Into the woods in Basel: getting out of the house

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Basel. Theater Basel. 23-XI-2024. Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021): Into the woods, musical comedy in two acts with a libretto by James Lapine. Orchestration: Jonathan Tunick. Director: Richard G. Berger. Decor: Sarah Katharina Karl. Costumes: Alexander Djurkov Hotter. Lights: Cornelius Hunziker. Video: Vincent Stefan. With: Alen Hodzovic, tenor (the Baker); Julia Klotz, soprano (La Boulangère); Delia Mayer, (the Witch); Stefan Kurt, bass-baritone (the Narrator/Mysterious Man); Álfheiuður Erla Guðmundsdóttir, soprano (Cinderella); Jan Rekeszus, barytenor (the Servant/the Wolf); Oedo Kuipers, (Jack); Vanessa Heinz (Little Red Riding Hood); Harpa Ósk Björnsdóttir, soprano (Rapunzel); Ronan Caillet, tenor (the Prince of Rapunzel); Frauke Willimczik, mezzo-soprano (Jack’s Mother/Rapunzel’s Mother); Sonja Koppelhuber, mezzo-soprano (Cinderella’s Stepmother/Grandmother); Vivian Zatta, bass-baritone (Cinderella’s Servant/Father); Sarah Baxter, soprano (Florinda); Sophie Kidwell, mezzo-soprano (Lucinda). Sinfonieorchester Basel, conductor; Thomas Wise

Martin G. Berger’s virtuoso staging brings a depth to Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy that has never before been detected in this typically American entertainment.

Once upon a time… Created in 1987, Into the woods interweaves four Grimm tales (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel) around the drama (imagined by librettist James Lapine) of a couple of bakers who have been rendered sterile by the revenge of a witch. The curse will cease to be effective if the two heroes manage to obtain a white cow, a red cape, corn-colored hair, and a golden shoe. A quest worth another, which, after leading a plethora of cast into the forest, the matrix of all childish terrors, will result in a happy ending confirming the realization of everyone’s dreams: end of Act I, d ‘an inconsistency that the superficiality of musical inspiration (typical of American musicals) embraces for a long time, no number ever impressing the neurons in depth. We have to wait for the end of Act II, more concerned with surveying behind the scenes, namely what happens when a human being has fulfilled his dearest wish, for the music to finally arrive (the Bernsteinian duet Cinderella and Chaperone, the only truly memorable piece in the score) to solicit some emotion.

In the meantime, like children in front of a snow globe, we never stop admiring the impressive stage work and the fascinating scenography in which Martin G. Berger has immersed his singers. After a brief prologue in front of a canvas stolen from a collection of fairy tales with period costumes around a narrator dressed all in white, the forest of the title very quickly appears, a forest of course fantasized, planted with neon lights and mirrors , which a double twist in two directions animates to the point of dizziness: apparitions, multiplications follow one another like so many sleight of hand tricks. This device with high aesthetic power (the superb glowing scene between Riding Hood and Wolves with luminescent pupils is only one of the incessant peaks) will gradually give way to stripping down: the entire stage will recede to leave in the foreground characters only one second skin of contemporary costumes will have meanwhile been propelled into our times. Delivered to their contradictions, and after having finally considered their respective actions, each and every one will be able to entrust to the spectator a philosophy of life which, Broadway obliges, concludes the 180° action of the French musical comedy: at “ we are always all alone in the world ” of the Umbrellas of Cherbourg and of Starmania, Into the woods prefers to utter: “ No one is alone “. The entertainment lover who has little emotion can leave the room reassured.

Finely sound, all the performers are wonderfully cast: Álfheiuður Erla Guðmundsdóttir as Cinderella, Ronan Caillet as Rapunzel’s Prince, Alen Hodzovic and Julia Klotz as bakers, the witch Delia Mayer, Cinderella’s Prince Jan Rekeszus -also Wolf-, the Narrator Stefan Kurt -also Mysterious Man- (all three already spotted in the Lady in the dark by Kurt Weill already directed by Martin G. Berger). Oedo Kuipers happily navigates between the slightly stupid Jack of tradition and the sexier Jack of our time in the company of his Red Riding Hood (Vanessa Heinz). No more than Sonja Koppelhuber, Sarah Baxter and Sophie Kidwell, Cinderella’s stepmother and sisters respectively, or Vivian Zatta in the role of her father and the Servant, Frauke Willimczik does not demerit as Jack’s Mother. The Sinfonieorchester Basel in a small formation is as usual precision, even under the baton of Thomas Wise.

Despite an exhausting absence of French surtitles (never repetitive, the words rush by at two hundred miles per hour for almost three hours), the message is clear: what do these tales told generation after generation still teach us? What will the children who listen to them do with them? What about their stereotypes? So let’s innovate: Fear of the wolf? Fi then! On the contrary, let us go into the woods to encounter the dark side of our being, and then be able to grow. Above the characters, a cartoon (another remarkable video by Vincent Stefan) draws a new world of possibilities. Once again committed to titillating the intelligence of its spectator, the Basel Opera directly urges its spectators to become more adventurous in a world which seems to encourage its offspring to withdraw into oneself. Let’s play down the drama: what happens in the forest stays in the forest: it is therefore more necessary than ever to continue walking in the woods as in the past.

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Photo credits: © Ingo Höhn

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