This is Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging of Lulu from La Monnaie in Brussels, deemed controversial when it opened in 2012. It’s an explicit, yet chilly interpretation of Berg’s masterpiece, hampered in places by Warlikowski’s decision to graft additional layers of imagery onto a work already heavy with meaning. A new spoken prologue identifies Lulu as the mythical Lilith, Adam’s first wife, who became a seductress after refusing sexual submission in marriage. Lulu herself is now a would-be ballerina turned porn star, which allows Warlikowski to align her, at times awkwardly, with Odette/Odile in Swan Lake – emblematic, it would seem, of the innocent and destructive polarities of Lulu’s sexuality. The overload gets in the way, particularly in the brutal final scene, which loses much of its impact as a result. Musically it’s superb. Barbara Hannigan gives everything she’s got and then some to the title role. Charles Workman is the finely lyrical Alwa; Dietrich Henschel, never bettered, the troubled Schoen. It’s nicely conducted by Paul Daniel, too.
