A blue-gray cube with luminous edges is the continent in which this peculiar, minimal, surprising and humorous Messiah by Bob Wilson takes place, which yesterday illuminated the Liceu on the day of its premiere. The lyrical coliseum on La Rambla was abuzz with expectant people and illuminated faces. The effective Not a Buida Seat campaign had ended up causing an unprecedented sell-out in an oratory. Although not just any one. The American stage director worked his own aesthetic magic and invoked all kinds of ancestral cultures with just six characters and a chorus. “Brutal!” said a woman in seat 6 every time a scene ended. The standing theater applauded the protagonists for the final six minutes and received with an ovation the soprano Julia Lezheneva, that woman who, as Giovanni Antonini, one of her first supporters, said, “opens her mouth and sings.”
The audience could not contain themselves and would rather break the spell and applaud her at the end of Er weidet seine Herde (I know that my Redeemer liveth, in English). And if she almost made the same mistake after her lonely boat ride singing “Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt” (I know that my Redeemer lives).
Staging oratorios has become a common practice in recent times but nothing compared to what Wilson achieves in this Handel in Mozart’s version. The theatrical vision of this exponent of minimalism has required detailed acting work from all the artists (choir included, who also had to learn the score by heart) and has called on up to thirteen makeup artists! to put their idea to the test (the normal thing in a typical production is four).
Right from the start, the appearance of the tenor Richard Croft officiating the ceremony as an operatic singer with a character like a superposition of elements of the commedia dell’arte, put the respectable person on notice. Jesus Christ and the cross were not necessarily going to be the leitmotiv of this Messiah. On the contrary, Wilson would do his pantheistic version with a large dose of surrealism and humor: he would take a lobster for a walk, he would let the soprano baptize herself with a glass of water while she continued singing, or when at the end the mezzo Kate Lindsey alluded to the tomb and death, he did it flirtingly, in a comical sexual blush. Not to mention “Hallelujah”, fast, lively and happy, with the choir with doll-like hands while mountains of deconstructed icebergs are projected in the background and the multitasking dancer appears like an astronaut… 2001, an odyssey on Earth. ..
“This is a message of hope,” Wilson would say in the final cup, provoking a stony silence among those in attendance. “We need to listen to this music more than ever. Ezra Pound already said it: in the fourth dimension, stillness, is the most powerful beast.”
Yes. Wilson’s polysemous and static nature works surprisingly well in The Messiah. And that freshness generates a dissonance with the historical interpretation of Mozart. Musically, the effort made by the Liceu choir to create this very demanding oratorial score is to be appreciated, but in the end it is in the orchestra where maestro Pons puts his basket of beans and it is the artistic body that makes this version of Mozart stand out. Händel’s original shines with its own light, with the first swords of the formation.
The musical director of the Gran Teatre had expressed his doubts to what extent to make a 100% Mozartian reading – since the brilliant Salzburg composer adapted the piece in 1789 to the tastes of the prevailing Viennese classicism, introducing instruments such as the clarinet, previously non-existent, and choosing a translation from English to German from 1775 – or reserve a space for the Handelian baroque. The answer is a Messiah almost unrecognizable to the public that attends the traditional Christmas concerts with which the main venues celebrate the life of Jesus Christ. And it’s okay, so be it. To highlight the great work of ornamentation and reinforcement of the drama that Joan Seguí does to the positive organ, an invisible work that hides very beautiful recreations
