Amsterdam. (International).

Netherlands Opera's new production of Lulu was a personal triumph for conductor Hartmut Haenchen, as well as for soprano Laura Aikin in the title role. Both demonstrated not only how beautiful Berg's music can be but how this beauty enhances the work's dramatic force. Haenchen's meticulously articulated lyricism was combined with a constant looking for thematic links and melodic lines, culminating in a passionate "love duet" for Lulu and Aiwa at the end of Act II. Haenchen announced that he'd chosen the unfinished version because he dislikes Friedrich Cerha's "heavy" instrumentation of Act III and believes that Berg himself would have made cuts before publishing the finished opera. Instead of Act III, Haenchen gave us only the adagio from the instrumental suite, closing with the last words of Countess Geschwitz; the result was a tight musical drama that can hold its place beside the three-act version. Aikin contributed a precise reading of her vocal part, paying attention to the smallest details and carefully delivering the text. The Zerbinetta-like clarity of her soprano gave this Lulu a youthful character, which made the male characters' exploitation of her even more distressing.

Or rather, it would have been more distressing, had Andeas Homoki's staging not deprived the work of nearly everything that makes Lulu one of the most fascinating women in opera. In Hartmut Meyer's sets, all the characters were brought together in a dosed space, a cage as well as an arena. Most of the men were uniformly dressed, in ...