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1984 by Lorin Maazel. The CG production.
By Jane Garratt
I very much enjoyed 1984, but it's not the sort of opera that you come out of transported to cloud nine.
The story is faithful to Orwell's novel, focussing on the relationship between Winston and Julia, and what happens to them when the Party discovers their relationship. It’s set against the background of a totalitarian society which rejects individualism.
Before I went I was uncertain whether it would work on stage, and whether the music would be strong enough to carry the ideas. I’d read the very negative reviews, but I had no doubts after I’d seen it. The evening was a highly emotional experience for me. The work is powerful and challenging, and it works on many levels including the music, singing and staging.
The set is very inventive. All the action takes place in a circle surrounded by a movable metal frame which itself is covered in gauze. If the gauze is backlit it becomes transparent and allows the audience to see the watchers behind it. If it is frontlit it serves as a screen to project images of Big Brother, Victory newsreels and the party slogans. Inside the circle is a revolving stage broken into four segments by movable walls, which change position to represent different rooms. Everything is grey and dirty and grimy. All the people wore dark boiler suits or dark rags, the only colour in the costumes being the red sash of the junior anti-sex league and the red costume of the gym mistress. It was terrific.
The music is more challenging. I found it very powerful, but I could understand why some critics don't like it. There is no set structure, no traditional set pieces such as trios, the style is unrelentingly modern and very derivative. I recognised influences of composers like Britten and Bernstein. There are a lot of nursery rhymes, jazz singing and barber shop quartets.
I could see why the critics say that it lacks "Style", but I felt that it very accurately reflected the horrible society which lacks human contact. If no-one in the piece is ever supposed to make a relationship with another person how could you have the music stuffed with set pieces that require a relationship of voices? (Duets, trios, quartets?) There are choruses, where everyone is expected to be doing the same thing, but they are full of hate and mindless adoration. All the most beautiful pieces were given to solo singers, and the only people who sang together in harmony were the proles who are outside the system, and Winston and Julia when they are in love.
Simon was required to sing in a very large range. Whenever he spoke of love or hate his voice was up in a range the I would normally associate with a tenor. When frightened he was sometimes singing very high, sometimes singing very low. He managed this but seemed uncomfortable in the very highest sections. I also felt that the score was unkind to the soprano Nancy Gustafson who had to try to project over the top of very loud wind and brass sections of the orchestra.
The singing and acting were superb from the whole cast. I enjoyed Nancy Gustafson as Julia and Richard Margison was sinster and believable as O'Brien, but the evening revolved round the central character of Winston Smith played by Simon.
The entire piece was shown from his point of view, and he was onstage almost continually throughout the opera. He was wonderful, from the opening "Hate" to the final admission that he loves Big Brother. He played the part in a very restrained manner, so that tiny little things took on great significance. In the opening scene a head movement of not more than a few degrees showed that he was not looking in exactly the same direction as everyone else. A tiny movement - but it shouted at you, and stood out to the semi-hidden watchers behind the gauze, that one movement betrayed him.
The last 45 minutes when he was being tortured were hard to watch, because I believed it was happening. During this act, although I knew it was Simon Keenlyside I'd forgotten, if you know what I mean. He'd moved beyond a point where I was watching him as SK and become entirely Winston, a man in great agony and terror being broken by a terrible regime.
For me, the whole piece is memorable, very nasty, and absolutely compelling. I hope that they are making a DVD of it.
JG, May 2005
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