year of composition: 2006-2009
playing time: 105'

Language: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Ancient Chinese

Cast: 3(1./2. Picc, 1. with extra Fl, 1/4-tone flat; 2. with extra Picc, 1/4-tone flat; 3. Altfl/Sopr Ocarina). 2(2. Alto Ocarina),Eh(3.Ob).2(Bb/A, 2. Eb),Basskl(3. Kl in B/A).2(2. with low A extension),Kbn(3. Bn) - 4.3(1. in Eb and C/Picc-Trp in Bb; 2. in D, C, Bb and Eb; 3. C, Bb and Eb).2TTbn,BassTbn - Perc(6-7 Players) - Cel,Fortepiano or Upright Piano(1/4-tone flat),Grand Piano,Hpschd, Portative or Continuo Org(1-2 Keyboard Players) - Glass Armonica - Harp - E-Git.E-Bass.Ondes Martenot - Str(Db 5 strings) - Choir(SATB) - Soli: 2S.A(or Counter-ten).Counter-ten.Bar.B. Sp - mimed and danced rolls

"Murder and Punishment

Dark and brilliant: “The Orphan” by Jeffrey Ching was premiered in Erfurt

The series of premières at Theater Erfurt does not always produce brilliant results. However, this time, the result is brilliant.  It is true, “The Orphan,” by Jeffrey Ching is an artificial, contrived, and trying piece.  But at the same time, this opera is a stroke of genius.  Music theatre, which is steeped in tradition and shaped by rituals such as hardly any other art form is, can still amaze and create something completely new out of tradition.

Singing in seven languages, protagonists and music from four epochs and five countries, instruments which rather belong to a Chinese folk troupe than to the orchestra pit: people concerned with the structural principle and instrumentation of opera will have doubts.  The whole is completely overloaded, it is too artificial, much too hair-splitting—in theory.  In practice, on the stage and in the orchestra pit of Theater Erfurt an amazing scenic and tonal canvas is created under the direction of Jakob Peters-Messer, in which Chinese calligraphy combines with Baroque painting and modern construction design in perfect harmony.  In order to conceive this, one needs a composer who is at home in many cultures, such as Jeffrey Ching, who has chosen to live in Berlin, is of Chinese descent, was born in Manila, and was trained in Harvard and Cambridge.

The story on which his libretto is based is as polyglot as himself and was taken up in many countries in the course of time, from the China of the 6th century B.C. to the era of Goethe.  Following this story’s journey through time and space, Ching constructed his opera in accordance with a strictly logical principle: an epoch and a language was assigned to every character, a musical style was assigned to every scene.  One can read the details in the programme, but one doesn’t have to.  The beauty of the music, this incredible, thick and transparent web made of Far Eastern and European elements, is revealed without footnotes.  It is incredible, because no European composer would ever dare to cite the musical languages of Vivaldi and Rameau and to translate them into Chinese as unabashedly as Ching did.  Inside Theater Erfurt, six percussionists with gongs and tam-tams create a tonal backdrop evocative of the Peking opera, and accompany the appearances of the cruel court official Dag-Ngans-Kagh with a pulsating crescendo, while in the orchestra pit, the glass armonica accompanies Baroque orchestra music.  Conductor Samuel Bächli holds together the whole range of instruments, from ocarina to electric guitar, with aplomb and mastery. 

Opulence, symbolic power, clarity: music, as well as staging, are marked by the same elements.  With stylised figures who act on Markus Meyer’s austere stage, which reminds one of a burial vault, director Jakob Peters-Messer produces a ritualised play, a play of death.  In this opera, which deals with the extinction of a family, with infanticide and revenge, hundreds of people die; however, dying remains a rigid and aesthetic ritual, the act of killing is represented without stage blood.  The protagonists die in lavish costumes—in Chinese costume, such as general Etan (Máté Sólyom-Nagy), or in Baroque hooped petticoat.  And when the Orphan’s parents commit suicide, this is, in spite of all stylisation, a touching scene, thanks to the beauty of the funeral music, which reminds one of Purcell, and the singing of Marisca Mulder and Denis Lakey.

The role of the sinister Dag-Ngans-Kagh, the most archaic figure of the piece, is sung in ancient Chinese by the bass Sebastian Pilgrim—an enormous achievement.  With her beautiful and clear soprano, Andión Fernández plays the role of the Orphan; Marwan Shamiyeh shines as court official Alsingo with an Italian aria di bravura.  The most interesting figure is that of the physician Cheng Ying, who is played at the same time by the excellent dancer Julien Fueillet-Dolet, who brings movement and even a comic element into the ritualised play, and by the narrator Peter Umstadt, whose onomatopoeic voice adds another melody to the opera—a melody without which it is impossible to imagine the opera.  Ultimately it is difficult to conceive of “The Orphan” with another staging, and not just because this opera was created in close coordination with the composer.

You can interpret “The Orphan” as a play which is marked by a deep cultural pessimism: although history progresses, the desire to kill and the lust for revenge will not change.  The retaliation which the Orphan demands, as sole survivor of the massacre of his family, will result in the execution of Dag-Ngans-Kagh in the barbarous, ancient Chinese way—dismemberment while he is alive—although the avenger comes from the time of Goethe.  Or you can simply interpret this opera as resounding proof of the cultural links between East and West.  Anyway, “The Orphan” is great music theatre—and one of the best operas premiered by Theater Erfurt.

It was only some members of the audience who availed of the interval to escape from the murderous scenes and the unaccustomed music.  All the rest applauded enthusiastically and for a long time and cheered the première with bravos."

(By Frauke Adrians; source: Thüringer Allgemeine, 30 November 2009)

more reviews