Born in Warsaw in 1919, Polish Soviet Jewish composer Mieczysław Weinberg lived a miraculous, if perilous life. Making his escape as the Nazi’s invaded Poland, Shostakovich took him under his wing, helping him to avoid some of the ideological snares set by Stalin’s regime.

Nevertheless, for decades Weinberg’s music was played far less than his better-known contemporary and he struggled to mount any of his seven operas, a decadent artform frowned upon as politically suspect. A series of first-class productions of The Passenger, a visionary piece of music theatre written in 1968 but waiting until 2010 for its first staged performance, revealed an out-and-out masterpiece. Now, Salzburg has staged The Idiot, Weinberg’s final opera, and on the whole it’s another revelation.

Composed in 1985, and based on Dostoyevsky’s 1869 novel, it tells the story of Prince Myshkin, a Christ-like aristocrat whose innate goodness is misinterpreted by others who see him as part idiot savant and part holy fool. Surrounded by a host of avaricious intriguers, he befriends the volatile Rogozhin, a new-made man obsessed with Nastasya, an emotionally complicated society beauty. Mistaking Myshkin’s pity and compassion for Nastasya as love, the resentful Rogozhin ends up killing the woman he adores. 

The novel is long, and Alexander Medvedev’s libretto is only partly successful in boiling down the considerable cast of characters and the numerous subtle plot twists into a cohesive drama. Still, there’s plenty to admire here, especially in the intense confrontations between the central protagonists.

Krzysztof Warlikowski’s intelligent, multi-layered production is effective and powerful. Bringing it up right up to date, Rogozhin becomes a brutish Russian oligarch conducting shady operations in a semi-feral society where pretty much everyone is out to grab as large a handful of anything they can. Małgorzata Szczęśniak elongated sets – spanning the vast Felsenreitschule stage – and contemporary costumes give it just the right feel, well-lit by Felice Ross, and with a deftly applied layer of video design by Kamil Polak.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, a passionate Weinberg specialist these days, draws a dynamic performance from the Vienna Philharmonic, bringing out the colours and textures of the coruscating orchestration. Unfortunately, the recording favours the voices to such an extent that some of the imaginative details in the score get buried, but there’s no denying her commitment to what is an undoubtedly impressive, rediscovered music drama (if not quite on the same level of invention as The Passenger).

 The performance is led by a truly compelling performance from Bogdan Volkov as the gentle, epileptic Myshkin. Not only does his sweet, plangent tenor cut through the fullest of orchestral washes, he creates a touching and thoroughly believable portrait of this wide-eyed, caring innocent.

Aušrinė Stundytė summons huge reserves of vocal strength as the troubled, turbulent Nastasya, her soprano occasionally spreading but also proving capable of lyrical warmth. As Rogozhin, Vladislav Sulimsky is similarly powerful, his thrusting baritone and dramatic nous breathing life into a character who on paper is little more than a violent gangster.

All the supporting cast work hard, with Pavol Breslik strangely sympathetic as the desperate, cash-strapped Ivolgin, Xenia Puskarz Thomas searingly intense as the agitated Aglaya and Iurii Samoilov suitably depraved as the dissolute Lebedev.

Available on Presto Music

Composer: Weinberg
Works: The Idiot
Performers: Bogdan Volkov t, Aušrinė Stundytė s, Vladislav Sulimsky bar, Wiener Philharmoniker/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
Label: Unitel Editions 811408 (2DVD), 811504 (Blu-ray)