奥菲欧的神秘之力：使歌剧在地下层蜕变

司马勤

The Orpheus Mystique：

Changing opera from the （under）ground up

今年夏天，我看罢圣达菲歌剧院搬演的《费加罗的婚礼》，赞叹方颖饰演的管家女仆兼新娘迷人细腻的同时，认为这次的制作应该改名为《苏珊娜的婚礼》。大约10年前，不止一位评论家观赏了黛安.保卢斯（Diane Paulus）在百老汇执导的《波吉与贝丝》（Porgy and Bess）后，激赞奥德拉·麦克唐纳（Audra McDonald）精湛的演绎，提议干脆把剧名改为《贝丝》（Bess）更为合适。

可是，眼见“#我也是”（#MeToo）时代的到来以及近年女性视角越见强大的趋势，马修·奥库安（Matthew Aucoin）与莎拉·鲁尔（Sarah Ruhl）两人更向前迈进了一步。他们从女性角度叙述改写了奥菲欧传奇——这则在过去400年来富有开创性的故事，把这一古老的希腊神话带进了21世纪。

说实在的，他们拥有一定的优势。歌剧《优丽狄茜》（Eurydice）于2020年在洛杉矶歌剧院首演，今年11月终于亮相大都会歌剧院，但剧本源于2003年鲁尔创作的同名话剧。编剧没有追踪奥菲欧在人世间遇上的种种情节，她把大部分精力聚焦在优丽狄茜进入地府后的遭遇，在神话故事的主干上铺垫女主角一生的故事。到了地府之后，优丽狄茜与死去的父亲重逢，而这位父亲刚好借鉴了鲁尔自己父亲的模样。除了大家常见的、与奥菲欧相关的爱情与音乐艺术两个主题外，剧本引领我们深思记忆的意义：父亲遇见女儿感到兴奋，可惜无法记起生前的很多细节;女儿也记不起从前的家庭生活。最后，当奥菲欧前来营救她时，我们碰上那个惯常的忠告：不要回头看，要不她就会永远消失。但是，这一次不是奥菲欧无法抗拒优丽狄茜的叫唤，是她突然惊叫，让奥菲欧感到愕然，禁不住回头看。优丽狄茜舍不得自己的父亲，还是因为她惊恐自己已经忘却了人世间的一切？我们很难确定。

奥库安刚出版了一本新书，名为《不可能的艺术：歌剧历险记》（The Impossible Art：Adventures in Opera）。书中提到奥库安被鲁尔的改编版本所吸引，因为作曲家自己曾于2014年创作过同样主题的作品（室内乐康塔塔），英雄人物“稍为施虐”，身处一个“幽暗，带有麝香的奥菲欧世界”。两人的合作大致上根据鲁尔的概念，制造出魔幻的效果。歌剧里惯常用的戏剧形式被中世纪风格的祭礼气氛取代——这方面跟卡佳·萨里亚赫（KaijaSaariaho）的《远方的爱》（L'amour de loin）与乔治·本杰明（George Benjamin）的《写在皮肤上》（Written on Skin）相似——但奥库安炫目的配器法机敏地借用音乐历史各时代的材料，从巴洛克早期蒙特威尔第到后简约主义的菲利普·格拉斯（Philip Glass ）。事实证明，歌剧《优丽狄茜》不仅是古典故事的重新编排，而且是向原始故事以及历代不同艺术形式的叙事版本致敬。

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原始故事很简单：男孩遇见女孩;结婚当天，男孩失去他的挚爱，因为她被毒蛇咬死;男孩赴汤蹈火前往地府去找寻她，带她回到人世的条件是沿途不可以回望，但他最后却没做到。因为男孩是一个有天赋的音乐家，这个故事传遍全球，在巴西话剧兼电影《黑色奥菲欧》（Black Orpheus）里他是森巴乐手;在萨尔曼·拉什迪（Salmon Rushdie）的小说《她脚下的土地》（The Ground Beneath Her Feet）中，他是個印度摇滚歌星;今天更在阿奈丝·米切尔（Anais Mitchell）的百老汇热门音乐剧《哈迪斯城》（Hadestown）中得以重生。

可是，在歌剧这个范畴里，奥菲欧不仅开创了一种新的音乐形式，后来也促使不同风格与剧种的变迁。可悲的是，并非所有的奥菲欧故事都生而平等。当然我们有蒙特威尔第的著名歌剧，后来安东尼奥·萨尔托里奥（Antonio Sartorio）的《奥菲欧》（1672）尝试衔接法兰西斯科·卡瓦利（Francesco Cavalli）的巴洛克盛期音乐语言以及早期正歌剧（opera seria）风格，可惜作品一败涂地（主要原因是情节过于复杂，其中添加了几个嫉妒情人，使得一切变得混乱）。根据历史数据，到现在为止，一共有70多套以奥菲欧为主题的歌剧，但大部分都已失传。某些只剩下剧本，音乐分谱则不知所踪。

要是我宣布今年（2021年）为奥菲欧演出季（Season of Orpheus），未免言过其实。但是，除了奥库安与鲁尔的作品在大都会歌剧院登台，几部不太闻名的剧目也难得一现。在巴塞罗那利索大歌剧院，勒内·雅各布斯（Rene Jacobs）带领巴洛乐团（BRock Orchestra）演出了泰勒曼（Telemann）的《奥菲欧》。这部首演于1 726年的三幕歌剧（剧本包含德语、法语与意大利语），25年前才被发现。在纽约茱莉亚音乐学院，歌剧系以及早期音乐系联合制作了路易吉·罗西（Luigi Rossi）1647年撰写的《奥菲欧》。那是在法国搬演最早的歌剧之一，现在已经成为历史文物，尽管当年在巴黎红极一时。

罗西的歌剧没有进入常规剧目，有不少原因。首先，这部剧中独唱演员阵容庞大，有26个不同角色，只有音乐学院或拥有大批全职演员的国有剧院才可以搬演这一现代制作（1982年，斯卡拉歌剧院;1988年，印第安纳大学歌剧剧院）。但是，《纽约时报》乐评人安东尼·托马西尼（Anthony Tommasini）很喜欢这一茱莉亚学院搬演的、大量删减过的制作——是的，作品还有另一个问题：全版歌剧长达6个小时。他认为罗西朗朗上口的旋律以及生动的舞曲值得赞许。他问道“为什么这部美妙的歌剧没有更多机会演出？”

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谈起奥菲欧演出季，在过去的时日里，曾经有几家歌剧院精心设计了一连串的“奥菲欧”剧目。早在2007年，格里莫格拉斯歌剧节就专注于这个主题，呈献了不同风格的奥菲欧歌剧，它们出自蒙特威尔第、海顿、格鲁克、奥芬巴赫与菲利普·格拉斯的手笔。英国国家歌剧院于2019-20演出季重演哈里森·伯特威斯尔（Harrison Birtwistle）于1986年首演的歌剧《奥菲欧的面具》（Mask of Orpheus），同时也安排了人们更为熟悉的格鲁克、奥芬巴赫与格拉斯的奥菲欧剧目。

现在明白了吧：故事留有足够空间容纳不同年代的音乐风格以及文化感知性，各个艺术家愿意保留的素材往往都会重叠。奥库安与鲁尔绝不是修正主义的发起人——他们更不是第一个用新娘子的名字作为歌剧剧名的，正如我刚才所说，他们俩是这个传统的继承者，而传统的特征是：作品在首演当年十分轰动，后来却逐渐褪色。以下是音乐史上几部与奥菲欧有关的歌剧。你应该认识其中几部，其他的你只要知晓它们的存在就可以了。

1.《优丽狄茜》

雅各布·佩里（Jacopo Peri）（1600）

朱利奥·卡契尼（Giulio Caccini）（1602）

这不是佩里的首部歌剧作品。1598年，他创作了《达芙妮》（Oafne），首次把宣叙式对白配上音乐，但这甚至不是他的原意。相反，佩里盼望着模仿古希腊演出神话故事的模式。两年后，佩里谱写奥菲欧歌剧，男主角（即古希腊最著名的音乐家）由自己担纲，其他角色由卡契尼家族的音乐家们扮演。幕后的戏剧要比台前的更迂回曲折。卡契尼增添了给他家人演唱的音乐段落，但佩里打算出版整套歌剧——包括卡契尼谱写的部分——乐谱标志的作曲家只有他一人。卡契尼立刻反攻，利用奥塔维奥·里努奇尼（OttavioRinuccini）编写的唱词（即佩里已用过的剧本）再次创作新音乐。卡契尼的歌剧首演比佩里版本晚了两年，但卡契尼出版的歌剧总谱却比佩里早了两周。

2.《奥菲欧》

克劳迪奥·蒙特威尔第

（Claudio Monteverdi）（1607）

如果说蒙特威尔第身为歌剧这门艺术的创始人未免有点过分——跟他合作过的编剧亚历山德罗·斯特里吉奥（Alessandro Striggio）是佩里歌剧演出的观众之一——可是，蒙特威尔第确实是歌剧艺术权势圈的主宰。他谱写的音乐谈不上原创，但没有人能像他那样成功地平衡歌曲（“咏叹调”）与宣叙式唱白（“宣叙调”）、合唱与器乐段落，他营造出来的效果优雅，风格清晰。尽管熟悉音乐史的听众很快就看穿《奥菲欧》只是“同类中的佼佼者”，但这部作品的名声远远超越了其本来的听众群。关于这部歌剧的首演与重演的历史细节亦很难考究。多年后，当歌剧演出在意大利北部脱离了宫廷生活而变为大众娱乐，蒙特威尔第转而开始大力推荐自己的第二部歌剧。虽然《奥菲欧》一开始备受关注，但在作曲家去世后却差不多被人搁置遗忘，直至19世纪末，当音乐界开始回顾巴洛克时期时，蒙特威尔第的天赋才得以重新审视。

3.《奥菲欧与优丽狄茜》

克里斯托夫·维利巴尔德·格鲁克

（Christoph Willibald Gluck）（1762）

我在前文中曾提及安东尼奥·萨尔托里奥的《奥菲欧》刻意迎合“正歌剧”，这个剧种不太讲究故事情节，却看重华丽的演唱技巧。格鲁克后来提倡的革新运动，让歌剧重回本源：简化音乐，减轻咏叹调与宣叙调的对比，并强调音乐的目的是为了增强故事性。从前塞满亨德尔、斯卡拉蒂与维瓦尔第（还有很多天赋比不上他们的作曲家）歌剧的次要情节都被删掉了，为下一代的作曲家开拓新领域，让歌剧成为统一的艺术。虽然《奥菲欧与优丽狄茜》在维也纳首演，但这部作品原先用的是意大利剧本，风格更接近法国歌剧。要不是格鲁克这位高手，他提出的改革很有可能会失败——就像万箭齐发，但无一命中。格鲁克把一切结合起来，形成一部完整的、包含不同来源的歌剧。这部作品至今仍大受欢迎。

4.《地狱中的奥菲欧》

贾克·奥芬巴赫

（Jacques Offenbach）（1858/1874）

格鲁克不仅为歌剧艺术开了先河，也为奥菲欧的故事提供了革新的方向。很快，夏庞蒂埃、吕利、泰勒曼，甚至海顿都选中这个题材。那么，年轻有为的作曲家是怎样抓住人们注意力的？把故事改为喜剧，让观众们哈哈大笑。奥芬巴赫的首部舞台大作——无论是称之为喜歌剧还是轻歌剧，到现在还是议论纷纷——除了拿奥菲斯热潮开玩笑，还奚落了拿破仑式的统治与政权。舆论对于轻佻傲慢的歌剧情节褒贬不一（无论是1858年的首演版，还是1874年的改编加长版），但剧中的音乐却广受大众欢迎。最大的反讽（应该归功于科雷米奥与哈勒维两位编剧）是优丽狄茜不能忍受奥菲欧的歌声——奥库安与鲁尔也有涉及这一点：优丽狄茜经常担心奥菲欧爱音乐要比爱她更深切。

5.《奥菲欧的面具》

哈里森·伯特威斯尔

（Harrison Birtwistle）（1986）

当年的伦敦首演成功之极，《奥菲欧的面具》被誉为杰作。30多年后，英国国家歌剧院举办“奥菲欧演出季”，这部杰作得以再现舞台。如果你不太熟悉奥菲欧神话，这部时长3小时的解构式歌剧绝不适合作为“入门”小品。在作品中，这个希腊神话的情节没有按时间顺序铺排出来，伯特威斯尔与彼得·斯诺菲尔夫（Peter Zinovieff）刻意让情节多方向发展，突显不同版本的格格不入。《奥菲欧的面具》有史诗般的舞台效果，宏伟至极的声效，首演时用的布景与服装设计更有超越时空的想象——第三幕的剧情刚好反过来，一切就像时光倒流——但伯特威斯尔强大复杂的音乐风格，加上巴利·安德森（Barry Anderson）的电子声景改造或操作了不同的自然乐器（包括竖琴），听出来的效果却局限于20世纪80年代中期。

6.《奥菲欧》

菲利普·格拉斯（Philip Glass）（1993）

这是格拉斯谱写让·科克托（Jean Cocteau）三部曲中的第一部，具有独特个性，与伯特威斯尔浩瀚的《面具》相映成趣。科克托于1950年执导的电影就像个反映艺术家生涯的寓言式延伸：成功之后会导致同龄人的嘲笑和孤立，最终与世隔绝后才找到自由。由于它结合了电影和现场表演的模式，且因为电影的節奏所限，感觉上没有格拉斯的其他舞台作品那般宽敞。可是，格拉斯的音乐要远远超越电影配乐，电影里“二维”的人物与感情状态因为现场音乐和舞台而变得更立体。尽管风格贴近法国[格拉斯师从娜迪亚·布朗格（Nadia Boulanger），配器法效仿柏辽兹的经典文本，好像把整本书吞下了一样]，但这部电影与德语中的“综合艺术”（Gesamtkunstwerk）更为接近。如果“综合艺术”的真正定义是融合了某个年代的各种艺术模式，那么倘若瓦格纳活在有电影的世界的话，他笔下的音乐又会怎样？

Last summer，I left a performance of The Marriage of Figaro in Santa Fe saying that Ying Fang had played the opera's housekeeping bride with such charm and subtlety that the production should've been called The Wedding of Susanna. Some 10 years ago，more than one critic saw Audra McDonald in Dianne Paulus's production of Porgy and Bess on Broadway and said it should've been called simply Bess.

But in the era of #MeToo and the recent empowerment of female perspectives，Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl have actually taken this one step further. In rewriting the Orpheus legend—a seminal scenario for more than 400 years—from the female standpoint，Aucoin and Ruhl have hauled the ancient Greek myth into the 21st century.

Granted，they had a head start. Eurydice，which premiered in 2020 at LA Opera and made its belated opening at the Metropolitan Opera in November，wasactually derived from Ruhl's 2003 play of the same name. Rather than following Orpheus from the surface world，Ruhl spends most of her time in the underworld with Eurydice，draping the skeleton of the original story with details from her own life. Once in the underworld，her heroine reunites with her dead father，a character very much modeled on the playwright，s own. Along with the usual Orphic themes of love and art，we have a meditation on memory：the father happily meets his daughter，but barely remembers her;nor does the daughter recall the details of their family life. When Orpheus eventually turns up to retrieve her，he receives the familiar dictum：Don，t look back，or she，ll be gone forever. But this time it，s not Orpheus giving into temptation but rather Eurydice's calling out that causes him to look back. Did she want to remain with her father，or was she frightened by already forgetting what the surface world was like？We're not really sure.

In his new book The Impossible Art：Adventures in Opera，Aucoin recalls being taken by Ruhl，s retelling largely because he，d developed his own version of the story in his 2014 piece The Orphic Moment，setting his “slightly sadistic”hero in a “grimly musky Orphic world.”His collaboration with Ruhl，though，stuck more clearly to her conception，and the results were quite magical. Many of opera's standard dramatic conventions were replaced with quasi-medieval ritualistic effects—much like KaijaSaariaho'sL'Amour de loin and George Benjamin's Written on Skin —while Aucoin's brilliant orchestrations wittily pilfered musical history from early Baroque Monteverdi to post-minimalist Philip Glass. Eurydice turned out to be more than just another retelling;it was tribute both to the story and to the way it，s been retold through the ages.

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The original story itself is simple：Boy meets girl;boy loses girl when she dies on their wedding day;boy travels to the underworld to retrieve her and is told he can lead her back to the living as long as he doesn't look back. For some reason，he looks back. But in part because the boy also happens to be a gifted musician，his story has made its way around the world，with Orpheus turning up in Brazil as a samba singer in the play and film Black Orpheus，as an Indian rock musician in Salmon Rushdie's novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet，and even on Broadway in Anais Mitchell's hit musical Hadestown.

But it's in opera where Orpheus not only heralded the creation of a new art form but also announced many subsequent shifts in style and form. Sadly，though，not all Orpheus stories are created equal. For every Monteverdi there，s an Antonio Sartorio，whose Orfeo （1672）tried to bridge the high Baroque language of Francesco Cavalli with early opera seria and prettymuch failed at both （largely because its plot，with other jealous lovers getting in the way，was way too complicated for its own good）. More than a hundred versions of the story have been documented，and most have disappeared. Some exist only in libretto form，the music apparently lost forever.

It might stretch the point to call this year the Season of Orpheus，but in addition to Aucoin and Ruhl，s appearance at the Met，a couple of rather obscure settings have gotten a rare hearing. At Barcelona，s Gran Teatre del Liceu，Rene Jacobs led the B'Rock Orchestra in a performance of Telemann，s Orpheus，a three-act opera in German，French and Italian from 1726 whose score turned up again only 25 years ago. At New York's Juilliard School，the opera and early- music departments collaborated in a production of Luigi Rossi's Orfeo （1647），one of the first operas to be performed in France but now an historical relic，despite making a big splash in Paris at the time.

One can see why Rossi's opera fell out of therepertory. For one thing，it has 26 roles，which pretty much limits modern productions to conservatories or state-funded companies with a full-time roster of singers （modern productions have taken place at La Scala in 1982 and Indiana University，s Opera Theatre in 1988）. But New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini left the much-cut Juilliard production—oh，another problem：the original opera was six hours long—quite charmed by Rossi's catchy melodies and lively dance music，asking “Why is this wonderful opera not presented more often？”

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Speaking of the Season of Orpheus，a handful of operacompanies over the years have presented just that. Back in 2007，the Glimmerglass Festival balanced thematic unity with stylistic breath by presenting versions of the Orpheus tale by Monteverdi，Haydn，Gluck，Offenbach，and Philip Glass. In its 2019-20 season，the English National Opera programmed a revival of Harrison Birtwistle，s Mask of Orpheus （1986）along with additional productions of Gluck，Offenbach and Glass.

You get the point：there's always room to retool the story through current musical styles and cultural sensibilities，as well as a great deal of overlap in what people have thought worth saving. Aucoin and Ruhl didnt invent revisionism—they werent even the firstto name their opera after Orpheus's bride—but as I mentioned earlier，they do fall into a tradition，part of which may be initially making a big impression but soon fading away. In the meantime，here are a few Orpheus versions through the ages，some of which you should know，others you should just know about：

1. Euridice

Jacopo Peri （1600）

Giulio Caccini （1602）

This wasn't Peri's first opera. His Dafne from 1598 was the first to set declarative speech to music，but creating a new art form wasn't even his actual goal. Rather，Peri was looking to imitate the performance styles of ancient Greece. Two years later，he set the Orpheus story，reserving the role of Greece's most famous musician for himself. Much of the rest of the cast was from the Caccini family，however，and this is where the offstage drama began to upstage the show itself. Although Giulio Caccini also submitted music for the family members to sing，Peri was planning to publish his work—including Caccini，s music—under his own name. Caccini rushed into overdrive，set the entire libretto （by OttavioRinuccini）that Peri had used，staged his own version two years after Peri，s and managed to see it in print six weeks before Peri's version came off the press.

2. La favolad'Orfeo

Claudio Monteverdi （1607）

Although Monteverdi，s reputation as the creator of opera is a tad exaggerated—his own librettist Alessandro Striggio had even attended Peri's version—he does stand out as the artform，s reigning patriarch. Nothing in his score is entirely original，but no one had managed the balance between song （“aria”），declarative singing （“recitative”），choral and instrumental writing with such grace and clarity. Although knowledgeable listeners quickly recognized Orfeo as “best of breed，”its reputation far exceeded its listenership，and actual details about the opera，s initial and subsequent performances remain rather scant. Years later，when opera performances in northern Italy started to become public events rather than private court affairs，Monteverdi was promoting his second opera instead. For all its initial attention，the opera fell by the wayside after Monteverdi，s death and didn't generate much attention till the late 19th century，when the music world started looking and listening backward to the Baroque era and the composer's genius became apparent.

3. Orfeo ed Euridice

Christoph Willibald Gluck （1762）

Much as Antonio Sartorio's Orfeo （mentioned above）tried to announce the arrival of singer-dominatedopera seria，where stories mattered less than high- Baroque vocal pyrotechnics，Gluck later championed his own counter-revolution，literally bringing opera back to its roots with a stripped-down score smoothing the contrasts between aria and recitative and keeping various musical elements in service to the narrative. Gone were the convoluted subplots that filled the operas of Handel，Scarlatti and Vivaldi （and scores of less talented artists），opening the gates to a generation of composers who viewed opera as a truly unified artform. Though premiered in Vienna，the opera was originally set to an Italian libretto and owes much to French operatic traditions. While in lesser hands，this might be a recipe for disaster-arrows from all directions，landing nowhere—Gluck manages to spin a synthesized，coherent whole，with a broad range of influences that does much to explain the opera，s long-running appeal.

4. Orpheus in the Underworld

Jacques Offenbach （1858/1874）

Gluck not only announced new directions in opera composition，he also set off a revolution in Orpheus settings;soon Charpentier，Lully，Telemann and even Haydn were getting in on the act. So how would any self-respecting young composer make an impression？By playing it all for laughs. Offenbach's first full-length stage work—whether to call it a comic opera or an operetta is still in question-spoofed not only the Orpheus craze but also Napoleonic government and politics. Critical opinion was split over the opera's irreverence （bothat its 1858 premiere and its expanded 1874 revival），though the music itself quickly wormed its way into the public ear. One of the great ironies in Offenbach's （or rather，librettists Hector Cremieux and Ludovic Halevy's）account is that Eurydice can't stand Orpheus's singing—a sentiment that makes its way into Aucoin and Ruhl's version when Eurydice worries that Orpheus loves music more than he does her.

5. The Mask of Orpheus

Harrison Birtwistle （1986）

Acclaimed as a masterpiece at its London premiere and restaged some three decades later as part of ENO's “Orpheus season，”Birtwistle's three- hour deconstruction is not the place to start if you and Orpheus are just getting acquainted. Rather than chronologically recounting the Greek legend，Birtwistle and librettist Peter Zinovieff let the narrative unfold from various directions，reveling in contradictions existent in various versions of the tale. Epic in visual as well as sonic grandeur，the original set and costume designs worked hard to achieve a certain timelessness—much of Act 3，in fact，has its events flowing backward—but Birtwistle，s majestically complex score，along with an electronic soundscape by Barry Anderson that manipulates many acousticinstruments （most notably the harp），stylistically sets the piece squarely in the mid-1980s.

6. Orphee

Philip Glass （1993）

The first of Glass，s Jean Cocteau Trilogy，Orphee is as idiosyncratically intimate as Birtwistle's Mask is epically expansive. In his 1950 film，Cocteau used the story as an extended parable on artistic life，where success leads to peer ridicule and eventual freedom in isolation. Because of its combination of film projection and live performance，Orphee is less spacious than much of Glass，s stage works，owing in part to the tempo of the original film. But the score is rather more than a movie soundtrack，regularly hauling characters and entire emotional states from two-dimensional projections onto the three-dimensional stage. Despite its vaguely French soundworld（Glass was a student of Nadia Boulanger and often sounds as if he swallowed Berlioz's Treatise on Orchestration whole），the film takes the German term Gesamtkunstwerk at face value. If its true definition is a work that incorporates all the art forms of a given time，it does beg the question what kind of music Wagner would have written in the cinematic age.