Lulu

"The set is striking. It is modern and intentionally sterile ... The principals sing with projection and vigour, yet interact - as they should - more with one another than with the audience. Soprano Marlis Petersen is superb as Lulu. She has just the right balance of haughtiness and nonchalance, self-serving flirtatiousness and - above all - disdain for those she attracts ... Other singer-performers who deserve positive mention include baritone Christian Rieger, tenor Rainer Trost, baritone Bo Skhovus, and tenor Matthias Klink. The orchestral playing is sensitive yet urgent. Kirill Petrenko clearly understands the need for subtlety ... This present staging and performance, with impressive and characterful acting as well as playing are entirely convincing and ought actively to pull in a new audience ... It is definitely a Lulu of our times".

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"Vurdering: Recording of the month" - "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".

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"Den altid stilfulde instruktør Christof Loy er sluppet godt fra at sætte Alban Bergs desperate og dekadente mesterværk Lulu op på Covent Garden ... Omkring den virtuose sopran Agneta Eichenholz, det i uhyggelig grad ligner en mumificeret Audrey Hepburn, fylkes på Royal Opera House under Antonio Pappanos taktstok verdenssangere som Jennifer Larmore ... Den amerikanske mezzosopran skildrer og synger den lesbiske grevinde Geschwitz med gribende nærvær, mens barytonen Volle og tenoren Vogt som far og søn, Dr. Schön og Alwa, er magtfulde og karismatiske".

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"Med Lulu har de haft heldige hænder ... Scenografi og kostumer er lagt i hænderne på Pierre-André Weitz, som har skabt storbyjungle, så det batter, med start i Weimarrepublikkens Tyskland, for så senere at lade Lulu prange i Paris og flænse til døde i London af Jack the Ripper ... Alt slippes løs på det opladte sind af Alban Bergs lymfesitrende musik, der afvikler de mange groteske handlingselementer i et tempo, som intet talt skuespil kan hamle op med. Den franske sopran Patricia Petibon ... folder sig ud med en stemmepragt fyldt af kolde flammer om kap med sit røde hår".

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"Der [Barenboim] und die somnanbul schillernde Staatskapelle sind bei dieser nervösen Musik schon das Beste der DVD ... Grau ist das Einheitsbühnenbild als Schrottplatz ... Die Besetzung kann sich meistenteils hören lassen".

"Yet all is far from lost, thanks to an impeccable cast who attack that narrative with exceptional music-dramatic skill, and the ravishingly transparent playing of the Bavarian State Orchestra under music director, Kirill Petrenko. Petersen invests Lulu with a paradoxical strength in vulnerability ... Close-up camera work makes the most of intimate gestures and facial expressions lost in the theatre but which, if not visionary, help to make this Lulu tragically human".

Vurdering : 3/5.

"Tcherniakov's design sees right through Lulu, and finds at her heart an old-fashioned love for Dr Schön that will never die ... Much then depends on Marlis Petersen and Bo Skovhus. They both turn in tremendous performances ... Petersen is a fearlessly cantabile Lulu ... Skovhus entwines Dr Schön and Jack as two strands of the same rope, singing with tireless clarity and virility".

"Alban Berts Lulu ist kein leicht konsumierbares Werk. An der Münchner Staatsoper inszenierte Dmitri Tcherniakov ... Marlis Petersen trägt dieses schwergewichtige Stück wie eine Elfe auf schmalen, belastbaren Schultern. Grandios die Beiläufigkeit ihres Parlando-Tons. Blühend schön ihre leichte Höhe. Faszinierend ihre Bühnenpräsenz ... Ausgestellt in einem gläsernen Labyrinth ... Lulu wird durch transparente Wände belauert, bis man ihrer Ermordung zusieht - die sie selbst ausführt ... Neben ihr halten die Partner auf gleicher Höhe mit ... Der dämonische Bo Skovhus als Gewaltmensch Doktor Schön ... Und noch einer bleibt enorm stark: Kirill Petrenko lässt es scheinbar ganz entspannt laufen und hat doch alle Staatsorchesterfäden in der Hand".

"Loy's production is a subtle conception, one that infuriated those who like opera to be vivid, colourful and even signposted ... almost black stage, formal black-and-white costumes ... and few props ... Pappano's conducting brings out the rigorous craft, edge and sensousness of the music ... the swedish soprano Agneta Eichenholz is a compelling 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 ... In the end, I was won over ... This is one of those recordings that takes time to reach the dark, disturbed heart of Berg's most ambivalently poised and perturbing work".

"Vocally there are few real failings. As Lulu, Petibon['s] ... well-defined and often lustrous tone allied to an intelligent if at times over-nuanced acting and a visual allure which captivates even when her portrayal fails fully to convince ... Marc Albrecht directs with an unfailing sense of just where the musical drama is headed ... while the playing of the Vienna Philharmonic amply reinforces its prowess in a work with which it has long been associated".

"Denn die herausragende Barbara Hannigan macht sich die Rolle mit jeder Körper- und Stimmbandfaser ganz zu eigen. Ein grandioser Tanz auf dem darstellerischen und vokalen Hochseil ... Immerhin kann sich Paul Daniel mit seiner so sachlichen wie gleissenden Orchesterklanghaltung Gehör verschaffen in dieser sehr sexuell aufgeladenen Büchse der Pandora".

"Vurdering: Editor's choice" - "Tall, slender and chameleonic, [Hannigan] stalks the stage compellingly ... The voice itself is remarkably clear and clean: not the most sensuous instrument, perhaps, but one that is used with great intelligence and accuracy ... Very impressive, too, are the orchestra and Paul Daniel, who is particularly adept at finding the score's drama and beauty".

"The 2012 Brussels production of Lulu isn't my Desert Island performance of Berg's opera, but it has enough assets - in the leading lady, above all - to make rewarding viewing for all who appreciate this devastating work ... Barbara Hannigan's ... offers stupendous accuracy of pitch and rhythm ... also unafraid of distorting her sound for dramatic purposes ... On the podium Paul Daniel is on top of every challenge".

"De senere år er Bergs mesterlige, saftige og komplekse opera om en femme fatales sociale opstigning og efterfølgende fald ... blevet dvd-udgivet forholdsvis ofte ... På denne nye dvd ... er det en af tidens absolut mest intelligente og virtuose fortolkere af musik fra det 20. århundrede, Barbara Hannigan, der står i centrum ... et fænomen, man ikke må gå glip af".

"Eine heutige, wandlungsreiche Diva ist Marlis Petersen, für die allein schon der New Yorker Mittschnitt von William Kentridges leider in ermüdenen Zwanzigerjahre-Reminiszenzen sich verlierender Lulu-Inszenierung lohnt. Sie besitzt Tiefe und Wärme, Geheimnis und Verlorenheit ... Eine der grossen Rolleninterpretinnen unserer Zeit ein letztes Mal als Kindfrau der Moderne".

"All the principals are strongly cast. There is as much frisson to Susan Graham's voluptuously sung Countess Geschwitz as there is to Johan Reuter's Dr Schön/Jack the Ripper, oozing power and entitlement from every phrase ... Conducting, singing, direction: they're all of a piece, working to domesticate Berg's feral beast, and making it the funniest, least absurd and most approachable Lulu on film".

"Vurdering: Diapason d'or" - "Si, de la salle, la narration semblait à deux doigts de se disperser, la caméra de François Roussillon, en resserrant le regard sur les corps et les visages, magnific und direction d'acteurs virtuosissime".

"En af de få mesteroperaer fra det 20. århundrede ... I Gran Teatros forestilling, som er iscenesat af skandaleinstruktøren Olivier Py, har vi den underskønne franske sopran Patricia Petibon i titelrollen og Berg-kenderen Michael Boder på podiet".