AP News, July 8th, 2007
It's outrageous at times, boring at others, masterfully melodic in parts and deafeningly discordant elsewhere. And at just under two hours, "Alice in Wonderland" is 30 minutes too long.
This piece, which had its world premiere on June 30 at the Bavarian State Opera, is unlikely to become part of any company's repertory. It's too bizarre, too silly, too much like the Lewis Carroll work upon which it was based.
Instead of a plot, there's an inner journey. And whoever heard of an opera with just a heroine and no hero far and wide to fall in love with?
Maddeningly, though, it's these "flaws" that made Unsuk Chin's "Alice" enjoyable on Saturday. Enjoyable? Yes, the word is fitting, though the concept is stretched at times by the sheer nonsense of the words and actions of the main characters _ nonsense matched by an orchestral score that sometimes relies on whistles, foghorn-like blasts from the brass section and other unorthodox musical antics.
But while the orchestral fireworks might jar at times, they actually reflect carefully composed chaos _ musical mastery that effortlessly mingles with what is happening on stage.
Under the baton of Kent Nagano, nervously high pizzicato passages herald the entry of the White Rabbit, underscored by metallic percussion. Alice's orchestral leitmotif consists of chromatic passages reminiscent of the etudes painfully in the minds of all of us forced to pound the piano keys in our youths. The Queen of Hearts appears accompanied by a cacophony of a brasses, drums and whistles that reflects both her regal status and her "off with their heads" mentality.
Much of it is noise. But it fits, because it underlines the "visual noise" on stage of the chaotic journey of a girl who _ like all of us who move from childhood to maturity _ try to make sense of a world that often seems out of control.
And all in vain _ or so it seems.
At the end, Alice, her face freed of the vacuous doll mask she wears throughout the performance, wakes to a scene from T.S. Eliot's "Waste Land." But _ like in many operas _ there is redemption.
She scatters her seed, received from a mysterious life force. Darkness turns to light, aridity into life.
And what Alice does to the barren field, Achim Freyer accomplishes as far as staging and direction are concerned, aided by Nina Weitzner, responsible for the costumes.
Fantastic outfits, menacing masks, masterful makeup and wire-mounted figures who appear to "fly" on stage bring the action to life to do justice to Carroll's magical mystery tour a la Chin, and librettist David Henry Hwang. Freyer's signature disembodied limbs were also in plentiful evidence on Saturday.
Making things even more complex, few of the main characters actually sing on stage. Most of the voices come from a sort of "Greek Chorus" lined up just above the orchestra pit, leaving Nagano and Freyer with the challenge mastered of coordinating three separate tiers _ orchestra, voices and choreography.
Sally Matthews was magnificent as Alice. So was Gwyneth Jones as the Queen of Hearts.
And kudos to the "Greek Chorus" _ Piia Komsi, Dietrich Henschel Andrew Watts Guy de Mey, Cynthia Jansen, Steven Humes, Christian Rieger and Ruediger Trebes, who sang all the other characters inhabiting Alice's crazy world.
