Harrison Birtwistle's Minotaur

[Brünnhilde forever]

The International world of opera is in good shape; one of my thoughts after watching this opera. Right off I could think of three contemporary composers having enriched our world with their work. Hans Werner Henze's L'Upupa, Peter Eötvös's The Three Sisters and now this one. The operas I listed are in my opinion the best works of the composer; of course I have not seen all of them - should get out Birtwistle's Gawain to refresh my memory! -

Of course there are others, for instance Thomas Adès and Tom Adams, But I think they are not quite yet in the class of the top three on my list.

The Minotaur is as powerful, mighty, and overwhelming as the Bayreuther's Götterdämmerung. All through the opera I rated the music of a scene as the best, until the next highlight sounded. Trying to remember back, the two scenes with the Minotaur dreaming are the most tender and heart-breaking ones, and his death the musically prominent part. Prominent because Birtwistle combines aching beauty with shattering power.

It's impossible for me to cover completely this opera, I have to repeat my advise I have given for other operas on DVD: You have to see it! Talent after talent is combined in this work, like the librettist David Harsent  who wrote the beautiful aria for Ariadne sitting on the shore of Crete, letting sand drift through her fingers and contemplating one stone she had picked up. Anybody who has ever been in such a situation in their life, will be carried back instantly to their own experience on some beach, any beach.

Stephen Langridge the Stage Director should been have given the position of artistic director at Bayreuth instead of the dumb Katharina Wagner. This young man is good! – Papa Philip Langridge, has assured an interviewer, he never interferes with his son's work! – Stephen made the Minotaur's labyrinth into an abstract bull fight arena, with the very active public lining the top. During the musical interludes preceding the appearance of the Minotaur, a projection of a stormy ocean covers the entire stage, slowly disclosing the image of the Minotaur. The son of Poseidon emerging from his father's domain?

Of course there are the singers with Christine Rice in the demanding role of Ariadne, sung so beautifully even I accept her soprano without criticism. A new voice, at least to me, is the Danish bass-baritone Johan Reuter as Theseus, outstanding vocally and acting. The confrontation with the Minotaur in the last scene, brutal, frightening, and physically very demanding by the two singers, is the last highlight.

Credit to the success of the opera has to be given in a great part to John Tomlinson. Doesn't this man never slow down? He won my heart with his Wotan in the 1991 Bayreuth performance in the Barenboim/Kupfer Ring, and he hasn't let me down since then. This time it is mostly his acting because the Minotaur doesn't do too much actual singing, yet his grunts and moans and snorts are great. His last singing of the dying Minotaur brings tears; finally, dying, the Minotaur, Asterios, can speak like a normal human being, is not the bloodthirsty beast any more.

Reviewing, writing extensively about this opera would take pages. Again: Please, you have to see it!

[Brünnhilde forever]

more pictures:

[Brünnhilde forever]

more:

[Brünnhilde forever]

last one:

[Wanderer]

Thanks for that! I'm definitely going to watch this.