land of hope and regie
That favorite strawman of closed-minded critics, “Regie opera,” is the target of yet another limp-noodle critical flailing, this time from a chap by the name of Geoffrey Wheatcroft – as if someone whose mugshot is so obviously a emblem of bowtied entitlement has any right to pronounce judgment on anyone else’s visual taste. Just how tired is the Wheatcroft whinge? Well, he’s still complaining about the Peter Sellars production of Nozze di Figaro, a staging that hasn’t been revived since the late 1980s. [The Guardian]
Nobody’s taken Wheatcroft seriously for years. I was astonished to open the Guardian and find they’d given him a platform.
What a tired old crone. The fool thinks he’s so clever with his “sarcastic” observation about staging Winterreise. And then he can’t even get Schubert’s title right.
You must see this
http://yankeediva.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-show-went-on.html
I was there – it was an unforgettable evening. The audience was delirious and even the critics were clapping like mad. “Cessa di piu resistere” drew unprecedented applause but no encore – there was a funny bit of business with Corbelli consulting his fob watch to marvel at the length of the ovation.
Well Joyce has won hands down the “brave performer” medal for all time. Imagine singing through the entire rest of the opera with a painful broken leg. She is one incredible young artist. We all want you to get well fast, Joyce. Take the time necessary to do so.
Re Wheatcroft, I fear I tend to agree in general. I do think the restaging of operas (beyond recognition of where they set and what they are about) has gotten out of hand. If you can radically “modernize” the staging, why not the music? Why not rewrite Mozart’s music to make it sorta…well,..atonal, you know, like Stravinsky, etc? Then everything would be wonderfully “up to date”.
Did anyone listen to Jonas Kauffmann’s Lohengrin debut this afternoon/ I thought he sounded luminous and excellent – I heard a few boos for the new production tho (they didn’t play Jonas’ curtain call)
Lohengrin isn’t over–it’s only the second intermisson currently. Yes, JK is excellent as is most of the cast although I don’t “get” Harteros. It’s extremely slow though and I agree that the boos would likely be for the production (the photos I’ve seen don’t look promising) and/or the conducting.
I jumped the gun since I am listening in the USA and didn’t get the time right. It is still playing here.
Frankly most times I don’t have the problem. I tend to prior-inquire if some production is trying to be ‘oh so very clever’ or far out. If so, I resist seeing it. I prefer to listen to opera and create in my mind ‘the setting that suits me.
“Let’s make instant regie……(Mod cool)- geometric shapes, slick chrome, glass,and steel tubing or ( Leftie inclinations) trash and symbols of doom and decay all over the stage. Both concepts must though be 180 degrees off compass of meaning and tradition, and when then stretch the new concept into the realm of the complete nonsensical. After all the composers just provided the incidental music to these ego displays.
What’s the opera really about? Why you haven’t been to a pre -performance lecture from some twit of a director have you? You must accept his opinion and your place in the scheme of things. This is ‘high culture’. There are a lot of fawning bastards around , willing to accept their mental swill.
A funny paradox : people are so concerned about authentic instrumentation and practice with Baroque opera ( which I find bores me shit-less anyway!) yet they are completely silent about the silly mod stage settings they are getting in the process, from directors.