SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Wagner, Rienzi: Soloists and chorus of Theatre Bremen. Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Daniel Montané. Theater am Goetheplatz, Bremen, 4.4.2009. (JPr)

Rienzi Act II

Richard Wagner’s great grandaughter Katharina Wagner is not yet 31 years old  and this is her first opera production since she took on joint charge of the Bayreuth Festival with her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier. She produced Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Festival in 2007; I enjoyed it then and when I also saw it in 2008.  What would she make of Rienzi? This work is rarely performed but since it is a youthful opera by one of the greater composers it must not be ignored. We get any amount of earlier Verdi for example that is not much worthier than Rienzi and Verdi certainly left us with nothing  as complex as the Ring. To my mind, it is important to see and hear Rienzi and to consider how what Wagner wrote in his late twenties influenced his future development as a composer and polemic essayist.

Rienzi  is grandest of grand opera in five acts and was originally intended for the Paris Opéra. It was too long when eventually staged at Dresden in 1842 and Wagner knew it. He made some cuts himself, yet  its length  still restricts performances.  Wagner later considered the opera an embarrassment and it has never been performed at the Bayreuth Festival. Most versions heard today give us - as here -  about three hours worth of music.

Rienzi Act III

The plot is based on the true story of Cola di Rienzi.  He lived in Italy in the early fourteenth century and began as a political reformer who defeated the ruling nobles and their followers and put power in the hands of the ordinary people. He was magnanimous in victory at first but because of the brutality he used to crush the nobles' rebellion against the people's power,  the tide of popular opinion turned against him. The Church, which had initially given him its backing,  now opposed him and in the end the people burn the Capitol, in which Rienzi and his sister Irene make a last stand. When  it collapses it also buries  Irene's  lover Adriano.

In 1983, Nicholas Hytner and the English National Opera filleted Wagner’s original concept even more than usual and their staging equated the story of Rienzi with the rise of totalitarianism in the twentieth century. Originally premièred  in Bremen on 11th October last year,  Katharina Wagner’s production has returned for a further run of performances and it also updates the story:  here power literally goes to Rienzi’s head in the form of a wig.

Rienzi’s vainglory demands that his baldness is covered by a toupée, even though  Mark Duffin looks like a young Frankie Howerd when wearing it. One of nobles opposing Rienzi steals the wig instead of stabbing him in Act II and to emphasise that vanity comes along with power, Act I Scenes 2 and 3  - in which  Adriano pledges support for Rienzi and later declares his love of Irene  - are all set in a hairdresser’s salon for the wig-fitting and Irene comes along too to have her nails done. There was a nicely directed moment here.  Whenever Adriano tries to take Irene's hand, the off-stage trumpets that sound out at the end of this scene,  stop him from doing so every  time.

Rienzi Act V

Wigs play a large part in this production. Powder-puffed, long curly ones are worn by the nobles along with pin-stripe suits,  Rienzi later sports a long rock star wig and as his megalomania increases he receives the tributes of his peers and the people in Act II Scene 1,  like any tyrannical dictator who delights in his chest full of self-awarded medals. Eventually he  preens himself and poses like a contestant at a Mr Universe pageant brandishing the (flameless) flame thrower he carries on his back : his preferred method of extermination.

Another predominant image apart from a vast stage-wide set of steps,  is a female figure that seems to represent the glory of Rome with spear and large golden ball or the power that the  nobles -  or Rienzi  - are all fighting for. At the beginning of the evening, this woman  has a three-dimensional solidity and she  ‘gives birth’ to the Roman people who are all casually dressed in pink and white. As Rome descends into the decadence caused by Rienzi,  ‘she’ is later shown as a cartoon Lara Croft-like figure with her own flame thrower - until  finally she becomes a sexually-charged image with with legs widespread. As the people see the error of their ways and plot to overthrow Rienzi, this ‘pornography’ is covered up.

Fascism is never far away: the people salute Rienzi with arms aloft and index fingers pointing up and by Act III the people are dressed more uniformly. The men march with flame throwers in their hands ready to quell the rebellion and the national socialist reference cannot be ignored here and elsewhere. At the end,  the people descend upon Rienzi and Irene in animal masks possibly representing their original obeisance and when they realize that Rienzi has finally ‘lost the plot’ after declaring that Rome is his ‘bride’,  the people tear the index fingers from Rienzi and Irene's gloved hands.

Perhaps less explicable is why Cardinal Raimondo and his colleagues are all directed to  walk across the stage lifting their knees up high in a version of John Cleese’s Ministry of Silly Walks. Katharina Wagner seems to have a good knowledge of British comedy however because the triumphantly embarrassing dance  that Rienzi does at one point is clearly from Ricky Gervais’s character in The Office TV programme.

Some moments obviously work better than others and the production probably  needs a second viewing to appreciate all of Katharina Wagner’s ideas. The Act II ‘pantomime’ does seem to go on forever but it also gives a new meaning to the ‘sacking of Rome’ as Romans in togas are swept away by Rienzi who is being led on in a golden wheelie-bin :  everything that has been discarded by the Romans - their symbols of  power perhaps - is collected up in a blue rubbish sack.

Towards the end of Act II and onward to the end of the opera, the staging is very powerful. The wide  steps run with blood which mourning women fight a losing battle to mop up and Rienzi is haunted by his burnt victims returning to the stage as zombies. At the very  end when the Cardinal excommunicates Rienzi and things go downhill rapidly,  Rienzi tries to turn himself into the female effigy of Rome we have seen throughout the evening by putting a wig on and smearing lipstick on his face. He has declared that he has God on his side – and don’t all dictators who kill in the name of religion do exactly that? He is quite mad now and addresses his own cloaked finger. He has supposedly been rebuilding the Capitol  but  now its pillars are strewn around as his world crumbles around him. An effigy of Rienzi is hanged but it is not clear what happens to Adriano and Irene. By now Rienzi has torn off  his wig(s) off and has a bald pate but whether that was a stage accident or a rethink is far from  clear. The effigy still wears a curly wig as does Rienzi in the programme photos so I was left a little puzzled by the ending of Katharina Wagner’s otherwise thought-provoking interpretation.

The Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen is not a large house seating only  800 and  surprisingly it was not sold-out even though the first performances of this production had been generally well-received. The Bremen Philharmonic played well for their musical director, Daniel Montané:  there was grandeur, drama and much beauty from a score which shows that Wagner was not averse to recycling some of his music for Tannhäuser and Die fliegende Holländer to name only two of his later works. The chorus sang out lustily and acted with conviction and the cast of principals seemed drawn from the ensemble of Oper Bremen although surprisingly none of the three leading roles was taken by a German. Karin Neubauer’s messenger of peace stood out with her cleanly sung contribution in Act II and Franz Becker-Urban made suitably grave pronouncements as the Cardinal.

Adriano was sung by the Russian, Tamara Klivadenko, who managed because of her five o’clock shadow  make-up to look more manly than is usually the case,  despite being costumed in  bright tangerine. Her singing was ardent and forceful for the Act III ‘Gerechter Gott’ and then later while seeking  revenge for her father death by Rienzi’s order. The American Patricia Andress sang affectingly as the faithful daughter, Irene, and seemed to have excellent vocal stamina, at least in this small house.

 Mark Duffin, another American, was Rienzi and he seemed a charismatic performer who enthusiastically embraced Katharina Wagner’s idea of his character. He was quite able to elicit empathy and drew us into his fate. He had a powerful and quite baritonal heroic tenor which perhaps was not as lyrical as the religiosity of his prayer ‘Allmächt’ger Vater’ demands,  but was very well suited for his earlier more stentorian outbursts of his rabble-rousing ‘Santo spirito cavaliere!’

Finally a word about Bremen,  a city that appears on this snapshot visit to be at ease with itself (except on the day of a football local derby!) where reliable trams glide you to and fro and where there are few cars because most of the residents seem to have bicycles. People eat and drink in a smiling and relaxed manner in the numerous beer gardens and cafes and there is no weekday rush hour of stressed commuters rushing about. The supposed ‘global recession’ does not appear to be affecting this part of Germany, there are few CCTV cameras, you can take beer glasses in to the cinema with you and buy a Kalashnikov (should you have a reason to do so) for 400 Euros in a city-centre gun and knife shop! But  who knew that this is where Kellogg’s cornflakes are distributed from? I cannot wait to go back there.

Jim Pritchard

Rienzi is on at Bremen's Theater am Goetheplatz. For more information, go to http://www.theaterbremen.de.

Pictures courtesy of Theater Bremen

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