Franziska Krötenheerdt watches over the standardized world of children.
Foto: Anna Kolata
The screw announces the screw, so turns; And with every turn it sits a little firmer. Benjamin Britten’s Chamber Opera After Henry James’ novella of the same name, a prologue and two files with eight mostly very short scenes. The starting position is compressed step by step.
A governess is sent to a country house where she is supposed to take care of the upbringing of two children. The client is the guardian of the little ones, who clarifies that he does not want to be bothered by the matter. However, problems of the worst kind will soon appear, namely that cannot be explained.
Both the servant Peter Quint and the former educator, Miss Jessel, move through the house, although they are dead. And, worse: they are connected to the two small ones and do not seem innocent to their opposites. The governess fluctuates: Should it escape the problem? Can she cross the ban and notify the guardian? How can she take the fight and save the little Miles, the little flora?
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It is clear that the novella of 1898 was about a morally repressive Victorian society and the material had to interest the homosexual composer in 1954, when his loved ones in Great Britain was still illegalized. In fact, the music with which Britten provided Peter Quint sounds more tempting than the world of the governess or the staunch housekeeper Mrs. Grose. But how do you deal with the work today?
If you believe the program, the director Katharina Kastening wanted to transform the country house into a modern smart home. Peter Quint and Miss Jessel become AI programs. They were given up because they were not suitable for the upbringing of the children, but continue to develop independently. The governess is the new, morally perfect educational AI.
At first glance, this seems a convincing update. The moralist attribution of humans is increasingly and more about technology that adapts qua surveillance and propaganda behavior to alleged normality. And the “artificial intelligence” is by no means intelligent, but puts together sentences due to statistical probabilities. By can only rely on existing data material, it is technically conservative. As a truth, it spits out what has so far been considered true.
What you actually see has little to do with the declarations of intent. It starts with the stage design by Matthias Kronfuß, who has installed several rooms of this smart homes on a hard -working rotating stage. All of these rooms are open on many sides, allow so diverse movements, but do not convey the cramped of a technically controlled and controlled apartment.
In addition, a singing AI program on stage is difficult to represent. The governess, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are all physically present and act as humans with their contradictions conveyed by text and music. It speaks for Kasting’s directing that you would have read nothing beforehand, at least not to think about computer programs.
And in another point, the director is smarter than its demolition. The uprising against the standard is considered good in the concept, according to the AI-Goververnan as repressive. In the opera, on the other hand, the main perspective is that of the governess. Her emotional attachment to the guardian is indicated as well as your will to save the children. The resulting behavior may be inadequate. A AI would act neutrally for probabilities. The teacher wants to be caring, and if she suppresses it, then with reasons. Peter Quint stands for tempting freedom as well as for actual danger. In the opera, the young Miles is dead. In Halle, he leaves both Quint and the Governante and goes to an uncertain future alone.
Britten uses a chamber orchestra with soloistic strings and brass, a prominently emerging harp and, in addition to keyboard instruments, plenty of drums, which is used rather coloristically than massively. Members of the Staatskapelle Halle under José Miguel Esandi conveyed the sound -colored shades of the score and showed their different levels, from the slightly slanted rustic folk song in the games of the children to the barely tangible, seductive music in the area of Peter Quints, the Robert Sellier scenic and vocally a corresponding presence.
Franziska Krötenheerdt as a governess could only act silently on stage, while Emily Dorn in the orchestra trench jumped convincingly for the extensive game.
The important children’s roles are a difficulty of the work. They are occupied several times in Halle. On the premiere afternoon, Elias Briki performed as Miles and Miriam Knackstedt as flora. Both moved in the scenery with professional security, were able to fill the opera house in a vocal manner and met the adequate emotional layers – from forced cheerfulness, apparent good to the threatening. Gabriella Guilfoil as Mrs. Grose and Anke Berndt as Miss Jessel complemented the consistently impressive ensemble.
A German version is sung in Halle, actually unnecessary in the age of overtitement. The text follows the musical accents, but the sound painting of the Libretto of Myfanwy Piper is lost. If, in the performance, scene and music are against the staging idea as a whole, this does not mean failure, but speaks for the quality of the work.
Next performances: 17th, 25th and 31st.
www.buehnen-halle.de
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