Lyric Opera's 'Lulu' a lavish, sensual epic

November 11, 7:53 PMChicago Theatre Review ExaminerCatey Sullivan

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   More is definitely more at the Lyric Opera’s “Lulu.” Within the first 20 minutes of Alban Berg’s 12-tone epic, we’ve witnessed two violent deaths, two marriages, and more elaborately provocative undergarments than you’ll find in the special holiday edition of the Victoria’s Secret catalogue. And there’s approximately three and half hours left to go. Berg’s tale of sex, lies, blood and more sex makes “Peyton Place” look like Sunnybrook Farm.
   “Your thighs are slender rivals, sleeping together,” gushes one passion-addled suitor. Hang on a moment, Lulu cautions: “Remember, I killed your father,” she notes. No matter. So what if the old man bled to death on the very couch before which Lulu and her lover loll. Such are her powers of passion. Lulu’s many lovers – acrobats, countesses, newspaper editors, serial killers, painters, princes, school boys and swindlers – will not be discouraged by something as banal as homicide. They do, however, sometimes simply wear out.
   “Then he’s deceased,” notes a dignitary to Lulu, referring to one of her former paramours. 
   “No, he’d just had enough,” Lulu responds.
   Go into “Lulu” unprepared to go the distance, and it’s easy to sympathize with the lover who just gave up. A labyrinth of plot twists predicated on lust of both the hetero- and homo- varieties, “Lulu” even has an extended women-in-prison scene wherein the dewy-eyed heroine/cold-blooded murderess must face the horrors of the cellblock tango. As if all that weren’t enough to make the plot boil over, Jack the Ripper shows up late in the game, cutlery in hand, nefarious intentions in mind.
A grotesque ringmaster prepares the audience for this exhausting ode to a chimerical woman. We never get to know the real Lulu – she’s a siren because of her uncanny ability to reflect whatever men desire to see in her. Beyond that reflection? Mystery and suppositions.
   Many’s the opera purist who looks down her nose at “Lulu,” dissing it for its occasional spats of (gasp!) spoken dialogue and dismissing it as mere musical theater. (BTW: If anyone can explain to me precisely where and how that divide occurs, I’m all ears.)
   The Lyric’s staging isn’t apt to make many converts. As one would expect, Sir Andrew Davis’s command of Berg’s devilishly detailed and wholly un-hummable score is deft. But along with Paul Curran’s compelling stage direction, the Lyric has incorporated (double gasp!) movies. Ask traditionalists, and they’ll tell you this is surely a sign that End Times are upon us. If that’s the case, we’re going out with a mighty bang rather than a whimper.
John Boesche’s haunting black and white video projections – often ingeniously incorporated into the very sets – are little less than astounding. In one segment, a flickering melodrama unspools in silvery black and white as Lulu is arrested for murder, tried, convicted, imprisoned, stricken with some sort of near-fatal disease, hospitalized and caught up in an elaborate plot involving mistaken identities, daring escapes and Joan of Arc-worthy martyrdom. It’s a gorgeous silent film-in-an-opera, backed by Sir Davis’ impeccable orchestra and evocative of “Pandora’s Box,” the 1930 Louise Brooks classic that inspired Berg. 
   In title role, Marlis Petersen gives a galvanic performance as the ultimate femme fatale. The gifted coloratura makes the marathon vocal demands sound effortless. She looks every inch the vixen, from Lulu’s party girl days in the roaring 1920s of Weimar-era Germany to her forlorn end as a disease--riddled prostitute begging for work. 
  Equally breathtaking are Kevin Knight’s lavish sets and period-perfect costumes, both elements that melt into Boesche’s projections like ghosts when the mood becomes overtly cinematic.
  Lavish and huge in every respect, “Lulu” may not be the conventional crowd-pleaser of say, “La Boheme,” but it holds a Pandora’s Box of devastating treasures nonetheless.
 

Photos:  All photos by Dan Rest

Top: Wolfgang Schöne (Dr. Schön) and Marlis Petersen (title role).

 Middle: William Burden (Alwa), Marlis Petersen (title role), and Wolfgang Schöne (Dr. Schön)

Bottom -   Scott Ramsay (Painter) and Marlis Petersen (title role).