Messa da Requiem by Guiseppe
Verdi.
Choreographer and Producer
Christian Spuck. Conductor Johannes
Fritzsch. \assistant director
Jean-Francois Kessier. Stage designer Christian Schmidt. Artistic
collaboration Stage Designer Florian
Schaaf. Costume designer Emma Ryott
Lighting designer Martin Gebhart. Dramaturge Michael Kuester, Claus
Spahn. Chrus Master Christie Anderson. Soprano Eleanor Lyons. Mezzo
Soprano Caitlin Hulcup. Tenor Paul O’Neill.
Bass Pelham Andrews. Festival Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. March 8-11
2023
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Soprano Eleanor Lyons, the Adelaide Festival Chorus and Ballet Zurich |
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There is no other word for it.
Christian Spuck’s production of Guiseppe Verdi’s is spectacular. It is a work
of extreme splendor, involving almost two hundred musicians Messa da Requiem, dancers and chorus. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under the
baton of Johannes Fritzsch transport Verdi’s sacred oratorio to celestial
heights with the Adelaide Festival Chorus under the leadership of Christie
Anderson swelling the singing with unparalleled power and variety. As if that
is not enough to transcend the wonderment of Verdi’s composition for voice and
orchestra, Spuck introduces almost forty dancers to endow the work with the
human condition.
The sheer dynamism of Spuck’s choreographic genius is apparent
in the grace and agility, strength and supple flexibility of the dancers of
Ballet Zurich. Set on Christian
Schmidt‘s
dark and open stage, Spuck examines the
secular character of Verdi’s requiem. He creates a community of artists,
interacting and immersing themselves entirely in the passion and the power of a
work that compels an audience to engage fully with the music, the singing and
the dance. Spuck creates an operatic oratorio so beautifully staged and so
powerfully emotive that we feel as though we are witnessing our own destiny and
mortality played out in
Messa da Requiem.
We cannot evade the abiding truth in Verdi’s composition, the accompanying
liturgy and Spuck’s astounding choreography that we are all travelers upon the
path to death.
Verdi was criticized for the
operatic influences in his oratorio. It is this that lends such power to Spuck’s
choreography, Fritzsch’s orchestration and Christie Anderson’s choral
direction. It is the power of the fusion of the grace and beauty of the ballet
with the expressive imagery of the contemporary dance. It is the power of the
music to move and transcend the sombre tone of the liturgical mass. It is the
power of Pelham Andrews’ rich bass voice, threatening the acrid flames of
Confutatis, tenor Paul O’Neill’s gentle sighing in Ingemisco, mezzo soprano
Caitlin Hulcup’s darker, deeper vocal judgement in Liber Scriptus and soprano
Eleanor Lyons’ superb singing with the chorus in Libera Me. Dressed in the
black dress of mourning and dread Lyons’ voice soars with the plea for
deliverance. The effect is striking.
Spuck’s imagery lends the work a
majesty and ritualistic solemnity. Images of the crucifix, the shrouded body,
the pieta and the seething mass of individuals mourning the dead and fearing
their own judgement day fill the stage with universal fear and prayer for
salvation. Spuck’s choreography responds to Verdi’s requiem to his friend
Alessandro Manzoni with a staging that reverberates with human angst, desire
and questioning. This is a brilliant requiem, probing the human condition and
respecting the secular intent of Verdi’s composition. On an open stage designed
by Christian Schmidt with appropriate costume design by Emma Ryott and lighting
by Martin Gebhart, Spuck creates an ensemble of individuals. The Adelaide
Festival Chorus is outstanding under Christie Anderson’s Chorus Mastership. It
is no mean feat having to sing while running across the stage through the Dies
Irae or crowding together to create the wave of villagers. It is all so tightly
choreographed and visually expressive, a living image of the music.
Brahms, in response to criticism
of “the almighty corrupter of artistic taste” by Hans von Bulow replied “Only a
genius could write this” Only a genius could fuse the talents of the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Festival Choir and Ballet Zurich into a work
that encapsulates Verdi’s patriotic fervor, tribute to his friend and a
universality of the human condition. It is little wonder that a work as
evocative as Verdi’s
Messa da Requiem
and as magnificently staged and interpreted musically and theatrically should
bring the audience in the Festival Theatre spontaneously to their feet in a
rousing standing ovation. Bravo!!
Photos by Andrew Beveridge
Brahms, in response to criticism
of “the almighty corrupter of artistic taste” by Hans von Bulow replied “Only a
genius could write this” Only a genius could fuse the talents of the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Festival Choir and Ballet Zurich into a work
that encapsulates Verdi’s patriotic fervor, tribute to his friend and a
universality of the human condition. It is little wonder that a work as
evocative as Verdi’s Messa da Requiem
and as magnificently staged and interpreted musically and theatrically should
bring the audience in the Festival Theatre spontaneously to their feet in a
rousing standing ovation. Bravo!! 