Marschner’s opera, which was performed in 1828 is an extremely interesting piece of music (even a singspiel?). The shudder is guaranteed not by the main character – who expected it, they had to be disappointed – by but its status in musical history: the drama is halfway between The Free-shooter (1821) and the Flying Dutchman (1843).

“The Vampire is a spoiled Don Giovanni anyway...”

The performance on its own is not a perfect one, but its historical worth ensured its place in György Kroó’s Wagner-seminars in the musical academy. Emmy’s ballad, which she sings at the beginning of the second act, “just” has to be mixed with ingenuity and Senáté was born from the Dutch, Blunt, Gadshill, Scrop and Green’s drinking in the pub (also from the II. act) and Suse Fellini-like self-scene come from the pages of Freischütz here. Another of my professors from the musical academy even during the interval of Lucretia “warned” me, that The Vampire is a spoiled Don Giovanni anyway.

Even the Wikipedia knows, that the trio of Ruthven - Emmy - George (the lord and the young farmer couple, who wants to get married) are the pandanus of the trio of Don Giovanni - Zerlina - Masetto. But there are no words on the internet about – however it was quite evident on the performance on Saturday – the fact that Berkley and Ruthven’s duel (at the beginning of the first act) is musically similar to the duel by governor and Don Giovanni, only the roles have been changed. While Marschner’s vampire is left by the soul (we do not know at that time, that it is only temporary), he is whispering the words, he has learnt from the governor of Sevilla. There are some similarities between the Aubry-Ruthven’s couple too, they are similar to Leporello and the big eater Don according to their interdependence. Another similarity is, that – similarly to the great example – the bloodsucker, to lower his appetite, uses his seduction similarly to Don Juan.

From the point of view of interpretation on stage, there are many intertextualities in The Vampire (there are holes in it) it gives chance to direct it with the usage of previous opera knowledge, anyway Zoltán Balázs has decided to come closer to the play not from the context of musical history. He handles Marschner’s opera, as it would have immanent and characteristic meaning on its own. He chose the more difficult way. Maybe this way is not hopeless at all (it is by the way), the chosen form is a dead end for sure. A beautiful performance was born, but the object of it has become a pure excuse.

I think the sensitive point of the performance is that ballad. It can even keep Zoltán Balázs’ – seeing from outside – Japanese-like, samurai-like conception too. That is why I think, that Balázs also feels the dramaturgical sensitivity of this moment (at least he shows it), the ceremonious, ritual form and the play can come together there in a memorable way. Maybe this moment can cause the emphasize of the ballad-like tone of the whole play, but understandably he does not want to move towards the Scottish art ballad, and originally cut out the Hungarian folk ballads: with them he would become inevitably similar to Béla Pintér’s theatre. He was not bothered anyway by the fact, that the chosen form language refers directly to Akira Kurosawa’s world, to the Japanese director’s Macbeth – adaptation. We have to remember the bloody throne.

If we have talked about so much the form language, then we have to come up with the formalism of Balázs’ work. The parallel system of signs can be alienating, and we have known his “trick” from his previous performances, with which he forces the actors-singers to concentrate in an extra way. But, in an opera basically more systems of signs are running parallel, story, text and music, and the relative independence of these can be realized in case of such a moderate author, as Marschner.

“It is the narcissism anyway...”

The using of a fourth layer seems to be exaggeration, especially if this fourth layer coves the others as a coating. It is not successful, if we can see, that the director likes this layer much more than those, which we already have. It is narcissism anyway, and it cannot be forgotten even if the picture, was conjured in front of the viewers, is a sight is about wonderfully artistic and improved culture of design, (set and costume designer: Judit Gombár) which can raise intensive feelings anyway. Even in the similarly narcistic critic too.

We can give the detailed analyse of the performance, but we have to mention it, that as a performance of the competition (add to is fast: the viewpoints of the competition are from lower quality than the viewers’ viewpoints from Rennes) it puts its own singers into a disadvantageous situation. From the point of view of singing technique there were some unpleasant formation, for example, Helen Kearns in the role of Janthe, who was the first victim, would have made her first sounds leaning forward, kept by her shoulders. But it is less interesting now, more unpleasant, that we should watch a performance from her and the others forced into just one mask. (I know, of course I know, that I except something from Zoltán Balázs, against which he has rebelled with all his works in theatre...) The exercise fulfilment of actors has become a fulfilment of a function.

The Syrian, Nabil Suliman, who sings the main character is a perfect vampire even without any masks. Zoltán Balázs did not build on his characteristic (according to the director’s statement we did not expect it), because of the attributes of a samurai he becomes similar to the other performers. His voice is really impressive, brassy, strong baritone. His speeches were characterized by plastic text telling and educated musicality. His partner, Marc Haffner, who was Aubry, could not compete with him, with his slider tenor. It was interesting that Helen Kearns sang much better as Emmy than Janthe.

“Finally remember the blood sucking itself...”

It is true, that the earlier one is a really good role – as we have written it above – she had to jump over dams too. Vanessa Le Charlés (Malwina) has a wonderful voice, but I am afraid, that her personality on stage has not been matured.

There is only one father, Christophe Fel could think about it, who performed all the three father roles of the opera, on a really good quality. I liked François Piolino’s easy tenor (George), and the shocking Karine Audebert (Suse), who performed the “tobacconist woman”. From the program we can learn, that the staging used many doubling (even triple characters), we should not look for really deep meaning, we may come up against clichés.

Finally, we should remember the blood sucking too. The actors performed the act with a beautifully made game. At the right moment, a long chain of pearls came up from the Earl’s dress, which was circled around the victim’s neck. When the murderous necklace got into Suliman’s mouth in a well posed position, it seemed to be really long canine teeth. It is a shame that Malwina got the same necklace at the end of the opera from Aubry (so he has become a vampire too).

Szabolcs Molnár, Operaportál, 2008

(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)