Word: wedekind
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Under Colin Graham's direction, the story-adapted from two plays by German Pre-Expressionist Frank Wedekind-unfolds in swift, biting scenes (given fine clarity by Arthur Jacobs' translation). The mysterious Lulu is a dancer, an amoral enchantress, perhaps a force of nature. She first rises through society, then falls disastrously, as lovers contend for her elusive soul and all too accessible body. Throughout the opera, a large portrait of her hangs onstage-one of Berg's many specifications that were sometimes ignored in the past...
...Lulu, Soprano Nancy Shade sings her precipitous vocal lines strongly and accurately, which is more of an achievement than it may sound. But she only acts out bewitching allure; she does not embody it. During rehearsals, the cast screened Louise Brooks' Lulu in the 1928 silent film of Wedekind's Pandora's Box- which may partly account for Shade's tendency to play the role as a jazz-age vamp...
...performances of Lulu's successive lovers vary according to how skillfully Wedekind wrote the parts. Christian Clemenson is delightfully boorish as the crude Dr. Goll. His braying inanities lighten the otherwise disjointed first act. Brian McCue's portrayal of Scwarz, however, is uneven, improving considerably from the first act to the second. When he first meets Lulu in the opening of the play, McCue relies too much on a series of mannerisms--rising on his toes, rubbing his hands, pacing around briskly--that distract attention from his passionate words. Japes Emerson turns in a sporadic performance, though he is cursed...
GRACE SHOHET portrays the play's most interesting and controversial character, the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, who sacrifices everything for Lulu. Wedekind created the only fully rounded human portrait in the role of Countees Geschwitz, and Shohet infuses it with pathos. Her despairing speech in the last act strikes one of the few sincere notes in an otherwise emotionally detached production...
Despite the high quality of the acting and the consistently clever staging, the play itself somehow remains insubstantial. By failing to people his sinister world with real human beings, Wedekind never touches emotion. It's like waking up from a nightmare, only to find nothing there to worry about...