It’s a divisive idea – “enhancing” the genre of art song through dramatisation, stage direction, costuming, projections and It’s a divisive idea – “enhancing” the genre of art song through dramatisation, stage direction, costuming, projections and other melding of art forms. You will find musicians at the highest level arguing it is either grotesque and unnecessary or that it brings a welcome new dimension that aids in opening the door to listeners unfamiliar with the language and poetry.
Musica Viva has bravely gone there, with a new production of Winterreise, Schubert’s 24-song cycle of a man’s journey of despair that is indisputably one of the finest achievements of all art.
It features English tenor Allan Clayton MBE and Australian pianist Kate Golla with direction from Lindy Hume, video design by David Bergman, lighting by Matthew Marshall and projections of paintings by the late Fred Williams.
Your reviewer enters the hall an agnostic in this debate, beyond feeling that if you are going to step on this turf, it better not detract from the music.
In this case there are some issues but more on those later because the first thing to say is: go. Go immediately and secure a ticket to a future performance in this national tour. You won’t be disappointed and it was clear from the unusually focused silence and standing ovation that the Melbourne audience was transfixed and deeply moved on Saturday evening.
Clayton’s singing is cause alone. Over the span of 70 minutes, he deployed a stunning array of colour and range that displayed a deep connection to these songs. You would have to take a journey as long and harrowing as our protagonist to hear it better sung.
Golla proved a worthy companion, with particularly magical contributions in Frühlingstraum and Die Krähe and some beautifully judged tempi and transitions between songs. Their sense of ensemble was frequently breathtaking as she anticipated and sometimes created subtle variations between verses in the strophic songs that was musically informed and pure class.
But it is in regards to the piano that we arrive at the first big problem with this production. In order to see the projection screens properly the instrument was positioned at a most unusual angle, with the keyboard at almost 90 degrees to the audience, sending all the sound directly into the side wall of the stage rather than towards the listener. In a room as acoustically superb as the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall the sound bounced right back, leading to some muddy textures. The same reason necessitated the lid being at half-stick, which only further reduced clarity and direction. With a voice the size of Clayton’s in a room that large it would have been wonderful to hear Golla at full flight, and it pained to think of how much more beautiful the pianism would have been without these handicaps. Remember: first do no harm to the music.
The stage blocking? Well Clayton is a good actor and Hume a clever director and at times it was evocative in adding to the story, particularly when he came to rest in number 10. But there were many oddities. For instance, why have him literally run from one part of the stage to another between some of the final songs when our wanderer is telling us that he is physically exhausted and can barely put one frostbitten foot in front of the other?
As for the Williams projections, again there were moments of beauty where one felt it really added to the mood, an example being in Der Wegweiser. But some choices felt at odds to the poetry and ultimately one was so transfixed with Clayton’s performance that it seemed to add minimal value.
Musica Viva and Artistic Director Paul Kildea are to be applauded for designing something ambitious and genuinely new that may well help introduce this masterpiece to a different audience.
While there are valid criticisms of the production, the superb musicianship of Clayton and Golla means none of that matters and you should make your own Winter’s Journey to the hall at the first opportunity.
Photo supplied.
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Stewart Kelly reviewed Schubert’s “Die Winterreise” performed by tenor Allan Clayton and pianist Kate Golla, and presented by Musica Viva Australia at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on July16, 2022.
