Christ Re-Crucified in Music and Vision May 3

Christ Re-Crucified
GIUSEPPE PENNISI was at
the Italian première of
Bohuslav Martinu's Greek Passion

The Teatro Massimo of Palermo is one of the most innovative opera houses in Italy. It deserves, no doubt, to be visited by anyone going to Sicily; for opera-goers, it is simply 'a must'. Just a few weeks ago, I reviewed the world première of Marco Tutino's Senso, commissioned by the Teatro Massimo in co-production with a number of major European Opera Houses. Your reviewer was back in Palermo on 29 April 2011 for another première: Bohuslav Martinu's The Greek Passion. This is not a world première but the first staging in Italy of a rarely performed opera of the twentieth century which the author had barely completed before his death. The opera, with its English libretto, is known in the United Kingdom because it has been performed at both Covent Garden [read Robert Hugill's review] and English National Opera. It is quite often on stage in Eastern Europe, especially after the religious revival following the fall of Communism, and also in the United States because the Bohemian-born and American naturalized Martinu (1890-1959) wandered for several years between Rome, Nice, Schönenberg (near Basel) and especially New York, even though his letters to friends, especially in the latter part of his life, reveal a daunting nostalgia for his beloved Brno and Prague.

A scene from Bohuslav Martinu's 'The Greek Passion' at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. Photo © 2011 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution
A few words on the composer: Martinu is known as a celebrated violinist and pianist in the first part of the twentieth century. Also he was a well-respected conductor and a successful author of chamber and symphonic music but barely appreciated for his operas (fifteen but not widely circulated). His style is an eclectic travel through the first half of twentieth century music; he never accepted the oft-prevailing twelve note row system but developed a very personal blend of Czech national music, French impressionism and Stravinsky's neo-classicism as well as neo-Baroque counterpoint and American jazz. In his later years (when he was composing The Greek Passion and the lyric one-act Arianne), Martinu strove for a simple and direct musical language with emphasis on melody as well as the on the incorporation of ethnic themes (of course, Greek for The Passion) along with his long-time Slavic background. This blend has had considerable influence on modern American tonal opera (Pasatieri, Argento, Bolcom -- just to mentioned a few). Martinu did not marginalized himself as his compatriot Leos Janácek willingly did; Janácek was born thirty-six years before Martinu only a few miles away (in nearby Moravia) but rarely made a trip even only to Prague and was always looking East, ie at Slavic and Russian music. Martinu was in the mainstream of Western European and later American music but never at the center of it.
The origins of the opera require some comments. It is based on a well-known novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, who also authored widely read and translated novels such as Zorba the Greek and Last Temptation. The novel's original title is quite catchy: Christ Re-Crucified. It was written in 1948 but as many as twenty-three translations had been counted by 1953 -- thus it was a real best seller. In 1957, it was also the basis of Jules Dassin's movie with an all-star cast (Melina Mercouri, Maurice Ronet, Jean Servais, Roger Hanin, Pierre Vaneck, René Lefevre); the movie was awarded an important prize at the Cannes Festival and was very successful in the late fifties and early sixties. It can still be seen now and then on television. There have also been two television serials: in 1969 in English by the BBC in six parts, and in 1975 in Greek by the Greek national television in as many as seventy episodes. Finally, in 1987 in Budapest, the National Magyar Opera House unveiled Ecce Homo by Sándor Szokolay; I found no records of revivals or of performances outside Hungary. This indicates, though, how the subject is topical and ready for filming as well as apt to musical theatre.

A scene from Bohuslav Martinu's 'The Greek Passion' at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. Photo © 2011 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution
There are two distinct versions of Martinu's The Greek Passion. He completed the text and the music a few months before dying, but the opera appeared too innovative to the management of Zurich Opera House, especially due to the frequent mélologues (rhythmic dialogues with orchestra accompaniment); thus, it was drastically revised for its 1961 Zurich début. This version has been recorded a couple of times under Charles Mackerras' baton. The first version was edited by Ales Brezina and unveiled in 1999 at the Bregenz Festival and revived in London, Thessaloniki and a few other places; although unofficial recordings of some of these performances can be found in the secondary market, there is neither a CD nor a DVD in the main official channels. The Palermo production is based on this first version as retrieved and edited by the musicologist Ales Brezina. This explains why on 29 April 2011, many major music critics from all over Europe were in the Teatro Massimo. This review is based on that very performance.

A scene from Bohuslav Martinu's 'The Greek Passion' at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. Photo © 2011 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution
The plot revolves around the 'Passion Play' being traditionally performed, every seven years, in a small Greek village in Anatolia; the period is the 1920s and the Lykovrissi village (like the rest of the area) is under Turkish domination, but Greece has the ambition to get that part of Europe under its control. Thus, there is a delicate balance between the Turks and the local Greek populace. With the help of the elders, the most important priest of the community, Father Grigoris, assigns roles to the villagers: the young shepherd Manolios is given that of Jesus, even though he does not consider himself to be worthy or up to it. The attractive widow Katerina (indeed, the village's prostitute) would be Mary Magdalene, the tanner (and bully money lender) Paniat, Judas, and so on. Lykovrissi is a rural but a relatively well-off village as compared with other Greek settlements in Anatolia. In this rather idyllic Easter holiday atmosphere, the harsh reality of national oppression (strongly felt by a Czech) and social clash ignites the drama: the conflict between, on the one hand, the pauperized, hungry and famished refugees from another Greek village (on the other side of the Mount Sarakina) just burnt and razed down by the Turks (as a consequence of some politicking and fighting); on the other, the selfish Lykovrissi populace, also Turkish-dominated, but well-fed and, by and large, unwilling to stop the Easter celebration, and to ruffle the feathers of their Turkish masters, just to help the undesired 'newcomers'. In the novel, as well as in Dassin's movie, the story is told with brutal frankness, knife-blade and blood as well as sensuality (in the relationship between Manolios and Katerina). There are also several sub-plots (which justify the seventy episodes of the Greek television serial) involving the relationship of the community with the Turks, especially with the Turkish 'Aga' (proconsul) a sadistic homosexual especially attracted by young men, and Katerina's sacrifice for the community when the Aga's latest favorite -- an arrogant Turkish boy -- is found dead. There is also quite a bit of sex: Katarina sleeps with almost all the men in the village, tries to bring Manolios and his disciples to her bed but feels regret and dies as a saint. Thus a fair amount of blood and glut spiced with sensuality and a smell of sex. The right recipe for a novel, a film and TV serials.

A scene from Bohuslav Martinu's 'The Greek Passion' at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. Photo © 2011 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution
In Martinu's opera, the slant is different: softer, gentler, more elegant and, fundamentally, full of hope in a better future due to the Divine Providence. The emphasis is on how the characters progress beyond their initial dimension by their gradual and profound identification with the roles allotted to them in the Passion Play, especially the change in personality of the kind and defenseless shepherd (till then, considered the simpleton of the village) Manolios. With his three friends (in the Passion Play, they have the roles of the apostles James, Peter and John) and with Katerina (the local source of comfort for the village's male youth), Manolios becomes the hero confronting squarely Father Grigoris in order to help the 'brother' refugees. He subverts the existing co-existence order between the dominated Greeks and the dominant Turks. He is excommunicated by Father Grigoris and killed by Paniat-Judas. Martinu is less interested in the harsher and even sensual aspects of the plot than in the motif of Christ who continues to descend on Earth to be found again and again in the poor and in the humbled. He employs opulent choral singing and a complex orchestral structure, often timbre-based, and with the inclusion of traditional instruments (the harmonium, the shepherds' primitive flute) both in the pit and on the stage. He gives the solo vocal parts sparingly designed but expressively contoured singing, even in ceremonial and static situations. He delves in melodic wealth, especially for Katerina, as well as in returning motifs (more mnemonic -- ie to recall situation and personalities -- than Wagnerian -- ie to construct a newer musical language by intertwining themes). The themes are a) 'the Cross' (from the very beginning of the overture); b) the 'Kyrie Eleison' as a sign of compassion; c) the 'altruistic love', exploding in Katerina's arioso; and d) the 'village life'. The melodic line, of course, also draws on psalmody, liturgical singing, Greek orthodox chorale and folk-religious songs. Asher Fisher delves into this rich orchestration to uncover its beauty but in full knowledge that Martinu was after 'music drama' for the international audience; this is why the libretto is in English and in his letter to Zurich Opera management he stressed the need to do 'real theatre'.
'Real theatre' is what Damiano Michieletto (stage director), Paolo Frantin (set designer), Silvia Aymonimo (costumes) and Alessandro Carletti (lighting) do. There is impressive revolving four level scenic machinery where all the different locations of the village (the main square, the Church, the restaurants, Katerina's house-brothel, the cemetery, the surrounding hills and mountains) can be seen; the action moves swiftly in a cinematic manner. The pathos increases as the plot develops, also due to the excellent acting of the singers. The action is moved from Anatolia in the twenties to anyplace in Europe today; this is very topical in Sicily as one of its islands, Lampedusa, is flooded by immigrants from Africa.

Sergey Nayda as Manolios in Bohuslav Martinu's 'The Greek Passion' at Teatro Massimo, Palermo. Photo © 2011 Franco Lannino. Click on the image for higher resolution
Vocally the two choruses (a regular chorus and a children's chorus) directed by Andrea Faidutti and Salvatore Punturo deserve an applause because of their critical key role in the opera. Of the twenty soloists, at least four (all barely known on the Italian musical scene) need be to mentioned: Sergey Nayda (Manolios) is a young heldentenor with a clear timbre and a good acute in a role, for many aspects, similar (vocally) to that of Laça in Janácek's Jenufa, Judith Howarth (Katerina) a 'soprano assoluto' with a strong center register and excellent phrasing, and Mark S Doss and Luis-Ottavio Faria, two basses, as the Parish priests of, respectively, Lykovrissi and of the refugee community.
I hope that other theatres will revive the production in Italy and abroad. Nonetheless, we want a DVD!
Copyright © 3 May 2011 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

BOHUSLAV MARTINU
ITALY
CZECH REPUBLIC
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