A Video to Preview Next Season’s Opera

from the Amazon.com Web page for the video being discussed

Readers may recall that, in a little less than a year, San Francisco Opera (SFO) will be concluding its 2020–21 season with its premiere production of Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Opus 17 one-act opera “Der Zwerg” (the dwarf). Furthermore, a little over a month ago, this site reported on a video of another Zemlinsky opera by the Livermore Valley Opera. That opera was the composer’s Opus 16, “Eine florentinische Tragödie” (a Florentine tragedy), whose libretto was a German translation of a fragment of a play of the same title that Oscar Wilde never completed. Similarly, Opus 17 is based on one of Wilde’s short stories, “The Birthday of the Infanta,” which was turned into a libretto by Georg Klaren. Zemlinsky completed the score in January of 1921, and the opera was first performed on May 28, 1922. Those curious about what to expect may wish to view a video of “Der Zwerg” released by Naxos in both Blu-ray and DVD formats.

The video documents a production by Deutsche Oper Berlin with capture sessions on March 27 and 30, 2019. Staging was by Tobias Kratzer, and the conductor was Donald Runnicles. This is not the production that will be brought to the War Memorial Opera House. SFO will be presenting a staging created for the Los Angeles Opera, directed by Darko Tresnjak. The conductor in San Francisco will be Henrik Nánási.

The duration of “Der Zwerg” is about 90 minutes (performed without an intermission). Kratzer decided to provide the Berlin audience with a more extended production by providing a prologue for the program. The music he used for this prologue was Arnold Schoenberg’s “Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene” (accompanying music to a film scene), the composer’s Opus 30, completed in 1930. This music accompanied staging depicting Zemlinsky’s passionate affair with Alma Schindler (who would later marry Gustav Mahler), interpreted as a music lesson involving both of them at a piano keyboard. The respective roles were taken by two pianists, Evgeny Nikiforov and Adelle Eslinger-Runnicles. The stage design was almost entirely in black and white, the only exception being the hot pink of Schindler’s dress. Basically, Kratzer used the story of Zemlinsky’s frustrated passions for Schindler to prepare the audience for the similar frustration encountered by the dwarf in Wilde’s story, the major difference being that the dwarf dies in Wilde’s narrative.

Wilde’s text does not provide a specific date for his tale. Nevertheless, the opening section of the story serves up a few key suggestions that this is all happening in roughly the same time frame that we associate with Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlo. In Wilde’s version the Spanish Infanta has just turned twelve. Klaren’s libretto, on the other hand, takes place on her eighteenth birthday, making it clear that sexual awakening is part of the narrative. Kratzer then does Klaren one better, giving the opera a contemporary (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) staging.

The Infanta (soprano Elena Tsallagova) is clearly the spoiled child of a very wealthy family, so wealthy that we never see any of them. We only see servants and friends; and, as one might guess, both Infanta and friends are expensively attired in flashy outfits, just right for sharing lots of photographs taken with cell phones. What threatens to be a contrivance actually works out rather well. The fact is that Wilde had no sympathy for either the Infanta or the dwarf that is presented to her as a birthday present by some sultan of a distant unnamed land. Thus, in Kratzer’s staging, the over-priced trendy shoe make the perfect fit for the self-indulgent teenaged Infanta.

The story revolves around the fact that the dwarf has no idea of his physical ugliness. Those that have kept and protected him made sure that he would never encounter a mirror. He is thus a curiosity to the Infanta. Unfortunately, he misinterprets the interest she shows in him as a sign of love; and, as might be expected, things go very badly from there to the end of the tale, in which the Infanta is too self-absorbed to realize that the dwarf has died after confronting his image in a mirror.

In staging this opera Kratzer decided to double-cast the dwarf. Zemlinsky scored the dwarf’s part for tenor, and in this performance that part is sung by David Butt Philip. However, because Philip is of normal size, Kratzer cast an actual dwarf, Mick Morris Mehnert, to mime the part. Both of them are on stage at the same time, and Kratzer engages several intriguing devices to depict the difference between how the dwarf imagines himself to be and how he really is.

I initially chose to view this video to familiarize myself with both the narrative of the libretto and Zemlinsky’s music, which I tend to enjoy in just about every genre that I have encountered. However, for those planning to see the SFO production next year, I have to confess that I am a bit cautious in recommending this video for advance preparation. Kratzer’s staging is so intense, even without the prologue, that I am concerned that it may raise conflicting expectations were the approach Tresnjak took for Los Angeles is concerned.