Georges Bizet’s opera “Ivan IV.” in Meiningen

fIt is actually an unfavorable premiere date for a hitherto almost unknown work by a world-renowned composer who is an integral part of international opera repertoire when reality catches up with him. This seems to be the case now with Georges Bizet’s Grand Opéra “Ivan IV.”, which was musically enthrallingly designed by the conductor Philippe Bach and the choirmaster Manuel Bethe and designed and staged by Hinrich Horstkotte at the Meiningen State Theater. The very first Russian tsar went down in history as “the Terrible”, but it could also be translated as “the mighty”. In view of the anniversary of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, this opera about the murdering, kidnapping and raping tyrant, which was written in Paris in 1864/65 almost at the same time as Bizet’s “Pearl Fishermen”, but was only staged as a four-act torso in Bordeaux in 1951, has little chance of being published Reception that would not be dominated by current dismay.

The horror-and-love plot, based on the historically documented second marriage of Tsar Ivan (he lived from 1530 to 1584) with the Circassian regent’s daughter Maria (she only adopted her name after the wedding), inevitably evokes associations with modern-day Russia with his murderous campaign of conquest, which can easily prevent an understanding of the work from the production conditions of its composition when Paris was the opera capital of the nineteenth century. But it was precisely the minute of silence for the victims of the war, which was worthily scheduled in Meiningen before the first note, and also the final scene with a large white sheet covering all the actors, which was lit up after the first curtain with the Ukrainian national colors, that took away from the performance and thus from getting to know each other of the foreign work the pressure of topicality that distracts from himself.

How safe can you feel in a windowless dungeon?

Through the narrative and historical breaks in the libretto by François-Hippolyte Leroy and Henri Trianon, in which, for example, the Circassian woman from the Caucasus, loved and hated by the tsar in equal measure, is a Muslim, although the Circassian people did not belong to Islam at the time, but Maria did from the beginning that is to say, and the tsar, who is as brutal as he is capable of the deepest love and mercy, is never unequivocally characterized musically, Bizet had largely freed himself from a Russian-nationalistic sound coloration. So he created a monumental musical, choral and soloist opera whose plot and music really get under your skin and in which even the Marseillaise would not have been a surprise.

Horstkotte’s picturesque Doctor Zhivago costume mix clearly underlined this completely video-free (thanks for that), fluid play of forms. The fact that a personality-split dictator only feels safe in a windowless dungeon, if he feels anything at all, was underlined by the gloomy, high-walled stage area with ventilation slits. A discarded explosive belt, with which Maria’s brother Igor (sung by tenor Alex Kim in terms of intonation as resolutely as it is precise) wanted to kill the ruler, i.e. to take revenge for the kidnapping of his sister, updated almost incidentally.

Folkloric dancing was also allowed

The reason why “Ivan IV.” by the then twenty-six-year-old Bizet, who incidentally maintained friendly contacts with Ivan Turgenev, was already being rehearsed at the Théâtre Lyrique but not premiered may have been due to the announced visit of the actual Tsar Alexander II to the Paris World Exhibition in 1867, who should not be upset with episodes from the life of the first Russian tsar. All the same, Bizet used parts from “Ivan IV” in later works, up to and including “Carmen” (1873/74), which Turgenev directly suggested, and thus used the score as an inspirational storehouse of parts.

Actually, the version planned in Meiningen as a scenic premiere, completed by Howard Williams in 1975 with some unorchestrated scenes, was intended for autumn 2021. Corona intervened. The Saint Petersburg Chamber Theater premiered it last December. With the German premiere or also the first performance within the European Union, the Meininger Theater has once again shown alertness and courage, as well as the best historical and philological knowledge.

Folkloric dancing was also allowed, skilfully arranged here by the choir itself at the beginning of the third act. Bizet would have served the democratizing self-assurance of the Parisian bourgeoisie very well at the time, just as he would have succeeded in enchanting the listener with his constant game of deception with the most beautiful and of course also the darkest timbres in this dynamic vocal effect opera: buzzing strings, instrumental solo lines, even a barcarole and again and again the tutti, from which rise the desperate, agitated and lyrical, then again very pastoral, vocally always demanding lines of all the soloists and the voluminously enveloping choir.

Horstkotte’s experienced directing of characters, the urge to perform of the wonderful cast, above all the expressive soprano Mercedes Arcuri as Maria, the mentally and vocally strong bass Tomasz Wija as Ivan and again and again the excellently tuned choir ultimately gave the work its artistic rank above the actual raging of today World. The latter has not been forgotten. This also has been good.