Alban Berg: Lulu – Kirill Petrenko

   in Opera Now (Nov, 2017)
Berg’s Lulu crops up again in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of the opera 2015 from Munich, where the superb Marlis Petersen dominates an excellent cast with her outstandingly sung and acted assumption of the title role, fabulously lithe on both accounts. Tcherniakov takes a pretty standard point of view for him, his glass box set a maze revealing the repetitive standardisation of sexual abuse among many couples; but be warned, as is his wont he does alter the ending; interesting but strange. Baritone Bo Skovhus and tenor Rainer Trost particularly stand out from the crowd, and Kirill Petrenko conducts a pacey and highly polished account of the score, with some beautiful detailing …