The poster (above) and the premise; that of the opera being a fusion of the tragedy 'Octavia' by Seneca and Lev Trotsky's essay on Lenin, drew me in. I was excited by the prospect of such a theatrical marriage and the stage looked interesting. However, in reality, what actually happened was me sitting, staring at my computer screen, in utter and complete boredom for the entire 90 minutes' running time!
I did like the set, plush red platform and stairs atop of which was a huge head - Caesar or Lenin or both rolled into one. There was a distinct Chinese feel to the production as a whole which I simply didn't understand though. The entire time many large headless warriors were moved slowly around the stage to form different 'pictures'. They resembled the famous terracotta warriors of a long-forgotten dynasty buried underground with their dead leader. The costumes too, which were frankly all over the place, were reminscent in many ways of ancient Chinese couture. I suppose the red too didn't help to dispel the idea of 'China' in my mind.
A chariot, drawn by three minotaur skeletons was centre stage, and four warrior dancers pranced continually around the stage with extended rifles and shiny plastic suits.
To say that this opera was bizare is an understatement. The over-riding criticism I should level at this production is that it was a mix of many ideas, none of which really cohered. Modernism, and contemporary production values only work if all the creatives involved are singing from the same hymn sheet, and I got the distinct feeling here that that simply wasn't the case. There was also far too much allegory and imagery at play here. Were we meant to be familiar with both Seneca's 'Octavia' and the life, society, and intrigue of Ancient Rome as well as understand the philosophies and sophistries of both Lenin and Trotsky? and if so, we might have stood a better chance at emoting or relating to what unfolded. As it was, despite English subtitles, I found I was still not fully understanding the proceedings nor the correlation between Rome in AD56 and Russia in 1920.
Perhaps this wouldn't have mattered so much if the opera were to have had any music! However, what passed for music in this production was a continuous and incessant wailing wordless chorus on top of which the soloists were expected to sing torturously difficult recitative all the way through, the men utilising both their chest voice and their falsetto registers, and there were no arias, no "songs", no choruses, in fact.. no music.. just perhaps an extension of what the Germans might call 'Sprechgesang'. For 90 minutes, this was painful to the ears. Also, none of the characters ever even related to one another. They were all separate entities and seemed to exist in their own 'zones'. When they did interact with each other - which was far too seldom - it was perfunctory at best. No connectivity, no relationships, no emotions, and no chemistry!
Further, the production never once got out of first gear. It was unbelievably slow and pedestrian. It was meandering and deliberate, almost like watching something at half-speed. Too many differing and baffling stylistic choices, that you sat watching the stark imagery, without understanding or connecting. Very 'arty' but absolutely no substance.
The whole was conceived, developed, written and directed by Boris Yukhananov, Sergei Andonyev, and Dmitri Kourlianski.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 3/5/20
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