The Trial, Linbury Studio - opera review

At one level, Philip Glass and Kafka make good companions. Glass writes what he calls “music with repetitive structures”; his deliberate avoidance of harmonic development makes a viable equivalent to the deadpan implacability of Kafka’s prose. Yet it isn't enough to evoke the heartlessness of Kafka's novel
The Trial: Johnny Herford as Josef K, Amanda Forbes as Fraulein Burstun, Gwion Thomas as the Lawyer, Michael Bennett as Blok / Pic: Alastair Muir
©Alastair Muir
Nick Kimberley13 October 2014

Few contemporary composers have written as many operas as Philip Glass: more than 30 so far. Some reject conventional narrative to become something akin to operatic installations: Satyagraha and Einstein on the Beach, for example. Others tell more or less linear stories. The Trial, receiving its world premiere production by Music Theatre Wales, falls into the second category. The plot sticks closely to the Franz Kafka novel on which it’s based: Josef K awakes one day to find himself enmeshed in an illogical and vengeful bureaucracy that, having consumed everyone around him, eventually squeezes the life out of him.

At one level, Glass and Kafka make good companions. Glass writes what he calls “music with repetitive structures”; his deliberate avoidance of harmonic development makes a viable equivalent to the deadpan implacability of Kafka’s prose. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work out that way here. In remaining faithful to Kafka, Christopher Hampton’s libretto delivers too many words. Glass responds with vocal lines that are conversational and communicative but fail to break free from the text. That is Glass’s way, of course, but on this occasion, the syllabic sing-song becomes wearing.

Conductor Michael Rafferty nevertheless brings out the ample colour of Glass’s 12-piece ensemble; unusually for Glass, there are even traces of broad humour in the orchestration. Meanwhile, Michael McCarthy’s staging opts for an artificiality that blends comic strip, pantomime and silent movie expressionism. It’s witty and effective on its own terms but doesn’t evoke the heartlessness implied by the word “Kafkaesque”.

On the other hand, multiple doublings for the cast offer a plot twist that might have pleased Kafka, as if every character is a facet of every other one. Not that the singing lacks individuality. Rowan Heller and Amanda Forbes bring glamour to the women in Josef K’s life, while Johnny Herford’s Josef K is a convincing portrayal of a man running everywhere and getting nowhere.

Yet it isn’t enough. Perhaps the very word “Kafka” comes with so much freight that a Kafka opera can only ever be a gloss on the original. Glass’s opera has too little sense of genuine menace, and surely, Kafka without menace isn’t really Kafka?

Until October 18 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk)