Lausitz Festival | »Krabat« in Görlitz: The Gain of Freedom

The Black Mill owner has a problem: he's running out of servants. Whether it's due to the Thirty Years' War and the resulting shortage of men, or the miller's poor reputation, he finds himself empty-handed just before Easter. According to his contract with the goddess of death, Smjertnica, he's supposed to make up the dozen once he's sacrificed one of his servants to her, as he does every year. Otherwise, he'll die himself. His magic book, however, helps. He travels into the future and recruits the young Krabat, who proves to be his most docile magician.

For his family opera, Marius Felix Lange drew on a Lusatian legend and a Sorbian figure. It was therefore only fitting that the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater Görlitz-Zittau collaborated with the Lusatian Festival for the premiere. The composer, who also wrote the libretto, utilized various versions of the tradition for his opera, which is largely based on fairy tale and mythical motifs. The characters are not designed for psychological complexity. When the order of good and evil is once shaken, it is quickly restored. This helps to clarify contradictions; fairy tales, sagas, and legends have helped humanity throughout history to cope with the world. This applies not only to children but also to adults. In this respect, Lange has truly written a family opera.

His music is comprehensible without slackening in its ambition—at least if one doesn't expect music today to be avant-garde. Lange carefully blends the means of musical modernism into a style that can best be described as late Romantic. In doing so, it becomes clear that the traditional techniques are still valid today, even for adult listeners. Instrumental colors are rarely used contrary to expectations. Quotations from song and chorale place scenes in a historical, everyday context. Excursions into the fringes of tonality indicate danger and evil, while stable harmony stands for the positive. The New Lausitzer Philharmonic Orchestra, under Roman Brogli-Sacher, demonstrates how effectively and discerningly Lange is able to deploy these means.

At the same time, he is a skilled dramatist. His text is extensive; if it weren't for the spoken passages, there would still be more than two hours of music to listen to. The plot develops rapidly. Each of the 19 scenes has its own arc of tension, and almost every one leads to a climax. Lange knows how to write for concentrated developments, in such a way that the words simultaneously invite the complementation of music. At most, one can object to his use of stylistic levels. Krabat, as a boy from the future, and later his mother, who helps to rescue him, occasionally speak and sing modern slang. This naturalistically explodes the fairy-tale world, which should be timeless even if it contains leaps in time.

At the center of Vinzenz Hegemann's set is the mill's waterwheel. It symbolizes the necessary work and, at one edge, has the dungeon with which the Schwarzmüller threatens. A night in it must be horrific; we never learn why – which only intensifies the threat. The wheel serves as a starting point for the excursions into space and time that Felicia Bergström's animations depict. The videos convey, in a poetic and symbolic way, stage events that transcend space and time or could hardly be realized otherwise. This is especially true of the final phase, in which Krabat and Schwarzmüller transform into ever-changing animals to fight each other. This gives director Rebekka Stanzel the space she needs to convincingly direct the characters, conveying power relationships, threats, but also affection without unnecessary elements.

That this didn't always work out perfectly may have been due to premiere nerves or a concentration on the musical. The opera was well cast, even in the supporting roles. Alongside Death—or, more precisely, the seductive killer—played by Shoushik Barsoumian, Peter Fabig deserves a special mention as Schwarzmüller, who, with his full-throated and powerful voice, gave the character the necessary menace. Buyan Li, as Krabat, was a fitting foil; although this, as often before, was not easy, evil and power nevertheless inspire a more impressive portrayal. Sometimes gently, sometimes with wise advice, Lisa Orthuber, as the farmhand Měrćin, brought a feminine tone to the male world of the miller and his assistants. Due to a lack of personnel, Schwarzmüller had to pretend he didn't see through Měrćin's easily transparent disguise as a boy and hired the girl. This allows Lange to include the love story, which hardly any successful opera can do without.

A family opera? "Krabat" truly offers something for all generations to hear, see, and think about. The (few) children at the premiere remained calm until the end, so it seems to be working. Its content? No serious person believes that love, especially motherly love as in this opera, can conquer evil. It's a different story when love stands for utopia (the season's theme of the Görlitz-Zittau Theater). This enables goal-oriented action—and indeed, Krabat, rescued by his mother, must still fight the miller afterward.

Freedom? Mastership and freedom belong together, proclaimed the miller Krabat, whom he wanted to install as his successor. Krabat asked: isn't the miller afraid too? Of course, the mill owner dreads death every year, wondering whether he'll find a new servant. And of course, he denies his bondage. Only at the end does he depart happily with Smjertnica. The end of domination also frees the rulers; but for them to understand this, so this operatic legend tells us, they must first be defeated.

Next performances: September 21, October 11, and October 12. www.ght.de