a regie, a bone and a hank of hair
Guesses poured in for our most recent Regie quiz, but correct reponses were few and far between. The opera is in fact Martin’s Una cosa rara, and (credit where credit is due) the handsome though bewildering photographs were by Ken Howard.
A more familiar title graces the quiz this time around. The imagery, however, is among the most obscure thus far. Reminder: if you recognize the production, please DO NOT blurt it out. The point of the quiz is guessing!
MonkeyBoy: Actually, even if the correct response has already been posted, La Cieca usually waits until posting the next quiz before revealing the answer.
Faust. In The Bandwagon, Jack Buchanan is doing a production of Faust when Fred Astaire and Nanette Fabray go to see him about directing their musical.
La cenerentola or La traviata
Sanford: I think you’ve got it. La Cieca must have pulled herself away from her Cyd Charisse retrospective to post this.
Sanford, you may be right about this being Faust, but in The Bandwagon, their musical IS a version of Faust – called the Bandwagon, does anyone happen to know why? When Astaire, Fabray and Levant go to see Buchanan, he’s performing Oedipus.
Robert: La Cieca’s Cyd Charisse retrospective NEVER ENDS!
Tosca of course.
1st picture: Tosca coming into the church surrounded by admirers
2nd picture: Cavaradossi being taken to the torture chamber
3rd picture: The “E lucevan le stelle” (cowboy style)
I’m finding it hard to reconile the first picture and Faust, maybe Mefistofele? (first picture Elena)
And I can’t help but wonder if that not quite infinit symbol that’s in every picture is supposed to mean something in Regiesprache.
On second thought, maybe this IS a regie version of “The Band Wagon.”
1. “Louisiana Hayride”
2. “Triplets” (plus one)
3. “Shine on Your Shoes”
You are right, of course, MYB, about it being Oedipus that Nanette and Fred go see. But I knew Faust was in there somewhere.
And is that horrid Cyd Charisse number from The Party Girl? It definitely isn’t prime Cyd. While I never liked the “Dancing In The Dark” number, I loved the other Fred/Cyd number, and I adore the “Broadway Ballet”. The funniest thing about The Bandwagon, though, is comparing Cyd and Joan in “New Sun In The Sky”, especially since neither of them did their own singing. AT least Cyd wasn’t in blackface as Joan was. Jona lipsynced her way through it in “torchsong”.