Journalist desperately seeking emoticon for sarcasm
"Seattle Opera did more than put an intermission between the two scenes. It restored, or opened, to use opera terminology, customary cuts in the score and invented a dream sequence to open Act 2, using music written by Leoncavallo but not for Pagliacci. Two mimes, Comedy, in white, and Tragedy, in black, open the opera and stay a part of the action until the end, when Comedy has lost the game. What an effective device." -- R. M Campbell, seattlepi.com
POSTED at
8:28 AM
6 Comments:
Maybe this is the first time in modern opera history that made-up characters have actually worked onstage, but I doubt it. Hated the conceit in both the Salzburg "Traviata" -- where Death looked more like Kenny Rogers to me than anything else -- and their dismal, Bergmanesque "Figaro" with the personification of Love crawling all over the poor singers. I'm sure directors feel they're showing great imagination and vision when they do this kind of thing, but personally, I think it proves just how limited their skills are. As far as I'm concerned, If you're first instinct with an opera is to rewrite it, you can't be much of a director.
AMEN!
Mr. (Ms?) Campbell needs to realize that a writer's "voice" in a significantly different from a speaker's.
the music used is Zaza.
Amen again to all of the above, but since when does interpolating music written for another opera constitute "opening cuts"?
In any case, surely the primary motivation here is to pad the performance so that people will not perceive that they have paid full price for half an evening. From what I hear Los Angeles apparently now has a tradition of mounting Pag by itself. A sorry trend.
dressed to kill, et al:
I saw the 2nd cast dress rehearsal of this production last week (I'm not playing this one) and the interpolated scene (music from Zaza and other pieces too--quite weak music compared to the actual opera) is thankfully only 11 minutes long. In addition, the opera proper is uncut. I think I am in the minority about the interpolated "dream sequence"--I hated it, but several people said they liked it (including the critics of the 2 major papers here)--if one doesn't know the opera I guess it isn't offensive; and if one does know the opera, it is totally unnecessary. I also hated the 2 mimes--in the prologue, intermezzo, and finale. I'm sick to death of directors who need to choreograph every bar of music. Even though Leoncavallo isn't the STRONGEST composer, this piece CAN stand on its own.
Otherwise this production is first-rate. There really aren't any other "regie" crimes committed.
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