Review of The Trojans Part One: the Fall Of Troy' (Berlioz) and 'Khovanschina' (Musorgsky) -English National Opera. Andy Kilmister
Not many groups of workers in I such imaginative actions as the English National Opera (ENO) chorus. The chorus is currently fighting cuts which if implemented will make a third of its members redundant.
In response, as well as calling five one-day strikes over the next few weeks, they have surrounded a board meeting singing the Lament of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi's "Nabucco' and put on a free performance of the same composer's 'Requiem' for supporters on the day of the first strike.
But support for the campaign is not the only reason why the current productions at ENO are of interest to socialists. As well as being musically thrilling, both the main operas currently being performed raise interesting political questions in themselves and through their staging.
Berlioz' "The Trojans' and Musorgsky's 'Khovanschina' deal with one of the central questions tackled by bourgeois art, the creation of nation states and the interplay between rulers and ruled as these states take form. Hard Work - Life in Low Pay Britain (£6.99 Bloomsbury) Liam Mac Uaid
Molly Toynbee is, by her own admisThis relationship is easier to represent dramatically than in purely written form and many of the great depictions of state formation occur in plays and operas rather than in novels. Ironically, in view of the ENO cuts, the power of both productions is dependent on the way the chorus represents the people, showing in stark form how the ruling class both determine the fate of those they rule and in turn have to respond to revolts from below.
In "Khovanschina' the action takes place at a crucial turning point in Russian history, in the mid-seventeenth century when Peter the Great is about to become Tsar. The opera depicts a society in turmoil, pulled between three different world views, each dependent on particular social forces.
The 'modernisers', led by Peter, who does not appear, look to Western Europe as a model for a reformed state. The traditional nobility, or boyars, represented in the opera by Prince Ivan Khovansky, wish to maintain existing social relations.
The 'old believers', with whom Khovansky's son Andrei becomes associated, desire to move backwards towards a theocracy, in which the state will be founded on the orthodox church. required reading for anyone who wants to ers bonuses because he kept his staff in understand the society that New Labour is creating.
Toynbee worked in a variety of jobs; as a hospital cleaner, a hospital porter, a school meals supervisor, telephone sales agent and care home assistant.
It was impossible for her to get a job in the National Health Service. The people who do the indispensable jobs of cleaning, and portering in our hospitals are overThe opera shows the cruelty and drama of the first stirrings of bourgeois rule in Russia as Peter crushes both the boyars and the old believers. It culminates in the murder of Khovansky and the mass suicide of the old believers.
Get Peter does not spare his own associates; the Westernising Prince Golitsyn, who has been having an affair with Peter's sister, is humiliated and exiled when the new Tsar finds him no longer of use.
But the opera also vividly demonstrates the central contradiction in Russian history, depicted by Trotsky among others. Bourgeois rule can only be achieved through the power of the state, and through Peter's own effort of will. This in turn undercuts the basis of precisely that Westernisation' which Peter wants to achieve.
In "The Trojans' the portrayal of state formation takes place in the distant past. The opera shows first the flight following the end of the Trojan War and subsequently the formation by the defeated Trojans of a city at Rome, which will be the basis of a new empire. poverty. These are the people to whom New Labour are contracting out the public SCCLON
As Toynbee observes, working class women are hit hard by these working conditions.
Many of the branches of the public sector which have been most viciously attacked are those which are staffed by women.
In New Labour's economic thinking proAgain, the drama arises from the relationship between the Trojan people and a charismatic leader, Aeneas, who is seen both as responsible for the downfall of Troy through his decision to bring the Trojan horse containing the Greek army within the city walls, but also as the saviour of the city through his colonising voyage.
Just as in Peter's case, leadership and cruelty cannot be separated; Aeneas' journey towards Rome means abandoning the Queen of Carthage, Dido, who has fallen in love with him, and she then kills herself.
The demands of contrasting vocal registers meant that pre-twentieth century opera was a much richer source of strong parts for women than spoken theatre at this period.
n both the operas here the role of
women is central, especially Marfa, the
I strongest character among the old believers, who leads Prince Andrei Khovansky to his death, and Cassandra, who tries to prevent Aeneas allowing the horse into Troy.
In each case, women are seen as possessing an insight, spiritual or prophetic in character, which is denied to the male rulers, who ultimately triumph over them. However, while this allows for wonderfu vocal performances, it also reinforces problematic division between male rationality and female emotion.
Further, the power of Marfa's character means that the old believers 'Khovanschina', despite their reactionary viewpoint, gain the sympathies of the audience more than their opponents.
Another tension for socialists A
watching "The Trojans' arises afrom Richard Jones' production. Jones has set Berlioz' opera in modern dress and uses a range of contemporary images.
On one level this can be extremely powerful. But the identification of the Trojans with the United States made at several points creates problems. Jones does not really come clean about whether he sees the attacks on Troy and the Trojan flight abroad as comparable with US experience.
And since Berlioz' sympathies lie strongly with the Trojans, this identification risks undercutting the other radical elements of the production and making it endorse American imperial ambitions.
Despite these problems both productions are wonderful examples of how art can illuminate social change. But this depends on exactly those things that the ENO board now wants to cut.
It is the presentation, in musical and dra. matic form, of crowds in movement making history which is so powerful here; another reason apart from simple solidarity for supporting the ENO singers in their current struggle to retain their jobs. CE