Germany Fauré, Pénélope: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Bayerische Staatsoper / Susanna Mälkki (conductor), Prinzregententheater, Munich, 26.7.2025. (AL-L)
Fauré’s unique opera Pénélope is such a rarity that you will not find prior reviews of live performances in the archives of Seen and Heard. The composer wrote it after returning from a trip to Bayreuth. Its style mixes some of Fauré’s distinctive composition for voices with a certain flow in the orchestra that has Tristan-esque undertones.
Performing the work for the first time as the last new production of this season, Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper took it seriously. While Theatre Director Andrea Breth has cult status in Germany, this was the first time she was working in Munich. There is little plot and little action, but the famed director conveyed original and powerful ideas, starting each act with the striking images of the aged couple Penelope and Ulysses pushing each other in a wheelchair, thus evoking the strength of the bond between an elderly couple looking after each other. Most, or little, of what took place was in adjacent boxes giving a certain variety on the stage and keeping the audience involved. The feat of Ulysses drawing his bow was done by a spectacular female acrobat with her feet, which was another original visual idea.
But the work as an opera is not without some weaknesses and feels somewhat dated. There are signs of the verbal declamatory style that stage actors adopted at the time, which feels contrived and overblown to modern ears. I detected the usage of specific grammatical structures which may have been appreciated at the beginning of the last century but sound quite pedantic today.
The music is interesting. The first act is particularly soft in the vocal writing and somewhat akin to Fauré’s own Requiem. The use of distinct leitmotifs and the overall orchestral flow reveal a powerful work. Some of the more powerful orchestral moments in the last acts were more of a challenge. Fauré’s orchestration has an intensity which means balance with the voices is difficult to achieve.
In the pit, Susanna Mälkki was very secure and drew powerful sounds from the orchestra. Only at times during the last act did her experience as a symphonic conductor mean that she brought out perhaps a few too many interesting details to the detriment of support for the stage.
Much depended on the quality of the cast. In the title role, Victoria Karkacheva had a rich voice with dark mezzo colours and secure high notes. It is no surprise that she has been cast to sing Venus in the next season in Geneva. The only drawback was that a native French speaker would have had clearer diction. Such was not the problem with the French of Brandon Jovanovich’s Ulysses. The American tenor was visually and stylistically in his element. He was more convincing than in his previous appearance here as Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame (review here), with a natural authority and strong projection. Thomas Mole was a strong-voiced and young-looking Eumée.
The smaller roles were well-balanced overall, but one singer stood out: Guyana’s Loïc Félix, whose French was just perfect as well. The words were crystal clear; line and projection were strong.
One could not but wonder what the effect of this production would have been had all singers mastered the language with the same degree of ease. The ensemble passages might have been different, and perhaps we would have heard the words the way Fauré uses them in his poetic lieder … a little less Germanic and a little more French, that is.
Antoine Lévy-Leboyer
Production:
Director – Andrea Breth
Costumes – Ursula Renzenbrink
Set design – Raimund Orfeo Voigt
Lighting – Alexander Koppelmann
Dramaturgy– Klaus Bertisch, Lukas Leipfinger
Chorus master – Sonja Lachenmayr
Cast:
Pénélope – Victoria Karkacheva
Ulysse – Brandon Jovanovich
Euryclée – Rinat Shaham
Eumée – Thomas Mole
Cléone – Valerie Eickhoff
Mélantho – Seonwoo Lee
Alkandre – Martina Myskohlid
Phylo – Ena Pongrac
Lydie – Eirin Rognerud
Eurymaque – Leigh Melrose
Antinoüs – Loïc Félix
Léodès – Joel Williams
Ctésippe – Zachary Rioux
Pisandre – Dafydd Jones
Eurynome – Elene Gvritishvili