ICSM Online Journal > Reviews

Zemlinsky Der Zwerg, Theater Erfurt.
Premiere 2 December 2006 and in repertoire

Reviewed by Michael Eagleton
posted 21 Feb 2007

When Zemlinsky’s two-one act operas, Eine Florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg were rediscovered after the Second World War, they were seen first in new versions prepared by Adolf Dresen and Gerd Albrecht for the Hamburg opera, which subsequently appeared in other European centres (at Covent Garden in 1985). But as interest in Zemlinsky has increased, these have been superseded by the originals, and in the case of Der Zwerg nearly fifteen minutes of music has been restored. Paradoxically, this extra length may have lessened their attraction as a double bill, though Zemlinsky did not conceive them as such, despite of their common source in Oscar Wilde. (But Paul Daniel is to conduct both in Frankfurt in April).

In Erfurt ’s lovely new theatre, Der Zwerg was not quite alone. Director Rupert Lummer prefaced the opera with by a scenic prologue consisting of the first song from the same composer’s Lyric Symphony, which sets Tagore’s eloquent yearning verses speaking of ‘a stranger in a strange land’. On stage we saw the Dwarf, here a painter, a parallel drawn with Toulouse-Lautrec (who, of course, himself did not grow into physical adulthood following two teenage accidents) being put to bed by Ghita. In the opera it is she, the Infanta’s favourite maid, who is the only one who shows any pity for the Dwarf, and precipitates his death through, in being cruel to be kind, showing him a mirror.

So the events of the opera were at one remove, as in a dream. This did have some advantages, first in that it concentrated the drama on the Dwarf of the title, instead of, as is often the case, the rather superficial figure of the Infanta. In practical terms, since we were already made familiar with a Dwarf a little less physically disadvantaged than the caged grotesque promised to the Infanta as a birthday present, the tenor did not have to spend the evening crawling on his knees. Moreover, it avoided the questionable premise that the dwarf, having never seen a mirror is blind to his ugliness; here, a large mirror hung on the wall above his bed, which remained on stage throughout as the principal item of furniture. Musically, though, the arrangement was more questionable. The Lyric Symphony has such a powerful opening, a motto theme which, together with its derivatives, resonates through the whole work, setting up a tension which the music of the opera itself, though no less powerful was not able to resolve.

The singer, in the pit, was the rather blustery baritone of Juan-Carlos Mera-Euler, later appearing as the Chamberlain. The Dwarf was Erik Fenton – not, dare one say, a large man in any case, but with a good robust tenor, his strophic love song particularly well phrased and paced. Mariinsky-trained Alla Perchikova made the most of the part of the Infanta, Donna Clara. In the pit Walter E. Gugerbauer conducted a rather lacklustre performance, never quite maximising the colour and depth that this score can yield.

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