I feel the performers - who mind you are intended to be more than only singers - could and should do a good deal more.
Exactly so, Gerald!
And it is the work of the
director to give them what to do. Otherwise the director has
failed in his duty to
direct.We were, last night, in the Bolshoi Theatre... where Mr Cherniakhov has misdirected the Russian opera RUSLAN & LUDMILA. The first act is filled with his usual preoccupations - banquet tables, fireworks, plasma computer screens... anything, in fact, rather than directing the action of the performers. There were quite a few decent performers in the cast - especially worthy of mention being Charles Workman singing both Bayan and Finn, and an outstanding vocal performance by countertenor Yuri Minenko as Ratmir - but they were left with nothing to do by Cherniakhov, and ended up pacing around hopelessly in circles.
The massed choral scenes of Act One present a talented director with many opportunities for interesting crowd scenes, and the choral ceremonial wedding dances ought to be spectacular. However, in Mr Cherniakhov's incapable hands the entire gathered assembly simply sat around large circular tables for so long (22 minutes - I timed it) that if they'd been aboard an aircraft they might have been in danger of thrombosis. Finally, since he could think of nothing else, Cherniakhov has them stand up, and
move slowly around the tables in circles. No less festive or more witless action could have been devised by human mind - considering this is supposed to be the Wedding Feast of the daughter of a Grand-Prince of Kiev?? Considering that the Bolshoi Theatre has no less than three separate ballet groups - many of whom sit at home doing nought while the top-flight ones get the main ballet roles - it seems extraordinary that no dances whatsoever could have been devised?? Moreover, Glinka was no fool when it came to drama... the whole idea of the ceremonial dances is to build up a false sense of happiness and gaiety, so that the effect of Ludmila's abduction would be all the more shocking when it occurs seconds later. But Mr Cherniakhov 'knows better'. He conjures up a wedding party of stultifying static boredom (complete with an on-stage video cameraman who is filming their Wedding Video, we assume).... and then the abduction is handled with all the magic and mystery of a five-bob panto on the pier at Clacton-On-Sea. The lights are dimmed, a streamer is fired, and... she's gone? Well, then who did it? And how?
Yet for the Act III scenes at Ratmir's harem (now a C19th Girly-House) no penny is spared on irrelevant bilge and special-effect nonsense... even though none of it is in the plot.
Peter Brook, in his excellent book 'The Empty Space' (which should be learned by heart by anyone with pretentions to working on the stage) famously said
"Tell the story, as simply and directly as you can. Remove everything which does not tell the story".
Mr Cherniakhov has completely forgotten the story - it doesn't interest him. He even leaves out Chernomor completely!! The character who abducts Ludmila never appears whatsoever, and gets no credit in the programme. (It's a mime role - and Cherniakhov can't stage action, so he leaves it out).
Musically things were no better. A second-rate German conductor called Ralf Sochachewski directed the musical aspects of the performance. Mr Sochachewski has learned music, but hasn't got to the letter 'r' (for
rubato) yet, and conducted the entire score with the four-square clumsiness of a military band. He belongs on the same seafront as Mr Cherniakhov.
