Alban Berg Lulu opera to libretto by the composer (3-act version completed by Friedrich Cerha in 1979). Directed 2015 by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Stars Marlis Petersen (Lulu), Bo Skovhus (Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper), Daniela Sindram (Gräfin Geschwitz), Matthias Klink (Alwa), Rainer Trost (Der Maler (Painter)/Ein Neger (Negro)), Martin Winkler (Ein Tierbändiger(Animal Trainer)/Ein Athlet), Pavlo Hunka (Schigolch), Christian Rieger (Der Medizinalrat/Der Bankier/Der Professor), Rachel Wilson (Eine Theater-Garderobiere/Ein Gymnasiast/Ein Groom), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Der Marquis), Christoph Stephinger (Der Theaterdirektor), Elsa Benoit (Eine Fünfzehnjährige (15 year-old girl)), Cornelia Wulkopf (Ihre Mutter (Mother of the Girl )), Heike Grötzinger (Eine Kunstgewerblerin (Gallery Owner)), John Carpenter (Ein Journalist), Leonard Bernad (Ein Diener (Servant)), and Nicholas Reinke (Der Polizeikommissär). Kirill Petrenko conducts the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Costume designs by Elena Zaytseva; choreography by Tatiana Baganova; set design by Dmitri Tcherniakov; lighting design by Gleb Filshtinksy. Directed for TV by Andy Sommer; produced by François Duplat. Sung in German. Released 2017, disc has 5.1 dts HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Peter Quantrill, writing in the November Gramophone (pages 94-95) is mightily impressed by Petersen as Lulu and Bo Skovhus as Dr. Schön/Jack the Ripper. Otherwise he has less enthusiasm about "this staging of intermittent insights, pretensions, banalities, and longueurs." With an opera that's as cerebral and abstract in conception as Lulu, what else can be added by a deconstructionist director like Tcherniakov?
Here's a long clip from the Bavarian State Opera about this production; images on subject disc will be similar:
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