入坑：兩支交響樂團為排演歌劇走進樂池

文：司馬勤（Ken Smith） 編譯：李正欣

“其實，樂團只分兩種，”美國作曲家兼樂評人維吉爾·湯姆森（Virgil Thomson）曾經寫道，“不朽的與純粹功能性的。”根據他的思維，分在一邊的是維也納愛樂樂團、倫敦交響樂團、克利夫蘭管弦樂團等“重量級大腕”；另一邊的就是眾多的市立與地區交響樂團，還有那些帶有教育使命的音樂學院樂團。

莫扎特音樂節搬演的科斯基的《魔笛》劇照

我也將交響樂界分為兩組，但我的界定條件卻不一樣。一邊廂是經常演奏協奏曲與交響樂的團隊；另一邊廂是經常在樂池里“干活”的歌劇院樂團。大家都跟從指揮奏樂，但除了這個表面上的共同點以外，這兩類樂團的架構與組織不同，考慮的音樂細節更有著天壤之別。

我隱約已經聽到異議了。你或許會說：到了今天，眾多交響樂團不是在每個演出季里都會演一兩套歌劇嗎？很多歌劇院的樂團不是都會策劃屬于自己的音樂會系列，可以坐在舞臺中央演奏嗎？我同意這兩個敘述，但它們也為我的觀點提供了佐證。你只需五分鐘的時間，就可以聽得出樂手們是否離開了自己熟悉的環境。演奏交響樂時無法呈現曲式與結構的多支歌劇院樂團，與演奏歌劇時無法配合歌唱家“呼吸”的多支交響樂團，可謂兩者不相上下。

東京新國立劇場2019年上演的《圖蘭朵》劇照

今年7月，我在世界兩個地方看了兩場歌劇演出。它們唯一的共同點是，樂池里團隊的專長是演奏交響樂。我先看了莫扎特音樂節樂團（Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra）的演出。這幫職業樂手每年夏季都會聚首在林肯中心——莫扎特音樂節到了今天，是林肯中心最長壽的夏季演出系列。本年度的音樂節搬演巴里·科斯基（Barrie Kosky）執導的《魔笛》（The Magic Flute）。過了不到一周，我看了亞歷克斯·奧洛（Alex Ollé）為東京新國立劇場夏季音樂節執導的《圖蘭朵》新制作。在東京的樂池里演奏的，是巴塞羅那交響樂團。兩場演出給了我很不一樣的體驗。

《魔笛》是柏林喜歌劇院總監科斯基與1927劇團（一個多媒體劇團）合作的成果，今年秋天將亮相澳門國際音樂節與高雄衛武營藝術文化中心。這版別開生面的、混合動畫投影與現場演出的《魔笛》于2013年在洛杉磯歌劇院舉行美國首演，當年的觀眾十分受用。到了今年，這個制作才有機會移師至東海岸的紐約市。為何如此？原因可能是在大部分古典音樂策劃人的眼中，這版《魔笛》未免過于激進；但對于前衛的藝術策劃人來說，恐怕又過于保守（因為套用的音樂來自莫扎特的手筆）?？墒?，自從勇于冒險的林肯中心藝術節“壽終正寢”之后，莫扎特音樂節順理成章地承繼了那些新穎的、跨界的演出項目。

以上這一切讓我們明白，為什么紐約市7月的各種表演藝術中一票難求的演出，竟然發生在曾被《紐約時報》貶低為“靈魂的空調”的莫扎特音樂節。雖然這是莫扎特音樂節首次搬演歌劇制作，科斯基的《魔笛》還是受到了某些傳統主義者的批評——比如說《紐約觀察者》（New York Observer）樂評人詹姆斯·喬丹（James Jorden）將其稱為“杰作被淪為卡通動畫”。

包括我在內的大部分觀眾卻不同意這個評價。科斯基與聯合導演蘇珊·安德拉德（Suzanne Andrade）及動漫藝術家保羅·巴利特（Paul Barritt，他的視覺風格沒有太多“卡通”元素，反而是參考了歷史電影的概述，尤其是德國表現主義）在兩方面取得了輝煌的成功。大體上，他們把莫扎特的人物類型（character-types）——坦白說，在莫扎特的年代，這些人物類型早就被規范了——清晰地連接至早期無聲電影（默片）的人物類型上。帕帕基諾這個角色絕對可以由查理·卓別林（Charlie Chaplin）扮演——更勝任的人選是巴斯特·基頓（Buster Keaton）；帕米娜則非露易絲·布魯克斯（Louise Brooks）莫屬。從戲劇最基本的文本角度來看，這個制作解決了《魔笛》一誕生就令人苦惱的如何平衡演唱段落與對白的問題。導演通常有幾個選擇：一、用原本的德語唱詞與對白；二、唱詞與對白都翻譯成本地語言；三、保留德語唱詞，對白卻翻譯成本地語言?？扑够陌嗟滓M了新的選擇：把對白提煉為間幕字卡，猶如默片一樣，將精簡的文字投影在大幕上。即使不加上別的效果，這一次制作出的《魔笛》猶如那些備受追捧的好萊塢默片。

莫扎特音樂節搬演的科斯基的《魔笛》劇照

不過，我或許應對喬丹的評語表示一半的贊同，因為他注意到科斯基的制作“比現場演員更有價值”，雖然他沒有提到，演出絕大部分的問題都落在演員上。奧黛麗·盧娜（Audrey Luna）飾演的夜后比較特殊：她在臺上六神無主，可能因為演出前幾個小時她才接到電話，得補上身體不適的克里斯蒂娜·波利西（Christina Poulitsi）的空缺。朱利安·貝爾（Julien Behr，飾演塔米諾）與羅迪安·波戈索夫（Rodion Pogossov，飾演帕帕基諾）的格格不入更能說明問題。貝爾在舞臺上顯得莊重，就像貴族一般——可惜或多或少地被巴利特的動畫所忽略。波戈索夫在動畫的框框里像個男主角一樣，只可惜他每次開口都走調。

當晚最弱的環節卻出現在樂池里，樂隊顯得處處都達不到其慣有的水平。指揮路易·朗格雷（Louis Langrée，他曾公開承認，自己從來沒有指揮過《魔笛》）控制速度還算可以，但無法讓歌劇的音樂抑揚頓挫，也無法讓感情層面更加深刻。樂團的演出中規中矩，更像處理協奏曲或交響作品一樣。但每當遇上演奏富有敘事性的段落時，就顯得被分散了注意力，完全抓不住重點。林肯中心大衛·科赫劇院的音效差勁，基本上跟改裝前（及改名前）的紐約州立劇院沒什么區別。令人遺憾的聲學效果是從前紐約市立歌劇院不那么美好的回憶之一。

東京新國立劇場2019年上演的《圖蘭朵》劇照

幾天后，1.3萬公里以外，我走進了另一個完全不同的世界。亞歷克斯·奧洛在東京執導的《圖蘭朵》沒有任何卡通色彩。奧洛曾在悉尼歌劇院把威爾第的《假面舞會》變成奧威爾式噩夢的那種反烏托邦情感，這一次套用在普契尼的身上。原來神話式的中國背景變成了卡夫卡的《城堡》，更添上埃舍爾（M.C. Escher）的視覺效果。奧洛的設計團隊——阿爾方·弗洛雷斯（Alfons Flores）負責布景、盧克·卡斯特爾斯（Lluc Castells）負責服裝、烏爾斯·索尼鮑姆（Urs Sch?nebaum）負責燈光——整個制作摒棄了中國紅與中國金，選用了深淺灰色為主視覺，把傳說中的中國宮廷描繪成日本幕府的格調。

這種處理手法也許旨在刻意增強日本觀眾的共鳴。坦白說，灰色調與制作的整體效果相吻合。艾琳·特奧林（Iréne Theorin）飾演的圖蘭朵公主，一開始的聲線就像冰墻那么冷酷。隨著故事的進展，她的嗓音慢慢融化。特奧多爾·伊林凱（Teodor Ilincai）飾演的卡拉夫融合了強度與精準度，王子那種血氣方剛的沖動消失了，取而代之的是出人意料的冷靜和面對強權壓迫下的那種工于心計。朝中三位大臣（平、龐、彭）分別由桝貴志（Takashi Masu）、與儀巧（Takumi Yogi）與村上敏明（Toshiaki Murakami）飾演。組合的喜劇節奏很出色，雖然某些情節一點都不幽默（他們要辦的差事，包括給向圖蘭朵提婚失敗的男士挖墳墓）。整個憂郁的氛圍與阿爾法諾完成的音樂相配合，亦配合奧洛把故事轉向更灰暗的視野。

東京新國立劇場、藤原歌劇團合唱部與滋賀縣立藝術中心琵琶湖音樂廳合唱團共同參與了這版《圖蘭朵》制作。他們厚重的發聲與故意抑制的感情寬度，與獨唱相輔相成，營造出來的效果與偌大的布景及舞臺上有限的色調相得益彰。最細膩的音樂演繹來自樂池，這一現象耐人尋味：東京新國立劇場自成立以來，搬演過不少世界級演出及令人佩服的制作?？墒菚r至今日，劇場還沒有自己的“駐院”樂團——要解決這個問題相當簡單，因為大野和士（Kazushi Ono）身兼東京新國立劇場藝術總監，也是巴塞羅那交響樂團的音樂總監。

莫扎特音樂節搬演的科斯基的《魔笛》劇照

很明顯，普契尼不是莫扎特，這兩位音樂巨匠的風格有著截然不同的差別。我們甚至可以爭論《圖蘭朵》是否算得上是普契尼的作品，畢竟這部他畢生最后（且未完成）的作品也是他最復雜的創作。如果說《魔笛》把莫扎特最推崇的音樂元素融合在一起，那么普契尼在《圖蘭朵》的創作過程中，努力不懈地探索著藝術新領域，最終以作曲家的后期浪漫主義風格影響了20世紀。從樂隊的第一拍開始，大野大師熟知樂譜的要求，凸顯了如室內樂般的透明度，也營造出百分百繁茂的浪漫情懷——甚至刻意突出某些不協調的和聲。其實，這場演出彰顯了這支卓越的交響樂團處理音樂方面的細致技巧，平常在歌劇院樂池中很難聽得到。他們對于音樂的要求完全沒有在戲劇性上打折扣。

讓我們回到湯姆森的定義上：莫扎特音樂節樂團的演出只能說剛剛合格。朗格雷忽略了普契尼與莫扎特兩位作曲家畢生最后一部舞臺作品的共同點：音樂的發展不是根據什么格式或曲式，而是努力貼近舞臺上的故事進展。大野大師讓歌唱家引領著他，在整場《圖蘭朵》里時刻跟隨著歌唱家呼吸的韻律。我突然有個沖動：倘若刻意讓時光倒流，重回那場科斯基的《魔笛》，但換上巴塞羅那交響樂團在樂池里，效果會怎樣？

“There are really two kinds of orchestras,” the American composer and critic Virgil Thomson once wrote, “the monumental and the directly functional.”By his reckoning, you have heavyweights like the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra on one side; across the aisle, you find hundreds of municipal and regional orchestras, as well as conservatory ensembles with an educational mission.

I, too, divide the orchestral world into two groups,but my categories are rather different. In one camp are the bands that regularly play concertos and symphonies; in the other are operatic ensembles that spend most of their time in a theatre pit. Both make similar sounds and follow a guy in front waving a stick,but beyond that they are quite distinct organizations with entirely different musical priorities.

I can hear the grumbling already. Don’t most symphony orchestras play at least one opera every season? Don’t many opera orchestras have their own concert series where they actually sit center stage? Well…yes, on both counts, but that often proves the point. You generally need only about five minutes to tell when an orchestra is away from its usual setting. For every opera orchestra that delivers a formless, shapeless symphony performance you’ll find a symphony orchestra with no idea of how to“breathe” with a singer’s musical line.

In July I found myself attending two very different opera productions in opposite corners of the world,the only thing they had in common being that the pit was occupied by a symphonic ensemble. The first was the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the seasonal house band of Lincoln Center’s longestrunning summer event, performing in Barrie Kosky’s production ofThe Magic Flute; the second was Alex Ollé’s newTurandotthat opened the summer festival at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in the pit. The results could hardly have been more different.

東京新國立劇場2019年上演的《圖蘭朵》劇照

The Magic Flute, the brainchild of Komische Oper intendant Kosky and the multimedia theatrical troupe 1927—a production coming to Asia in October to open the Macau International Music Festival and Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Weiwuying—had its US premiere back in 2013 at the Los Angeles Opera, where its mix of live performance and projected animation found a receptive audience. It was a long time coming to New York, though, being too radical for most classical organizations and too conservative for the avantgarde folks (it was, after all, still Mozart). But since the demise of the more venturesome Lincoln Center Festival, Mostly Mozart has inherited many multidisciplinary projects that fall well outside its original brief.

莫扎特音樂節搬演的科斯基的《魔笛》劇照

All of which explains why the city’s hottest ticket that month was being presented by a festival theNew York Timesonce branded “air-conditioning for the soul.” Despite being Mostly Mozart’s first fully staged opera, Kosky’sFlutestill offended traditionalists likeNew York Observercritic James Jorden, who accused it of “reducing a masterpiece to a cartoon.”

Most viewers, myself included, felt differently.Kosky, his co-director Suzanne Andrade and animator Paul Barritt (whose visual style was less a “cartoon” than an overview of historic cinema,particularly German expressionism) succeed brilliantly on two fronts. Broadly, they draw a clear line between Mozart’s character-types—which,frankly, were rather well established even in his own time—to familiar repertory character-types in silent film. Papageno could easily be played by Charlie Chaplin—or even better, Buster Keaton; Pamina was definitely a Louise Brooks type. On more rudimentary dramaturgical level, the production solves an age-old problem in balancing the show’s sung and spoken text. Directors generally have a choice of (a) singing and speaking in the original language, (b) singing and speaking in the language of the audience, or (c) singing in the original German while speaking in the audience’s vernacular. Kosky and Co. add a completely new option: distilling spoken text to a bare minimum and presenting it as intertitle projections like a silent film. If nothing else, it presentsFluteas the Hollywood blockbuster of its day.

I will, though, give Jorden half a point for noticing that Kosky’s production was “far more rewarding than [the] live performers,” though he somehow failed to note that the problem lay mostly with performers. Audrey Luna’s Queen of the Night was a special case, her lack of focus probably due to having gotten the call to replace Christina Poulitsi only a few hours before. The disconnect between Julien Behr’s Tamino and Rodion Pogossov’s Papageno was more telling. Behr was dignified and stately—and more or less ignored entirely by Barritt’s animations. Pogossov, framed constantly in the projections as the star of the show, could barely sing in tune.

But the weakest link that evening was in the pit,with the orchestra revealing its limitations at every turn. Conductor Louis Langrée (who admitted that he had never conducted the work before) kept tempos at a serviceable clip, but neither reached for its emotional heights nor plumbed its depths. The playing was the kind of serviceable approach that gets through a concerto or a symphony but treats text and narrative as if they were distractions rather than the key point. It also didn’t help that Lincoln Center’s current David Koch Theater is basically still the old New York State Theater, whose regrettable acoustics were one of the less fond memories of the old New York City Opera.

東京新國立劇場2019年上演的《圖蘭朵》劇照

A few days and 8,000 miles later came a different world entirely. There was nothing cartoonish about Alex Ollé’sTurandotin Tokyo. The same dystopian sensibility that turned Verdi’sMasked Ballinto an Orwellian nightmare at the Sydney Opera House now reinvented Puccini’s mythical China more or less like Kafka’sCastleas rendered by M.C. Escher.Ollé’s design team (sets by Alfons Flores, costumes by Lluc Castells, lighting by Urs Sch?nebaum)shunned the usual reds and golds for gradations of gray, painting its mythical Chinese dynasty rather as a Japanese shogunate.

That may have helped the production resonate with the Japanese audience, but frankly it also had to do with performances that were very much in tune with the production. Iréne Theorin’s Turandot opened the evening with an icy wall of sound that appropriately thawed during the course of the evening. Teodor Ilincai’s Calaf was an equal blend of power and precision, trading the character’s usual red-blooded impulsiveness for a surprisingly cool and calculating challenge to the powers that be. Takashi Masu’s Ping, Takumi Yogi’s Pang and Toshiaki Murakami’s Pong played the trio of ministers with superb comic timing, despite some highly uncomic overtones (their duties included digging the graves of Turandot’s failed suitors). The somber atmosphere remained musically rooted to Alfano’s completion of Puccini’s score while bending the story toward Ollé’s darker vision.

莫扎特音樂節搬演的科斯基的《魔笛》劇照

A combined chorus from the NNTT, Fujiwara Opera and Biwako Hall squarely matched the principal singers both in weighty vocalism and restricted emotional range, a combination rather mirroring the imposing dimensions and limited color palette of the visual design. Any musical nuance that evening emanated primarily from the orchestra pit,which highlights an intriguing point: The National Theatre has a history of quality opera with worldclass performances and impressive production values. What they do not have, however, is a resident orchestra—a problem easily solved when NNTT music director Kazushi Ono is also the music director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

Puccini is obviously not Mozart, their music being imbued with contrasting stylistic values.Turandot, one could argue, is not even Puccini, his final (unfinished) score being ultimately his most sophisticated. WhereFlutefuses together all the musical elements Mozart held dear,Turandotcharts new artistic ground, with Puccini finally entering the 20thcentury on his own late-romantic terms. Right from the beginning, Ono was supremely in touch with the score’s demands, drawing expansive sonic contrasts from chamber-like transparency to full romantic lushness—even embracing the occasional dissonance. It was a performance, in fact, fully worthy of a symphony orchestra, with an attention to detail rarely heard from a theater pit. And yet,none of this was at the expense of the drama.

Getting back to Thomson’s definition, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra was functional, but just barely. Langrée missed the one element that Puccini and Mozart’s final stage works share, which is that the music unfolds not in strict formal design but rather in conjunction with the story on stage. Ono, on the other hand, let the singers be his guide and never once deviated from the pulses and lilts in the singers’breath. It made me want to turn back the week and reset Kosky’sFlutewith Barcelona in the pit.

東京新國立劇場2019年上演的《圖蘭朵》劇照