Hey, it's my first Czech opera not by Smetana, Dvořák, or Janáček. What a thrill.
The story is based on a surrealist play by Georges Neveux. All the ins and outs would be a little hard to describe, and probably not of much utility. But basically, there's this guy, Michel, who comes to a seaside town in search of a girl who he heard singing three years ago. But nobody in this town can remember anything: that seems to be a characteristic of that town, so when outsiders come, they get them to recount their memories so they can take them on. He gets appointed "captain" for having such a good memory. Eventually he meets the woman in question. They meet a "memory salesman," and she looks at photographs he's selling and from them remembers their supposed past. She runs away and Michel impulsively fires a shot that may or may not have killed her. He's going to be executed, but gets out of it by telling them more memories as inspired by the photographs so they forget about it. He sails away on a ship. He wakes up in this "dream bureau" where people come to have the dreams they want. The clerk warns him that he's gotta get out of there before they close up, or he'll be stuck forever. He ends up staying anyway, and as the opera closes, the opening is being recapitulated.
Right! So there you have it. I was really loving this for the first two acts, but much less so with the third, in the dream bureau. The thing is...no, it's not "realistic," but it does provide a concrete explanation for what's going on, which makes the whole thing way less interesting to me. And it doesn't make sense, either--and not in a good, surrealist non-sense-making way: he wants to be united with Julietta, okay, but why is he apparently also fantasizing about living in a weird, mutable world where no one can remember anything? I mean, I suppose there could be a reason for that, or it could be just the nature of dreams, but neither of these things is even hinted at. Still, the appropriately atmospheric romantic music combined with the strength of the first two thirds makes it worthwhile, if not quite the masterpiece that it could be.
It is not super-easy to see this opera. First, you must obtain a bootleg DVD of the production that was on Operavision before you knew about Operavision. But it has not subtitles, so then, you must purchase a CD of the opera that includes a libretto (in Czech, French, English, and German). And you will do that because you have wanted to see it for a long time. It's a good production, too: very dreamlike, as befits the piece. The only thing you won't like about it--and you wouldn't even know not to like this if you weren't following it with a separate libretto--is that there are a number of scenes that were very noticeably cut. They don't affect your understanding of the plot (such as it is), but a story like this really runs on atmosphere more than anything else, so why cut, for instance, a scene where Michel returns to Julietta's house only to be told by an old woman that there's never been anyone like Julietta living there? If you can tell me the logic of cutting that, I will buy you a bánh mì sandwich.
No comments:
Post a Comment