Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Janáček’s slight DIARY OF ONE WHO DISAPPEARED is given a tastefully vague staging by Ivo van Hove

• By drediman
• April 7, 2019
• No Comments

The company of Muziektheater Transparant’s production of “Diary of One Who Disappeared” by Leoš Janáček’s at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Photo by Richard Termine.

For just a handful of performances this past week as part of Brooklyn Academy of Music’s winter/spring season, Flemish opera company Muziektheater Transparant’s production of Leoš Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared played the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. For most performing arts fans, the main draw here was red hot Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove, who helmed to production. The opera was originally written as a song cycle about a young, passionate love affair inspired by Janáček’s obsession over a woman 40 years younger (in addition to composing Diary for her, the Czech composer also allegedly wrote more than 700 love letters to her).

Of all the opera composers regularly performed in the canon, Janáček is notable for penning remarkably intense music theater. Indeed, his operas Katya Kabanova, The Makropoulos Affair, and Jenůfa are among the most psychologically piercing works in the operatic repertoire. Even if, as a song cycle, Diary of One Who Disappeared lacks specificity and falls short of the more substantial achievements of the aforementioned works, it’s still a distinctive piece of writing (note that this production features additional music by composer Annelies Van Parys), rich in atmosphere and suggestive drama.

With a running time of just over an hour, the 22 songs that comprise the work have been insightfully shaped and contextualized for the stage by Mr. van Hove – one of the most sought after directors in world theater, who is currently represented on Broadway in the Bryan Cranston vehicle Network and will be bringing us a radical new version of West Side Story next season – as a sort of pungent contemporary memory play. Confined to Janáček’s subdued score, van Hove’s staging was tastefully vague, although I must admit that I somewhat missed the auteur director’s famous audacious theatricality. Nevertheless, the small-scale piece (the only musical accompaniment was a lone onstage piano) was incisively performed by tenor Andrew Dickinson and mezzo-soprano Marie Hamard in the singing roles of the young lovers.

RECOMMENDED

DIARY OF ONE WHO DISAPPEARED
Opera
Muziektheater Transparant at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (Co-produced by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Klarafestival, De Munt/La Monnaie, Kaaitheater, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Opera Days Rotterdam and Beijing Music Festival)
1 hour, 5 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed