Criticism – Bernhard Lang’s “Job” in Klagenfurt
Believe in the open
February 9th, 2023 by Jörn Florian Fuchs
One thing in advance: the piece could become a hit! New music that, despite a few complex ideas (not to speak of traps), easily reaches a wider audience, an incredibly strong story, and a cast that even small and medium-sized houses can manage with some effort. In any case, “Job” was a huge success at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, standing ovations for a gripping ninety-minute film that timelessly brings the Old Testament story about Job, who was challenged by God, into the present.
Image source: Karlheinz Fessl
Joseph Roth wrote a novel about Job, Koen Tachelet made a stage version of it (directed by Johan Simons), and now Michael Sturminger has edited the whole thing again. Sturminger is the director of “Jedermann” in Salzburg and once admitted to being an atheist in an interview. That’s actually not a good prerequisite either for the spectacle on the cathedral square or for the Biblical. And if you want to object to his libretto, that sometimes things get very direct and not very metaphysical. Mendel Singer, the Job of Roth and our time, ‘loses’ a daughter to aggressive soldiers, which the young woman has no problem with – on the contrary. A son dies in the war, he himself has to flee from Russia to America, where his wife dies and the real problem child, Menuchim (a really excellent countertenor: Thomas Lichtenecker), who is handicapped from birth, suddenly turns out to be a successful conductor. In the end it gets very Jewish, Mendel, who vacillates between anger and cursing at God and the intoxication of his newly found son, falls asleep (or dies) and yet promises Menuchim to continue discussing with him soon – and to go for a nice walk!
A story that works
Image source: Karlheinz Fessl
There should have been a bit more transcendence before, but the story works, Sturminger tells it precisely and with a sense of drama. He also stages the world premiere and likes to let the main protagonists act towards the ramp (here that’s not a disadvantage), while the choir (prepared by Günter Wallner) can often be heard and half seen commenting or lamenting in the shadowy darkness. Renate Martin and Andreas Donhauser have created a light sculpture with neon tubes that keeps moving over the scenery. In terms of color, things remain quite dark, even with the costumes – a lot of black and white, little contrast.
Jazz, hymns and klezmer
Image source: Karlheinz Fessl
Tim Anderson acts with verve and power at the podium of the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, making Bernhard Lang’s orchestral sounds, expanded with synthesizer (Adam Rogala) and quarter-tone experiments, shine. Lang’s relevant stylistic device, loops (repetitive loops), are used this time only at key points, always appropriate, always right to the point or phrase. In the America episode, wonderful jazz bubbles out of the ditch, followed by melancholic hymns or manic hesitation and reflection – and lots of klezmer!
Convincing ensemble
Alexander Kaimbacher shows and draws Mendel Singer wonderfully as a torn seeker of God and man, Ava Dodd is great as daughter Mirjam, who lets her wild feelings run free, Katerina Hebeková is also very good as Mendel’s wife and yiddish mom par excellence. The curtain falls for today – tomorrow we’ll talk more. Bernhard Lang’s next operatic coup follows immediately, rather soon at the Stuttgart State Opera.
Broadcast: “Leporello” on February 10, 2023 at 4.05 p.m. on BR-KLASSIK