Berg: Lulu (Paris, 1979)
 

Cast: Lulu (Teresa Stratas); Dr. Schön, Jack (Franz Maura); Countess Geschwitz (Yvonne Minton); Doctor, Schigolch, Policeman (Toni Blankenheim); Wardrobe Mistress, Schoolboy, Groom (Hanna Schwarz); Prince, Marquis, Servant (Helmut Pampuch); Alwa (Kenneth Riegel); Painter, Negro (Robert Tear); Animal Tamer, Athlete (Gerd Nienstedt); Orchestra du Theatre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Pierre Boulez (conductor)

Originally recorded 1979

Reissued on DVD in 2000 by Dreamlife (DLVC 1059/Region 0/NTSC, Japanese menus; optional Japanese subtitles)

Technical Details:
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Sound: PCM Stereo
Running time: 170 minutes

Sung in German

Price in Japan 7,800 yen
 
Those who are attuned to this unique work will find this DVD indispensible. Patrice Chereau's production is simple in the extreme: set vaguely in the early 20th century, the staging consists of a great curved staircase, a few relevant props and supernumeraries standing about as though mannequins. Boulez's conducting is brisk and spare; everything is in its place as the score impels us through Lulu's experiences. Each of the characters surrounding Lulu is cast without flaw. There is no sense of effort, let alone strain, in any of them and the music seems to flow easily from them. Each also has the rare ability to make the spoken lines as musical as those which are sung.
 
Of course, the critical demand in any performance of 'Lulu' is the title character. Stratas inhabits the role to a frightening extent. Even on the television screen, she fascinates the viewer - as she does her suitors - in the manner of a cobra. She seems to be an animal expressing itself by its nature, not by design. The fiendish music pours from her as easily as a howl from a wolf and with as much intellectual control. It is impossible to doubt her during the performance and impossible to believe that she delivered it after.
 
In this edition, the Cerha completion is a substantial but avoidable weakness; simply skip Act III. Painful as that may seem to some, others will find that they have held their breath so long through the first two acts that it is a relief to say: Enough! Still, it is there when you wish to see and to hear it.
 
Sound is clean and undistorted with good but not exceptional frequency response and modest stereo separation. Unfortunately, the video presents more serious issues with excessive contrast (more precisely, lack of fill light) obscuring many details and inducing eyestrain as one peers for information. Adding to that problem are artifacts of the horizontal stairs meeting the horizontal scan lines; the background is often dominated by a half dozen rippling stripes of white against stark black. There are periods when color seeps into the background suggesting that digital enhancement of the master was not tightly controlled. One wishes that a language with a Roman alphabet had been used for more than the cast lists - and that the lists on the pacakge and on the insert were consistent with one another.
 
No matter. This is an unforgettable performance of a seminal work.
 
Related website:
Dreamlife www.dreamlife.co.jp (Japanese only)
  
Michael Richter, 8 December 2002
mrichter@cpl.net
 
See also Michael Richter's Introduction to the DVD, for a list of other reviews see the DVD Project page.