Regie on the rocks
You've all worked out that the previous Regie quiz was Don Carlos in the Peter Konwitschny production. So now, how about a few guesses what opera these two photos might represent? (Please, any of you who already know the production, please let the others try to work it out!)
POSTED at
7:21 PM
47 Comments:
Yeah, that's gotta be Dialogues of the Carmelites.
Or maybe Cosi Fan Tutte.
I thought of COSI too, but now I'm hoping it's CAPRICCIO, with the top photo being Clairon, La Roche, Flamand and Olivier and the bottom being a more than usually strung out Graefin Madeleine taking in the Mondlicht before she sings her final music into a cell phone and gets driven away to rehab.
Ernani. Or Nabucco
The Queen of Spades.
COSI, surely
Or maybe it is Das Land der Lachelns, and we are about to hear "Diner ist mein ganzes Herz"
Rheingold. The Madchen in uniform are sort of visibly off-stage, while Erda warns Wotan, Fafnir and Fasolt downstage center.
Or Rake's Progress...
Oh, and the lower picture, Fricka in Furs (after a little-remembered Sacher-Masoch jeu d'esprit).
Looks vaguely Makropulos-y, so I guess it has to be Il Segreto di Susanna.
Looks vaguely Mozartian to me. Or maybe it's Don Pasquale??
It's gotta be the opening of Elektra, with the slave girls as the nurses. Or it could be an opera version of The Nurses, one of my favorite bad old shows from the 60s.
"on the rocks" = Scotch.
And what could be more Scottish than Lucia?
Or possibly Macbeth.
I'll say my usual guess, "Un Ballo." Oscar (who's a lesbian), Riccardo, Renato and the Judge in the first act, and the second pic is Amelia incognito in Ulrica's lair.
It IS the new Berlin "Ballo"...
I'm so glad LaCieca subscribes to the Opera Ciritic!
Is that tommy lee jones in the front?
I say Nozze.
Thought it might be WALKUERE, but there are only 6 girls....
"Gotterdammerung". Pic 1: Siegfried dishing with Gunther, Gutrune and Hagen at the local diner. Pic 2: Siegfried mit Tarnhelm. And an absolutely fabulous coat.
If some people think it's Cosi, then it has to be Ariadne auf Naxos.
Top picture...Zerbinetta and boys.
Bottom picture...Ariadne
Gloriana?
It sounds a little too obvious, but I'd say HOFFMAN, Act One, with Nicklausse not only played by a woman, but dressed as one as well . The woman in the crown could be any one of the 4 broads, but probably Stella.
I'm quite sure that's the new Fratelli Alagna production of Monteverdi's Orfeo
I'll go with orestes and say it's Götterdämmerung, in rememberance of Scottish National Opera's Ring.
I'm gonna go out on a limb with Salome.
(or maybe Zauberflote?)
I haven't guessed Suor Angelica for a while so I will. Or else, Makropolous. I'd love to see a third picture from the production...
I would guess Les Huguenots with "Nobles seigneurs" for the first pic and, of course, la Reine Margot for the second.
The new Ballo in Maschera by Morabito and Co. at the Staatsoper Berlin.
My first wild thought: Ballo
Oscar the female on the left of the first pic. Gustav in the gallows scene in the second one. Not that any of it would make sense, of course.
I would never have guessed "Ballo"--not in a million years--but why are persons who have seen the production spilling the beans? It spoils the fun for everyone else.
From the reviews I have read it is the new Ballo at the Lindenoper
Gee, I wonder if it's the new "Ballo" at the Lindenoper.
"...but why are persons who have seen the production spilling the beans? It spoils the fun for everyone else..."
Revenge of the Regiesseurs.
Regie will not be mocked!
Why are all of the nurses black?
Are they nurses, or are they waitresses? And is this the Boston settings, or the Swedish version? Or is it in the cocktail lobby lounge of the Trump Tower?
BALLO? But where are the urinals Somma specified?
Alex - La Reine Margot in the Huguenots production at Covent Garden about ten years ago was in a bikini reclining by the swimming pool - so not this time...
It is indeed BALLO at the Lindenoper. The action is transposed (or, La Cieca supposes, returned) to the United States, though updated to circa 1960. The setting is a hotel in Florida where a party nominating convention is meeting. Etc. etc.
Not sure if the figure in the mink and tiara is Ulria or Riccardo.
Too bad we can't get the program notes from all of these and keep a library. It might be a fun game to try to guess the opera from the director's explanations.
Now, if this is from the 1960s party nominations in the USA, and we know that the tenor's life will eventually end in an assassination, can we deduce that Riccardo = JFK and Renato = Lee Harvey Oswald? And where would that leave Jackie O? Or perhaps Amelia = Marilyn Monroe...?
"Not sure if the figure in the mink and tiara is Ulria or Riccardo."
... but, of course, Madame - oops, Mademoiselle - has no doubt that it is a coat of many minks.... A true connoisseur in all things fur, she is...
I have never, ever EVER been the first to guess correctly. I feel like I've just won the lottery.
Congratulations Baritenor! All glory and power to you and please let us know what you spend the $10,000 on! ;0)
I think I'll play a system in the future- I'll pick an opera and just stick with the same one every time- chances are, if I'm quick, statistically speaking I'm going to be right one time one day sometime over the next ten years.
bloomberg fills in some blanks:
Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito have finally made it to the German capital. The director-dramaturge duo have been setting the pace on opera stages around Central Europe for years, and their arrival in Berlin was long overdue.
As always, the pair makes the libretto and score the starting point of a lateral exploration of the work's themes. More than any other Verdi opera, they conclude, ``Un ballo in maschera'' treads the line between tragedy and comedy, black humor often winning the day.
With their design team (Barbara Ehnes and Anja Rabes), Wieler and Morabito have kept the American setting of Verdi's revised opera, only updated the events to the mid-1960s, with liberal references to the assassination of President Kennedy.
Thus Riccardo, governor of Boston, wears a pullover and sunglasses, and his beloved Amelia bears more than a passing resemblance to Jackie Onassis, with a touch of Marilyn Monroe. Events take place in a provincial diner-hotel-theater, where the waiting staff are black, the local dropouts include a crowd of Vietnam veterans, and the public is not above the occasional recreational lynching.
Murder, Infidelity
It works. Verdi's tale of purported marital infidelity, political intrigue, betrayal and murder translates well enough to this setting. Wieler and Morabito have worked hard on pacing and detail, giving the whole a cinematic dynamism and the velocity of a good thriller. From the principals down to the last supernumerary, the characters are all absolutely plausible.
It helps that the house has assembled a first-rate cast, headed by Catherine Naglestad's full-blooded Amelia and Piotr Beczala's turbo-powered Riccardo. Naglestad molds a gripping sound with consummate refinement. Beczala soars to effortless heights without ever seeming to need to draw breath. Dalibor Jenis is equally engrossing as Renato, with a performance which is emotionally engaging and richly musical, while Anna Prohaska gives us a silvery, visceral Oscar.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a1y.d5sxFhyw&refer=muse
Dio mio - I am glad I don't live in Berlin - or go there very often these days. Piotr Beczala is a good singer but who would cross the road to see Nagelstad as Amelia and Dalibore Jenis as Renato? Well done Baritenor
If that's Jackie Kennedy, I'm Izzy Anderson.
"Marilyn Monroe"
WOW! You mean they make a character in an OPERA?!? look like Marilyn Monroe??? You gotta admit, that's pretty darn original!
OMG! Izzi anderson has become a reference!
Like other quiz regies, this one also sounds like interesting at the very least.
and i luuuve Piotr Beczala, he is worth the ticket of anything you see...
"worth the price of anything you see" -- but that's true of Izzy also. Are either of them worth HEARING?
I mean, while Jane Eaglen's appearance was always offensive, it was the way she sang that made me retch.
Singing is still the bottom line of opera for me. (And no, Izzy doesn't make it. I wouldn't cross the road for him. I'd expect him to be awaiting me at my place. Detoweled.)
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