By Alban Berg. Directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, conducted by Jonathan Khuner, set design by Chad Owens, lighting design by Jim French, costume design by Christine Crook, wig and makeup design by Sophia Smith. Produced by West Edge Opera at the abandoned SP Railway Station in Oakland, California, July/August, 2015.
The libretto for the 1937 opera Lulu specifies a 3-minute silent movie in the middle of Act 2, depicting Lulu's arrest and trial for the murder of her husband and her subsequent escape from prison with the help of a countess who loves her.
Berg's 12-tone opera is composed as a musical palindrome, with the movie in the geometric center of the palindromic score. (Listen for the rising arpeggio on the piano during the scene titled One Year Passes; the descending arpeggio that follows begins the second half of the opera.) The sequence of scenes for the movie is carefully spelled out, and the Stage Director and I tried to follow the scheme closely. Lulu is more the hero of the opera in this production than in some others, so in the movie we focused on her experiences of the events taking place.
We filmed the movie at the Berkeley Odd Fellows Hall over two evenings. I used a very simple lighting setup, usually just a top light and key light. Several scenes were photographed in front of a green screen, with backgrounds inserted later.
This production of the opera had some cuts, reducing the number of acts from three to two. The movie opened Act 2, and was projected on the wall of the station above the stage.
A fine video by Jeremy Knight described the arrest of Lulu for murdering Schön, and her escape from prison with the help of the Countess Geschwitz, fervently sung by Buffy Baggott.
—Jeff Dunn, San Francisco Classical Voice
Jeremy Knight's black and white projections lent the opera's film sequence an apt noir atmosphere.
—Georgia Rowe, San Jose Mercury News
Performance photographs by Jeremy Knight
Annotated translation of Berg's film outline with measure numbers and timing:
