SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Franz Lehár,  Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles):  at Volksoper, Vienna, 10.4.2008 (GF)

Production:

Directed by Beverly Blankenship
Sets by Heinz Hauser
Costumes by Elisabeth Binder-Neururer, assisted by Susanne Bisovsky (Wiener Chic)
Choreography by Allen Yu

Cast:
Count Ferdinand Lichtenfels / Tschang, Sou-Chong’s uncle – Heinrich Schweiger
Lisa, Count Lichtenfels’s daughter – Marion Costa
Count Gustav von Pottenstein, a.k.a. Gustl – Daniel Schmutzhard
A General / Eunuch – Gerhard Ernst
Prince Sou-Chong – Ki-Chun Park
Mi, Sou-Chong’s sister – Katja Reichert
and others
Chorus and Orchestra of the Volksoper, Vienna, The Ballet of the Vienna State Opera and Volksoper, Conducted by Michael Tomaschek

Daniel Schmutzhard (Gustl)  and Katja Reichert (Mi)

 

Franz Lehár worked on this score from 1918 to 1923 when it was premiered on 9 February 1923 at Theater an der Wien (the same house where his breakthrough operetta Die lustige Witwe was premiered almost twenty years earlier) under the title Die gelbe Jacke (The Yellow Jacket). It wasn’t a success but Lehár didn’t want to scrap it altogether and revised it, partly in collaboration with Richard Tauber, who came up with the theme that later turned out to be the hit song of hit songs: Dein ist mein ganzes Herz. In this new guise, conducted by the composer and with Tauber in the role as Prince Sou-Chong, it was a resounding success at the Metropoltheater in Berlin on 10 October 1929 and it soon spread around the world. In Vienna it was first played in 1930 at the Theater an der Wien and in 1938 it arrived at the State Opera, where four years earlier the opera Giuditta had been triumphantly premiered. Again the composer was in the pit and Tauber sang Sou-Chong against Maria Reining. At Volksoper,  Das Land des Lächelns has been a mainstay since May 1956 in a number of stagings. The first production had the Swedish tenor Per Grundén as Sou-Chong. Rudolf Christ, Rudolf Schock, Nicolai Gedda, Helge Rosvaenge and Adolf Dallapozza were other famous tenors who created the Chinese prince during 294 performances until December 1976. In February 1986 it was time for a new production, this time with the noted Wagner tenor Siegfried Jerusalem as the prince and in 1996 Klaus Maria Brandauer directed a third production with Johan Botha as Sou-Chong. The present production was premiered on 23 February this year and the performance I saw was the eighth.

Das Land des Lächelns is a far cry from the jolly atmosphere of Die lustige Witwe. Lehár had ambitions to develop and refine operetta, to bring it closer to opera with more serious subjects, with richer harmonies in a Puccini, Richard Strauss and even Debussy mould. The comparison with Puccini's Turandot  is especially apt in the case of Das Land des Lächelns, since both works play in China and both composers work with references to Chinese or at least Asian music at large. And as I have pointed out in a couple of CD reviews of this work Lehár doesn’t necessarily come second best to Puccini. It is true that there is a fair amount of bombast that seems at odds with the content of the work but his skill as an orchestrator is certainly on a par with Puccini’s and his melodic invention is as great as ever. Especially in the second act,  there is real greatness in his orchestral and choral writing and in a lavishly spectacular production like the one at Volksoper one becomes wholly engrossed in the proceedings. The sets are grandiose with high snow-covered mountains as backdrop and the dances with long red ribbons whirling all over the stage are superb entertainment. It was also a clever idea to include a small army of terracotta soldiers that march in and out and interfere with the action. This is another parallel with Turandot since the Bolshoy production of Puccini’s opera that I saw at Dalhalla a couple of years ago also made references to the era of the first Emperor of China, Shi Huangdi, albeit in their case only as statues. At Volksoper they were very much alive.

The first act, playing in Vienna, is also very beautiful with a backdrop of flowers and movable glass walls to separate indoor activities from outdoor. For my taste the act becomes too longwinded with all the social business, including the five girls who interfere time after time. They appear also in the third act and I don’t know if this is in accordance with the original libretto. The main conflict in Das Land des Lächelns is of course the opposition between West and East, between the European conventions and the Chinese – at least from the point of view of the original setting, roughly just before WW1. Here the costumes and the manners are period, Gustl even arrives in China by air balloon. Today we know, through media, much more about these differences and can better understand why the marriage between Lisa and Sou-Chong failed. But when two young people, who obviously are truly in love,  have to give up their relationship for social reasons, we are still emotionally affected and there were sobs and tears in the audience by the end of the operetta.

The director has managed to balance the serious and comic elements well – there is always a risk that the tragedy becomes too sentimental and the comedy too farcical. I regretted though that Lisa was portrayed as rather silly in the first act – whether by design or by over-acting from Marion Costa – who was new in the role – I don’t know. In the following acts she seemed more at ease, was far more convincing and her singing was first class: a bright, well equalized soprano, not unlike Anneliese Rothenberger’s in her heyday, which is praise indeed. Korean tenor Ki-Chun Park had the right looks for Prince Sou-Chong and acted with restraint, which could be seen as part of the Eastern tradition but – in the case of Das Land des Lächelns – also a tradition emanating from Richard Tauber. He had collapsed after a performance of Friederike in early 1929 and could hardly move, was diagnosed rheumatic and was forced to be very sparse with movements. Ki-Chun Park sported a spinto tenor with luminous high notes, not wholly free from strain but in the main it was a finely sung performance where all the well-known numbers were well executed and he also scaled down to some beautiful soft singing. The secondary couple were also splendid and especially Katja Reichert’s Mi was a pleasure to listen to – and watch – and it was a pity the lovely duet Zig, zig, zig in the last act was cut. The conductor Michael Tomaschek paced the performance well, avoiding sentimentalizing the music and overall this is an excellent rendering of this indestructible operetta, celebrating its 80^th birthday next year.

The programme book should also be mentioned: 72 pages packed with information about the work and with cultural and historical references – plus synopses in English, French, Italian and Japanese. None in Chinese, though!

Göran Forsling

Picture © Dimo Dimov / Volksoper Wien

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