Budapest Operetta Theatre & Bartók Plusz Opera Festival Present SEMMELWEIS – Soprano-studded Fever Dream

Several actors in oversized puppet-like mask face interact with the one male character, baritone Szilveszter Szabó P., in the title role.  They are the scientist physicians of Vienna who are unwittingly killing the many women who come to them to help deliver their babies.   The chorus warns that if you want to live and have your baby live, you should try to hold off delivering until a midwife is on duty.  That let's you  avoid these doctors of death.

Less prose and more poetry, the libretto suggests, rather than precisely tells, the story of how Semmelweis came to see that it was the antiseptic shortfalls of his fellow physicians that were causing the deaths.  (Libretto:  Matthew Doherty). It is not an a to z, but rather, the rumblings of Semmelweis’ mind that landed him in an insane asylum..  He is haunted because he could not ignore the realities, yet was ostracized for his breakaway notions of causes—the failure to wash hands.

From the opera’s promotional materials we learn from the composer, who is also a microbiologist, why he feels this opera is newly relevant in the age of the pandemic.  Lustig says, “When Matthew Doherty and I started work on Semmelweis several years ago, we were very consciously not interested in a genius-hero story or biographical piece, but rather we were drawn to the internal conflict, the torment of a medical worker on the front lines of an epidemic, facing incredible tragedy daily, with the demoralizing feeling that the answer might be right under his nose yet invisible.  And then suddenly an answer seems to present itself."

Budapest Operetta Theatre & Bartók Plusz Opera Festival Give Us a Passport to Europe

For this reviewer, SEMMELWEIS is recommended most for the standout stagecraft that glues us to the story, seeming to add a visual poetry dimension to the opera.  Like other Budapest operas, to an American viewer it has added sizzle of feeling more exotic.  Death blankets wrapping the mothers infected in childbirth foreshadow Semmelweis’ discovery by having a cacophony of hands emerging from the weave.  Later, projection designs take over to show hands after hands ,as if a window to Semmelweis’ pre-occupation with germs and his own culpability in the slaughter.  You too might have to squint and make a huge mind leap that connects the presumed streetwalkers’ costumes sporting wire sprocket epaulets and crowns as familiar.   They remind of an oldie time Buck Rogers wardrobe long forgotten.

How fascinating too to watch the women spawning paper dolls by machine—perhaps a nod to their role in society as breeders alone.  Like any poem it’s wide open to interpretation.  Like the best poems, these stagecraft effects cast a seductive spell.

Semmelweis is free to watch, but all viewers are encouraged to donate to a pandemic-related charity, with the specific suggestions of UNICEF USA, Alight, and the Semmelweis Foundation being promoted on their website.

CAST:

SZILVESZTER SZABÓ P.
Semmelweis Ignác

ENIKÓ LÉVAI
Susan

TÜNDE FRANKÓ
Párka

VERONIKA NÁDASI
Mária

BARTÓK BÉLA CHAMBER CHORUS OF SZOLNOK

ANNA BICZÓK
Dancer

JÚLIA HADI
Dancer

JULIA JAKUBOWSKA
Dancer

LILI RAUBINEK
Dancer

GERTRÚD ANDRÁSI
Musician

ILDIKÓ BARABÁS
Musician

GÁBOR CSONKA
Musician

TAMÁS KELLER
Musician

MIRON KOVÁTS
Musician

DÁNIEL PATKÓS
Musician

ÁKOS PODRÁCZKY
Musician

CREATIVE TEAM:

RAYMOND J. LUSTIG
Composer

MATTHEW DOHERTY
Librettist

MARTIN BOROSS
Director

When:

On Demand- thru May 30 2020

Where:

Semmelweis Opera website.

Tickets:

Free, donations encouraged to COVID-19 relief organizations.

Images courtesy of Budapest Operetta Theatre & Bartók Plusz Opera Festival