Page to Opera Stage explores stories – real or fictional, old and new – that inspired operas and how these narratives have been edited and dramatized to adapt them to a new medium. In this episode, “Salome” is followed by another opera-adapted piece: Frank Wedekind’s duology “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Büchse” as well as Alban Berg’s “Lulu”.
The Austrian composer Alban Berg died surprisingly on Christmas Eve 1935 – according to many sources of an insect bite that caused a septic boil that led to blood poisoning. He was 50 years old. Respected in the Second Viennese School and an advocate of Arnold SchÖnberg’s twelve-tone methods, both his avant-garde and more traditional, romantic compositions, had gained widespread recognition during his lifetime. At the time of his death, he saw himself exposed to Nazi bans for almost three years because of his “degenerate” works and his connection with the Jewish communityÖnberg.
Most important to this exploration, he was not quite finished with his longest and most ambitious opera.
“Lulu” is a combination of two Frank Wedekind pieces that were written in the 1890s: “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Büchse” (“Pandora’s Box”). Both revolves around Lulu, the enigmatic seductress and victim who gives Berg’s opera its name. Frank Wedekind’s original vision was a sprawling, five-act exploration of sex and amorality entitled “Lulu: A Monster Tragedy”. In this sense, Berg’s combination of “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Box” into an epic work is a return to solidarity that Dr. It’s nice Death is the turning point in Lulu’s life, which immediately and coherently moves on to the next dramatic, disastrous chapter. GW Pabst’s pioneering silent film adaptation, which is exclusively titled “Pandora’s Box”, processes elements of the narratives of both pieces into a larger piece – albeit far less faithfully in terms of content and thematic than the opera.
Since Wedekind’s Dialogue was written for speaking, Berg uses the original text in his libretto very faithfully and processes it into his own continuous conversation music. Some sections are abbreviated and character actions condensed for clarity (a notable example is the exact sequence of Alwa’s death), but the words tell the same story, in much the same way. Even the framework that introduces Lulu as the most dangerous animal in a metaphorical circus is retained.
While “Earth Spirit” and “Pandora’s Box” taken together have a certain symmetry that comes from Lulu’s murder of her then-husband Dr. Nice, it becomes all the more pronounced when the stories in “Lulu” are merged and driven forward by Berg’s rigorously structured and at the same time expressionist music. This symbolic reflection of Lulu’s rise through society and the quick, catastrophic fall is evident in the characters on the stage and the music in the pit. The same three men are double cast in the libretto to play their three middle-class husbands, all of whom die during their pathetic prostitution lives in London, and their three clients. The music of the interlude that occurs where the two pieces are interrupted – Lulu’s murder trial – is palindromic and reads the same forwards and backwards.
Of course, the nuances of the delivery and service selection are left to the reader’s imagination. With his music, Berg Wedekind’s work adds further interpretations – a work that itself was perceived as misogynistic, heralding the liberation of women, a sharp criticism of bourgeois society and a drama of humiliation. There are still contradictions and diversity in the opera’s score, but an overarching romanticism is at the heart of the opera.
Berg mitigates its bitter ends to some of the cruelest and most cutting character assessments and Wedekind’s satire of the decadence of the late 19th century. Here they are tragic in their pathetic devotion and find sympathy in the lush orchestration that is lacking in the words alone.
The characterization of Lulu is most skillfully and economically conveyed in Berg’s reinvention. In Wedekind’s original, Lulu is a well-defined shapeshifter – true to her name. She is referred to as Lulu in the Dramatis personae, but she responds to what her current lover calls her.
SCHWARZ (THE PAINTER): Who?
SCHÖN: Who? Your wife.
BLACK: Eve?
BEAUTIFUL: I called her Mignon.
SCHWARZ: I thought her name was Nellie?
BEAUTIFUL: Dr. Goll called her like that.
SCHWARZ: I called her Eva.
SCHÖN: I don’t know what her real name is.
BLACK: (Absent-minded.) Maybe she knows.
Only Schigold, Alwa and Countess Geschwitz consistently refer to her in Wedekind’s text as Lulu to mark the duration of their involvement. Berg spends less time projecting and disguising his antihero’s name (although he is featured in the libretto), instead he constantly signifies this transformation in music. With her sophisticated soprano music, Lulus literally always stands above her stage mates – but her music is never sung against her. She floats through and around her melodic lines and sets herself apart as she adapts to her latest circumstances and lovers. Your name or lack of it is an afterthought, not the central secret.
The music of “Lulu” is characterized by its complicated twelve-tone rows to distinguish characters almost as leitmotifs as well as by the use of unorthodox instrumentation (it is the first opera that one Vibraphone, an instrument commonly associated with jazz, in his orchestra). His third act is also notable and controversial for its posthumous conclusion. On his death, Berg left the full orchestration for the first two acts and detailed sketches for the third. Erwin Stein, another student of SchÖnbergs, completed a vocal excerpt. Berg’s widow Helene turned to SchÖnberg himself to complete the score, but refused the task. The official reason was that the task was bigger than expected and the composer didn’t have time. Other sources claim that SchÖnberg’s reluctance stems from anti-Semitic stereotypes of the banker in the third act. For whatever reason Anton Webern, Alexander Zemlinsky and Stein could not provide the desired addition – and Helene Berg forbade others.
“Lulu” was initially deliberately performed in an unfinished state. Its 1937 premiere in Zurich Opera used Berg’s orchestral sketches over the facial plot to complete the final two scenes and the downfall of Lulus. This practice continued for the next four decades. In 1976, however, Helene Berg died and opened the door for a revision. This version, completed by Friedrich Cerha was premiered at the Opera Garnier in 1979 and is performed most frequently today.
Like the opera’s heroine of the same name, the opera’s many interpretations and dueling claims to authenticity continue.
All quotations are from the English translations of “Earth spirit” and “Pandora’s box“, Which can be found at Project Gutenberg. A German libretto for the original version of “Lulu” in two acts can be found Here.
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