Olga Neuwirth: reviews of new opera Monster’s Paradise
The new satirical opera by composer Olga Neuwirth and writer Elfriede Jelinek, Monster’s Paradise, stormed the stages in Hamburg and Zürich in recent months, leavening the global apocalypse with biting humour.
Monster’s Paradise, the latest operatic collaboration between two Austrian star creatives, composer Olga Neuwirth and writer Elfriede Jelinek, was described by Kleine Zeitung as “a veritable theatrical sensation” producing a “metaphor for our times”. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung noted: “the unique humour of these two Austrian women as a weapon against the insolence of misogyny, the joy of playing with pop references, the radical awareness of form, and the very cool use of good bad taste – it all works magnificently in Monster’s Paradise… If the world is going to end, then please let it be to the music of Olga Neuwirth.”
The world premiere of Monster’s Paradise was staged by Tobias Kratzer at the Hamburg State Opera in February followed by further performances at the Zürich Opera in March, with the production travelling to the Graz Opera in a future season. Conductor Titus Engel was in the pit both in Hamburg and Zürich with a cast led by Georg Nigl and appearances by actress Charlotte Rampling and pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja in the video and audio strands layered into the live stage action.
Part tragedy, part satyr play, Monster’s Paradise takes as its subject the monstrosities of power and the world at a crossroads, posing the question whether only a monster can free the world from the clutches of another monster? Two female vampires, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Neuwirth and Jelinek, grumble as they watch the apocalyptic goings-on in the world... They descend from their cloud to Earth to take a closer look at the catastrophes. The sea monster Gorgonzilla takes up the fight against a giant baby-like dictator, modelled on Jarry's King Ubu, who may prefigure the characteristic behaviour of a certain US president of our own time.
> Further information on Monster's Paradise
“Neuwirth and Jelinek’s opera is an apocalyptic oratorio, an absurd comedy in times of authoritarianism… it hovers somewhere between a comic strip, a ghost train, a Godzilla film and Grand Guignol, the gory horror-clown theatre of the turn of the last century.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Neuwirth’s wealth of musical forms and quotations is at least as exuberant as Jelinek’s delight in linguistic storytelling and wordplay. From Hollywood to the baroque coloratura of the two royal minions Mickey and Tuckey, from Bruckner to Wagner, from waltzes to the clatter of a jukebox, the score’s allusions span a wide range, and it is fun to navigate through them…”
Die Zeit
“It’s the end of the world… When all is lost, does art remain?... Neuwirth’s soundworld, a heady cocktail of eclectic quotations and microtonal adjustments, is irreverent and witty.”
Financial Times
“Monster’s Paradise tackles the burning issues of our society against the backdrop of
a Grand Guignol-style spectacle that is as virtuosic as it is exhilarating… Olga Neuwirth works with heterogeneity and the tools of electronic music, tailoring her orchestral score to the rhythm of the stage.”
Resmusica
“For Neuwirth nothing is sacred: she blends Bruckner’s last symphony with electronically distorted monster voices and pop marches. Yet her score is no mere collage that simply strings things together… the composer transforms this very diverse material into a language of her own, like an artist who adapts a novel into a graphic novel.”
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
“Neuwirth’s love of the anarchic, of comic, pop and trash culture is unmistakable and becomes clear when Gorgonzilla’s singing and speech are distorted into a monster’s voice using live electronics, or when the King-President uses his washboard tie as a musical instrument.”
ORF.at
Recent months also saw first performances of Neuwirth’s new rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra, Zones of Blue, written for soloist Jörg Widmann. Following performances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra are dates with the Cleveland Orchestra in May and at the Grafenegg Festival in August. The Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has programmed the work for a future season.
> Further information on Work: Monster’s Paradise
Photo: Zürich Opera / Monika Rittershaus