Langgaard: Antikrist - Deutsche Oper Berlin (2023) [Blu-ray]

Rued Langgaard’s remarkable opera Antikrist confronts the decline and fall of Western civilisation, critiquing modern lifestyles and ways of thinking, which resonates with our times more than ever before. Never performed in the composer’s lifetime, Antikrist blends Romantic and contemporary styles to create a score that is both seductive and opulent, while the lack of a conventional plot creates space for an ironic and sarcastic exposé of contemporary civilisation’s weaknesses. This spectacular Deutsche Oper Berlin production was acclaimed in The New York Times as a ‘riotously colourful, boldly stylised staging [in] a near-breathless swirl’.

Director Ersan Mondtag has one of the most distinctive theatrical visions of recent generations, which he brings to life through stunning stage and costume designs. In recent years he has successfully transferred these artistic sensibilities to opera, breaking new ground in the possibilities of the form and winning critical acclaim.

The first-rate ensemble of singers performed under fearsome masks and make-up, notably Flurina Stucki as the Great Whore, with a big soprano and even bigger breasts and hips, who comforts everyone. Lucifer was embodied by Thomas Lehman with a penetrating baritone. Actor Jonas Grundner-Culemann embued God’s Voice with baritonal resonance. Clemens Bieber had to cancel at short notice due to illness and was replaced by tenor Thomas Blondelle who sang the role of the Mouth Speaking Great Words, acted by Miguel Collado Sanchez.

Conductor Stephan Zilias and the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra tamed the creative power of the score with great instrumental relish – a good third of the score is purely symphonic… The audience was left visually and musically overwhelmed at the end. Although composed a century ago, Antikrist’s core message is as applicable to today’s world as it was back then (bachtrack.com).