Short and chunky, his large head fringed with longish gray hair, half-glasses perched at the end of a prominent nose, August Everding looks more like a mild-mannered cleric than one of the world`s most important directors and theater managers.
But when you see him apply himself like a dervish to the staging of an opera–in this case, a new production of Mozart`s ”Die Zauberflote” (”The Magic Flute”), which will open Lyric Opera`s 32d season next Saturday at the Civic Opera House–all apparent contradictions vanish.
An artist firmly committed to opera as music theater, and just as vocally opposed to opera as a ritualized concert in costume, Everding has the knack of making his ideas maximally understandable to singers in minimum time. Despite the Lyric`s generous rehearsal allowance, he is not a man to waste precious minutes: Apologizing for cutting the interview short, he rushes back to the stage to resume work.
Grabbing the shoulder of baritone Timothy Nolen, who sings the role of the birdcatcher, Papageno, Everding tells him, ”Your character has been working so long with birds that he must behave like one.” The director demonstrates the gawky avian gait that he would like Nolen to assume for his entrance. ”But when you meet prince Tamino, this stranger from a strange land, then you begin behaving like a human being.”
The new ”Magic Flute” production, in which the West German director is collaborating with conductor Leonard Slatkin and designer Jorg Zimmermann, marks only the second ”Zauberflote” the Lyric has presented. The first was given nearly two decades ago under the baton of Eugen Jochum.
That the Mozart masterpiece had to wait 20 years to be readmitted to the Chicago repertory may be partly attributed to difficulties of casting, partly to the peculiarly schizophrenic nature of the opera itself.
With its blend of Singspiel (comic opera with spoken dialogue) and serious-opera elements, naivete and profundity, fantasy and reality, low comedy and high Masonic idealism, ”Magic Flute” poses an especially vexing challenge to all producers. Specifically, the challenge involves finding and sustaining a dramatic tone that convincingly reconciles the opera`s many disparities.
It`s an issue with which Everding, general director of the Bavarian State Theaters in Munich, has been wrestling mightily since 1973, when he staged his first ”Zauberflote,” for the Savonlinna Festival in Finland. Five years later he went on to direct a more elaborate version for Munich, restaging it in 1979 for Covent Garden, London. All three Mozart productions have been widely seen and discussed, and their success made Everding the logical choice to oversee Lyric`s new production, a gift of the I.A. O`Shaughnessy Foundation in memory of longtime Lyric supporter Marian Burke.
And yet Everding is quick to dispel any notion that Chicago`s ”Magic Flute” is merely a carbon copy of its famous predecessors. ”I don`t repeat myself,” he once declared. ”For each city where you do an opera you should make it special for them.” It is a point he seems happy to elaborate when asked how he manages to keep his conception fresh from theater to theater.
”I make tiny changes each time, for my conception is never frozen–it`s always growing and evolving,” says the 58-year-old director. ”Of course, working with an entirely new cast and scenic designer, as I have in Chicago, forces me to rethink many of my earlier ideas. But the essential thing is striking a balance. If you don`t find the right mix of seriousness and levity, it won`t work.”
Fortunately, he says, smiling, ”the music is so rich that it offers a director a whole world of possible interpretations all by itself. For me Mozart is always new.”
Everding recalls attending a production of ”Magic Flute” staged by a celebrated European director a number of years ago in Salzburg. ”He put the emphasis on the serious scenes, the philosophy, the Masonic symbolism. It was a bore because it was just one side of the opera.”
Everding makes no secret of his admiration for Ingmar Bergman`s film version of ”Die Zauberflote,” which suggested that the opera had to be viewed naively, as if through the eyes of a child. In keeping with the idea that ”Flute” is, to an extent, a fantasy-opera for adults, he promises the Lyric production will contain plenty of visual magic–Tamino`s flute will levitate, the Three Ladies will destroy the serpent amid fiery puffs of smoke, and other effects created by Lyric`s special effects wizard, Brian Glow.
Where the director and the Lyric management differ is over the aptness of projected English captions in ”Magic Flute.” Everding is generally opposed to the use of surtitles by major opera companies, while Lyric general manager Ardis Krainik favors them. So do the majority of Lyric subscribers, as a poll taken last season indicates. Thus, Krainik has commissioned a new set of
”Magic Flute” titles to be used this season.
Everding accepts the Lyric`s use of surtitles with good grace: ”Although I think people should prepare themselves by studying the libretto and score before they go to the opera, I realize that few people have the time or inclination to do so.”
A compromise (of sorts) has been struck whereby, at the director`s request, the overhead screen will remain blank at significant junctures in the operatic action. For those moments, according to Everding, ”I told Ardis, `I don`t want the audience to have their eyes above the stage; I want them to listen to the music.` ” At other moments–notably the Act I finale, in which the chorus extols virtue and righteousness as the path to godliness–Everding says he is actually using the surtitles to drive home more vividly the opera`s moral precepts.
The veteran director`s insistence that there be human beings acting and reacting on every opera stage is not surprising, considering that he came to the lyric theater after a distinguished career of two decades in the legitimate theater.
After serving a long apprenticeship under intendant Hans Schweikart at Munich`s municipal theater, the Kammerspiele, Everding infused the theater`s traditions with a healthy dose of innovation when he succeeded his mentor in 1963. His 10-year regime was notable for a broadening of the repertory and for the number of major German directors who staged works for the Kammerspiele.
With such a solid background in legitimate theater, Everding easily made the leap to opera staging, later to opera management. Since 1982 he has been chief of operations for the four Munich theaters, including the State Opera. His first opera-directing assignment was Verdi`s ”La Traviata” in 1965 for the Bavarian State Opera. Two years later the Vienna Staatsoper asked him to stage ”Tristan und Isolde,” a daunting prospect as he had never produced the Wagner work and was expected to direct soprano Birgit Nilsson, the reigning Isolde of that era.
”I was really trembling,” Everding recalls. ”Nilsson had already sung the role 160 times. I wondered what I could possibly tell her. So I just watched her. Finally I said, `Frau Nilsson, it`s wonderful, beautiful. But do you know you always make a movement on the first beat?` ” Everding stands up and demonstrates a lurching motion. ”She frowned and said she had never done that in her life. Finally I convinced her I was right. She said that nobody had ever dared say such things to her before!”
The conversation turned to a subject about which Everding is exceedingly vocal–the domination of today`s opera world by stage directors, particularly those directors who in their pursuit of Dramatic Truth As They See It openly declare war on the composer`s intentions.
”In Europe those directors who would rather interpret themselves instead of the opera know they can count on the support of certain critics,” Everding declares.
Yet at the same time he believes that every opera, no matter how well established in the general consciousness, is open to new interpretation–that every opera represents a different challenge to be seized, not with arrogance, but respect.
”If it`s just Eitelkeit–vanity–on the director`s part, that`s no good. When you stage an opera and extract only the text, ignoring the music, that`s totally wrong. Peter Hall did that with his Bayreuth `Ring,` I confess.”
For Everding, music and drama must be inextricable on the opera stage.
”What I really hate,” he says, shaking his head disapprovingly, ”are those politically minded regisseurs who violate the spirit of the works they are directing just in order to be fashionable or shocking. A `Fidelio` where Leonora sleeps with Pizarro is ridiculous. Now I`m exaggerating a bit, but that`s the kind of mentality we are talking about.
”You see, I don`t mind if my colleagues bring fresh ideas to opera–why shouldn`t they? Otherwise, opera cannot survive as a vital art form.” It`s when ideas become idiosyncrasies and are allowed to run roughshod over the musical and dramatic integrity of the work, he says, that informed
professionals and audience members must join voices in protest.
Future projects for the busy director include a new ”Ring” cycle in Warsaw, ”Elektra” for Florence, ”Salome” for Munich, a new ”Flying Dutchman” at the Metropolitan Opera and ”Die Fledermaus” for Lyric Opera, with Kiri Te Kanawa starring as Rosalinde and John Pritchard conducting.
”So you see,” says Everding with a laugh, ”my plate is very full.”
