I have so
far liked all the operas of Rodion Shchedrin that I have seen, so when the
Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg decided finally to include his opera “Lolita”,
which he wrote already in 1992 (and which had its first performance in the
Royal Swedish Opera in Swedish in 1994!) to its programme, I simply had to
travel to see its opening night.
”Lolita” is based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel by the
same name and it tells about Humbert Humbert, who yearns for the 12-year old
Dolores Haze (=Lolita) and marries her mother – Charlotte – to be near her. When
Charlotte reads in Humbert’s diary about his lust for Lolita, she runs away and
is killed in a car accident. Humbert leaves for a road trip through America
with Lolita, controls her life more and more and abuses her sexually. In the
end the unhappy girl runs away with the help of Clare Quilty. Two years later
she sends a letter to Humbert telling that she is married, pregnant and broke
and asks for help. Humbert finds Lolita and when he hears that Quilty helped
her escape and abandoned her, when she did not agree to play in his porn films,
he goes and kills Quilty. Humbert confesses his deed immediately, ends up in
court, but dies before the verdict. Lolita also dies in childbirth.
The production they are showing in St. Petersburg was
originally made for the Prague National Theatre. My personal opinion is that
this opera is a masterpiece. You seldom see operas where there are no weak
links, but everything is top notch. Shchedrin’s music and Sláva Daubnerová’s direction
are magically welded together. Boris Kudlička’s innovative set design, which is
based on a rotating stage and Natalia Kitamikado’s excellent costumes create a
perfect background for a fascinating opera.
In Daubnerová’s direction Humbert goes through the
events in front of the judges. The performance begins with Quilty’s death and
then moves to the moment Humbert first meets Lolita. In the opening night the
role of Humbert Humbert was sung by Petr Sokolov. His voice fit perfectly the
role and he was able to create a believable character out of this unlikable
slimy person, whom the spectator ended up almost understanding. Also Pelageya Kurennaya’s
Lolita was out of real life. She was not an innocent, cute little girl, but a
rebellious, almost dysfunctional type, which did not make her destiny any less
sad. I have before heard Kurennaya only in classic roles, but she was
absolutely fantastic in this more modern piece. One of my favourite characters
was also Daria Rositskaya, who sang the role of the naïve Charlotte. Again, I
can only say that a gorgeous voice combined with great acting created a truly
believable mother.
The cherry on the cake of this performance was,
however, the male choir, who played the part of judges. Shchedrin had written
amazing music to them that they used to torture Humbert. Their performance
really gave me goosebumps.
The atmosphere of the opera enchanted the audience.
The Orchestra of Mariinsky Theater and conductor Valery Gergiev played wonderfully.
Not all spectators loved the heavy theme of the opera, but left during the
interval. And since the opera started late as it invariably does when Gergiev
is conducting, another typical to his conducting occurrence happened, that is,
a big part of the audience gradually tiptoed out of the theatre during the last
thirty minutes. So, in the end the seats were half empty when the final chords
were played. But those remaining of the audience clapped like crazy. The
composer himself was also present as he usually is during the performances of
his operas at Mariinsky. I can really recommend this opera. There are
several singers singing the roles, so it is hard to say if they are all as
perfect as the ones of the opening night, but at least the direction itself is
great.
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