Though there are some compelling elements to «1984» and the creators received a fairly rousing ovation by the expectant audience, the opera is hampered by Mr. Maazel’s undistinguished score. The music is never less than thoroughly professional. But Mr. Maazel lacks a personal voice as a composer. What constitutes a compositional voice is hard to define. But you know it when you hear it.
Two strong librettists, J. D. McClatchy and Thomas Meehan, have come up with an effective treatment of George Orwell’s complex and iconic novel, compressing the story, as they must, but honoring Orwell’s themes and characters. Since 9/11, the issues of fanaticism, personal liberty and governmental policing of thought seem newly relevant. There was a chilling moment in Act II when O’Brien, a supervisor in the Ministry of Truth, who is interrogating Winston Smith, the tragic hero of the tale, who has a desk job at the ministry, explains how the party took control of the land: «Individuals, faced with chaos and terror, surrendered their rights to the greater good.»
The writing for orchestra is, of course, masterly. Mr. Maazel knows how to make sustained string chords shimmer. There is an affecting episode when each note of Winston’s brooding vocal line is hugged by a pungently chromatic orchestra chord, rich with strings, while an unstable bass line moves stealthily in the murky undertow. Moments like these hint at a potentially striking compositional voice.
But Mr. Maazel has not spent the requisite years that gifted composers, starting in their youth, devote to honing their personal voice. For all its mix of vehemence and languor, the music too often seems merely supportive of the stage drama, like a modernistic film score. Paradoxically, Mr. Maazel’s music is overwhelmed by the powerful production that he subsidized, the work of the Canadian director Robert Lepage, who was involved with this project from the inception. Carl Fillion’s set – a rotating coliseum surrounded by a brownish metal frame – subdivides to reveal public squares and, in one elaborate ensemble, four adjacent apartments. The production also makes gripping use of video imagery: the face of Big Brother hovers over everything and everyone.
Hay además una controversia sobre el hecho de que el propio Maazel ha contribuido al proyecto con casi la mitad de los costos de producción, unos $760,000. Pueden leer el artículo completo, pero no creo que esté on line mucho tiempo pues los artículos del NYT dejan de ser de libre acceso a la semana, y no he podido acceder al enlace vía RSS, que es permanente y que es el que siempre coloco cuando referencio un artículo del NYT.
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