Carl Nielsen, Saul og David (1902)

Hey look, it's none other than my first Danish opera! There actually do seem to be a fair number of them from Scandinavia, but as ever with countries that we don't associate with the form, they're not widely shown overseas. Or so it seems to me. Anyway, there's a 1986 production on youtube right here.

It is, obviously, an opera on Biblical themes. So apparently, God's mad at Saul because, um, he did the sacrifice wrong, not waiting for the prophet Samuel to get there first. That God is a temperamental one, no doubt about it. But then he meets his son Jonathan's friend David, whose singing comforts him. David and Saul's daughter Michal fall in love. La. But then! Oh no philistines, led my some dude named Goliath. So, well, we all know what happens, but only off-stage. There is no on-stage philistine-slaying. Everyone loves David for this: they repeatedly note that "Saul has slain thousands, but David has slain tens of thousands," and Saul gets jealous and David is exiled. David comes upon Saul's camp at night, but does not kill anyone, to show how he wants peace. They are reconciled, but this reconciliation lasts approximately zero seconds, because then ol' Samuel shows up, and declares that David is or should be the new king and then dies, and Saul is all pissed again. Anyway, thing with the Witch of Endor, in whose body Samuel informs him that God hates him now and he's going to die and all his kids too and then...that happens, and David's the new boss. Though he's sad about all the dead people. The end.

Most odd. Most odd indeed. It's a little hard to know how to read this opera. If you see it as a straight, unironic Biblical account...it really doesn't work. I mean, Old Testament stories in particular are often weird and repellent and difficult to put into what we would consider narratively and morally comprehensible frameworks. That's just a fact. And this...is very much included. This idea that Saul is now hated of God because he did some nonsense legalistic bullshit about sacrifices wrong, and therefore this random-ass kid is going to take his place, and everyone excited about how many philistines they've murdered the hell out of, it's all kind of...well, it's not exactly a very satisfying or morally edifying story (and even if you DO think all that stuff is fine, the fact is, the relationship between Saul and David, which you'd think would be the whole point, is never really developed to any meaningful extent). But, I must say, it does work somewhat better if you think of it as the story of Saul getting screwed over, whether by his own neuroses or God or some combination or whatever. Not exactly cheerful, but since when was that a problem for operas? And it's pretty clear that the text itself has at least a certain amount of sympathy with this view; witness his final aria before offing himself. So it's kind of ambiguous and strange, for sure.

Musically, again, it's a bit scattered, I feel. There are bits that are less exciting, but there are also bits that are more so, like David and Michal's passionate first-act love duet (notwithstanding the fact that their relationship is never developed or goes anywhere or anything), or the reconciliation chorus between Saul and David (notwithstanding the fact that this is rendered meaningless almost instantaneously), or Saul's aforementioned final aria, which is definitely the best thing in the opera, and seems to be a much better emotional climax than YAY DAVID'S KING NOW HE'S GOING TO MAKE ISRAEL GREAT AGAIN.

I should note that the video and sound quality here are really not the best; this production seems to have been ripped from an old videocassette, and you know what those are like. I think it's enough to give you an idea, but be warned. Out of the cast, I think Leif Roar as Saul is definitely the highlight; I had no idea who this was while I was watching it, but it turns out that Roar also played the villainous Telramund in the LohengrinI saw, which was a highlight of that production. I don't think any of the other singers have any international acclaim, but they're all, you know, good enough. The production itself relied a bit more than I would've liked on the singers where mostly single-color costumes, giving it a sort of faerie-tale look that didn't seem entirely appropriate to me, but again, BASICALLY FINE. Glad I saw it. End of review.