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Greek tragedy goes punk, German opera gets massive

By Matt Windman

11:10 AM EDT, July 7, 2008

Alan Cumming as Dionysus in "The Bacchae". The Bacchae are Afro-Scottish back-up singers. The National Theatre of Scotland's production opens Lincoln Center Festival 2008. (Newsday/Ari Mintz)

The Bacchae -
Die Soldaten -

Why is Santa Clause raping that poor young girl? Doesn't that Greek god look like Mick Jagger? Is it us, or is the entire audience moving? These are just a few questions you'd ask yourself at the new productions of the gory Greek tragedy "The Bacchae" and the atonal German opera "Die Soldaten" that opened the 2008 Lincoln Center Festival last weekend.

From the moment Alan Cumming's half-naked, punk rocker-style Dionysus is lowered onstage from above, it is clear that this National Theatre of Scotland production is a "Bacchae" for the 21st-century. Cumming, acting as decadent and sexualized as possible, brings to mind his 1998 Tony-winning performance in "Cabaret."

Dionysus's band of followers, a traditional Greek chorus, has been transformed into an R&B and gospel-singing female cult. The villainous King Pentheus is portrayed as an ultra-conservative businessman. And the deus ex machina is now a giant wall of rock concert lights.

Does this colloquial, modernly hedonistic interpretation of Euripides ultimately work? We found it very entertaining, but all its glitter and gaiety take attention away from the unspeakable horrors that follow at the end of the tragedy.

"Die Soldaten," which translates as "The Soldiers," is a rare 1965 German opera now receiving a remarkably massive physical production. As staged at the Park Avenue Armory, it features a 110-person pit orchestra, 40-person cast, runway stage, and bleachers for the audience that move backwards and forwards on railroad tracks.

Its melodramatic plot, meant to indirectly convey the horror and brutality of World War II, follows a naïve, small town woman who is courted but then corrupted by numerous army officers and eventually forced into prostitution and beggary.

Even if you are the kind of person that despises complicated twelve-tone music or class consciousness drama, you will still get a kick out of the sheer size of this overwhelming production. Seriously, you've never seen anything like this before.

"The Bacchae" is at Jazz at Lincoln Center, 33 West 60th St. "Die Soldaten" is at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue. Go to lincolncenter.org for full details. Thru Sun.