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.
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.