental solos or little on-stage effects: in Macbeth Underworld there is an archlute, very rare in contemporary music, bird whistles imitating different kinds of owls (…) The percussion is very varied, calling for instruments from Africa and Latin America, such as the shekere, the kola, the juju, the akataku or, in the case of the tingsha, from Tibet.
'The score involves frequent time changes (e.g. 4/4, 7/8, 1/8+3/4, etc) which represent one of the challenges for the conductor. These changes are there to follow the text while giving the impression of improvisation, or music made up as it is played. You can feel that the notes grow out of Shakespeare's words, as was the case with Kleist's text in Penthesilea. While it follows on from the composer's previous operas, Macbeth Underworld tends towards simplifying or, rather, concentrating the musical discourse (in the direction of greater purity) in order to touch us more immediately and deeply.'
Surprisingly, Altinoglu doesn't mention the organ, which, along with Dusapin's research into old Scottish music, adds to the somehow 'Gothic' sound world of the piece right from the start: the opera opens with a massive and hugely dramatic block of sound from orchestra and organ combined. The use of the women's chorus and the Three Weird Sisters, as mentioned, was memorably striking. The archlute, associated in particular with Lady Macbeth, and an Elizabethan dance sequence with on-stage musicians help develop a Shakespearian 'feel', as in Britten's Gloriana.
Dusapin is, I gather, quite a literary intellectual, and his opera writing, while giving darkly dramatic support to his chosen (thorny) texts, is not intrinsically 'action-packed'. Macbeth Underworld uses quotations from Shakespeare's original but, as the website Bachtrack puts it: 'You are strongly advised to read your Shakespeare again (...) before the performance as the approach adopted by librettist Frédéric Boyer,is to show us a "meta-Macbeth", locating the action in an inferno where we are not surprised to find the diabolical couple ending up after their misdeeds. They are no longer those bloody, madly power-hungry beings we thought we knew, but wander, broken and inconsolable, in an underground world of almost absolute darkness...'
The work overall might seem more oratorio-like than obviously operatic, but director Thomas Jolly was involved from the outset in the creative process, making it something of a Gesamtkunstwerk in a virtuoso production. The staging is dark throughout, punctuated with stark shafts of light and might be summed up as looking like Caspar David Friedrich with Elizabethan or Jacobean ruins instead of Gothic ones. A large revolving platform incorporates two or three smaller of the same, allowing for impressively complex interactions between tortured trees, a pillared gateway, topped with deer-skull and antlers and with a balcony above, framed by Atlases, spiral metal staircases more steam-punk than Shakespeare, and part of a palace with a bed, a washbasin and an oval mirror. Sometimes angularly chaotic strips of what might be neon or red lasers add a contemporary, geometrical highlight. Characters scramble up and down the sets and crawl through the branches. Costumes are black, white or red, plain and vaguely period in style, and the women's chorus are in cobwebby grey shrouds, like mourners at a royal funeral. The ghost, in white (of course), wears a glittering red dagger-wound. The porter, clutching a candelabra, has wild red hair and a ruff.
Neither Macbeth (Georg Nigl is Dusapin's 'go-to' singer) nor his Lady sang beautifully, but that wouldn't have been the point. Sigmundsson phrased more elegantly - insinuatingly might be the word. The Three Weird Sisters were very impressive and Graham Clark was, once again, a phenomenal character tenor. With the orchestra on particularly good form, it was altogether an excellent afternoon and the composer, present for curtain calls, was applauded as loudly as the rest. The new season is getting off to a good start.
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Production: Thomas Jolly. Production assistant: Alexandre Dain. Sets: Bruno de Lavenère. Lighting: Antoine Travert. Costumes: Sylvette Dequest. Lady Macbeth: Magdalena Kožená. Macbeth: Georg Nigl. Three Weird Sisters: Ekaterina Lekhina, Lilly Jørstad, Christel Loetzsch. Ghost: Kristinn Sigmundsson. Porter: Graham Clark. Archlute: Christian Rivet. Child: Elyne Maillard, Naomi Tapiola. Orchestra and Women’s Chorus of La Monnaie.
'These days, in Pascal Dusapin's work, the drama is more focused and plays a more significant part, the orchestration benefits from the experience of his symphonic compositions (…) and vocal characterization is sharper (…) As far as the vocal writing for soloists is concerned, Pascal Dusapin uses, from time to time, quite a unique system: a long note with a text of several words but no precise rhythm. It's up to the singers to stamp their own tempo on the monodic phrase (…) Pascal Dusapin likes to surprise us with prosody that is sometimes contrary to the 'natural' rhythm of the language. Other vocal 'colours' used, such as singing with a lot of breath, with or without pitch, or sprechgesang – have been part of what I would call the classical vocal vocabulary since the 20th century.
'In his operas, Pascal Dusapin surprises us by creating characters that seem to come from some far-off place (…) In Macbeth Underworld there are the Three Weird Sisters, who always echo the chorus and represent Macbeth's desire. The lead soprano part calls for 'stratospherically' high notes I've never come across before in a vocal score! Instrumentally speaking, Pascal likes to add instrumental solos or little on-stage effects: in Macbeth Underworld there is an archlute, very rare in contemporary music, bird whistles imitating different kinds of owls (…) The percussion is very varied, calling for instruments from Africa and Latin America, such as the shekere, the kola, the juju, the akataku or, in the case of the tingsha, from Tibet.
'The score involves frequent time changes (e.g. 4/4, 7/8, 1/8+3/4, etc) which represent one of the challenges for the conductor. These changes are there to follow the text while giving the impression of improvisation, or music made up as it is played. You can feel that the notes grow out of Shakespeare's words, as was the case with Kleist's text in Penthesilea. While it follows on from the composer's previous operas, Macbeth Underworld tends towards simplifying or, rather, concentrating the musical discourse (in the direction of greater purity) in order to touch us more immediately and deeply.'
Surprisingly, Altinoglu doesn't mention the organ, which, along with Dusapin's research into old Scottish music, adds to the somehow 'Gothic' sound world of the piece right from the start: the opera opens with a massive and hugely dramatic block of sound from orchestra and organ combined. The use of the women's chorus and the Three Weird Sisters, as mentioned, was memorably striking. The archlute, associated in particular with Lady Macbeth, and an Elizabethan dance sequence with on-stage musicians help develop a Shakespearian 'feel', as in Britten's Gloriana.
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| Dusapin |
The work overall might seem more oratorio-like than obviously operatic, but director Thomas Jolly was involved from the outset in the creative process, making it something of a Gesamtkunstwerk in a virtuoso production. The staging is dark throughout, punctuated with stark shafts of light and might be summed up as looking like Caspar David Friedrich with Elizabethan or Jacobean ruins instead of Gothic ones. A large revolving platform incorporates two or three smaller of the same, allowing for impressively complex interactions between tortured trees, a pillared gateway, topped with deer-skull and antlers and with a balcony above, framed by Atlases, spiral metal staircases more steam-punk than Shakespeare, and part of a palace with a bed, a washbasin and an oval mirror. Sometimes angularly chaotic strips of what might be neon or red lasers add a contemporary, geometrical highlight. Characters scramble up and down the sets and crawl through the branches. Costumes are black, white or red, plain and vaguely period in style, and the women's chorus are in cobwebby grey shrouds, like mourners at a royal funeral. The ghost, in white (of course), wears a glittering red dagger-wound. The porter, clutching a candelabra, has wild red hair and a ruff.
Neither Macbeth (Georg Nigl is Dusapin's 'go-to' singer) nor his Lady sang beautifully, but that wouldn't have been the point. Sigmundsson phrased more elegantly - insinuatingly might be the word. The Three Weird Sisters were very impressive and Graham Clark was, once again, a phenomenal character tenor. With the orchestra on particularly good form, it was altogether an excellent afternoon and the composer, present for curtain calls, was applauded as loudly as the rest. The new season is getting off to a good start.
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