Regie in mufti
Two weeks the cher public have had to ponder our most recent Regie quiz, and yet none of the usual suspects were able to work out the obvious clues. A Victorian ingenue and her doting father are interviewed by an Italian fascist in a Rita Hayworth wig? A gymnastics-themed wedding is interrupted by terrorists and an earthquake? Why, whatever could that be but… Rossini’s Tancredi, as performed at the Theater an der Wien — under the supervision of the aptly named director Stephen Lawless? (”Von der Inhaltsleere des Regiekonzepts können solche vordergründige Gags allerdings nur kurz ablenken,” snorted one Kritik.)
Now, everyone, let’s really kick off November with bang by guessing our next production with your wonted aplomb.
I believe the trapezoid-shaped table gives it away: Britten’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Or maybe it’s “Dinorah” — I always get those two confused.
Madama Butterfly?
Das Liebesverbot. We have: scene in prison (or convent); citywide revelry; and Isabella’s meeting with Friedrich.
Die Meistersinger von Gruenland
Aida
1 Ritorna Vincitor
2 Triumphal March
3 O terra Addio
Louise.
Vivaldi got here before me. Except that the last scene is Radames being caught giving away the information (see the two-way glass window where Amonasro was listening?)
If it isn’t “Aida” it should be.
La finta semplice
Luisa Miller?
Andrea Chenier?
1. La mamma morta
2. The trial scene…GUILTY!
3. The final duet with Gerard and the Jailor standing nearby
There’s only one person (female) standing by in the last scene; it’s her reflection in a mirror that makes it appear as a second bystander.
Since the second photo looks like a rehearsal hall, I’m guessing it’s Zar Und Mary Zimmerman.
Zar und Mary Zimmermann! Yuck Yuck! Good one.
Arabella
Cenerentola
Sonnambula
Hamlet?
1) Ophelia’s mad scene
2) Act II finale with Hamlet in the rafters singing ‘O Vin’
3) Ophelia with the King and Queen
1. Dyer’s Wife
2. Kaiser: “Falke, mein Falke!”
3. Kaiserin, Barak, Dyer’s Wife
It’s obviously Orfeo!
1) Orfeo thinks about how much fun he’ll have now that he’s a happy bachelor. Or Euridice relaxes on the Champs Elysees.
2) The blessed welcome Euridice. Or the furies bar Orfeo’s way. As in the Met production, the choruses are performed without change in costume or aspect.
3) … uh … Is it too late to suggest this is Plutone, Prosperina and Cerbero in the Monteverdi Orfeo?
I actually think the last scene is Lohengrin Act II that sneaked in here by mistake!
I think it’s Hoffmann.
1) Les oiseaux dans la charmille
2) Va pour Kleinzach!
3) Tu ne chanteras plus?
One heretical question: what’s the good of a staging if you can’t figure out what opera it involves? Isn’t a staging supposed to support an opera or be related to it? I think there is something addle-brained here. Fashionable for sure, but addle-brained.
Well, it seemed obvious to me (though I appear to be the only who feels this way) that the production was one of Götterdammerung.
#1 – Brunnhilde basks in Siegfriedian afterglow (Prologue)
#2 – Hagen assembles the Gibichungs (Act 3)
#3 – Brunnhilde confronts Siegfried and Gutrune (Act 2)
At first I thought it was the Pajama Game, but that’s not an opera (well not yet, maybe Rufus is working on it?).
So I think this could be die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail, with a not-so-blonde Blonde. For some reason I read the second picture as a big old walk-in closet.
Hippolyte et Aricie?
ACT I: Phedre longs for Hippolyte
ACT II: Thesee descends into the underworld
ACT IV: Phedre reveals the truth to Thesee (whose hair was singed off during his trip to the underworld) while a condemnatory Diana looks on.
This only works if those are feathers in the second scene. However if they are giant paper roses, then this is Carmen.
I was thinking Rusalka. The second picture appears to be an above water / underwater split.
The title leads me to agree with 22, or possibly a Don Carlos.
mirrors?!
it’s the Herbert Wernicke production of “Les Eponge-Loofas de San Antonio”
Fidelio, probably.
A Review of this production…..The 3rd picture tells the story.
All those ….shadows! It is an n opera called ‘The Night They Shot The Lighting Director’. Very effective regie production of it, too from the West Baden Krautsin Bullsagarten Company with Hilda Kraussteiner & Gottloeb Lobotomoni. They decided to re-cycle and revamp the only previous version: and that was also a one night stand production of it. The stage props were retrieved out of opportunity shop discard bins, where they had been prematurely stupidly sent, after the gala. The Sets were gaudy playpens for children,you find in mega marts .In fact they came from one such establishment- at a steal – to clear- no return price. This Opera company knows how to survive the economic down turn. Something that: the NYCO and the Met over there, should think of adopting similar methods?
Looking again at the pictures of this opera’s short return premiere : ‘Someone out back though, is not cycle peddling hard enough to provide adequate stage electricity. They will also have to go, I suspect- after tonight. And finally I report a good time was had by all the locals. As they walked off with a bonus frankfurt and roll, (from the delectable tiled cafeteria situated inside the audiotorim) out in to the cold, after this exciting performance.
Though it may seem too obvious, my money’s on Rigoletto:
1) Caro Nome
2) Questa O Quella
3) E Amabile Inverno