Tamás Jászay: The Vampires’ charm
The opera director jumped out from Zoltán Balázs in full armour, with a samurai sword on his side.
Similarly to the other operas, which take part in the Mezzo competition, the opera house of Rennes could find an opera, which „does not exist” – at least in common knowledge – it is Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, a romantic frightening story. However, it was not always that way: after its premiere in 1828, the opera was performed in many places in Germany, then it arrived to France, and it was even played sixty evenings in London too! So in its own time, Heinrich Marschner’s play had a great success, but to understand the reason, we should watch the date. The opera, which was inspired by John Polidori’s The Vampyre text from 1819, could match to the vampire mania, which went through the XIX. century, and reached its top in 1897 by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and became slowly faded at the same time). The contrast between the world at daytime and at night, the unwanted or very desired contribution of unearthly powers, especially between the beautiful girls, who were about to get married, the incomprehensible deviance with “normal thinking” between the mental and soul – all these are topics, which are analysed even today with pleasant shivering by those who are a little bit attracted by the transcendent.
The choice of the topic is perfect. Marschner – the powers of the other world have come up from time to time in his other plays too – felt the soul of the era perfectly, and after knowing these facts above, the listeners have not had many problems with his music too. It is true that it depends on the viewpoint, that the glass is half full or half empty, as however, the successful story can step over borders too, Marschner has entered the group of fallen authors, not for nothing by today.
Maybe he was unsuccessful, that he was born between Weber and Wagner: the first one performed his first opera in Dresden, the later one especially likes him. The music historians have pointed out the effects of Marschner’s music in Lohengrin, in Tristan and even in Ring. The enthusiastic ones are proving that our hero is the missing part between the two giants, those who do not like him, have found Marschner bombastic and pathetic. The truth is obviously in the middle: it is great and powerful music, there is drama and love in it, and yes, with our contemporary ears it sounds many times too much, but maybe we have listened to too much of Wagner.
Marschner put the wandering motive of that time of the marriage, which is stopped by supernatural powers, (for example: from The Magic Hunter until the Twilight of the Gods and so on) into Scottish surrounding, where Ruthven, the main character has to afraid doubled from the sunlight of the daybreak: he gets twenty-four hours from the Vampire master to solve his own life with the sacrifice of three virgin girls. After the turning turnouts of the plot, which is a little bit over complicated, and has many folk elements in it, the result is three dead people – two of them are women and one of them is a vampire.
Zoltán Balázs with a brave idea put the Scottish vampires, who can speak German, from Scotland to the other side of earth, into the country of the rising sun. The Japanese frame, which is chosen as a background, is well over-thought, it becomes the part of the conception of the director, which cannot be experienced on its own at once. Zoltán Balázs, who works again with his proven group, has brought up nothing interesting in The Vampire, knowing his earlier career, the doubling or even tripling of the roles, which indicate definite interpretation, and require increased concentration from the viewers, (dramaturg: Judit Góczán) or the mirrors and reflections, which the director likes very much, can become important organisers too. And really, the two (later dead) brides can be easily played by the same singer, as well as the three girls’ three mothers can be given by one singer – the important dramaturgical intervention can regulate the story, which goes towards many ways, and can lead definitely our attention towards the general lessons.
The easy, but majestic vision (set and costume: Judit Gombár), the usage of the place, which sees creatively and bravely over the edges of the stage (at last someone realises that we are sitting in a huge, neo-baroque theatre building!), the precise moving of the few main characters and the choir with major number of members (choreographer: András Szőllősi), all these can make the performance in Rennes in its greatest moment, similar to Robert Wilson’s great theatrical ventures: Zoltán Balázs’ performance, from any point of view, is mature, it is a work, which can talk about great theatrical sensitivity. The result can be an important confirmation to the director too: in The Vampire we can see, that singers, who must be used to other things, can do the unusual orders controlled and punctually. The movements, which are slowed down, but can express tension anyway, the frightening turning of samurai swords and the gestures on the stage, which always mean aesthetic experience, many times easy, but they are not easy to translate, require an extreme concentration from the performers and the viewers too. On the singers we can see sometimes the heroic fight, but they deserve all appreciation, as they are obviously much more than well-behaving fulfillers.
Judit Gombár with the giant white wall, which dominates the stage, with the gates, which are cut in it and can be pulled aside, and with the low stairs in front of it, and with the well-chosen lights and with very few tools can show Japan to us. As the country of the far east is important only as a surrounding of the tale: the performance concentrates on the archaic motives of the ancient culture, on the phrases of Love and Death, Fighting and Friendship with capital letters, and with it, it can remain surprisingly honest to the original play.
As love and death are hands in hands here too: after the premier in 1828, one of the critics of the play condemned in Ruthven, that Marschner does not treat him as an absolute negative character, but he draws an ambivalent picture instead, and creates a creature with feelings from the monster. Nabil Suliman’s Ruthven – even after the illness, which was announced after the break – could be more than convincing: the power of his voice, he has exciting and really demonic aura, he is perfect for the main character. Marc Haffner, who performs the friend and the vampire master, is a competitor performer too, because of his average performance, the top points of the fight between the two men, cannot warm up the air. Helen Kearns sings the victim of the vampire: after the less captivating Janthe, Emmy’s more nuanced sounding must have been a refreshment for her too. The third girl’s role, Malwina, who has escaped successfully from the vampire, was absolved in a perfect form by Vanessa le Charles. I am convinced about the fact that the vampires also need sometimes laugh, by the clever scene of the second act about the pleasures of drinking, which Karine Audebert, the “sumo geisha” can make memorable, not only with her considerable sizes.
Tamás Jászay, Revizoronline, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)The opera director jumped out from Zoltán Balázs in full armour, with a samurai sword on his side.
Similarly to the other operas, which take part in the Mezzo competition, the opera house of Rennes could find an opera, which „does not exist” – at least in common knowledge – it is Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, a romantic frightening story. However, it was not always that way: after its premiere in 1828, the opera was performed in many places in Germany, then it arrived to France, and it was even played sixty evenings in London too! So in its own time, Heinrich Marschner’s play had a great success, but to understand the reason, we should watch the date. The opera, which was inspired by John Polidori’s The Vampyre text from 1819, could match to the vampire mania, which went through the XIX. century, and reached its top in 1897 by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and became slowly faded at the same time). The contrast between the world at daytime and at night, the unwanted or very desired contribution of unearthly powers, especially between the beautiful girls, who were about to get married, the incomprehensible deviance with “normal thinking” between the mental and soul – all these are topics, which are analysed even today with pleasant shivering by those who are a little bit attracted by the transcendent.
The choice of the topic is perfect. Marschner – the powers of the other world have come up from time to time in his other plays too – felt the soul of the era perfectly, and after knowing these facts above, the listeners have not had many problems with his music too. It is true that it depends on the viewpoint, that the glass is half full or half empty, as however, the successful story can step over borders too, Marschner has entered the group of fallen authors, not for nothing by today.
Maybe he was unsuccessful, that he was born between Weber and Wagner: the first one performed his first opera in Dresden, the later one especially likes him. The music historians have pointed out the effects of Marschner’s music in Lohengrin, in Tristan and even in Ring. The enthusiastic ones are proving that our hero is the missing part between the two giants, those who do not like him, have found Marschner bombastic and pathetic. The truth is obviously in the middle: it is great and powerful music, there is drama and love in it, and yes, with our contemporary ears it sounds many times too much, but maybe we have listened to too much of Wagner.
Marschner put the wandering motive of that time of the marriage, which is stopped by supernatural powers, (for example: from The Magic Hunter until the Twilight of the Gods and so on) into Scottish surrounding, where Ruthven, the main character has to afraid doubled from the sunlight of the daybreak: he gets twenty-four hours from the Vampire master to solve his own life with the sacrifice of three virgin girls. After the turning turnouts of the plot, which is a little bit over complicated, and has many folk elements in it, the result is three dead people – two of them are women and one of them is a vampire.
Zoltán Balázs with a brave idea put the Scottish vampires, who can speak German, from Scotland to the other side of earth, into the country of the rising sun. The Japanese frame, which is chosen as a background, is well over-thought, it becomes the part of the conception of the director, which cannot be experienced on its own at once. Zoltán Balázs, who works again with his proven group, has brought up nothing interesting in The Vampire, knowing his earlier career, the doubling or even tripling of the roles, which indicate definite interpretation, and require increased concentration from the viewers, (dramaturg: Judit Góczán) or the mirrors and reflections, which the director likes very much, can become important organisers too. And really, the two (later dead) brides can be easily played by the same singer, as well as the three girls’ three mothers can be given by one singer – the important dramaturgical intervention can regulate the story, which goes towards many ways, and can lead definitely our attention towards the general lessons.
The easy, but majestic vision (set and costume: Judit Gombár), the usage of the place, which sees creatively and bravely over the edges of the stage (at last someone realises that we are sitting in a huge, neo-baroque theatre building!), the precise moving of the few main characters and the choir with major number of members (choreographer: András Szőllősi), all these can make the performance in Rennes in its greatest moment, similar to Robert Wilson’s great theatrical ventures: Zoltán Balázs’ performance, from any point of view, is mature, it is a work, which can talk about great theatrical sensitivity. The result can be an important confirmation to the director too: in The Vampire we can see, that singers, who must be used to other things, can do the unusual orders controlled and punctually. The movements, which are slowed down, but can express tension anyway, the frightening turning of samurai swords and the gestures on the stage, which always mean aesthetic experience, many times easy, but they are not easy to translate, require an extreme concentration from the performers and the viewers too. On the singers we can see sometimes the heroic fight, but they deserve all appreciation, as they are obviously much more than well-behaving fulfillers.
Judit Gombár with the giant white wall, which dominates the stage, with the gates, which are cut in it and can be pulled aside, and with the low stairs in front of it, and with the well-chosen lights and with very few tools can show Japan to us. As the country of the far east is important only as a surrounding of the tale: the performance concentrates on the archaic motives of the ancient culture, on the phrases of Love and Death, Fighting and Friendship with capital letters, and with it, it can remain surprisingly honest to the original play.
As love and death are hands in hands here too: after the premier in 1828, one of the critics of the play condemned in Ruthven, that Marschner does not treat him as an absolute negative character, but he draws an ambivalent picture instead, and creates a creature with feelings from the monster. Nabil Suliman’s Ruthven – even after the illness, which was announced after the break – could be more than convincing: the power of his voice, he has exciting and really demonic aura, he is perfect for the main character. Marc Haffner, who performs the friend and the vampire master, is a competitor performer too, because of his average performance, the top points of the fight between the two men, cannot warm up the air. Helen Kearns sings the victim of the vampire: after the less captivating Janthe, Emmy’s more nuanced sounding must have been a refreshment for her too. The third girl’s role, Malwina, who has escaped successfully from the vampire, was absolved in a perfect form by Vanessa le Charles. I am convinced about the fact that the vampires also need sometimes laugh, by the clever scene of the second act about the pleasures of drinking, which Karine Audebert, the “sumo geisha” can make memorable, not only with her considerable sizes.
Tamás Jászay, Revizoronline, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)
Similarly to the other operas, which take part in the Mezzo competition, the opera house of Rennes could find an opera, which „does not exist” – at least in common knowledge – it is Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, a romantic frightening story. However, it was not always that way: after its premiere in 1828, the opera was performed in many places in Germany, then it arrived to France, and it was even played sixty evenings in London too! So in its own time, Heinrich Marschner’s play had a great success, but to understand the reason, we should watch the date. The opera, which was inspired by John Polidori’s The Vampyre text from 1819, could match to the vampire mania, which went through the XIX. century, and reached its top in 1897 by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and became slowly faded at the same time). The contrast between the world at daytime and at night, the unwanted or very desired contribution of unearthly powers, especially between the beautiful girls, who were about to get married, the incomprehensible deviance with “normal thinking” between the mental and soul – all these are topics, which are analysed even today with pleasant shivering by those who are a little bit attracted by the transcendent.
The choice of the topic is perfect. Marschner – the powers of the other world have come up from time to time in his other plays too – felt the soul of the era perfectly, and after knowing these facts above, the listeners have not had many problems with his music too. It is true that it depends on the viewpoint, that the glass is half full or half empty, as however, the successful story can step over borders too, Marschner has entered the group of fallen authors, not for nothing by today.
Maybe he was unsuccessful, that he was born between Weber and Wagner: the first one performed his first opera in Dresden, the later one especially likes him. The music historians have pointed out the effects of Marschner’s music in Lohengrin, in Tristan and even in Ring. The enthusiastic ones are proving that our hero is the missing part between the two giants, those who do not like him, have found Marschner bombastic and pathetic. The truth is obviously in the middle: it is great and powerful music, there is drama and love in it, and yes, with our contemporary ears it sounds many times too much, but maybe we have listened to too much of Wagner.
Marschner put the wandering motive of that time of the marriage, which is stopped by supernatural powers, (for example: from The Magic Hunter until the Twilight of the Gods and so on) into Scottish surrounding, where Ruthven, the main character has to afraid doubled from the sunlight of the daybreak: he gets twenty-four hours from the Vampire master to solve his own life with the sacrifice of three virgin girls. After the turning turnouts of the plot, which is a little bit over complicated, and has many folk elements in it, the result is three dead people – two of them are women and one of them is a vampire.
Zoltán Balázs with a brave idea put the Scottish vampires, who can speak German, from Scotland to the other side of earth, into the country of the rising sun. The Japanese frame, which is chosen as a background, is well over-thought, it becomes the part of the conception of the director, which cannot be experienced on its own at once. Zoltán Balázs, who works again with his proven group, has brought up nothing interesting in The Vampire, knowing his earlier career, the doubling or even tripling of the roles, which indicate definite interpretation, and require increased concentration from the viewers, (dramaturg: Judit Góczán) or the mirrors and reflections, which the director likes very much, can become important organisers too. And really, the two (later dead) brides can be easily played by the same singer, as well as the three girls’ three mothers can be given by one singer – the important dramaturgical intervention can regulate the story, which goes towards many ways, and can lead definitely our attention towards the general lessons.
The easy, but majestic vision (set and costume: Judit Gombár), the usage of the place, which sees creatively and bravely over the edges of the stage (at last someone realises that we are sitting in a huge, neo-baroque theatre building!), the precise moving of the few main characters and the choir with major number of members (choreographer: András Szőllősi), all these can make the performance in Rennes in its greatest moment, similar to Robert Wilson’s great theatrical ventures: Zoltán Balázs’ performance, from any point of view, is mature, it is a work, which can talk about great theatrical sensitivity. The result can be an important confirmation to the director too: in The Vampire we can see, that singers, who must be used to other things, can do the unusual orders controlled and punctually. The movements, which are slowed down, but can express tension anyway, the frightening turning of samurai swords and the gestures on the stage, which always mean aesthetic experience, many times easy, but they are not easy to translate, require an extreme concentration from the performers and the viewers too. On the singers we can see sometimes the heroic fight, but they deserve all appreciation, as they are obviously much more than well-behaving fulfillers.
Judit Gombár with the giant white wall, which dominates the stage, with the gates, which are cut in it and can be pulled aside, and with the low stairs in front of it, and with the well-chosen lights and with very few tools can show Japan to us. As the country of the far east is important only as a surrounding of the tale: the performance concentrates on the archaic motives of the ancient culture, on the phrases of Love and Death, Fighting and Friendship with capital letters, and with it, it can remain surprisingly honest to the original play.
As love and death are hands in hands here too: after the premier in 1828, one of the critics of the play condemned in Ruthven, that Marschner does not treat him as an absolute negative character, but he draws an ambivalent picture instead, and creates a creature with feelings from the monster. Nabil Suliman’s Ruthven – even after the illness, which was announced after the break – could be more than convincing: the power of his voice, he has exciting and really demonic aura, he is perfect for the main character. Marc Haffner, who performs the friend and the vampire master, is a competitor performer too, because of his average performance, the top points of the fight between the two men, cannot warm up the air. Helen Kearns sings the victim of the vampire: after the less captivating Janthe, Emmy’s more nuanced sounding must have been a refreshment for her too. The third girl’s role, Malwina, who has escaped successfully from the vampire, was absolved in a perfect form by Vanessa le Charles. I am convinced about the fact that the vampires also need sometimes laugh, by the clever scene of the second act about the pleasures of drinking, which Karine Audebert, the “sumo geisha” can make memorable, not only with her considerable sizes.
Tamás Jászay, Revizoronline, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)The opera director jumped out from Zoltán Balázs in full armour, with a samurai sword on his side.
Similarly to the other operas, which take part in the Mezzo competition, the opera house of Rennes could find an opera, which „does not exist” – at least in common knowledge – it is Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, a romantic frightening story. However, it was not always that way: after its premiere in 1828, the opera was performed in many places in Germany, then it arrived to France, and it was even played sixty evenings in London too! So in its own time, Heinrich Marschner’s play had a great success, but to understand the reason, we should watch the date. The opera, which was inspired by John Polidori’s The Vampyre text from 1819, could match to the vampire mania, which went through the XIX. century, and reached its top in 1897 by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and became slowly faded at the same time). The contrast between the world at daytime and at night, the unwanted or very desired contribution of unearthly powers, especially between the beautiful girls, who were about to get married, the incomprehensible deviance with “normal thinking” between the mental and soul – all these are topics, which are analysed even today with pleasant shivering by those who are a little bit attracted by the transcendent.
The choice of the topic is perfect. Marschner – the powers of the other world have come up from time to time in his other plays too – felt the soul of the era perfectly, and after knowing these facts above, the listeners have not had many problems with his music too. It is true that it depends on the viewpoint, that the glass is half full or half empty, as however, the successful story can step over borders too, Marschner has entered the group of fallen authors, not for nothing by today.
Maybe he was unsuccessful, that he was born between Weber and Wagner: the first one performed his first opera in Dresden, the later one especially likes him. The music historians have pointed out the effects of Marschner’s music in Lohengrin, in Tristan and even in Ring. The enthusiastic ones are proving that our hero is the missing part between the two giants, those who do not like him, have found Marschner bombastic and pathetic. The truth is obviously in the middle: it is great and powerful music, there is drama and love in it, and yes, with our contemporary ears it sounds many times too much, but maybe we have listened to too much of Wagner.
Marschner put the wandering motive of that time of the marriage, which is stopped by supernatural powers, (for example: from The Magic Hunter until the Twilight of the Gods and so on) into Scottish surrounding, where Ruthven, the main character has to afraid doubled from the sunlight of the daybreak: he gets twenty-four hours from the Vampire master to solve his own life with the sacrifice of three virgin girls. After the turning turnouts of the plot, which is a little bit over complicated, and has many folk elements in it, the result is three dead people – two of them are women and one of them is a vampire.
Zoltán Balázs with a brave idea put the Scottish vampires, who can speak German, from Scotland to the other side of earth, into the country of the rising sun. The Japanese frame, which is chosen as a background, is well over-thought, it becomes the part of the conception of the director, which cannot be experienced on its own at once. Zoltán Balázs, who works again with his proven group, has brought up nothing interesting in The Vampire, knowing his earlier career, the doubling or even tripling of the roles, which indicate definite interpretation, and require increased concentration from the viewers, (dramaturg: Judit Góczán) or the mirrors and reflections, which the director likes very much, can become important organisers too. And really, the two (later dead) brides can be easily played by the same singer, as well as the three girls’ three mothers can be given by one singer – the important dramaturgical intervention can regulate the story, which goes towards many ways, and can lead definitely our attention towards the general lessons.
The easy, but majestic vision (set and costume: Judit Gombár), the usage of the place, which sees creatively and bravely over the edges of the stage (at last someone realises that we are sitting in a huge, neo-baroque theatre building!), the precise moving of the few main characters and the choir with major number of members (choreographer: András Szőllősi), all these can make the performance in Rennes in its greatest moment, similar to Robert Wilson’s great theatrical ventures: Zoltán Balázs’ performance, from any point of view, is mature, it is a work, which can talk about great theatrical sensitivity. The result can be an important confirmation to the director too: in The Vampire we can see, that singers, who must be used to other things, can do the unusual orders controlled and punctually. The movements, which are slowed down, but can express tension anyway, the frightening turning of samurai swords and the gestures on the stage, which always mean aesthetic experience, many times easy, but they are not easy to translate, require an extreme concentration from the performers and the viewers too. On the singers we can see sometimes the heroic fight, but they deserve all appreciation, as they are obviously much more than well-behaving fulfillers.
Judit Gombár with the giant white wall, which dominates the stage, with the gates, which are cut in it and can be pulled aside, and with the low stairs in front of it, and with the well-chosen lights and with very few tools can show Japan to us. As the country of the far east is important only as a surrounding of the tale: the performance concentrates on the archaic motives of the ancient culture, on the phrases of Love and Death, Fighting and Friendship with capital letters, and with it, it can remain surprisingly honest to the original play.
As love and death are hands in hands here too: after the premier in 1828, one of the critics of the play condemned in Ruthven, that Marschner does not treat him as an absolute negative character, but he draws an ambivalent picture instead, and creates a creature with feelings from the monster. Nabil Suliman’s Ruthven – even after the illness, which was announced after the break – could be more than convincing: the power of his voice, he has exciting and really demonic aura, he is perfect for the main character. Marc Haffner, who performs the friend and the vampire master, is a competitor performer too, because of his average performance, the top points of the fight between the two men, cannot warm up the air. Helen Kearns sings the victim of the vampire: after the less captivating Janthe, Emmy’s more nuanced sounding must have been a refreshment for her too. The third girl’s role, Malwina, who has escaped successfully from the vampire, was absolved in a perfect form by Vanessa le Charles. I am convinced about the fact that the vampires also need sometimes laugh, by the clever scene of the second act about the pleasures of drinking, which Karine Audebert, the “sumo geisha” can make memorable, not only with her considerable sizes.
Tamás Jászay, Revizoronline, 2008
(translated by: Veronika Fülöp)