The Israeli Opera concludes the year with War Requiem by British composer Benjamin Britten.
Originally commissioned to mark the 1962 consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral after its destruction by the Germans during World War II, the work begins with the familiar Latin funeral mass and juxtaposes it with the English poetry of Wilfred Owen.
A member of the British officer class who was killed in France one week before World War I ended, Owen became the poetic voice for an entire generation of well-bred young men who died in the trenches.
“When it was first performed, the work was a way to commemorate terrible days that, it was hoped, will never return, yet to our great sorrow they do,” director Ido Ricklin told The Jerusalem Post.
“The question ‘Shall the sword devour forever?’ [II Samuel 2:26] haunts us today,” Ricklin added, noting that Britten himself was a pacifist.
Encompassing grief of war
Performed 17 years after WWII ended, the 1962 world premiere of War Requiem was meant to present an all-encompassing grief for all those who died from all sides. For this purpose, German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who served in Hitler’s army, British tenor Peter Pears – Britten’s lifelong partner – and Russian soprano Galina Vishnevskaya were selected, all coming from countries that fought in WWII.
As the USSR refused to allow Vishnevskaya to leave, her role was sung by Heather Harper.
Vishnevskaya’s performance can be listened to in a recording of War Requiem made the year after the world premiere. Conducted by Britten himself, it sold more than 200,000 copies in the space of five months after its release, a rare feat in the sphere of contemporary Western music.
AS ISRAEL is at war, this production promises to be emotionally striking. Ricklin decided to divide the work, which is usually performed by three singers, among eight performers. This means that two sopranos, not one, appear during Lacrimosa (day of tears and mourning) – the traditional Christian expression of grief sung in Latin.Patrons will see and hear a young woman (Shaked Strul) crying for help while another (Alla Vasilevitsky) “accompanies the souls of the departed,” Ricklin noted.
The immediate connections to the souls of the victims murdered on October 7 of last year, and Israeli women held captive by Hamas for over a year since the beginning of this war, are heartbreaking.
Traditionally, one soprano sings the Latin liturgy alongside a chorus and orchestra while a baritone and tenor sing Owen’s poetry in English – inhabiting the roles of two soldiers at war with a chamber orchestra to accompany them. Children’s voices represent an ideal, unearthly experience and lost innocence.
While Owen’s poetry is sublime, it is challenging for a singer to use a word like “orison” [prayer] on stage today as the audience may not be ready for it, tenor Anthony Webb told the Post.
In that sense, Ricklin’s adaptation can guide patrons who are not familiar with the work toward a fresh understanding of it.
Different mindset of war
“The British aristocracy saw war as a point of honor. You led men because you were an aristocrat and that was your duty,” Webb noted. This century-old mindset is very removed from how we view war and army service today.Another example of how this mindset is different from ours is the radical treatment of the biblical patriarch Abraham. If the Liturgy clings to the divine promise – God sending a ram to save Isaac and offering hope of divine grace towards those who die – Owen’s conclusion is different.
In his The Parable of the Old Man and the Young, used for War Requiem alongside a traditional appeal to God that he should remember his promise to Abraham, “the old man [Abraham]... slew his son, and half the seed of Europe, one by one.”
The personal agony of a betrayed Isaac becomes the cry of an entire generation of young men, sent to die for unknown reasons.
This total violation of the trust given by the young to their elders echoes in another famous work by Britten.In the opera Peter Grimes, the protagonist confronts a hostile fishing village and is forced to explain why all of his young apprentices mysteriously die at sea. A planned December production of this opera was canceled, and War Requiem is now offered instead after roughly six weeks of rehearsals.
Britten maintained a series of close relationships with very young boys throughout his life. War Requiem is dedicated to those among them who died in war or as a result of what they endured during it.
While the general opinion today is that Britten’s fascination with young boys did not cross into sexual violence, it is certainly one of the forces that shaped him as a man and as a composer. Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra could be seen as an extremely benign aspect of this part of his personality.
“You’ll find war [as a theme] in many operas,” Webb offered. Noting that Grounded, a new opera about a drone pilot suffering from PTSD, recently premiered at the Met, he suggested that there is a world of difference between a tale about a war that ended years ago – like the US involvement in Afghanistan – and a war that is taking place now – very near the Tel Aviv Opera House.
“We are telling a relevant story to the here and now, live and in-house,” he said.
“We hit the go button and execute, which is a testament to the collective will of artists to give of themselves.”
War Requiem, by Benjamin Britten, will premiere at Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St., on Friday, December 6, at 1 p.m. More performances will be held on Sunday, December 8, at 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, December 10, at 8 p.m.; and Friday, December 13, at 1 p.m. Sung in Latin and English with Hebrew and English subtitles. NIS 236-NIS 310 per ticket. Call (03) 692-7777 to book.