Opera in het park: Lulu

William Kentridge takes on Alban Berg's iconic femme fatale

Lulu. Meet her, and she’ll drive you crazy. Marry her, and she’ll drive you to your death. For the first time, Dutch National Opera presents the complete version of Alban Berg’s breathtaking opera about the ravishing femme fatale who in a dramatic finale comes to her own violent end. Using colourful instrumentation and great variety in musical form, Berg created an irresistible masterpiece.

Director William Kentridge – who featured in last year’s Holland Festival with Winterreise – took the inspiration for his staging from the silent movies of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The cast is led by Mojca Erdmann, in both voice and appearance the perfect Lulu.

Dutch National Opera presents the complete version of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu for the first time in National Opera & Ballet, in a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera New York and English National Opera. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra takes its place in the pit.

Alban Berg wrestled with Lulu his entire life, leaving it unfinished at his death in 1935. Friedrich Cerha (b. 1926) completed the orchestration of the third act only in 1979. Until then, only the first two acts were ever performed, with segments of the Lulu Suite as a conclusion. Although the musical motives are based on a single twelve-tone series, the instrumentation is colourful and there is a great variety of musical forms. As the rhythm of the vocal lines closely follows that of speech, the text comes across as very natural. One of the highlights is Lulu’s provocative song Wenn sich die Menschen um meinetwillen umgebracht haben.

The story is drawn from two plays by Frank Wedekind about the attractive young dancer Lulu, who uses her charms to conquer and destroy. All men – and the occasional woman – desire her, but whoever marries her is faced with a death sentence. Guilt or innocence? That is the question. With each man, Lulu climbs the social ladder. She is cold and calculating, but also an easy prey for others. In the middle of the opera Berg includes music for a silent film that depicts Lulu’s demise after she has murdered her husband Dr. Schön. The dénouement at the end of the third act – Lulu has descended into prostitution – is sensational.

Conductor Fabio Luisi and director William Kentridge both make their Dutch National Opera debut. Mojca Erdmann appeared previously at Dutch National Opera as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In both voice and appearance, Erdmann is a perfect Lulu.

The South African artist and filmmaker William Kentridge was inspired for his staging by the silent films from the 1920s and ‘30s, the time in which Lulu was composed. In 2012 he was the guest of the Holland Festival with the chamber opera Refuse the Hour.