putting it mildly
Tim Ashley in the Guardian Unlimited writes:
When Hansel and Gretel are out of the house, their parents (Thomas Allen and Elizabeth Connell) prepare to have sex on one of the children’s beds, and we recognise the potential for deeply inappropriate behaviour lurking behind this family’s facade.
And speaking of deeply inappropriate behaviour, is Anja Silja starring in “The Katia Ricciarelli Story?”
Who’s dismissing Humperdinck’s, dcrazmo?
I’d be interested to hear your answer to the questions I posed to you earlier in the thread.
Ambiguity is one of Jones’ directorial traits as anyone who saw his absurdist ROH Ring production will know. Götterdämmerung was left very much open ended.
Unlike some of German Regie colleagues he has a very macabre sense of humour illustrated in the scratch and sniff Love of 3 Oranges, Gianni Schicci, Lady Macbeth etc. He can do fun and glamour too with Trocadero chorus girls emerging from those clocks at the end of L’Heure Espagnol.
armerjacquino: Missed that post, sorry. I certainly think that the greatest works of art are those that change and take on new resonance as time passes and different generations come to them. And I truly respect a director’s right and inclination to find and present a modern take on a piece that will work for a present day audience. I just don’t think H&G supports that approach as well as other operas. The Ring, yes, Il Trovatore, yes. Macbeth without question. But bringing Grand Guignol to H&G, in my opinion, crushes it and negates what I imagine Humperdinck and his sister were going for. (And succeeded in doing gorgeously, I might add.)
Regie Goodfornaught: When Keith MC writes “Jones is used to directing operas for intelligent audiences, so it’s not surprising the Met audience didn’t get it,” that’s absolutely an allusion to us “stupid Americans.”
Thanks for the clarification, dcrazmo.
If as you say the audience didn’t get it then obviously the producer and stage director lacked communication skills. In actuality, I as well as my friends who went to see did get it, but we were not impressed.
No, Jones is NOT a one-trick pony. I’m constantly staggered by his ability to reinvent himself. Lesser directors in the theatre as well as opera, mediocrities in the proper sense of the word like Jonathan Kent, have ripped him off, but you never know what he’s going to do next.
I’ve said this before, but being told that a Jones Wozzeck, for instance, is set in a baked bean factory, or his Pag is about British sitcom/farce in no way prepared me for the results, which not only started with a brilliant mise-en-scene but sustained it. Very few regie-istas do that; many wrap the whole work around one idea – ie Tony Palmer’s Doria Manfredised Turandot – and get stuck with that.
I love Humperdinck’s genius, dcrazmo. I might agree that musically his witch is more of a balancing act between sweetness, humour and a nasty underbelly than Jones made it. But he convinced me of the work as a whole – and, yes, there’s nearly always a scene in each of his thought-through productions which DOES strike me as genius – the macabre party in his Queen of Spades, many episodes in his Ring, I could go on…and his theatre has been just as memorable.
Regie Goodfornaught: Obviously, I need to pursue seeing more of Jones’ work, it sounds very intriguing and theatrical. And not all about him.
Well, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, and Jones is VERY strong meat, but bravo for your open mind, dcrazmo.
Hey, I’m up for anything if it works. I just didn’t think the H&G worked. Is he like Carsen? Sometimes I love his work, sometimes it’s ludicrous.
One man’s strong meat is another man’s weak beer.