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| Photo: Yossi Zwecker |
The first performance of the War Requiem by
Benjamin Britten took place at the dedication of the new St. Michael’s
Cathedral, Coventry (UK) on May 30, 1962, the edifice built to replace the
basilica destroyed in an air raid on the night of November 14-15, 1940. At the
premiere, Britten himself conducted the chamber orchestra. The Israeli premiere
of Britten’s War Requiem took place at the Tel Aviv Opera on December 6th 2024.
Conducting the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion was British-born
Alexander Joel. Directing the production was Ido Ricklin, Ula Shevtsov was
stage/costume designer, lighting design was by Nadav Barnea, movement design -
Nophar Levinger. Vocal soloists were sopranos Shaked Strul and Alla
Vasilevitsky, tenors Aaron Blake (UK), Anthony Webb (USA) and Peter Wedd (UK)
and baritones Eric Greene (USA), Yair Polishook and Oded Reich, as well as
soloists from the Israel Opera Chorus (chorus master: Etay Berkovitch). The
Moran Children's Choir was conducted by Carmel Antopolsky Amit. The English-
and Hebrew surtitles were translated by Ido Ricklin and edited by Israel Ouval.
Marking the composer’s readiness to treat
the topic of war explicitly, rather than as a parable or in symbolic form,
Britten interspersed the traditional Latin Missa pro Defunctis with settings of
the chillingly evocative and pessimistic anti-war poetry “from the trenches” of
the British soldier-poet Wilfred Owen (a compositional strategy distressful to
the strongholds of tradition of the time.) Owen's poetry is remarkable not only
for its content, but also for its use of half rhyme and assonance instead of
full rhyme, a style that he is credited with popularizing. His rejection of
traditional poetic form and reaction to the horrors of World War I are textbook
examples of modernism in poetry. Owen, regarded by many as the greatest poet of
the First World War, died in battle in France at age 25 just one week before
the end of World War I. Britten produced a powerful, uncompromising coupling of
the two texts, their contrasts and ironies, the result being a score of
striking originality, one combining the apocalyptic visions of destruction,
suffering, and, ultimately, of the eternal (but, from Britten’s pen, unquiet)
peace of the Mass for the Dead. Indeed, Britten renders the music of the two
texts subtly and disquietingly interrelated through his use of the tritone
(known from the late Middle Ages as "diabolus in musica") an element
pervading almost every page of the work. He divides the musical forces into
three groups - the soprano soloist (here two) and choir accompanied by the full
orchestra, the baritone and tenor soloists accompanied by the chamber orchestra
and the boys' choir (here, the Moran Children's Choir) accompanied on a small
portative organ. (Following one appearance on stage in the opening scene, the
children's choir then performed from one of the balconies.) If the War Requiem
expresses Britten's passionate statement on the futility of war, Ido Ricklin's
production takes it a step further, reinforcing this message through the power
of the visual and the theatrical, the production's intensity clearly fueled by
the current events of warfare. With the opera choir placed behind them, the
soloists performed on the front of the stage. Ricklin also added a
(non-singing) child actor (Daniel Cohen). Present on the stage throughout, the
boy symbolizes the children who have perished in war.
Ricklin divides the parts of the two male
singers among six men. Taking on the roles of both soldiers and civilians, they
add a broader dramatic sweep to the concert version. (Eric Greene, for example,
takes on the role of a grave digger.) The male singers portrayed Owen's dark
texts with involvement and articulate diction; to mention some items sung by
them: "Be slowly lifted up" (Yair Polishook), "Bugles sang"
(Eric Greene), "Move him" (Peter Wedd), "What passing
bells" (Anthony Webb) and "After the blast" (Oded Reich). One of
the work's most unheralded and moving moments occurs in the setting of a poem
Owen titled "Strange Meeting", in which, in a dark, irreverent
afterlife, a puzzled young soldier, either dying or dead, meets a soldier from
the enemy “side”, to bring about a poignant, understated reconciliation:
“I am the enemy you killed, my friend." (Aaron Blake, Oded Reich). As to
Britten's single soprano role, Ricklin engages two singers, creating two very
different roles: clad in white, the angel, representing compassion, was
performed superbly by Alla Vasilevtsky, a singer of strong stage presence. Her
singing of the Lacrimosa was as fragile as it was heart-rending. No less
impressive, Shaked Strul, portraying the wretched status of the female war victim,
gave an impassioned performance, spending much of the time grovelling on the
floor before finally dying. Her treatment of the ominous Libera me solo was
gripping and disturbing.
The Tel Aviv Opera Hall was plunged into
darkness. Lighting effects were apt, never excessive. As the performance
proceeded, six graves opened up on stage - a chilling sight - as each, in turn,
claimed its victim. At one point, via the aisle in the choir area, a corpse,
covered with a white sheet, was wheeled through to the front of the stage. Was
this shocking sight one gesture too many? Taking on the merging of the great
liturgy and the personal anguish of one poet-soldier, Maestro Alexander Joel, in his
Israeli Opera debut, brought all the forces together with conviction and
impressive articulacy. Britten's marvellous orchestration resounded in all its
timbral interest, symbolism, fantasy and impact. The Israeli Opera chorus gave
precise and powerful expression to the work's stark soundscape. As to the
young members of the Moran Children's Choir, they met the score's
challenges admirably, singing with clarity and competence. Spatially and
emotionally removed from the intensity of the work's other agendas, producing a
very strange, distant sound, they presented their texts with the naivete of
children untouched by earthly grief, guilt or fear. Yet, at its conclusion, we
are left with the discomfort of the War Requiem's dual ending, as the children
sing the tritone and the choir resolves it with an F- major chord.
At the head of his score Britten quotes the
words with which Owen prefaced his poems:
"My subject is War, and the pity of
War.
The poetry is in
the pity.
All a poet can do
is warn."
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| Ido Ricklin (israeli-opera.co.il) |
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