THE LINDBERGH FLIGHT/THE FLIGHT OVER THE OCEAN & THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS.
Edinburgh
THE LINDBERGH FLIGHT/ THE FLIGHT OVER THE OCEAN & THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
by Bertolt Brecht music by Kurt Weill
Edinburgh Festival Theatre To 16 August 2006
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 August
Big-scale Brecht/Weill shows work wonderfully well.
Brecht and Weill, among their century’s great writer/composer partnerships, weren’t easy partners. When East German radio revived the Lindbergh piece in 1950, Brecht demanded the pilot be airbrushed from the title. Weill, in America, died before ratifying the change so producers are lumbered with the double name.
In 1929, Brecht saw the piece as didactic drama for huge working-class choirs; Weill thought it a radio cantata. Neither envisaged anything like Opera National de Lyon’s superb professional staging. Old-style microphones droop from the heights; into them a Speaker announces the importance of Flight and that the Nazi-sympathising Lindbergh’s name must no longer be used.
It’s hard now to imagine the Aviator’s importance to the inter-war imagination; the lone hero navigating new ways: Brecht’s point. Weill contributed by incorporating older musical styles in a score which can resemble the Deadly Sins (both at times seeming interchangeable with his 2nd Symphony). Charles Workman’s impressive Pilot-hero looks suitably vulnerable in the slow-propellered fuselage section which slowly crosses the stage on its New York-Paris flight.
Behind, a map of Europe and the USA shows calm waves, later transforming to fog and bubble-bursting storm impressions, till, the flight completed, the continents move close together.
Deadly Sins, from 1933, shows commercial pressures splitting humanity, so Anna from Louisiana (Brecht’s America was always an emotional landscape) becomes 2 characters, the rational Singer and impulsive Dancer (the latter here given a different performer each scene). In front of a skeleton-map of the USA incorporating mobile magnifications of dollar bills, the sisters commit each sin in a different US city.
Their actions are aspects of humanity made criminal under capitalism. In the Pride scene, Anna II’s artistic cabaret makes no money; the punters want debased sexual dancing. Automaton-like joltings starkly contrast the initial flowing lines. Meanwhile the family at home (an all-male quartet) hymn the new house they’re building on Anna’s earnings, visibly rising while singing Weill’s cloyingly pious lines.
Gun-Brit Barkmin’s sung Anna sustains continuity as her dancing sisters provide vivid contrasts. Francois Girard’s production and Francois Seguin’s imaginative, thematically-apt sets make this a fine Festival event.
The Lindbergh Flight/The Flight Over The Ocean
Lindbergh: Charles Workman
Speaker: Don McKellar
Baritone: Urban Maimberg
Bass: Dario Suss
Dancers: Yann Dao, Alibey Ghenai, Julien Quartier
The Seven Deadly Sins
Anna I: Gun-Brit Barkmin
Anna II: Juliette Murgier/Capucine Goust/Marion Mangin/Maissa Barrouche/Catherine Mestat/Cindy Guiovanna/Helene Bianco/Apanasik Yuliya
Baritone: Urban Mamberg
Bass: Dario Suss
Tenors: Jweroen de Vaal, Andreas Jaggi
Dancvers: Cedric Gueret, Mabrouk Gouicem, Rachid Hamchaoui, Alex Tuy, Derradji Bounechada, Yann Dao, Alibey Ghenai, Julien Quartier
Director: Francois Girard
Designer: Francois Seguin
Lighting: David Finn
Video: Peter Flaherty
Conductor: Roberto Minczuk
Choreographer: Marie Chouinard
Costume: Thibault Vancraenenbroeck
Assistant lighting: Andreas Gruter
2006-08-22 12:00:57