sein wir wieder coot
That bloggeress La Cieca likes to think of as “like a young me,” OperaChic, is currently and brilliantly following up on the controversy sparked by Lorin Maazel‘s grumpy condemnation of those darn newfangled stage directors who won’t get out of his yard. Consarn it. Joining Maazel in tying an onion to his belt is the doyen of operatic media whores, Franco Zeffirelli. And now the young ‘uns are answering back, more in sorrow than in anger
Sounds like a man after my own heart, and I don’t give a damn what anyone else says.
Henry Holland, I wasn’t there, but from your description of the black-on-white beating, it sounds arresting, to be sure, but also cheap and opportunistic.
And what does it have to with the opera in question?
I’ve never sat through a live regie performance so I must reserve judgement, but opera the traditional way does not seem broken to me. I’m not eager to jar it lose from its foundations. (I still blame Bjork for all this regie business, that Icelandic cod mafia must be a rough bunch of hombres)
Loose, that is.
And what does it have to with the opera in question?
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that we Parterre Boxians were stuck in a cold, damp school house on the prairie in 1908 with a bitter old alcoholic schoolmarm who would beat us within an inch of our lives with her pointing stick if we deviated even a little from the lesson plan. I will note, however, that you don’t chastise Harry, who *twice* deviated from said lesson plan.
In other words, Alto, I was pointing out that not all regie theatre is crap by using an example where I thought it worked. Apparently, for some people, ALL regie stuff is crap, full stop. The idea that it has its moment is an idea that still seems to be controversial around these here parts.
It should be pointed out that Sellars’ production of Pelleas was first performed at Netherlands Opera in 1993, i.e., before the Simpson/Goldman murders took place. The Los Angeles revival must have been scheduled more than a year in advance. So the “parallels” between this production and the O.J. Simpson case, though obviously striking, were surely accidental.
Since Pelleas is a setting of a deliberately unrealistic symbolist text, there is no question of violating historical period as there might be with (say) a strictly modern-dress version of Don Carlos. La Cieca believes it could be further argued that, since Pelleas was intended as a sort of anti-opera, it is the duty of those presenting the work continually to make it challenging and disturbing for the audience. (Whether Mr. Sellars’ concept works ideally, La Cieca cannot say, since she never saw it, but she would tend to agree that the show needs something to help put it over. Ever since Mary Garden quit the stage, directors have had their work cut out for them.)
Just got back from Pesaro where we saw two very different styles of production.
Maometto II was Michael Hempe at his most traditional: realistic sets, fairly authentic period costumes, some striking tableau and effective if static staging. Perhaps the Anna fell to her knees a bit too often but it all worked within the context of the opera.
L’equivoco stravagante was updated, played for some crude laughs and included a rather gratuitous blow job scene which if Gasbarri had thought about, he omitted in the stage directions. Again – save for the bj which really should be kept for the dressing room or the administrator’s office – more often than not it too worked in the context of this piece of Rossinian juvenialia.
However none of the staging would have matter if the performances had not been well sung or as in the case of two singers extremely well-sung.
Graham Vick’s reply to the Old Devils was more eloquent than most of what’s gone up here. As several posters say, why lump them all together? Bieito is childish and doesn’t care about the music; Carsen, Richard Jones, Pelly and several others (Sellars only on a good day) certainly do.
Willym: “Perhaps the Anna fell to her knees a bit too often …. L’equivoco stravagante … included a rather gratuitous blow job scene”
It sounds to me like the two directors were working the same concept!