saving private regie
Not so many guesses for our most recent Regie quiz, so perhaps it’s not surprising that nobody identified the show as La finta giardiniera.
This week’s puzzler is a more familiar title, though that might be hard to guess at first glance.




Carmen?
Pic no 1 when Jose goes all ballistic on act 3.
Pic no 2 the Carmen/Escamillo duet on act 4
Pic no. 3 The bullshit, I mean, the bullfight.
Lucia !
1. The Mad Scene.
2. The Enrico-Lucia duet in Act 2.
3. The stretta that ends Act 2.
Sonnambula?
It’s Owen Wingrave. I saw it last night in Essen.
Hmm…Dido? With Carthage looking like East Berlin?
1. Great minds against themselves conspire
2. No repentance shall reclaim the injur’d Dido’s slighted flame.
3. To the hills and the vales, to the rocks and the mountains
Someone once suggested a great English title for La finta giardiniera: The Fake with a Rake.
I think this one might be Puritani.
Manon Lescaut.
Because of all the flying papers, I’d guess “The Consul”.
Wozzeck?
It’s Bellini’s Norma!
1. “Ah bello, a me ritorna” (the guy in the suit is Oroveso), “military” is both male and female, ladies in the rear are priestesses;
2. “Qual cor tradisti” duet with Pollione
3. “Norma, vieni” chorus right before Norma entrance and Casta Diva.
The last two pictures could easily be Fidelio or Lohengrin. The first two pics could be Elektra.
Are the pictures in the right order? If not, it could be Lucia with the top pic the mad scene, but that would be way too easy.
Trovatore?
Puritani?
The last pic makes me suggest La Wally.
Lohengrin?
Cavalleria rusticana
Fidelio?
Das Spitzentuch der Königin, for sure.
Because the pics are so obviously happy and joyful, I’m going with Mikado. Or Dutchman.
Pic 1. Sarah Palin tries to flee the liberal elite media.
Pic 2. Sarah and Todd confer as still more ethics investigation papers are delivered.
Pic 3. Keith Olbermann and his staff get carried away with their mid-broadcast paper throw.
But I can’t figure out which opera this would be.
La fille du regiment. The dramatic edition.
Is this perhaps Puritani?
1) First mad scene at the end of act 1;
2) Elvira and Arturo in act 3 after he has been captured;
3) Any choral scene as staged by Marta Domingo when the glitz shower device fails and she has to make do with a paper drop.
1. Ritorna vincitor!
2. the Nile scene: Amonasro as Che
3. Triumphal March: Amneris in the blue suit; papyrus confetti!
It does look like Puritani, doesn’t it? The interrupted wedding in I:3, the capture of Arturo in III:2, the celebratory announcement of Cromvello’s offstage victory (at La Battaglia di Vorcestro or however you spell it).
But a couple of people already suggested that, so I’m going with Tannhauser:
1: the song contest goes awry, Elisabeth fakes a mad scene to protect Tannhauser
2: Hermann tells Elisabeth not to tell Tannhauser she’s in love with him, while Wolfram looks disapprovingly on
3: Telegram from the Vatican.
Or is it The Rake’s Progress?
When will the mystery be revealed?
Looks like a couple of people have detected a kind of light-opera thing going on here. . .
Gypsy Baron?
You know what, I think this is all Jenufa act three.
LA PRISE DE TROIE.
Yes, I too thought immediately of Sonnambula and then also of Lohengrin. (I threw Andrea Chenier out the window — hope he ended up on his feet!)
Try this on for size.
Wagner never looked so good.
http://www.m2film.dk/fleggaard/trailer2.swf
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. It seems appropriately dark.
1. Wedding seen, right as the police arrive
2. Here are my stockings to keep you warm on the march to Siberia
3. Corrupt policemen song? Perhaps an added scene showing the Pravda critics writing about the opera.
Well now I am thinking it’s either Goetterdaemmerung or Fledermaus. Or something in between.