Manfred Trojahn on his opera Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind: ‘Eurydice is a vague person’
In 2011, Dutch National Opera presented the world premiere of Orest, directed by Katie Mitchell. Eleven years later, the Opera Forward Festival stages Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind, for which Manfred Trojahn also wrote the libretto himself. The premiere is scheduled for 5 March 2022 at the Amsterdam Opera.
Again, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is in the pit, but this time Pierre Audi is directing. I interviewed Trojahn after a rehearsal: ‘Having heard the piece a few times now, I wonder if my music isn’t too lyrical.’
Scène from Eurydice – die Liebenden, blind (c) Dutch National Opera / Ruth Walz
The idea of dedicating an opera to Eurydice had preoccupied Manfred Trojahn (1949) for some time. He wanted to tell the story from her own perspective. After all, the Greek myth revolves mainly around Orpheus, who wants to retrieve his deceased lover from the dead. But other interpretations are possible, says the composer/librettist: ‘Of course you can interpret the myth as a metaphor for death, but you can also read it differently, as a metaphor for liberation.’
Experience
In his opinion, Eurydice is a woman of some age: ‘She has gained life experience, which Orpheus lacks. He is a young man with certain conceptions of life, but when it comes to love, he is a blank slate. At the beginning of the opera, he meets Eurydice more or less by chance, on the train. He has seen her, has immediately become interested and sings a sonnet by Rilke, unaccompanied by the orchestra. But she has left him to meet with Pluto, the god of death. – Which signifies she is planning to commit suicide.
The train, which gradually changes into a ship, leads to Hades, ‘the other side’ in the words of the libretto. The chance encounter with Orpheus is also significant for Eurydice. ‘Orpheus is someone with whom she immediately forgets everything she has experienced up to that point’, says Trojahn. ‘At that moment she no longer wants to die. Then she must figure out how to get herself out of this situation, because her appointment with Pluto stands and he will not simply let her go.’
No past
Pluto repeatedly shows up as a troublemaker between Eurydice and Orpheus. To this end, he assumes the appearance of her former lovers, with whom she has had more or less happy affairs. Trojahn: ‘By playing all these different roles, Pluto tries to throw Eurydice, and especially Orpheus, off balance.’
He succeeds excellently: ‘Young men invariably think that the person they are in love with has no past. They lack the experience that life has been lived, they cannot imagine that their loved one already has a history. When that person tells them about former lovers, this is not always easy for them to bear.’
Manfred Trojahn: ‘Young men invariably think that the person they are in love with has no past. Orpheus cannot imagine that Eurydice already has a history, it is hard for him to bear when she speaks about former lovers.’
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Insecurity
Trojahn gives an example from his personal life. ‘I remember a story about how my father demanded my mother to destroy the letters of all his predecessors. He simply could not bear the thought that there had been others before him. I have not been able to check this with him myself, though, as I have not known him well. But I know from my own experience that the younger a man, the more insecure he is in life.’
In the opera, Orpheus keeps asking Eurydice whether this or that man was ‘the first’ or ‘the only one’, like a jealous lover. ‘I don’t know if I would call this jealousy’, Trojahn objects. ‘It’s mainly about insecurity. – Though jealousy is a form of insecurity, too, of course. You are not sure whether the person you love also cares about you. Orpheus struggles with such questions. At least in the first act. Things are different when they meet again on the other side.’
Manfred Trojahn & Thea Derks at Dutch National Opera, 23 Feb 2022 (c) Thijs Faas Vrzal
Eurydice in turn seems to play with Orpheus’ feelings. She keeps saying she doesn’t know what she is looking for, who she is waiting for, or who she is on her way to. At the same time she talks about (and to) her former lovers, or claims to love Orpheus. Trojahn: ‘Whether she is playing with him I dare not say, but she is not a straightforward character. She is open to all possibilities. She is a woman who is very vague.’
French kind of vagueness
This, too, is rooted in his own experiences, Trojahn explains: ‘Especially in France, I have met many women who showed this kind of vague behaviour – without me having an affair with them, by the way. It is a playful way of dealing with facts that is strange to me as a German, but which I recognise in people in the arts sector. Eurydice is typically an actress.’
This refers to one of his sources of inspiration, Jean Anouilh’s play Eurydice, which takes place in the theatre world. ‘But even more so, I have been inspired by films such as L’Année dernière à Marienbad by Alain Resnais’, says Trojahn. ‘When a man incidentally meets a woman, he says they have already encountered each other the year before. She, however, can’t remember anything about this. – Or pretends she can’t remember. That is the kind of woman I have tried to describe.’
Emotions
Trojahn often says our human actions are triggered by our emotions. What drives Eurydice? ‘Perhaps she is driven by a wide range of emotions, perhaps even too many. On the other hand, her vagueness and elusiveness may spring from a natural inclination not to be moved or hurt. But I, as author, cannot be the interpreter of my characters, I leave that to the performers.’
Manfred Trojahn: ‘Eurydice’s vagueness and elusiveness may spring from a natural tendency not to be moved or hurt.’
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We have to take the latter literally. During our conversation, Trojahn lets slip several times that Audi’s staging has given him other insights. Like the role of Proserpina, who advises Orpheus to leave the dead alone and focus on the living instead. Trojahn: ‘Referring to herself, actually. Pierre’s stage directions made me realise that Pluto may have commanded her to try and seduce Orpheus.’
Orpheus, however, rejects Proserpina’s advances: ‘This shows how attached he has become to Eurydice and how important it is for him to find her and make it clear that he loves her. – Now it is too late. But he is determined to find her. With an even more beautiful performance of the Rilke sonnet, this time accompanied by the orchestra, he manages to persuade Pluto to let him retrieve Eurydice from the dead.’
Blindness
Whether he succeeds remains open. Towards the end of the opera, Orpheus and Eurydice meet in the underworld and declare their love. He says he has found her ‘like a blind man’ and asks her to come with him. She hesitates: should she follow him ‘blindly’, and will she recognise him?
This explains the subtitle Die Liebenden, blind, says Trojahn: ‘First, of course, there is Pluto’s condition that Orpheus may only free his beloved on condition that he does not look at her. Secondly, both lovers are blind all the time. They just don’t get to the point of recognition where you say: I am so close to you now, that I know who you really are as a human being.’
Did the myth lie?
After their final dialogue, Eurydice asks Orpheus to embrace her, ‘this one, everlasting second’. In the libretto we read: ‘Is it a farewell? Did the myth lie? Trojahn: ‘In Pierre’s direction, Orpheus falls to the ground here, but whether he dies remains unclear. This touches on a second layer of meaning: perhaps the story is not primarily about death, but about another kind of continuance for the two protagonists. A way in which they have a chance with each other.
Perhaps not quite coincidentally, the Opera Forward Festival simultaneously stages a production which offers yet another perspective, Orphée’|L’Amour|Eurydice. This forms part of the talent development programme of Dutch Nationale Opera, The Dutch Touring Opera and Opera Zuid. In this version Eurydice writes Orpheus that she is leaving him.
She refuses to be the object of his wallowing self-pity: ‘I am not me because of you. I am not a song you can create.’ She leaves him for good with the words ‘I have never been more alive!’ What does Trojahn think of this take on the story?
‘This is definitely a possible interpretation’, he answers, ‘but it would not interest me. Of course, there is a selfish side to Orpheus’ grief, but in writing uuscha letter Eurydice closes all doors. Nothing is possible anymore, but that does not suit my way of thinking. I am not one for such immovable positions.’
Lyricism and balance
Back to his own Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind. How did he shape his opera musically? ‘It has a very different atmosphere than we know from, say, Orest. It is not about sharp, dramatic contrasts, there is a certain balance.’
‘Ultimately, that too is a French influence, because even in the work of Cocteau or Anouilh, great emotions always remain a little concealed. My opera is very lyrical. During today’s rehearsal, I often asked myself: isn’t it getting too lyrical?’
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