Die Vogel
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Photo by Robert Millard
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By Michael Van Duzer
After the unqualified success of last season’s Rediscovered Voices double bill, LA Opera’s Music Director James Conlon continued his quest to revive works from composers banned by the Third Reich with a production of the first full-length opera in the series.
Walter Braunfel’s Die Vogel (The Birds) premiered in 1920 to great acclaim and was performed often in the intervening years. He penned his own libretto, suggested by Aristophanes’ famous comedy. Interestingly, a literal adaptation of the play would have featured a character’s journey from sympathetic man to heartless dictator—something that would, no doubt, have caught the eye and ire of Hitler. Braufel’s version dilutes the satire and sidesteps the politics. His humans learn from overweening ambition and move on. No doubt his half-Jewish background and anti-Fascist stand were more the reasons his works were put on the Degenerate Art list by the Nazis than works like Die Vogel.
It is easy to understand the opera’s initial popularity. It begins with a lushly melodic prelude which immediately transports the audience and places them under its spell. The score is full of ravishing music in a rich Straussian palette. In point of fact, a little too full. Seductive as the melodies and orchestrations are, they tend to overwhelm the slight storyline and could be improved with some judicious cutting. A protracted ballet in the second act is downright enervating.
The plot follows two humans, Good Hope and Loyal Friend, as they leave the earth and enter the realm of The Birds, ruled over by the Hoopoe. Noticing the slipshod way this New World is constructed, Loyal Friend suggests building a city that will intercept the sacrifices humans make to the gods. The Birds jump at this chance and follow through with a new city in the clouds. Meanwhile Good Hope finds love with a feisty Nightingale. Prometheus warns the birds about the danger of displeasing the gods, but they pay no attention. The gods destroy their city in a storm, and The Birds fall back into line. Loyal Friend returns to the world of Men, while Good Hope finds that his sojourn with The Birds has changed him forever.
Brandon Jovanavich is a strapping young man with a powerful and easily produced tenor. As Good Hope, he is the beating heart of the story, and he brings great warmth and tenderness to the role. Desiree Racantore shimmers with impressively precise coloratura flights as The Nightingale, while James Johnson proves a blunt and bold Loyal Friend. Martin Gantner is a vigorous Hoopoe, and Brian Mulligan brings enormous intensity and floods of effortless sound to his powerful warning as Prometheus.
Director Darko Tresnjak, who brought such drama and passion to last year’s The Dwarf, seems a little constrained by the ephemeral quality of the work. Not to mention that he has to work around the steeply raked deck used for Die Walkure. David P. Gordon’s cartoon clouds and sun have the feeling of a compromise, while Linda Cho’s costumes seem more kitschy than clever.
James Conlon conducts with loving commitment, carefully shaping the beauty of the orchestral writing and returning Braunfel’s opera to vivid life. The opera may not be an unalloyed masterpiece, but Conlon’s persistence has resurrected another stage worthy work for the discerning operagoer.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion April 11 – April 26 (213) 972 8001 www.laopera.com
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