Word: schon
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...inconsistency that plagues Lulu shows most clearly in the title character herself. One moment Lulu is the innocent, pursued child; the next she ruthlessly manipulates Dr. Schon into marrying her. She is the victim but also the executioner, and her heartlessness is equalled only by her astonishment at the havoc she wreaks. To her credit, Anne Clarke manages to wrest a characterization out of this maze of contradiction, and falters only when the script itself cannot sustain her. She is able to present Lulu sympathetically, with the right mixture of helplessness and hardness...
Unfortunately, the play does not allow her to establish any defined relationship with Dr. Schon, her benefactor (David Reiffel). The scenes involving the two of them, with the exception of Lulu's declaration of love, lack any sense of tension or attraction. Here Reiffel might improve his otherwise effectively sardonic characterization by displaying more passion. He is so ironic and biting that his later capitulation does not ring true...
Steven G. Schon New York City...
...singers amidst stark mausoleum-like sets in monochromatic blacks and grays, all vast, sterile spaces and icy slabs of marble. The results captured the harsh, merciless qualities of the opera perhaps too well. They were undeniably powerful, particularly in the hair-raising scene in which Lulu guns down Schon on an enormous staircase. They were also brutal and at times faintly ludicrous, like some bad dream by Albert Speer...
Previous productions broke off after Lulu, imprisoned for murdering Schon, escapes and takes up a fugitive life with Schon's son and other admirers. The third act reveals that Berg rounded off the story with telling symmetry. Lulu descends through a succession of men and social strata that mirror those she rose through in the first two acts. Accordingly, Berg's music for her decline is shot through with echoes, correspondences and recapitulations of earlier moments. When Lulu is reduced to streetwalking in London, Berg called for her three clients to be played by the same singers...