Lulu: trailer - De Nationale Opera | Dutch National Opera

Wow. Wow. Wow. Watch these video trailers for William Kentridge's staging of Lulu at the Dutch National Opera. Next up, the Met in New York City. More info at http://bit.ly/youLulu

The First Film Lulu, Asta Nielsen

Some six years before Louise Brooks played Lulu in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929), the great Danish actress Asta Nielsen played the role in Leopold Jessner's film adaption of Earth Spirit (1923). Here is a terrific 1912 postcard of the actress sporting bangs and a bob.

More on the new Lulu

Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported on William Kentridge's new production of Lulu and the new season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The WSJ said this:

In November, the Met will debut a new staging of Alban Berg ’s “Lulu,” directed by South African visual artist William Kentridge, whose 2010 version of Shostakovich’s “The Nose” for the Met drew admiring reviews. Soprano Marlis Petersen will sing the title role of the scheming man-magnet Lulu, a part she has performed in prior productions in the U.S. and Europe.

“She is the leading Lulu of the day,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager.

The new production will incorporate projections of drawings by Mr. Kentridge, as did “The Nose.” Like Marc Chagall, who designed scenery for the Met in the 1960s, Mr. Kentridge is “this wonderful kind of intermediary between the visual art world and the operatic world,” Mr. Gelb said.

The opera will be conducted by James Levine, the Met’s music director, who first introduced “Lulu” to the company in the 1970s.

           Marlis Petersen as Lulu. PHOTO: KRISTIAN SCHULLER/METROPOLITAN OPERA

Announcing a new Lulu

The Met in New York City has announced a significant new production of Lulu (1937), the Alban Berg opera based on the Frank Wedekind plays which also served as the basis for the sensational G.W. Pabst-directed film, Pandora's Box (1929), starring Louise Brooks as Lulu. Interestingly, Berg had seen the Pabst film while he was composing Lulu, as he noted in a letter to his friend, Theodor Adorno. That influence continues to this day - note the hairstyle of the newest Lulu.

From the Met website:

"William Kentridge returns to the Met for his first new production since the company premiere of The Nose, which caused a sensation when it opened in 2010. The inventive visual artist will stage Berg’s shocking masterpiece about a sexually irresistible young woman whose wanton behavior causes destruction for those who fall under her spell. James Levine conducts one of the operas with which he is most identified; he has led 30 Met performances of the work, including the company premiere in 1977. Marlis Petersen reprises her acclaimed interpretation of the title role, with Susan Graham as the Countess Geschwitz, one of Lulu’s most devoted admirers, and Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter, and Franz Grundheber among the men who fall victim to her charms."

Lulu – Alban Berg                                                                                                            
Opening: November 5, 2015
Conductor: James Levine
Production: William Kentridge
Co-Director: Luc De Wit
Projection Designer: Catherine Meyburgh
Set Designer: Sabine Theunissen
Costume Designer: Greta Goiris
Lighting Designer: Urs Schönebaum
Live in HD: November 21, 2015

Above: Watch an interview with director William Kentridge

"Acclaimed artist and director William Kentridge (The Nose) applies his unique theatrical vision to Berg’s notorious femme fatale who shatters lives, including her own. Musically, the masterful score is in the sure hands of Met Music Director James Levine. Soprano Marlis Petersen has excited audiences around the world with her portrayal of the tour-de-force title role, a wild journey of love, obsession, and death. Susan Graham joins a winning cast, including Daniel Brenna and Johan Reuter."

Production a gift of the Kirsch Family Foundation. Co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Dutch National Opera, and English National Opera. Performance Dates:

    Thursday, November 5, 2015, 7:00 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Monday, November 9, 2015, 7:00 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Saturday, November 14, 2015, 7:30 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 7:00 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Saturday, November 21, 2015, 12:30 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Tuesday, November 24, 2015, 7:00 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Saturday, November 28, 2015, 7:30 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

    Thursday, December 3, 2015, 7:00 pm
    Levine; Petersen, Graham, Brenna, Groves, Reuter, Grundheber

Dutch National Opera premieres William Kentridge's LULU

The Dutch National Opera will premiere William Kentridge's long anticipated staging of the complete version of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu at the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, in a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera New York and English National Opera. Performances takes place June 1, 6, 8, 14, 20, 23, 25 and 28.

Lulu? from the Dutch National Opera website

From the Dutch National Opera website: "Alban Berg wrestled with Lulu his entire life, leaving it unfinished at his death in 1935. Friedrich Cerha completed the orchestration of the third act only in 1979. Until then, only the first two acts were ever performed, with segments of the Lulu Suite as a conclusion. Although the musical motives are based on a single twelve-tone series, the instrumentation is colourful and there is a great variety of musical forms. As the rhythm of the vocal lines closely follows that of speech, the text comes across as very natural. One of the highlights is Lulu’s provocative song ‘Wenn sich die Menschen um meinetwillen umgebracht haben’."

"The story is drawn from two plays by Frank Wedekind about the attractive young dancer Lulu, who uses her charms to conquer and destroy. All men – and the occasional woman – desire her, but whoever marries her is faced with a death sentence. Guilt or innocence? That is the question. With each man, Lulu climbs the social ladder. She is cold and calculating, but also an easy prey for others. In the middle of the opera Berg includes music for a silent film that depicts Lulu’s demise after she has murdered her husband Dr. Schön. The dénouement at the end of the third act – Lulu has descended into prostitution – is sensational."

"Conductor Fabio Luisi and director William Kentridge both make their Dutch National Opera debut. Mojca Erdmann appeared previously at Dutch National Opera as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In both voice and appearance, Erdmann is a perfect Lulu. The South African artist and filmmaker William Kentridge was inspired for his staging by the silent films from the 1920s and ‘30s, the time in which Lulu was composed." Among those silent films is Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. The 1929 silent film is based on the same literary source material as Berg's libretto.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra takes its place in the pit, and the opera will be performed in German, with surtitles in Dutch and English.

William Kentridge's staging of Alban Berg’s Lulu will take place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in early November. Exact dates will be announced in February.

William Kentridge working on Lulu for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. (photo by Robert Caplin)

Pages from Lulu: pantomime en un acte

Pages from Lulu: pantomime en un acte, preface by Arsène Houssaye, published 1888 by E. Dentu in Paris. I wonder if Frank Wedekind knew of this slim book? The book can be read online at Open Library.

Natalie Merchant talks about Louise Brooks, & Rufus Wainwright too

Earlier this week, Salon ran an interview with Natalie Merchant regarding her just released sixth solo album. This self-titled and self produced collection of 10 new and original songs is her first offering in 13 years. Two of the questions in the Salon interview address the singer-songwriter's interest in Louise Brooks. The complete interview can and should be read here.

There are a lot of proper names on this album: Ladybird, Lulu, Maggie. Are these real women or fictional characters?

They’re composite characters, but I choose a name that will identify them, then I use that technique of stepping into their lives. “Ladybird” and “Maggie Said” are both conversations with these women I’ve created. So they’re composite characters, except for “Lulu.” That song is about a specific person, the silent screen star Louise Brooks.

What inspired you to write a song about her?

I just think she had an extraordinary life. Now that I’ve reached 50, I feel like I’m beginning to understand the journey that people take through their lives — the significant events that make you and form you. I’ve always had an interest in biographies, especially about famous women. I want to know so much about them. Did they have children? Did they have conflicted relationships with their parents? Did they have to move frequently? Were they drawn to urban spaces or rural spaces? What inspired them as artists?

I read Louise Brooks’ autobiography a couple of years ago, “Lulu in Hollywood.” I grew up near where she spent the last 20 years of her life, in Rochester, New York. My best friend Mary Beth and I used to have a fantasy. We couldn’t drive, but when we were teenagers we wanted to take the bus to Rochester and have tea with Louise Brooks. The song echoes that sentiment, but reading her autobiography allowed me to visit her in a different way. She never had children and could never keep a marriage together, and she felt like a failure in her career. Yet she endures. She rose and fell and fell and rose again. And just when she was at this low period in her life, when she was living hand to mouth and living in a studio apartment in Manhattan, there was a revival happening of her films. She didn’t even know it.

Natalie Merchant (Credit: Dan Winters)

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And earlier this month, Out magazine ran an interview with Rufus Wainwright regarding his latest (gay) opera commission, why Helena Bonham Carter inspires him, and the reason performing with 'slutty straight boys' was a perfect antidote to a heavy period of his life. One of the questions in the Out interview address the singer-songwriter's interest in Louise Brooks. The complete interview can and should be read here. 

I was also curious: In the concert, you put on a paper Helena Bonham Carter mask on for a bit and I wondered what it was about her. We've been asking people what their spirit animal is, and I wondered if she was your spirit animal in some way?

Well she is definitely a spirited animal. [Laughs] That's for sure. She's amazing. I admire her and have a slight crush on her as well. You know, what I love most about her is she's whip smart, so intelligent. She has depth. Besides being a fantastic actress and fantastic beauty, she's also really witty, intelligent, and kooky broad. And I love that about her.

So how would you answer that question: what is your spirit animal?

My spirit animal is Louise Brooks from Pandora's Box. That character she plays in the film, Lulu. That's why I wrote Songs for Lulu, she needed to be appeased.

Rufus Wainwright (Credit: Sean James)

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Both artists can be heard on RadioLulu, the Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film-themed online radio station from the Louise Brooks Society streaming music of the Teens, Twenties, Thirties and today. RadioLulu plays Natalie Merchant's "Lulu," from her new self-titled album, and Rufus Wainwright's "What Would I Ever Do with a Rose?" from his 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

"Lulu," a poem by Frank Wedekind

Presented here is Frank Wedekind's poem "Lulu" in its original German, and in rough English translation (by Thomas Gladysz).

Lulu

Ich liebe nicht den Hundetrab
Alltäglichen Verkehres;
Ich liebe das wogende Auf und Ab
Des tosenden Weltenmeeres.
Ich liebe die Liebe, die ernste Kunst,
Urewige Wissenschaft ist,
Die Liebe, die heilige Himmelsgunst,
Die irdische Riesenkraft ist.

Mein ganzes Innre erfülle der Mann
Mit Wucht und mit seelischer Größe.
Aufjauchzend vor Stolz enthüll' ich ihm dann,
Aufjauchzend vor Glück meine Blöße.

=========================================

Lulu

I do not love the dog race
Of everyday intercourse;
I love the heaving up and down
Of the roaring ocean world.
I love love that serious art,
That song of science,
Love, the holy favor of heaven,
The power of giants on earth.

Mankind fulfills my whole soul
With force and with great mind.
I then reveal to men
My nakedness, rejoicing with happiness.

Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love - the story of the first Lulu

Take a look into the lives of Frank Wedekind and Tilly Wedekind, two well-known figures in the history of German theater.

"Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love is a 70-minute, one-woman show weaving together original text and songs with extracts from Tilly's autobiography, letters between herself and Frank, snippets and themes from his plays, and a few inventions along the way. Set in a circus ring (as indeed Wedekind's first LULU play - Earth Spirit - begins), with a lute, two puppets, a circus ball and some puffs of magic, Tilly No-Body invites the audience into a world of love, loss, theatre and desire. Walking the tightrope of the absurd and the beautiful, the grotesque and sublime, the comic and the tragic - this is a paean to Frank and Tilly, and a waltz towards Weimar Germany. "

This play, written and performed by University of California, Davis professor Bella Merlin, illustrates how Tilly's mindset changed throughout her life, from her time as her husband's muse to her days as the writer's widow.

Find out more about Bella Merlin and her play, Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love, by visiting her website. Or, check out this piece from 2010, when the play was staged in Davis, California.

Bella Merlin has also contributed a seminal, fascinating, thought-provoking, must read essay, "Tilly Wedekind and Lulu: The Role of Her Life or the Role in Her Life," to the book Auto/Biography and Identity: Women, Theatre and Performance, edited by Maggie B B. Gale and Vivien Gardner (Manchester University Press, 2009).

Homage to Lulu: Lou Reed has died

Rock musician, former Velvet Underground singer, and poet Lou Reed has died. Follow this link for an excellent, extended obit. In 2011, Reed had collaborated with Metallica on a concept album called Lulu. It is an obtuse homage to the Lulu archetype, and Louise Brooks - notice the bobbed hair worn by the Venus-like mannequin. All-in-all, fans had a hard time relating toits  dissonant lyrics and music. The album was praised by some, but mostly panned.

Lulu was inspired by German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind's plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box, which tell a story of a young abused dancer's life and relationships and are now collectively known as the "Lulu Plays." Since their publication in the early 1900's, the plays have been the inspiration for the Louise Brooks silent film (Pandora's Box, 1929), an opera, and countless other creative endeavors.

Originally the lyrics and musical landscape were sketched out by Lou for a theatrical production in Berlin, but after coming together with the Metallica for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts in New York in 2009, each knew they wanted to make more music together. Lou was inspired enough by that performance to ask the band to join him in taking his theatrical Lulu piece to the next level.
In early May of 2011, they camped out recording at HQ studios in Northern California (not far from where Frank Wedekind was conceived), and complete ten songs. A deluxe packaging of the Lulu CD is pictured below.

 

William Kentridge Lulu inspired by Louise Brooks Lulu

An article in today's New York Times confirmed what the Louise Brooks Society had suspected or at least secretly hoped for, that South African-born artist William Kentridge's upcoming production of Alban Berg's opera Lulu is inspired in part by Louise Brooks' performance as Lulu in G.W.  Pabst's 1929 film, Pandora's Box. (See this earlier LBS blog about Kentridge's involvement in the Metropolitan production, which is set to open in 2015.)

The New York Times stated:

“Lulu,” Berg’s final opera, is in part about art: It features an artist who falls in love with a femme fatale after painting her portrait. And in the second act it calls for a silent film — which might be tailor-made for Mr. Kentridge, who is as well known for his videos as he is for his drawings, sculptures and tapestries....

“Those were things that kind of easily drew me to it,” said Mr. Kentridge, who explained that his “Lulu” was being inspired by German Expressionism, Weimar cinema (including, of course, “Pandora’s Box,” the G. W. Pabst version of the Lulu story starring Louise Brooks), Max Beckmann drypoints depicting brothels and the like, and other art projects he is working on. “But boy, there’s a lot of other stuff as well.”

How much Brooks' role in Pandora's Box leaves its mark on Kentridge's opera remains to be seen. The New York Times went on to add, "A funny but nightmarish section of a silent film shot in Johannesburg featured a black-and-white montage of, among other things, a man smoking a comically large cigar as gunshot wounds appear on his chest; a Louise Brooks-like Lulu figure holding a pistol spewing a stream of smoke; a dancing policeman; a judge with the overdone eye makeup of the silent-film era; a very creepy doctor; and a syringe oozing smoke."

As Louise Brooks / Lulu devotees know, Berg's opera, Lulu, was based on the Lulu plays by Frank Wedekind, which also served as basis for the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. In later years, Berg's widow has stated that the composer had seen the Pabst film; interestingly, he included a filmic element in his opera. How Kentridge stages his version of Berg's early 20th century opera should prove fascinating.

More on this exciting story will be posted as things develop!

UPDATE:

The Louise Brooks Society just came across a newspaper article from last month which reported that William Kentridge had visited the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. The Eastman House and Rochester were, of course, the film archive and city were Louise Brooks spent the last decades of her life. The article, "William Kentridge, South Africa's best known artist, to visit Rochester," appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on September 17th. The plot thickens.

Audio version of Frank Wedekind's Lulu Play, Pandora's Box

New on LibriVox and the Internet Archive is an audio recording of Frank Wedekind's famous play, Pandora's Box. This LibriVox recording is based on the English-language translation by Samuel Atkins Eliot, Jr. Readers of this blog can follow the two prior links to listen to the recording, or listen via the embedded player shown below.

Tragedies of Sex, by Frank Wedekind,
in translation by Samuel Eliot, Jr.
First American Edition (collection of the
Louise Brooks Society).

Pandora's Box / Die Büchse der Pandora (1904) is the second half of the German dramatist's two 'Lulu' plays. The first is Earth Spirit (1895). Both depict a society "riven by the demands of lust and greed."

In 1929, G.W. Pabst directed the second silent film version Pandora's Box, which was loosely based on Wedekind's play. Pabst's version starred Louise Brooks. Both Wedekind plays also served as the basis for the 1935 opera, Lulu, by Alban Berg, which premiered posthumously in 1937.

Following the events of Earth Spirit, Pandora's Box charts the downward spiral of Lulu and her companions. Here, Lulu once again plays the role of unwitting temptress (or femme fatale), a siren-like libertine who seals the destruction of her friends and lovers.

The premiere of Pandora's Box, a restricted performance due to difficulties with the censor, took place in Nuremberg on February 1, 1904. The 1905 Viennese premiere, again restricted, was instigated by the satirist Karl Kraus.

Cast of the LibriVox recording (Audio edited by Chuck Williamson)

Lulu: Amanda Friday
Alva Schon: Chuck Williamson
Schigolch: Alan Mapstone
Rodrigo Quast/Kungu Poti: Wupperhippo
Alfred Hugenberg: Charlotte Duckett
Countess Geschwitz: Caprisha Page
Bianetta/Kadidia: Sally Mc
Ludmilla Steinherz/Narrator: Elizabeth Klett
Magelone: Margaret Espaillat
Count Casti Piani: Algy Pug
Puntschu: Alan Weyman
Heilmann/Dr. Hilti: bala
Bob: rookieblue
Detective: Grendel B. Lightyear
Jack: Bob Gonzalez

LULU, a comic, by John Linton Roberson

Lulu is a newly published comic, or graphic novel, by John Linton Roberson. It is based on the Lulu plays by Frank Wedekind. Those same plays, of course, were the basis for the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. They also were the basis for Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, as well as the Lulu Reed & Metallica recording, Lulu, and much else. 

These incarnations of Lulu inspired Roberson, who offers an original and up-to-date take on Lulu and her archetypal story. According to Martin Pasko, who wrote the introduction, "LULU translates into graphic storytelling terms Wedekind’s meditation on sexual repression and its role in facilitating exploitative seduction with all its disturbing ferocity intact." This ain't for the faint of heart, nor the underage. Roberson's work has been described by critics as "fairly obsessed with sex & death." He disagrees with "fairly."

Roberson's latest is book one of Lulu. More volumes are in the works. In an extensive interview with Robb Orr on the Comics Forge website, Roberson was asked, "Which elements of Wedekind’s LULU inspired you to adapt it into a comic format?" 

Partly its history–it’s been adapted a number of times before to different media, most famously as Alban Berg’s opera and, even more famously, Pabst’s silent film with Louise Brooks PANDORA’S BOX (which is basically just the second play, and which most readers if interested can see on TCM quite often). Brooks in fact became so identified with Lulu that the name is almost a synonym for her, but i avoided my Lulu looking like her. Mine is based on an Italian actress some might know from 1900 and SUSPIRIA, Stefania Casini. But it was also adapted as a film in 1923 with Asta Nielsen and in 1980 by Walerian Borowczyk for French TV. That particular version is interesting–though it’s not the best–because it deals with the erotic content of the plays more openly than other versions, though Berg’s opera does so too; besides that it’s one of the few modernist operas that appears regularly, it’s also one of the only ones to regularly feature nudity and sexual content. That caught my interest because most people seem to think the classics are “clean” and I like to point out that they’re not, that’s just how we’re taught they are. The work takes a remarkably modern view of sexuality and women–both with Lulu and Geschwitz–and challenges a lot of our set ideas of how women were viewed at the time. It’s also never been adapted for comics, as far as I know, except one scene used in Moore & O’Neill’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: CENTURY 1910, mashed up with–and killed by–Macheath from THREEPENNY OPERA. And then there’s that it’s a chance to do something in comics very different than a lot of the sci-fi, horror and superhero stuff that presently predominates, and of which I’m kinda sick.

John Linton Roberson is the creator of VITRIOL, VLADRUSHKA, ROSA & ANNALISA, MARTHA, the play SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, and numerous other works in comics, script and prose. For more about the artist and his new work, check out his website. Lulu is available on Amazon.com and on Createspace.

Artist William Kentridge to produce Lulu opera in 2015

Though it's not news, I was pleased to learn just recently that famed South-African artist, filmmaker and designer of opera and theater William Kentridge will direct a new production of Alban Berg's opera, Lulu, for the Met in 2015. According to the Chicago Sun-Times,

Kentridge was celebrated with a major retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2010, mounted in conjunction with The Nose, the Shostakovich opera he designed for New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. He is now gearing up for his next big project — a return to the Met in the fall of 2015 with a production of Alban Berg’s sensational opera, Lulu.

Berg's opera, Lulu, was based on the Lulu plays by Frank Wedekind, which also served as basis for the G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. Berg, as his widow has stated, had seen the Pabst film, and interestingly, he included a filmic element in his opera. How Kentridge stages this 20th century opera should prove fascinating. (Please note: the illustration provided here are not by Kentridge or associated with the forthcoming production of Lulu, and are displayed for decorative purposes only.)

The latest issue of Golwg

Louise Brooks and Louise Brooks Society are mentioned in the latest issue of Golwg, a Welsh-language magazine, in the story pictured over the soccer player's left shoulder. 

"Agor Bocs Pandora" by Dilwyn Roberts-Young looks at the Welsh National Opera forthcoming presentation of Alban Berg’s opera, Lulu, and a related screening of Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. More on those events here.

Welsh National Opera stages Berg’s Lulu, screens Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks

Welsh writer and Louise Brooks fan Dilwyn Roberts-Young has let me know that the Welsh National Opera will be staging Alban Berg’s 1937 opera Lulu, as well as screening the 1929 silent film  Pandora's Box with live musical accompaniment on February 20th. The opera and screening of Blwch Pandora (the Welsh title of Pandora's Box) are part of the Welsh National Opera season devoted to "Free Spirits." Here is what their website has to say:

"Free Spirits is the first of our themed seasons. It brings together two of the greatest operas of the 20th century, Janáček’s The Cunning little Vixen and Berg’s Lulu. Both pieces pose profound questions about how much freedom we desire and how much we can tolerate and still remain a functioning society.

She is a vision of freedom too pure to be allowed to last. Everyone is drawn to Lulu, intoxicated by her; those in her thrall are like moths to a flame. Her flame burns bright and fast but sooner or later it will be extinguished by the very things it once fed upon.

Berg’s second and final opera is a masterpiece – total theatre. Anyone wishing to see the greatest works in the repertoire must include Lulu in their list. Few composers invite their audiences unflinchingly to confront humanity’s darkest regions in the way that Berg does here. Lulu promises a shattering but rewarding experience for those who encounter it.

Welsh National Opera has an important association with this great composer’s work: WNO gave the first British performances of Lulu in the 1970s and won acclaim and awards for our 2005 production of Wozzeck. David Pountney is one of the world’s most influential opera directors. This production of Lulu is his first new production in his role as our Chief Executive and Artistic Director."

The cast includes:
Lulu - Marie Arnet / Countess Geschwitz - Natascha Petrinsky / Wardrobe Mistress/Schoolboy - Patricia Orr / Doctor Schön/Jack the Ripper - Ashley Holland / Alwa - Peter Hoare / Artist/Negro - Mark le Brocq / Schigolch - Richard Angas / Prince/Manservant/Marquis - Alan Oke / Athlete / Acrobat - Julian Close

Conductor - Lothar Koenigs / Director - David Pountney / Set Designer - Johan Engels / Costume Designer - Marie Jeanne Lecca / Lighting Designer - Mark Jonathan

Lulu is a co-production with the National Theatre in Prague. The running time is approximately 3 hours 30 minutes including two intervals. The opera will be sung in German with surtitles in English (and Welsh in Cardiff and Llandudno). Download the 2012/2013 season brochure by clicking here. It contains an image of Louise Brooks, and links the actress to the character of Lulu.

Frank Wedekind's Lulu staged in 1930

I found this hard to resist. It is an article, seemingly program notes, about a 1930 stage production at the Lobe Theater of Frank Wedekind's Lulu. The Lobe Theater was in what was Breslau, Germany but is now Wroclaw, Poland. At the time, according to Wikipedia, Breslau was a "known as a stronghold of left wing liberalism" - which is interesting because director G.W. Pabst was also known to be left-leaning liberal, and this play was staged about a year after Pabst directed Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box. The woman depicted in the woodcut sitting on a man's head would be the character of Lulu. Doesn't she seem to have a certain Brooksian flair?

On the theme of Lulu

 "On the theme of Lulu" is the title of a series of film screenings, talks, and musical performances taking place in Belgium. The series is being put on by La Monnaie De Munt, the Royal Opera House of Belgium, with each event relating to the Alban Berg opera, Lulu. Among the events is an October 18th screening of the 1929 G.W. Pabst film, Pandora's Box or LouLou, in which Louise Brooks stars as Lulu. Coincidentally, Pandora's Box also features the Belgian born actress Alice Roberts, who plays the Countess Geschwitz. Click on the links for more info.

Evelyn Lear, Versatile Soprano who sang Lulu, Dies at 86

Today's New York Times ran an obit on Evelyn Lear, the versatile Soprano who sang the role of  Lulu in Alan Berg's great modern opera, Lulu. Lear was 86. The newspaper notes

Evelyn Lear, an American soprano who became a star in Europe in the 1950s and later won acclaim in the United States for singing some of the most difficult roles in contemporary opera, died on Sunday .... She was especially renowned as an interpreter of Alban Berg. In midcentury Europe, Miss Lear was considered one of the pre-eminent interpreters of Berg’s Lulu, the doomed, murderous prostitute at the heart of his 1937 opera of that name.... Her talent for quick study served her well two years later [in 1960], when the Vienna Festival asked her to take over the part of Lulu — a role she had never sung — on short notice. The opera is composed in the 12-tone or “serial” style, an eminently unhummable technique in which all 12 notes of the Western musical scale are used in rigorously equal proportion.... Her other Met roles include ... in later years, Countess Geschwitz in “Lulu.”

Berg's opera, like Pandora's Box — the G.W. Pabst film from 1929 (which stars Louise Brooks as Lulu), was based on the Lulu plays by Frank Wedekind. Berg's opera, unfinished at his death, is considered one of the greatest opera's of the 20th century. I have seen it performed once, in San Francisco, and own a couple of different films of the opera. I have heard a radio broadcast of it, from the Met in New York. I also have four different recordings of Berg's Lulu, including Lear's. It is a riveting work. And her's is a riveting performance. Each is well worth checking out.



Louise Brooks celebrated in London, England

As fans know, Louise Brooks made her first big splash in England in 1924, when she became the first girl to dance the Charleston in London. That was at the city's famous Cafe de Paris, then only recently opened. Brooks, a precocious dancer and showgirl, was 17 years old at the time.

Now, more than 85 years later, the late, legendary silent film star is set to be the toast of London once more as two of her very best films are scheduled to be shown in the coming days.

On April 13th, the Classic Cinema Club of Ealing will screen Pandora's Box (1929) at the Ealing Town Hall. The film will be followed by a discussion.

And on April 29, Beggars of Life (1928) will screen at the Barbican center as part of its silent film & live music series. This screening will feature live musical accompaniment by The Dodge Brothers, with special guest Neil Brand on the piano.

Today, Brooks is best known for her role as Lulu in the German-made Pandora's Box, G.W. Pabst's late silent masterpiece. Pandora’s Box tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant show-girl whose flirtations lead to devastating encounters. Lulu was played by Brooks, an American actress especially recruited for the iconic German role.

Close Up, an English film journal of the time with an interest in adventuresome German cinema, noted "Louise Brooks is not chosen because she is Louise Brooks but because, for whatever reason, she looks likely to find it easier than anyone else might, to sink into and become a visual expression of Lulu in Pandora’s Box."

Brooks inhabited her character thoroughly and gives a great performance. Despite having appeared in 23 other films - some of them also very good, Brooks' role as Lulu is the one with which she is most identified. So much so, in fact, that it is not unusual for articles or web pages today to refer to the actress by the name of Lulu. If you haven't seen Pandora’s Box, don't miss this UK opportunity to see one of the great performances in film history on the big screen.

Little seen and long obscure, Beggars of Life is a film whose reputation is picking up steam.

Directed by William Wellman the year after he made Wings (the first film to win an Academy Award), Beggars of Life is a gripping drama about a girl (played by Brooks) dressed as a boy who flees the law after killing her abusive stepfather. On the run, she rides the rails through a male dominated hobo underworld in which danger is always close at hand. An American film magazine of the time, Picture Play, described the film as "Sordid, grim and unpleasant," though added "it is nevertheless interesting and is certainly a departure from the usual movie."

And that it is. But what's more, this special screening is a fine example of how invigorating the combination of a great silent movie and contemporary live music can be. The Dodge Brothers, an Americana-drenched roots music quartet featuring English film critic Mark Kermode on bass and harmonica, will accompany the film. When The Dodge Brothers accompanied Beggars of Life at the British Film Institute a years ago, they wowed a packed audience.

April will also see the release in England of a new novel inspired, in part, by Brooks early life. Laura Moriarty 's The Chaperone (Penguin) tells the story of Brooks' 1922 journey from Wichita, Kansas to New York City to join the Denishawn Dance Company, then America's leading modern dance troupe. Brooks was only 15 years old, and she was accompanied by a middle aged chaperone, whose story the novel also tells. We at the Louise Brooks Society are looking forward to its release in the United States next month.

Pictured above is the UK cover. Thanks to the great Meredith Lawrence for alerting us to
its publication "over there."