Lulu by Alban Berg (review)

Alban Berg’s Lulu is one of the great operas of the 20^th century. It is a masterpiece of 12-tone music as well as a work of penetrating social commentary, exploring as it does the dark underbelly of human behaviors, drives and desires. Berg’s original inspiration for a “Lulu”-themed opera stemmed from a performance of Frank Wedekind’s 1904 play Die Büchse der Pandora [Pandora’s Box], which the young composer saw in 1905. It is the second of Wedekind’s two “Lulu” dramas, the first being 1895’s Erdgeist [Earth Spirit]. Ultimately, Berg combined elements of both plays for the libretto of Lulu, but he didn’t begin the work of cutting down Wedekind’s texts into a three-act opera until 1927. Berg composed the music of the first two acts between 1929 and 1935; at the time of his death at the end of 1935, Berg had completed only a few scenes of the third act. The opera received its premiere in Zürich in 1937: the first two acts were performed in their entirety, after which the plot of the third act was summarized for the audience. Subsequent productions of Lulu comprised the first two acts, with parts of the third act narrated and mimed by the performers. A musically complete version of Lulu—with the third act finished by the composer Friedrich Certha—was finally premiered by Pierre Boulez in 1979.

Set in the late 19^th century, the plot of the opera centers on the beautiful but amoral and ill-fated young Lulu. Over the course of the opera, she is married a number of times and engages in numerous affairs, inspiring desire, jealousy and murder in those around her. In the first act, Lulu’s first husband dies of a heart attack when he discovers her in flagrante with a painter, who later slits his own throat in despair. Lulu shoots and kills her jealous second husband in the second act, is arrested, but escapes from prison. In the final act, Lulu is taken advantage of by another group of would-be lovers, and she is forced into prostitution. The opera ends with a bloodbath, in which a number of characters are murdered, including Lulu herself, who is killed by her final customer, Jack the Ripper.

The DVD under review here is a recording of the Austrian premiere of Lulu, which took place in 1962 in Vienna, at the Theater an der Wien. The disc features the Vienna Symphony under the baton of Karl Böhm, with soprano Evelyn Lear in the role of Lulu. Shot in black and white, the film quality is reasonably good for an archival recording: it’s a bit grainy, and the shadows are sometimes heavy, but overall it is very watchable. What is remarkable is the quality of the sound on this DVD: the singers’ voices are full and clear, and the orchestra is balanced and bright, supporting the singers with Berg’s vivid tapestry of colors and lush 12-tone sonorities. The staging is dynamic, and the acting is as strong as the singing. Evelyn Lear is particularly good as Lulu: her pitch is excellent, and she offers a virtuoso dramatic performance—by turns seductive, lascivious, vulnerable and pathetic—as the opera’s doomed protagonist.

Although the opera is presented on this disc as an unfinished, two-act fragment, it is no less compelling for it: the characters and the story are as provocative and engaging today as they would have been a century ago, and Berg was a gifted opera composer. His music is strikingly fresh-sounding, dramatic and accessible. Lulu is a mature 12-tone work, but Berg’s vocal lines and orchestral music have none of the harsh harmonies or jarring angularities of Schoenberg or Webern; rather, the music is lyrical and warm, and Lulu is an eminently approachable modern opera, one that...