high concept
Not a Regie quiz, but worthy of note for the “what were they thinking” factor. Here’s a production of Otello directed by the usually visually acute Paul Curran. So why was costumer Paul Edwards allowed to get up the principal artists like they’re en route to a Cypriot fancy dress party? From left to right, we have Desdemona as Helen Mirren in Caligula; Roderigo as the young Vanessa Redgrave, and of course poor Emilia, who couldn’t quite make up her mind between Wowkle and Brangäne.
I don’t understand why WNO needed a new Otello when the previous production, by Peter Stein, was revelatory – he also did a wonderful Falstaff and mesmerizing Pelleas (and lured Boulez to Cardiff) for the company.
Does anyone know why this unnecessary extravagance was allowed?
I saw this in Birmingham (England) last week and it was far more awful than the photo suggests. On arriving at the theatre we learned both principal men were indisposed – we got a passable Iago and an inaudible Otello. Poor Amanda Roocroft wandered around like an air-raid victim and even managed to snap at a few Cypriots who got in her way. The sub-amateur sets and costumes (that looked like body-suits on those with any extra weight to carry – ie most of the principal men) were (as the “Telegraph” review linked above says, pure Monty Python — “what? with these tassles??”) and the Act III glitz was from a send-up movie. Best of all was Emilia, who tried to give Desdemona a tomohawk to defend herself with and interpolated stunning war-cries into her small part. How very different, a few nights later, was “Carmen” at Milton Keynes (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) with Jakub HruÅ¡a (the BRILLIANT young Czech conductor) beating up a storm from the very first note, and a McVicar prdoction that created dramatic unity from four totally contrasting acts. Glorious!