20 Apr 2005

Berg's Lulu at ENO

Richard Jones’s English National Opera production of Berg’s Lulu was widely regarded as one of the company’s finest achievements when it premiered in 2002. The first night of its revival, however, was a somewhat awkward affair, in which illness regrettably played its part. Lisa Saffer (Lulu) and Susan Parry (Geschwitz) were singing with apologies, after suffering from throat infections. Fine actresses both, they compensated for vocal roughness with performances of uncommon dramatic vividness, though Saffer’s understandable tentativeness inevitably meant that we were faced with a Lulu whose physical glamour was unsupported by equivalent vocal allure.


Lisa Saffer (Photo: J. Henry Fair)

Lulu

Tim Ashley [The Guardian, 20 Apr 05]

Richard Jones's English National Opera production of Berg's Lulu was widely regarded as one of the company's finest achievements when it premiered in 2002. The first night of its revival, however, was a somewhat awkward affair, in which illness regrettably played its part. Lisa Saffer (Lulu) and Susan Parry (Geschwitz) were singing with apologies, after suffering from throat infections. Fine actresses both, they compensated for vocal roughness with performances of uncommon dramatic vividness, though Saffer's understandable tentativeness inevitably meant that we were faced with a Lulu whose physical glamour was unsupported by equivalent vocal allure.

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Lulu

Robert Thicknesse at the Coliseum [Times Online, 20 Apr 05]

"BE APPALLED!" leers the ringmaster, introducing the cast of Alban Berg's sprawling tragic farce. If only. Despite a text replete with all the things (graphic sex and death, generally in close combination) that usually cause a ruckus, this is one of your more restrained ENO shows.

This production, by Richard Jones, first appeared three years ago, and a second viewing makes a few things clear. One: by his standards Jones doesn't engage too deeply with the work; two: Lisa Saffer's performance as the disaster-zone heroine is simply staggering; and three: maybe once was enough.

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