<<< previous performance <<< >>> next performance >>>
Winterreise, D9.11
Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller (poet)
Simon Keenlyside
And The Trisha Brown Dance Company
19, 21, 23 October 2004
State Theatre, Melbourne
As part of the Melbourne Festival
Director / Choreographer
Trisha Brown
Simon Keenlyside, Baritone
Pedja Muzijevic,Piano
Trisha Brown Dance Company
Brandi L. Norton
Seth Parker
Lionel Popkin
Jennifer Tipton (lighting), Elizabeth Cannon (costumes)
Photo: Lisa Tomasetti
The 2005 Helpmann Awards (the Australian equivalent of the USA Tonys or the UK Oliviers): SK was nominated for ‘Best performance in a classical concert’ for Die Winterreise, Melbourne 2004
http://www.helpmannawards.com.au/2005nominees.asp
What the critics say
John Slavin, The Age, October 21, 2004
The theatre director must either find an aesthetic that communicates or we must have the message sign-posted. It was the latter that at first I thought we were to expect from this performance by British baritone Simon Keenlyside, accompanied by Pedja Muzijevic and supported by three dancers.
As the singer begins this greatest of all song cycles on a moodily lit, bare stage, we are treated to the embodiment of his faithless love circling him in a see-through hooped skirt. Choreographed by director Trisha Brown, the dancers are at their most effective when they work with minimalist movement in support of the singer. For example, in Rest he describes being buffeted along by a storm and the stooping figures support him as he leans at an oblique angle to the ground. It is a striking image of tempestuous disorientation. But the choreography brushes the edge of banality when it is at its most illustrative.
One of the most romantic of songs, The Linden Tree, must submit to a series of semaphoring arms signalling "tree". In a curious way, the presence of the dancers save us from the extremes of the cycle's bleakness.
I have no problem with finding means to break the singer out of his straitjacketed stance. This production gets the body as well as the voice involved and, in Keenlyside, it has found a performer of rare distinction. His voice has a beautiful, heroic yet lyrical tone that can be plaintive without self-pity and surge with dramatic expressiveness when the text requires.
This is the depiction of a bleak journey through life in which the principal elements are memory and desire, for death as much as lost love. The music weaves themes and phrases together to create an astonishing template of emotion, a concept of repetition that the dancers emulate.
Keenlyside sings with great sensitivity and sweetness of tone to create a hypnotic effect like a dream. But this is a singer who can also move and mime. There is a moment of intuitive brilliance, for example, when singing of his tears instantly frozen in the snow he extends his fingers to suggest ice locking.
It is his interpretation, lyrical, tortured, poetic in the best romantic tradition, that shall be retained, like moonlight through mountain pines, in the mind's eye.
To courageous and delicate effect
By Hilary Crampton for The Age, October 21, 2004
Franz Schubert's song cycle Die Winterreise (A Winter's Journey) is a mournful reflection on the loss of love and joy. The protagonist is a wanderer journeying towards longed-for oblivion in death.
Baritone Simon Keenlyside and choreographer Trisha Brown devised a courageous performance of extraordinary delicacy and intimacy, like the veined remains of a leaf. That is both its strength and its weakness. The vast theatre seems intrusive - like some reality TV show with millions tuned in to observe the private reflections of a dying man. Yet there are moments of extraordinary beauty that move the heart.
The staging emulates the dreary winter landscape of the singer's mind. Lighting guru Jennifer Tipton has created a delicate design in cool tones, making much use of the effect of shadow on the backcloth that extends the effects of the performers' actions.
Costuming is also spare - simple, blue-toned shirts and darker, loose trousers, with one exception. Keenlyside commences simply enough with Gute Nacht up stage centre singing directly to us, his gestures minimal - a typical lieder presentation. Behind him, a young woman, her body exposed through the glittering skeletal framework of a crinoline, paces a small circle. She is remote, her gaze looking beyond the immediate surrounds. Each circle expands a little, pushing the singer forwards. It is a simple but beautiful evocation of the lost love, the beginning of the journey towards death.
This positioning behind establishes the place of the dancers throughout the performance. They reflect rather than lead, although at times they intercede to detain the singer, keep him in life. The actions are predominantly gestural. Arms create angular patterns, serve as barriers, wrap around the singer, or catch and support him. They do not intrude, moving with a velvety softness like the shadows of the singer's mind. Their bodies sink to the floor, creating obstacles to his journey or serving as a bed on which he lies.
Keenlyside is also amazingly active: he runs, gestures, falls, and reflects the angular gestures of the singers. Yet he retains a deep investment in the emotions of the songs and their delicate accompaniment.
For some, this performance asked too much, as evidenced by the restless chattering people behind me. It does suffer from an over-reliance on repetitive movement themes, and an evenness of dynamics, but is strewn with exquisite gems of music and action that are profoundly moving
Carol Middleton for stateart.com, 20 October 2004
http://www.stateart.com.au/sota/reviews/default.asp?fid=3000
“Simon Keelyside, the British baritone and operatic singer, performs these songs with exceptional delicacy and a huge vocal range that explores every nuance of tone and mood. His lightness of touch is exquisite and is beautifully complemented by Pedja Muzijevic on piano.”
“Go for the music and the mood and you will not be disappointed.”
Longer queues, younger audiences
By Raymond Gill, The Age, October 25, 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/24/1098556293092.html?from=storylhs
“One of the critical hits this year was the combining of dance with baritone Simon Keenlyside singing Schubert's song cycle in Winterreise. Themes of loss, despair and seeking answers, were common to many of the ticketed events this year, but few did it more exquisitely than Winterreise…”
Robyn Archer for Arts Hub Australia, October 22, 2004
http://www.artshub.com.au/ahau1/process/printnews.asp?ContentID=66530&action=announce
“That night we were transported into the stratosphere by Winterreise. Apart from Simon Keenlyside’s monumental performance of this beautiful Schubert song cycle, it is almost unbelievable that this is literally the first time that American legend Trisha Brown’s choreography has ever been seen in Australia. The dance ( 3 dancers from the Trisha Brown Company) that interweaves with Simon’s singing/moving performance is a perfect expression of the content of the songs – abstract yet connected, it supports the music brilliantly. I know a number of people in our office are stimulated to go out and buy recordings of Schubert for the first time having seen Winterreise.“