Alice in Wonderland

Korean composer Unsuk Chin's 2007 English-language opera debut offers a one-act retelling of the Lewis Carroll children's classic. Collaborating with playwright David Henry Hwang on the libretto, Chin remains faithful to most of the Carroll text, but the production's use of elaborate masks, bizarre puppets, disembodied arms, and other strange tropes, makes this a Wonderland more akin to David Lynch than the Walrus and the Carpenter. As staged by Achim Freyer for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, this avant-garde production is actually close in spirit (if not style) to Jan Svankmajer's creepy 1988 film Alice. As imagined here, Wonderland is the ultimate misnomer, with the frenetic, contradictory, and often futile machinations of its various denizens providing an exhausting yet hypnotic inventory of personalities at war with themselves. Sally Matthews' Alice anchors the production, which is no mean feat since she performs from within a giant mesh mask that thoroughly obscures her head. Yet her remarkable body language and vocal prowess provide full dimension to her character's moods and confusion. The production also benefits from many wonderfully off-kilter visual tricks, such as flowing blue fabric from the eyes of a giant crying puppet version of Alice after she has unwisely followed the “Eat Me” instructions on a cake. Featuring the Bavarian State Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano, this is presented with DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM stereo options. Recommended. Aud: P. (P. Hall)