Glass : The Trial
Soloists from the Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Derek Clark
Making operas out of towering works of literature is a little bit like making films out of them - most of the time, the results are, at best, indifferent, at worst, risible. Philip Glass's The Trial is, I think, one of the exceptions, though not without its weaknesses. The libretto is by Christopher Hampton, of Dangerous Liaisons fame, and it has been well done, on the whole, crisply managed scenes with a very clear text, a straightforward, lucid use of English that combined with Glass's economic musical forces made for an exceptionally comprehensible performance, which is a boon in and of itself.
If there is one thing that I found lacking - and it is partly due to the text, and partly to Michael McCarthy's production - it was a sense of the passage of time. We know, because it's in the libretto, mentioned at the start and finish, that a year has passed, but we don't get any real impression of that, and therefore we don't get much of an impression of how Josef K is being worn down by the impossibilities and inconsistencies of his situation. We were shown it to some extent in K's physical presentation, but that tended to be intermittent, and he would seem to pick up again at times, it was quite irregular, while my memory of the novel (and I admit it's been a long time!) is of a very steady, very progressive grinding down of the character.
I also felt that this is a work that is not entirely suited to a theatre like Glasgow's Theatre Royal. Although the theatre itself is a fairly standard size for a traditional European opera house, the production was designed, both physically and musically, for a much more intimate setting. There are eight singers, with everyone save K singing multiple roles, and about a dozen musicians. The set is a three-sided shoe-box, very simple, very severe, imaginatively lit, and a sense of claustrophobia is meant to be induced by almost every scene being overlooked by the non-singing characters. There was no problem acoustically, yet I think some of the impact of the piece was diluted by being projected into a rather wide, and relatively empty (tickets were only sold for the stalls and dress circle, not the upper two levels) space. In a smaller venue, the ratcheting anxiety would probably be more keenly felt, the turn of the screw more appreciable.
However, these issues aside, the work is effective. As I've experienced before with Glass theatre pieces, the second half is more striking than the first. He wants to set the situation up clearly, and his vocal lines are well suited to a conversational style of text, allowing for good exposition, but not always musically very striking. In the second act, however (which begins with the introduction to the lawyer Huld), the tone becomes richer, more lyrical, culminating in a rather magnificent aria for the Prison Chaplain as he delivers his parable to K - and K's response, "Lies are the universal system" resonates terrifyingly in today's context - after which the conclusion is rapidly delivered.
The production is set in period, but there were sly visual references that were amusing. Nicholas Lester's K had distinct overtones of John Cleese at his officious best, while Willem and Franz looked (and sometimes behaved) rather like Thomson and Thompson (from the Tintin comics). The bowler hats and suits of other characters, on the other hand, had hints of Magritte about them, very appropriately surreal. Lester delivered K splendidly, crystal-clear diction, and an impression of being buffeted about by events beyond both his control and comprehension, yet trying to maintain a pretence of control. The other stand-out performances were Elgan Llyr Thomas, both as the Flogger, and the exuberant painter Titorelli, and Paul Carey Jones's Chaplain, dominating the moment as he delivered the Parable.
Kafka wrote The Trial as a black comedy, and Glass and Hampton meant it as such as well, but I think it's not possible to see it that way anymore. Too much has come true, and too much of it looks like it is coming true. It's no longer a paranoid fantasy, we're living with this now. The opera is good, but playing it for laughs cannot really work, we can only smile wryly at times.
[Next : 26th January]
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