Regie round the clock
Bravo Monsieur (or Madame) 79CXR for your guess in the most recent Regie quiz. The work depicted is indeed Béatrice et Benedict, in a production for the Opéra Comique directed by Dan Jemmett. The staging, La Cieca regrets to say, was not taken in with pleasure; critiques are headlined everything from “The enterprise overall does a disservice to the cause of Berlioz” to “Berlioz entre Guignol et les Monty Python.” Let’s hope this week’s puzzler got better notices!
Stiffelio..
1) Stiffelio and Rafaele duel;
2) Lina in the graveyard;
3) Final scene…but the congregation does not buy the forgiveness idea.
Unless it’s Carmen.
Die Götterdämmerung
Trovatore
1) The abduction from the convent
2) “Deh, rallentate, o barbari”
3) “Di quella pira” (with the chorus for some reason attacking Manrico at “all’armi”)
This time I got it! Don Giovanni
1- Zerlina and Masetto’s wedding. See Masetto (toreador) on the floor.
2- The serenade. See Donna Elvira being held back.
3- Don Giovanni being sent to hell.
As requested earlier we have moved on to Tippett and the Flute references would point to ‘The Midsummer Marriage’.
1. The He-Ancient has tripped up Strephon and sent him crashing to the ground. ‘O what a wicked thing to do/Trying to break Strephon’s leg./ Have you no sense of the proper care/For a dancer’s trained body?’
2. Jennifer has an attack of wedding nerves but Mark and the Chorus try to restrain her. Jennifer: ‘Don’t touch me…How can I break free from you all?’
3. King Fisher (one of the characters with a pointy stick)is about to kill Mark…but drops down dead himself. ‘Mourn not the fall of a man that goes down/Leaving the room for someone beautiful.’
(As Anna Russell said, ‘I’m not making this up, you know’.)
I’m pretty sure I know who the director of this spectacle is, just from the visual style, but I wouldn’t want to spoil La Cieca’s delightful game.
Whatever it is and whoever it is, despite the fact that it is visually somewhat cluttered there is obviously something happening in each scene. That intrigues me and makes me wish to know more. I can cite a hundred videos in my collection of which that is NOT true.
Of course, the Regie visual style known to initiates as Hunde-Frühstück.
Andrea Chenier
LES HUGUENOTS with benediction of swords and Urbain as a sort of WAC?
My first thought was Meistersinger, on further reflection (and since Meistersinger is already taken), I’ll take the Zauberflöte reference as a clue that it must be DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN:
1. Keikobad nicht, aber sein Bote!
2. Esset ihr Büder und lasset euch wohl sein!
3. Der Kaiser werd zu Stein!
Either that or Guys and Dolls.
It is clearly I Lombardi.
I think it’s Barbiere di Siviglia based on the moon, the guitar, and (most of all) the campy crowded ensemble blocking.