If someone would love to watch Heinrich Marschner’s opera, The Vampire because of the expectations of bloody and horrific scenes, then it is better to choose any film adaptations of a classical stories of vampire. The story of the drama, which was written in 1828 has some unexpected turns, and from the point of view of some details, the musical material can offer surprises, however during the last performance of Mezzo opera festival we had to admire, and not to be afraid.

Ruthven is the main character of the story, which takes place in Scotland in the 18th century, who is a vampire and according to the vampire master’s order, he will have to sacrifice three girls within twenty-four hours. Thanks to his attractive appearance and tempting power he could kill two women so called fast and without any greater difficulty. The third one seems to be easy too, as they would like him to marry the girl, and they urge the marriage too, but there is an opponent: the girl’s lover, Aubrey. He knows the truth about Ruthven’s personality, and he would like to save her lover, Malwina, sooner, but he cannot reveal the secret (that the marriageable earl is a vampire) then he would be under the curse too and he would become a vampire too.

In connection with Heinrich Marschner the literature always mentions Weber and Wagner too, to emphasize the composer’s temporary role. After watching the performance, it is a little bit understandable, why the opera houses of the world do not compete with one another to perform the opera, for the music historians this must be a more interesting material than to a viewer, who is used to the usual repertoire of usual opera houses. The director of the performance, Zoltán Balázs leaves out the adventurous scenes of the story, and the effects of a hunted castle, and similarly to his earlier performances, he dreams a static world on the stage, which is rich in sights – now he imitates the picture of the eastern world. The set is just a half circle shaped staircase, the place is divided into with a wall, which can be closed by sliding doors. All of it does not seem to be cool and sterile, because they make attractive the sight with colourful lights, the costumes are especially wonderful: the performers are wearing Japanese costumes, from fine material, with different bright colours.

The direction is precise, the choreographs are worked out, the choir move together concentratedly. The general impressions are bothered by the fact, that some clothes are made to be too long, and the singers walk carefully on the stairs, while they are afraid of the falling down. Ruthven and Aubry stand or move many times symmetrically, when only one of them is in action than the other one hides in the background, but this time they are there emphasized. Ruthven is not a figure from this world, he is a mythical figure, he cannot get rid of the human Aubry, as he knows his secret, and Aubry cannot get rid of Ruthven because his exposure is dangerous, then he has to be in his footsteps, if he would like to save his lover. Of course, the three women (Janthe, Emmy, Malwina) are important too, as they cannot resist Ruthven, the Don Giovanni of the vampires, who entirely enchant them. The performance is full of slow and staged movements, where there are many scenes, which seem to be totally motionless and standing picturesque, the choir, when they do not perform the choir of vampires, they usually congratulate to the future married couple or sing about the joy of drinking, so they represent the power of life and happiness between the cruel death actions. These scenes delay the final ending, but it has no use, that the choir change dresses many times, for the second and third time they seem to be repeating themselves. It is strange for the organised and detailed Japanese world, so the “buffa-scene” does not fit there at all, when Suse throws suddenly down her kimono and talks down her drunken husband and his friends, and hits their bottoms in underwear.

Independently from the sight there is a deeply arbitrary gesture in the connection of the Japanese world and this romantic opera, we cannot feel that the two worlds are strongly connected. Zoltán Balázs imagined the performance obviously into an eastern area, because for him the most important element of the opera, is the continuous presence of love and death through the roles of the two male characters, and the inseparable nature of it, and this idea is close to the eastern way of living, then to the western European. The difficulty is that this metaphorical relationship between Ruthven and Aubry is not formed in the performance. So, after all, this Japanese world can be adapted to any opera (without vampires and mythical creatures) independently from the original place and era.

The reason of it can be that the singers, who perform the opponents, have really different performance, according to their voices Nabil Sulimann became the winner against Marc Haffnerrel, who performed Aubry. The figures of the two killed women, is one role, but Helen Kearns as Janthe and Emmy seemed to be different singers, first she was weak and insignificant, but she got power for the second part. From Malwina’s (Vanessa Le Charlès) figure I missed the complexity very much, which could form her struggle really interesting and vivid between the two men, the love triangle. It is not so lucky, that the director puts to the box on the first floor, the choir of vampires and the vampire master, however the viewers turn their heads excitedly, but the conductor, who sometimes has difficulty to bring the orchestra together, made their work more difficult.

At the end of the performance the strike of a clock can be heard from the background, to mark that the twenty-four hours are over, the vampire – as he could not sacrifice all the three girls – disappears behind the wall, and we can see his blurred shadow. Everyone can breathe happily, that the vampire is dead. Malwina is saved. Then from the new husband’s hand a string of pearls comes up, the same one, with which Ruthven tidied inseparably to himself his former victims. Malwina cannot be saved. Aubry has become a vampire too. The director did not choose the happy ending. This is The Vampire in Japanese style. Anyway, the seppuku was cancelled.

Orsolya Kelemen, Ellenfény, 2008

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)