Theater Review
Der Zwerg (The dwarf) Alexander Zemlinsky
Landestheater Detmold, 05.04.04 (First Stage rehearsal.)
Well well well... This opera was... unexpected. I would divide the music into 3 reactions:
first: Very contemporary, but not bad. It's not the kind of thing I most enjoy, but I think I can appreciate and respect it.
Second: It's actually rather atonal -totally atonal. But I really like the way it works when the whole chorus sings; It reminds me of some choral works I've done before. It is rich, and well formed. And though there is no Melody to speak of, there is the shifting pattern of ... chords to listen to. I rather liked these sections.
Third: In contrast... when a soloist sings... it retains the same atonal style, but loses all the other notes: all the relationships (which is what I was enjoying,) are gone. For me, this leaves only a random-like collection of notes, which I can't really follow.
It should be noted that, being the first rehearsal on stage, many things were bound to be sub-par. Also, there were only two pianos, instead of the full orchestra it is intended to use. I must get to an other rehearsal (or, preferably, a performance,) to see how different it sounds With the orchestra. I figure, it could seem More, or less... Musical (in my special sense of the word: would it be possible to hum part of it after... or at least have it stay in your mind. As parts of it were now... they just don't go; My mind doesn't bend that way.)
I would like to have noted one place that did not at all fit my three reactions: Whet the dwarf First sang a solo bit... it was beautiful music. It stayed in a single key signature So long... I could identify the tonic!!!
Now... I want all to understand that up to here... it has only been a critique of the cnmposer. I didn't find anything lacking in the portrayals from my colleagues. And once I was used to the bold colours used, I found the lead female quite stunning in her wedding attire. (But why was it so? It was a celebration of her Birthday. Ah well... I'm sure there are a lot of things that I missed... from not speaking the language.)
Anyhow... I want to watch once, to see what it is like with Orchestra... but beyond that... Well. It's just not my chosen form of recreation.
Landestheater Detmold, 15.01.05 First performance after 8 months without it.
Well, I enjoyed the performance more this time, (surely partly due to being there with Pamela, and her mother.) But there were also other things that made me think better of it: For one thing, they got rid of this ridiculous balloon, (which used to cross the stage, from one side to the other, while hanging from a string, at the back. Once, in the whole hour or so. Very, very slowly.)
Another slight factor could have been that the singers were more comfortable in their roles now, than they were when it just premiered. Also, there was the fact that I'd talked with the lead in it, (Johannes,) and he said that he found the music difficult to listen to, but beautiful, if one was able to focus on it, and listen to it Actively, instead of Passively.
I suppose that that's what I attempted then. And what was the result? Hmmm...
In all honesty, it still sounded to chaotic for my taste: as I've said above: I could not hear any... melody. (And I can sometimes hear the melody in tone poems, that can not... be truly said to have a melody. I guess what I should say, is that I can Understand how they sound. -if that makes any sense at all.)
I still enjoyed it more than the last time though: Because I now heard many small passages, of 8 or 9 notes, that... I UNDERSTOOD. -That sounded like music to me. -and that were beautiful, and sublime... to a small extent. The way I felt the problem though, was that they were all a little... odd: in changing keys, and having a few notes that didn't "Fit" in the melodic sense. This is not normally a bad thing: it's something that can make music Interesting: when there's one note of discord in a passage, or when it changes "modes" in an unexpected way. The problem was, that every measure was like that: changing modes, or keys, or with notes that didn't fit one's understanding of what the music sounded like.
And this kept the audience, from getting oriented, (in a musical sense.) I doubt very much that I'm being clear. As a weaker, simplified example, let's take the Key that a piece could be written in. After about five or six notes of a song, the listener can sense what the key is, and ... feels comfortable with that. They understand the way the song sounds, and can... follow along, in a way, and they see when it goes back to the tonic, and when a musical phrase ends. It's all right if the key suddenly changes, because in another five notes, they will be able to recognise the new key, and then think, and feel, and realise how the composer switched between the two. BUT... when the key changes every four notes or so, there is never a chance to know where the tonic is, so the listener can neither understand the key, OR the changes that it's going through. It's continuous change, which... is just chaos.
So, although there are some high notes, and some low notes, and the occasional passage where I thought I heard a catch of melody, it was mostly just... incoherent.
These brief parts though, where it WAS coherent, and I could... understand, were wonderful. Rightly inspired. And, I think that if they were put into more... mundane, and simple music, they would be better appreciated.