TERROR AND TRIUMPH

“In short: a triumph.

This is due in large part to the protagonist. Juliana Zara sits on the sofa in a pink negligee, does almost nothing, and yet is already Lulu. One suspects she could just as easily be sitting there in a functional jacket and rubber boots and the effect would be the same. Zara possesses a presence that hovers between erotic shimmer and childlike lightness, which, combined with her exceptional voice, makes her ideal casting [FOR LULU].

Her soprano is bell-bright, with nothing forced even in the much-demanded high register. Even in the most violent coloratura passages, her singing retains a sense of playfulness and sensuality.

“We have finally come to the realization that sensuality is not a weakness, not a surrender to one’s own will, but an immense force placed within us…” This Lulu seems to have fully internalized Alban Berg’s words.”

ALBAN BERG’S LULU IMPRESSES IN NUREMBERG

“Among the guests in this new production is, in particular, Juliana Zara, who has already appeared at the Theater an der Wien and the Bavarian State Opera. Her Lulu is an attractive, life-hungry young woman — though not a femme fatale. She is certainly fond of grand gestures and even confronts Schön with combative spirit: “If you sacrifice your old age for me, then you have had my entire youth in return.”

Zara delivered this both scenically and musically with great impact, without any moments of fatigue, elevating her agile, luminous soprano to dramatic heights that seemed as purposeful as the determination of her character’s life path.”

LULU AS A DARK BOULEVARD COMEDY

“In this production, Juliana Zara moves about like a free atom in search of happiness in life. Her Lulu is coquettish, self-assured — at times reminiscent of a homage to the recently deceased performance and feminist icon Valie Export, and at others like a completely natural thorn in the rotten flesh of the patriarchy.

Vocally and dramatically, Zara can do everything. And she does do everything. Up to the interval (in Act II), the men shatter against her Lulu, who cannot be contained, who simply is who she is — something the men cannot cope with.

Then comes the revenge of the wounded men: the murder of the woman they could not control.”

ONLY PREY IN A PREDATOR’S CAGE FULL OF MEN? OPERNHAUS NÜRNBERG PRESENTS A THRILLING “LULU”

“Juliana Zara unfolds an extraordinary presence in the title role. Her Lulu is less a victim than a cunning survivor who understands the rules of the game and turns them against their creators. Her physical strength, her supple agility, her intellectual alertness make this Lulu the commanding force in almost every scene. Her clear, vital soprano — at times cuttingly sharp, at others translucently tender — crowns her the queen of this performance.

Lulu is not truly interested in any of the men, not even in their bourgeois prosperity. Instead, she subdues these potential men of violence — rapists, murderers. This is the reenactment of her childhood trauma, which Juliana Zara masters with complete authority in the title role.

…they came, applauded all involved enthusiastically, and celebrated Juliana Zara — the new queen of Nürnberg’s ‘Lulu’ sensation.”

MURDER WITH A VIEW

“In fact, this production leaves certain things aside before the interval: the existential dimension, the social precipices, the horror lurking behind the abyss. At the same time, however, the direction pushes clichés aside: Lulu as a male fantasy, as a mere projection surface, as a vamp-like object — that is far less in evidence in Nürnberg.

This woman, lustfully circled by the newspaper publisher Dr. Schön, his composing son Alwa, a painter, an athlete, and the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, regains control of the action here. A path upward and toward downfall — because she chooses it.

Of course, this must be embodied with the intensity of Juliana Zara, who changes wigs as she changes identities. The voice: rather lyrical […] yet with considerable penetrating energy. The acting: as high-powered as it is free of cliché.”

BOULEVARD OF THE DEAD

“Half the success is already guaranteed by a well-assembled ensemble of character actors who master the exaggeration demanded by the piece — boasting, feigning, slinking, collapsing, tumbling, and flying off the handle.

Above all, the American guest Juliana Zara proves to be a true whirlwind, who not only navigates the title role with the utmost musical ingenuity and elegance, but also generates a performative energy that shatters every cliché of the femme fatale languishing on the divan.

The appeal of her deservedly celebrated performance lies in its unselfconsciousness — in the very absence of calculation or predictability in the character she creates, a figure who adapts to situations as they arise. Her Lulu: a creature of instinct, neither good nor evil, as nature produces it — marked by an authentic fickleness, combined with resilience and cold-bloodedness.

These qualities are reflected in Zara’s singing as well. One may easily be taken in by the bell-like timbre, the innocent, childlike cooing and caressing in her voice (and gladly so). But anyone who fails to hear the alarm the moment she soars into the stratosphere has only themselves to blame if they hear the shot only after it has been fired.”

“Beginning with the title role, magnificently defended by Juliana Zara. Dramatic projection is there, lyricism is there, intensity is there, and never falters. At times a living flame, at others a blazing pyre, at once a translucent screen for every fantasy projected upon this most paradoxical of Lulu, she makes the role entirely her own. Its formidable challenges (wide intervallic leaps, angular syllabic writing, syncopations and sheer endurance) are mastered with consummate skill. Even in the midst of catastrophe, the voice remains luminous, youthful and incisive, confirming her position as the opera’s dramatic centre of gravity. She cuts through an orchestra that is at times unleashed with the force that only Lulu’sirrepressible transgression can command, and occasionally pushes beyond what seems possible, as in the high D that some consider unattainable in the Lied der Lulu in Act II. Like Elektra, Lulu is a role that is almost impossible to cast. Truly convincing interpreters can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Juliana Zara is the first name that comes to mind.”

“Before I came here, it was the faces of Teresa Stratas, Christine Schafer, Marlis Petersen, Anneliese Rothenberger and, invariably, Louise Brookes, that brought to mind this character who defied taboos, rules and conventions. Now Juliana Zara joins this line-up, bolstered by fond memories of that magnificent performance in Nuremberg.”

“From both a vocal and dramaturgical perspective, Berg’s opera is essentially a one-woman show, in which all the different human types represented in the text are dominated by the protagonist with a magnetism that, in this production, was rendered with extraordinary expressive force by the performance of Juliana Zara, the thirty-three-year-old Californian singer who had already sung the role in Darmstadt in a production that earned her two nominations — for the Deutscher Theaterpreis Der Faust and the Opus Klassik.

Endowed with a crystalline voice and capable of reaching, without the slightest effort, the high Cs and C-sharps required by the score, and possessing an overflowing stage vitality, the young American singer created a fascinating and strikingly modern portrait of a transgressive young woman — hungry for life and never willing to accept the rules of a morality she rejects, passionate and sincere in presenting herself as she is, without ever seeking excuses or justifications, ambiguous and elusive.

A truly remarkable interpretation for its expressive depth and conceptual maturity, especially in such a young singer.”

“An overwhelming success for a production that is certainly among the best seen on German stages in recent times.”