Living with the Dead

When the opera directors of the future begin to ask themselves the fundamental questions of their craft – how can one make an old story relevant for a modern audience? how does one depart from a story while remaining faithful to the action? – they would do well to study the late Patrice Chéreau’s brilliantly conceived production of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead, which has made a welcome return to the stage of the Schiller Theater some three years after its Berlin première (and a year after the death of its director). On the evidence of the evening’s performance – brought to life by an excellent cast and superb musical direction from Sir Simon Rattle – the production has lost none of its visual or emotional force in the intervening years. With its large ensemble of singers and its brief duration of just over 100 minutes, From the…