SITE RATING: 8/10
SITE
REVIEW: Jean-Christophe
Spinosi's startling, avant-garde staging of
Handel's Messiah is one of the freshest, most
thought-provoking productions of the oratorio
to ever be produced. Each chorus and
aria receives its own unique placement, with
the singers doubling as actors in what appears
to be a Brechtian dystopia. The bleak,
Orwellian grayness which pervades the costumes
and scenery carries over into the cold,
detached manner of the performers, which
unfortunately casts a pall over the music.
Staged by Claus Guth, there's a
pronounced disconnect between the text and the
action on stage: stone-faced jurors in
courtrooms; small apartments attended by
broken relationships; large, empty corridors
with noirish shadows falling on the walls;
gaping amphitheaters stylistically connect the
pieces, but there's no attempt by the creative
team to breathe any direct meaning into
Handel's masterwork; it's almost as if you're
hearing one performance and seeing a different
one. Regardless of the producers'
monkey-wrenching the meaning of Messiah,
it's a beautifully performed piece, with the
Arnold Schoenberg Choir remarkably clean and
unified - even when their performing movement
along with their singing, and the soloists
uniformly excellent. It's also wonderfully
filmed - one of the best-looking Messiahs on
video, and I found myself captured by the
visuals as much as the music. Not a Messiah
that will leave you with a warm feeling, but
rather a wide-eyed admiration for its
impressively icy ideals.
|
