Janina Baechle as Akhmatova, in front of Mindrians scetch, foto Elisa Haberer.jpg

The world premiere of Bruno Mantovani´s 2nd opera Akhmatova at Opera Bastille, March 28th 2011 was very well realized. First of all the producer Nicolas Joel has managed to tell us the story in the libretto by Christophe Ghristi so that we could understand and follow it. This is very importent, because in the libretto lays all the information which is realized in the visuality of the opera. The first act takes place under Stalin´s Great Terror, the second during the Second World War, and the third, in the post-war era – until Stalin´s death in 1953 and beyond. In Leningrad, Tashkent then Leningrad. The composition of the opera is closely following all the moods and ideas in the history very well. This gives the audience a good feeling of following the demanding history about the famouse Russian autor Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), splendid sung and performed by the wonderful mezzo soprano Janina Baechle, – which mask looks very much like the pictures of , presented in the first class programme, edited to this production – her life, her personality, difficulityes, spite in that her work was deemed bourgeois by the Communist authorities, she was blacklisted, her poetry was barred from publication and all her friends who did not emigrate were either deported or executed.

Janina Baechle as Akhmatova and Atilla Kiss-B as Lev Goumilev, foto Elisa Haberer.jpg

Anna Akhmatova

Her son Lev, sung by the outstanding Romanian tenor Atilla Kiss-B, who was arrested on several occassions and in 1949 he was sentenced to 15 years of forced labour. Refusing to leave because she felt that she would be betraying her language and culture, she survived as best she could. After the Second World War – part of which was spent in an artist´s colony in Tashkent – she was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers for “eroticism, mysticism and political indifference”.

It was only after the death of Stalin in 1953 that she slowly began to be rehabilitated and could again be published (Up until then, her poems about the war and bereavement, such as Requiem, were only known by a small circle of friends and admirers who knew them by heart).

Fabrice Dalis (Un Sculpteur), Janina Baechle (Akhmatova), Varduhi Abrahamyan (Lydia Tchoukovskaia) et Valérie Condoluci (Faina Ranevskaia) foto Elisa Haberer.jpg

However, two years before her death, at the age of 75, she was named president of the Union of Writers. Without seeing the publication of her complete works, which were released in Moscow in 1986, she died in 1966.

Around this complicated historically framework Bruno Mantovani has managed to make an opera composition taking well care of, and underlining, all aspects in the history. An still keeping the musically part of the opera as a well formed composition, permitting the many singing soloists in the work to have wellformed singing parts, presenting the libretto in Mantovanis musically language, but also forming the different figures in a good way, so we could recognize them in the history.

The producer Nicolas Joel has formed the figures and their personalities well. In the staging, the changes between the different scenes is well formed by a sliding wall, who elegantly moves us forward in the history telling, where it seems like Anna Akhmatova is looking back on her

Atilla Kiss-B (Lev Goumilev), Janina Baechle (Akhmatova), Vladimir Kapshuk (Un étudiant), Paul Crémazy (Un étudiant), Lionel Peintre (Nikolaï Pounine) et Marie-Adeline Henry (Olga) foto Elisa Haberer.jpg

history, and when the sliding walls are passing Mantovani is forming the changes between the one mood in the history to the next by interesting “interludes”, which gave me the same impression as I got when I first time, – many years ago – listened to Benjamin Brittens opera Peter Grimes. and learned to know his atmospharic Sea Interludes. Among these is the one finishing the opera, only with a small arioso by the titelrole woman. Mantovani has in his own way maked such interludes which works very well. Furthermore, I like the use of a kind of fanfare teams. And as in the ballet music to Siddharta last season, the out standing use of the soloclarinet.  The conductor Pascal Rophé has been making a good preparation work with the Orchestra and Choire of the Opera National de Paris. – Chef of the choir is Patrick Marie Aubert

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The scenography, underlines the sad periode in Sovjet, in well formed decorations by Wolfgang Gussmann, including several copyes of Piet Mondrian´s schetch of Akhmatova, Gussmann is also, together with Susana Mendoza, responsible for the costumes. Hans Tolstede is taking well care of the lighting.

The Paris Opera Choire in front of Stalin, foto Elisa Habarer.jpg

A good cast are playing the many roles of persons, who was real in the life of Anna Akhmatova. Lionel Peintre as the art historian Nikolai Punin, Anna Akhmatova´s former husband. Marie-Adeline Henry as Olga his companion. Varduhi Abrahamyan beautifully performing as Lydia Chukovskaya, writer and confidant of Akhmatova. The great counter-tenor Christophe Dumaux as The representative of the Union of Writers.

As allways with a world premiere, with so demanding music as here presented, I would have prefered to have a second possibility to attend the performance for at least one more time, to get with me all the many impressions, to describe it well for the readers.

All photos by Elisa Haberer
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