Berg: Lulu

“Musically there is plenty to admire...Ultimately, it is Volle as Dr Schon and Jack the Ripper who impresses most...Petibon's background in early music may be thought to give her an unusual degree of vulnerability...After a cautious start, her performance gains conviction as it proceeds...this is one of those recordings that takes time to reach the dark, disturbed heart of Berg's most ambivalently poised and perturbing work” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

“The singing and acting of Patricia Petibon as Lulu is magnificent. She is that rare creature, a singer with the face and figure of a model...One does not have to wonder why men fall under her spell and even die of it...Almost all of the staging and costuming is dedicated to the service of this music. It is not necessary to suspend one's disbelief as so often happens in current opera staging: here one is gripped from beginning to the disturbing and bloody end.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“The French soprano is in confident, fearless voice over the entire range of this killer part and paces herself with skill...There is an almost constant display of sex on view but it never pulls focus in the wrong way...Hugely recommended: more satisfying, and demanding, and with a fuller central performance, than any filmed Lulu to date, save that elusive Chereau.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2012

“Warner has reissued Glyndebourne's 1996 staging of all three acts of Lulu, a much-lauded affair that won the Gramophone Award for Best Video in 1997. Graham Vick's direction is admirable not only for what it achieves but also for what it avoids. With its redbrick interior, upward-curving staircase and minimal furnishings, the stage-set has a spartan air, enlivened by a central hole in the floor through which characters disappear and emerge according to the needs of the drama. Costumes have a generalised present-day feel, and the recourse to mobile phones was a prescient touch. Crucially, this staging doesn't encumber the opera with a specious extra-musical concept or smother it with designer cleverness. The filmed interlude in Act 2 is both a pragmatic realisation of Berg's concept and faithful to the spirit of his intentions: a triumph of dramatic common sense.
Schäfer's Lulu is the best sung and most beautifully voiced yet recorded: diffident, even distanced at the outset, yet assuredly in control as she closes down Dr Schön's emotional space at the end of Act 1 and evincing real expressive pain at her degradation in Acts 2 and 3. Wolfgang Schöne has the right hollow authority for Dr Schön, and brings an appropriately Mr Hyde-like demeanour to his Jack the Ripper alter ego, while David Kuebler's fantasising Alwa is the most complete rendition since Kenneth Riegel's for Boulez. Aloof in her initial emotional exchanges, Kathryn Harries goes on to to find quiet strength and nobility in Countess Geschwitz. Stephan Drakulich's seedylooking Painter is unusually accurate, Donald Maxwell's Athlete over-acted to the point of caricature, while Norman Bailey's Schigolch has a wiliness that makes the part more substantial than usual.
Davis conducts with a sure awareness of shortterm incident and long-term tension. His sense of dramatic pace makes the best case yet for the first scene of Act 3, its mosaic-like succession of exchanges throwing the the second scene's seamless intensity into greater relief. Friedrich Cerha's realisation of this act has come in for its share of criticism, but makes for a musical and dramatic whole such as Berg is unlikely to have altered appreciably had he lived to complete the work.
As directed for video, Humphrey Burton goes to town on facial asides and long-range stares.
The picture reproduces with the expected sharpness of focus, though the sound throws the orchestra a little too far forward – giving voices a slightly distanced, though never unfocused quality. Subtitles are clear and to the point, and the 33 chapter selections well-placed for ease of access. On DVD this performance is now a clear first choice.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Musically there is plenty to admire...Ultimately, it is Volle as Dr Schon and Jack the Ripper who impresses most...Petibon's background in early music may be thought to give her an unusual degree of vulnerability...After a cautious start, her performance gains conviction as it proceeds...this is one of those recordings that takes time to reach the dark, disturbed heart of Berg's most ambivalently poised and perturbing work.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

“The singing and acting of Patricia Petibon as Lulu is magnificent. She is that rare creature, a singer with the face and figure of a model...One does not have to wonder why men fall under her spell and even die of it...Almost all of the staging and costuming is dedicated to the service of this music. It is not necessary to suspend one's disbelief as so often happens in current opera staging: here one is gripped from beginning to the disturbing and bloody end.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“Nemirova's vibrant Salzburg production deliberately removes Berg's provocative opera from direct association with a specific time or place, placing the drama in a more mythical context...Almost all the major protagonists are powerfully drawn...But the real stars of this superb performance are undoubtedly the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Marc Albrecht, who bring a glorious richness, warmth and emotional intensity to Berg's astonishing score.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 *****

“set at the turn of the 20th century, it's played naturalistically and with considerable restraint. But its toned-down quality also emphasises the underlying idea of a society unable to confront its own hang-ups, and the performances are faultless. Julia Migenes's Lulu is at once self-consciously provocative and disturbingly naive...Levine ratchets up the tension; the closing scenes are unforgettable.” The Guardian, 8th December 2011

“Pappano has a firm grip of every nuance of the music, from the gossamer-like delicacy after the dialogue at the end of Act II to the various moments of wrenching, disturbing power.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 ***

“[Loy] wants us to work hard, to forget chasing any scent or taint of voyeurism...while Pappano is keen to bring clarity, both in his conducting and his talking...Like many productions now staged with an eye to DVD release, the 16:9 shape of the stage and intimacy of gesture certainly make more sense now than they did in the theatre...Will Hartmann is a wonderfully open, naive Painter, a Schubertian young Wanderer” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“Robin Lough's direction for the cameras is faithful to Loy's conception and the outstanding cast...Volle holds the stage as Dr Schön/Jack the Ripper; Eichenholz's Lulu ensnares and is also vulnerable...As presented here, Lulu is an emotional and musical roller-coaster.” International Record Review, July/August 2010