Berlin’s Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop is a group of talented musicians with a penchant for modern arrangements of Baroque music and innovative staging. They are fast gaining a reputation as one of the most exciting groups in Europe. No wonder then, that they have attracted the likes of Vivienne Westwood as a collaborator on their production of Handel’s 1743 opera, Semele. Ludger Engels’s direction of the piece as part opera, part fashion show, warrants its renaming as Semele Walk.
The production was first performed at the Hanover Herrenhausen Festival in 2011, and has been remounted for the Sydney Festival this year. Arriving last week mid-heatwave, the group has done well to protect their temperature sensitive Baroque instruments and delicate vocal chords. The Sydney Town Hall is currently decked out with a gleaming white catwalk down the body of the hall, on which the bulk of the action takes place.
A cacophony of different groups including glittering, marching models, straight-laced choristers, punk orchestra and decadently dressed soloists makes for a thrilling exercise in contrast. The different elements speak to each other independently rather than happily marrying. Handel’s Baroque opulence speaks to Westwood’s lush couture and likewise, the punk elements of her design are met by musical director Michael Rauter’s own punk arrangements.
At one point, counter tenor Armin Gramer addresses the audience, speaking the lyrics from ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ by 70s punk group, X-Ray Spex. He politely entreats us: ‘thrash me, crash me, beat me till I fall, I want to be a victim for you all’. At another point a punk violinist stands to sing into the microphone, a PJ Harvey-like croon that she wrote herself.
What’s so exciting about Engels’s production is his use of theatre as a form to break things apart and open new spaces, rather than attempting a literal interpretation of Semele with all elements bound in a neat whole. There’s also humour in the disparity between groups. Watching a chorister play air guitar against one of the ensemble’s theorbo players on the catwalk made my night.
And naturally, some aspects also clash. The stomping rhythm of the stampeding models detracts at times from the music, although their deadpan presence serves only to enhance Aleksandra Zamojska’s impassioned performance as Semele. Zamojska’s physical presence is a force to be reckoned with, but her voice is at times lost in the large town hall and her strong accent makes her spoken outbursts difficult to understand. Gramer playing Jupiter has a resonant and unique counter tenor voice that has no trouble filling the space. The Sydney Philharmonia Choir is crystal clear and engaging.
The binding theme of the work is excess. The show traverses the edges of human extravagance, with Semele crying out, ‘No, no, I’ll take no less, than all in full excess!’ The Greek tale of a woman driven mad by her impulses finds its apt portrayal in the richness of Handel’s music and its pop counterpart, punk. Westwood sees the story as an allegory for human profligacy in regards to climate change; we will all be damned by our insatiable desires, like Semele. But of course Westwood’s lavish wares would seem an example of the very decadence she’s criticizing. This is no advertisement for eco austerity. Perhaps it is more a prediction of the human fate, rather than a call to arms. At any rate Semele Walk is a fascinating, dazzling experience.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Semele Walk
A show by Ludger Engels
Couture by Vivienne Westwood
Music by George Frideric Handel
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop
Sydney Town Hall
11 – 15 January
Sydney Festival 2013
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
5 – 27 January
