La ville morte (The Dead City) in Gothenburg Opera (Sweden), the 8th of March, 2020

My – almost traditional – spring visit to Gothenburg to visit relatives was this year crowned by the opera ”La ville morte” by Nadia Boulanger and Raoul Pugno on Gabriele D’Annuzio’s play and libretto. The opera was finished in 1914 and its first night was supposed to take place in September of that same year. However, the beginning of the First World War crashed the plans. Unfortunately, the score of the opera was destroyed in a fire and the orchestration of the opera now shown in Gothenburg was made by Mauro Bonifacio based on a piano score that was kept elsewhere and thus saved. The opera has been performed only once before, in 2005 in Siena.

The opera tells about an archeologist Léonard and his sister Hébé, who are at the digs of the ancient city of Mycenae. They have been joined by Léonard’s friend Alexandre and his blind wife Anne. Hébé and Anne spend a lot of time together and have become friends and when Hébé and Alexandre fall in love, it feels difficult to the lovers. Léonard is also in love with his own sister and struggles with his incestuous lust for her. Anne senses that Hébe and Alexandre are in love and assures to Léonard that she is not against the relationship, but is actually ready to step aside so that the lovers could be happy. When Léonard thus finds out about his sister’s love, he becomes insanely jealous and drowns Hébé in a fountain after which he jubilantly announces that he is saved and can now freely love his sister, who has remained pure. Then, when Léonard and Alexandre are moving Hébé’s dead body, Anne arrives, touches the body and regains her sight.  

In principle the opera was a concert version, but with light stage set (columns referring to temple pillars) and background videos (mountains, digs, starlit sky) plus with some lights (fire, water) the spectator managed to almost forget that.

In the beginning of the opera, my first impression was that it was a very French opera, but the further it got, the more the spellbinding the music became. During the evening I felt as if I was watching a horror film, where the spectator all the time knows that something terrible is going to happen. Already in the serene music of the beginning, you could sense the threatening undercurrent and in the end the sound of flowing water made you figuratively bite your fingernails, since you knew that something horrible was due. The music of the opera was truly intriguing, multidimensional and emotive. The Gothenburg Opera Orchestra with the conductor Anna-Maria Helsing were superb. Also the theme of the opera about love in its many forms and how compulsive and twisted love can destroy everything around it was gripping. Léonard’s destructive need to keep Hébé ”pure”, when he could not have her, was absolutely spine-chilling, but unfortunately not unknown in true life.

The Gothenburg Opera has also found excellent soloists for the production (there are only five singers and the choir in it). My absolute favourite was Katarina Karnéus (who won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1995) as Hébé. She was magnificent. And young Markus Petterson as Léonard was a fitting counterpart to her. Handsome voice, whose development I would love to follow.