This past March, I went to New York to take in the local event of the year: the premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera. It was one of those magical evenings. All of New York was there, wearing their finest and reveling in the chance to hear one of the most remarkable pieces of twentieth-century music.
Dmitri Shostakovich
It was a truly rare occasion. The Nose, composed in 1928, is hardly ever performed. For one, it is a pretty radical work written by a fearless, young composer – Shostakovich was just in his early 20s – before being reigned in by the Soviet authorities. With jittery harmonies and no more than melodic snippets, it’s not the kind of music you leave humming after a glorious night at the opera.
Nikolai Gogol
And then there is the plot. Based on the famous short story by Nikolai Gogol, it is eccentric, to say the least: It is set in St. Petersburg where, for no apparent reason, the nose of government official Kovalyov goes missing only to reappear, with an apparent mind of its own, all across town. Kovalyov, understandably distressed about the situation, goes on a mad dash to retrieve the unruly organ. He fails to do so for much of the story, only to find the nose reattached one day, again without apparent cause, allowing Kovalyov to resume his previous life.
So far this would all be good absurdist fun, replete with some eerie forebodings of Kafka (Gogol’s story was written in the 1830s). What makes it so challenging as opera, however, is that the aggregation of scenes (the nose prancing around, Kovalyov seeking help in capturing it, etc.) involves dozens and dozens of separate characters, all of whom have little individual music. Think about this in contrast to the standard opera repertoire, say Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. There, you have six main characters, all of whom carefully developed in terms of musical profile and given several set pieces. An opera company can hire great singers for these parts (such as Deborah Voigt, who sang an amazing Isolde at the Lyric last year) and market them as the stars they are.
Not so in The Nose. Yes, Kovalyov has a lot of music. But even this main role is not a star vehicle, nor is “The Nose,” itself – did I mention that it sings too?
With all that against it, it is no wonder that The Nose is hardly ever staged. So the chance to hear it live would have been enough reason to go to New York
But what made the premiere the true event of the year was the production. In an inspired move, the Met had secured the services of William Kentridge, arguably the most influential visual artist of our time. Born in 1955 in Johannesburg and still residing there, Kentridge came to prominence in the 1990s with his animated films. Those decidedly low-tech affairs, based on Kentridge’s indelible charcoal drawings, present richly layered narratives that reflect, albeit obliquely, on the horrors of the twentieth century, including South African apartheid and the Holocaust.
William Kentridge
As it happens, Chicago played a crucial role in Kentridge’s career. His 2001 solo show at the MCA was his first survey exhibition in the United States; and the museum continues to present his work on a regular basis. Maybe, you caught the amazing installation that was part of “Production Site: The Artist’s Studio Inside-Out,” a show that closed there only a few weeks ago.
With its basis in time-based visual narration, Kentridge’s work was also a natural for the operatic stage. An initial foray, a 2005 production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, became an international sensation. This, in turn, led to the invitation to stage The Nose at the Met.
The Nose
Kentridge’s aesthetic vision for The Nose was extraordinarily ambitious. Not only did he undertake the entire set design (featuring constant shifts between stages and sub-stages along with animated sequences in his characteristic style), but he embedded the entire project in a larger conceptual framework. Transposing the story from the tsarist 1830s to the Stalinist 1930s, he gave the farcical piece a very dark edge. Even more remarkably, he created an entire body of work – with films, sound pieces, collages, paintings, drawings, and prints – that explicated the operatic presentation. In New York, that work was presented concurrently with the opera in a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Between the opera and the exhibit, there really was no doubt that this was Kentridge’s year.
And there is yet another Chicago connection. Given his complex working method, Kentridge relies on a small cadre of collaborators. One of them is Jane Taylor, who has worked closely with Kentridge for over twenty years. A key figure in the realization of The Nose, Taylor is also a visiting professor at the University of Chicago where she regularly teaches theater and art.
We are thrilled that Jane has agreed to take part in the CHF where she will discuss this remarkable project and share with us what went on behind the scenes. In this presentation, she will be joined by University of Chicago Professor David Levin, an accomplished opera dramaturge in his own right, who will moderate the event. I can’t wait for the fall to relive my New York moment!
Tags: music, performance, Opera, The Body, contemporary art
