Regie, pagliaccio
It is not perhaps so surprising that even with the cleverest of the cher public participating, nobody jumped in with the right answer for last week’s Regie quiz. After all, the work depicted was Die Blume von Hawaii, the 1931 operetta composed, as you all know, by Paul Abraham to a libretto by Alfred Grünwald, Fritz Löhner-Beda, and Emmerich Földes.
So there’s this Hawaiian princess, see, who is betrothed to a prince of her own people, but she’s actually in love with this American marine officer, and did I mention that she is traveling incognito as a cabaret artiste in a vaudeville troupe with an African-American jazz singer? And then to top it all off, the volcano erupts. Anyway, the Helmut Baumann production is currently running at the Volksoper Wien.
Now, on to a work less obscure of title, but perhaps even more puzzling as to mise-en-scène:
Orfeo (Gluck)
This has Mozart written all over it. Nozze? Flute?
So, obviously, it’s Die Tote Stadt.
Porgy and Bess
Carmen revised
1. Escamillo unexpectedly killed by the bull before the final act
2. Carmen and Don Jose talk it out and separate “senza rancor”
3. Don Jose sits and thinks about “what might have been”
In the spirit of my nom de guerre, this is clearly Elektra:
1) Klytemnestra, whose clothes express her inner turmoil, has a nervous breakdown on the stage.
2) Orestes and Elektra in the Recognition Scene, as some of the renegade maids watch from inside the Palace of Atreus.
3) Aegisthus has a hint that something is going wrong, but has to fix his makeup first.
Dialogues des Carmelites
1. The death of Mme de Croissy.
2. Blanche and Constance discuss Croissy’s passing.
3. Mme de Lidoine thinks about how to make a best first impression before he first scene.
Boheme!
1. ‘Mimi! Mimi! *fake melodramatic crying*’
2. ‘Addio, senza rancor’ with Marcello’s really ugly murals in the background
3. ‘Che gelida manina…’
Wild guess: CARDILLAC
Die Blume von Hawaii? That was going to be my next guess!!
Anyhow, it looks like there’s some kind of public/private vibe going on here, of the kind that used to be so popular in the world of Grand Opera. Boris? Don Carlo?
I’ll go with Simon Boccanegra, though. Loved the Bernstein allusion!
Definitely: Die Meistersinger with Wolfgang Brendel as Sachs and American tenor Erin Caves as Walther.