Germany Lampson, Wellen: Soloists and Chorus of Theater Bremen, Bremer Philharmoniker / Yoel Gamzou (conductor). Theater Bremen, 5.6.2025. (DM-D)
Wellen (Waves) is an opera set in summer at a resort or spa on the shores of the Baltic Sea. We encounter a range of characters who happen to come together over the duration of one summer season. The focus is on Doralice, who escaped the perceived boundaries of her marriage to an older count by joining a painter, Hans Grill, in his home in the resort. While she expects bohemian freedom, he projects his own ideals onto her, which place her firmly within patterns far too familiar to her from her earlier married life – so their relationship is doomed to fail. Doralice attracts the attention of other spa visitors, in particular a general’s widow with her entourage of servants (in particular Malwine, a kind of confidante), her daughter Bella, three grandchildren, in particular Lolo, and Lolo’s fiancée Hilmar. All spa guests are intrigued by the mysterious Dr Knospelius, whose birthday celebration forms the centre of one of the scenes.
This opera is based on a novel of the same title by Eduard von Keyserling (1855-1911). He wrote it in the last year of his life, 1911, aged 56. An impoverished landed aristocrat, shunned by his peers due to a scandal early in his life, he lived in Munich, rather withdrawn from society, in a flat he shared with his two sisters. He dictated his literary works to them because he had been blind for some years already, a result of suffering from syphilis. A portrait, painted of von Keyserling by Lovis Corinth around 1900, allegedly praised for its accurate representation, shows a man who looks considerably older than the 45 years he was then.
What inspired composer Elmar Lampson to write the opera – and was central to its creation – was the nature of the waves with regard to the characters and their various relationships. Both Lampson’s score and Julia Spinola’s text, most of it set to music, some of it spoken by the singers, capture the nature of waves, throughout the 140 minutes of the opera’s duration (not counting the interval).
The orchestra, with two sets of percussion in the boxes to the left and right of the pit at the level of the stage, captured the seaside atmosphere: dominated by waves, in multiple forms and shades, as if washing up on the shore, receding, in numerous variations, all together or separately, creating a very dense and complex soundscape. Individual instruments, or groups of instruments, told their stories on their own, or in a multitude of combinations, mirroring a range of music traditions, forms, and the styles familiar from other composers – never in danger of suggesting plagiarism, but more by way of playful nods or expressions of esteem. The text, both spoken and sung, not only conveyed content, the character’s opinions, feelings, thus driving the plot, but sought to do so in ways mirroring the nature of waves, as did the music. Sometimes, listening to waves can give the impression that the same sounds are repeated again and again. If you then listen more closely, you may detect ever so slight nuances. Some phrases were quite obviously repeated, some quite often, and as waves, the nuances of such repetition became evident only with time; once I had discovered that pattern as such, I found myself listening out for further instances of this device, which Lampson and Spinola must have employed jointly.
The team around director Philipp Rosendahl did not attempt to recreate the realistic fin de siècle setting and environment that we find very vividly presented in von Keyserling’s novel. Grandeur was there, achieved with the stylised use of white curtains, transparent or opaque by way of different angles of lighting (cleverly designed by Norman Plathe-Narr), and stylised chandeliers. Water was there, in the form of a large rectangular space on the stage floor, towards the back of the stage, covered with it and probably ankle-deep. The singers wore rubber boots, and there was a fair amount of splashing about. The costumes were not realistic either – not only in terms of the rubber boots – definitely not ‘period’. Some were caricatures, some added contemporary inclusiveness (such as actor Ruben Sabel playing Hans Grill’s housekeeper Agnes in drag). Characterisation was nevertheless precise and nuanced. Caricature and chaos were intended, designed and choreographed and thus never random or arbitrary. They formed part of the overall artistic impact rather than becoming boring or annoying aspects of a production Konzept.
Just as Doralice is the focus of attention in the plot in both novel and opera, Nadine Lehner was the focus of attention on the stage. Her stage presence was very powerful and commanding, though not to the point of sidelining her colleagues: on the contrary, she seemed to heighten the alertness and presence of those around her. She committed to and embodied the character of Doralice fully and believably, with many finely observed nuances of the character’s moods, which actually changed and shifted like waves. Her voice, equally strong across registers, was able to represent the nature of the waves as well, with waves of crescendo and decrescendo, waves of more and less gentle projection of the sound, waves of gentle flow and sudden outbursts (which were particularly well controlled and never reached the point of sounding unpleasant, let alone shrill).
Elisa Birkenheier was both funny and moving as Lolo, not much older, or at least not much more mature, than a geeky teenager. Lampson had composed both some very beautiful legato lines for her, and some challenging coloratura material, which she presented to perfection. Ketevan Chuntishvili as the general’s widow was clearly a young person with a wig playing an older woman. She gave her character sharp contours of assumed and thus slightly ridiculous authority and gravitas; her voice contrasted particularly well with Birkenheier’s. Nathalie Mittelbach brought out the robustness of her character, the widow’s servant and confidante, in her acting and her sturdy, robust singing.
In comparison to the female characters, the male characters were developed in less detail, and the lines they had to sing were not as nuanced in their musicality. Christoph Heinrich used his light and very musical bass to great effect to represent the painter who was not as exciting in the long run as Doralice had expected. Much of his music was composed such as to require less melodious singing and more singing approximating Sprechgesang. Here, Heinrich was particularly good at projecting the voice sufficiently over or through the orchestra without shouting. Arvid Fagerfjäll as Dr Knospelius and Fabian Düberg as Hilmar were given more melodious lines, allowing both to showcase their voices at full volume or impressive crescendo – Fagerfjäll with a robust, noble core capable of much flexibility, and Düberg showing strong potential of his voice developing from buffo to lyrical tenor. Soloists from the chorus and the chorus itself performed and sang with full dedication.
Yoel Gamzou was general music director of the Bremen orchestra some years ago, so he knows the orchestra well. He has also conducted many of the other world premieres of Lampson’s oeuvre. On that basis, he was able to do full justice to the amalgam of score and text on this occasion as well, guiding the orchestra and the singers with considerable precision through the evening.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Production:
Libretto by Julia Spinola, based on the novel by Eduard von Keyserling
Director – Philipp Rosendahl
Set design – Paula Mierzowsky, Daniel Roskamp
Costume design – Johann Brigitte Schima
Lighting designer – Norman Plathe-Narr
Choreography – Volker Michl
Dramaturgy – Julia Spinola
Chorus director – Karl Bernewitz
Cast
Doralice Köhne-Jasky – Nadine Lehner
Hans Grill – Christoph Heinrich
Dr Knospelius – Arvid Fagerfjäll
General von Palinkow’s widow – Ketevan Chuntishvili
Bella Buttlär – Natalie Jurk
Malwine Bork – Nathalie Mittelbach
Lolo – Elisa Birkenheier
Hilmar Hamm – Fabian Düberg
Agnes – Ruben Sabel
Rolf Buttlär – Allan Parkes
Fischer Stibbe – Wolfgang von Borries
Nini –Julia Huntgeburth
Andree – Sungkuk Chang
Fisherwoman – Krassena Velkova
Wedig – Elise Weiss