INTERVIEW:FREDERIC WAKE-WALKER
Staging a classic
Director Frederic Wake-Walker talks to Andrew Mellor about his staging of Handel's Messiah, coming to Berlin this December
Staging Handel’s iconic oratorio Messiah invariably induces debate. It was ever thus. “An oratorio is either an act of religion or it is not,” bristled a commentator in the Universal Spectator way back in 1743, the year Handel revealed his plans to have his work performed on stage in Covent Garden; “if it is, I ask if a company of players are fit ministers of God’s word.” These days, questions of theatrical feasibility have replaced those of offensive blasphemy. “There’s no direct speech, there’s nobody embodying a character and it’s mostly just a description of events,” says Frederic Wake-Walker of the work itself as he prepares to stage it in Berlin later this month. “I’ve staged Jephtha before and of course
I’ve seen stage productions of the other narrative oratorios, but this is completely different.” The director’s initial solution, in contrast to other ‘productions’ of Messiah that have been seen in London, Berlin and elsewhere in the last decade, is to avoid the theatrical altogether. “It doesn’t make any sense to theatricalise it,” he says. “So the approach I’ve taken is to think more about the dynamics between the orchestra, chorus and soloists and to think about how to place the piece in this incredible space.” That space is the Philharmonie in Berlin, home – in addition to the Berliner Philharmoniker – to Robin Ticciati’s Deutsche SymphonieOrchester Berlin (DSO). “Robin and
Winter 2018 The Green Room 23
