FROM AROUND THE WORLD: VIENNA.(Review)

The Staatsoper chose Marco Arturo Marelli to direct and design the company's first production of the new season, a double-bill of Arnold Schoenberg's oratorio fragment Der Jakobsleiter and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. As basic component, Marelli filled the stage with a seemingly endless stairway, around which the Jakobsleiter chorus and extras, portraying suffering humanity, trudged, jostled, ran and occasionally paused until, following the example of actress Kirsten Dene as the Dying Woman, they stripped off their outer garments to reveal white jackets and trousers and, reversing their endless climbing, descended to the furthest corner of the stairway, where they were shown out by a small figure also in white. From the broken end of a huge, steel-colored ladder over the stairwell, Gabriel (the excellent Franz Hawlata) replied to the various seekers. The uniformly fine cast also included Hubert Delamboye (Appellant), John Dickle (Rebel), Wolfgang Bankl (Struggling One), Peter Weber (Chosen One), Heinz Zednik (Monk) and Milagros Poblador and Ileana Tonca as two offstage souls.

In Jakobsleiter the Dying Woman symbolized her declining life by taking ever-smaller suitcases out of the previous one, rather like Russian nesting dolls. In Gianni Schicchi, luggage became a major theme. In the center of the stairway, a huge cabin trunk ...