You know we’ve got Regie in the cellar?
The premiere of a new production of Lohengrin at Bayreuth is obviously this week’s hot topic. La Cieca suggests we continue on this thread thd discussion that began elsewhere on parterre.com and is also raging over at opera-l. (La Cieca invites the cher public and visitors to post links from other sites as well where the Neuenfels Lohengrin is discussed.)
La Cieca will start the ball rolling this morning by musing (ahem!) that it was perhaps not Shirley Apthorp who wrote her review’s lurid lede with its gratuitous Godwinning, but rather the executive editrix (not pictured) of Bloomberg’s arts and leisure section, who (imagine!) has a book coming out next year on what is apparently her idée fixe, i.e., a certain German dictator’s association with the festival.
Ah yes, just as the swans return to Brabant, a battle over regie has broken out on opera-l with lots of cut and paste rehashing of previous years contretemps. What I find amusing about this year’s revival of the Regie Wars is the apparent inability of a large number of posters to distinguish between scenery and staging. Thus, we have gone from a mindset that “settings that realize what’s described in the libretto are required for a successful production” to “settings that realize what’s described in the libretto are sufficient for a successful production” as if compelling theater were merely a matter of interior decoration. After all, successful meals only come from Martha Stewart-sanctioned kitchens. Maybe that’s why Brecht called operas that discourage thought and discourse culinary opera.
I propose that all opera productions have MPAA style ratings.
G = Generally inoffensive
PG = Peter Gelb sponsored production, may contain unsuitable material
R = Regie (or raincoats, rats, and ranting traditionalists)
X = All operagoers must be accompanied by a dramaturg.
Hahaha I think I’ve fallen in love with you and your ratings. Your basic gist is the same reasoning behind my allergic reaction when a lavish, predictable set gets spontaneous applause. Anyone, with the right reference books to hand, can knock up a 19th century salon for Traviata, but determining what to do with it is the real talent.
(this is not a knock on theatrical designers, whom I adore, and want to be in my next life)
Beito, of course, would be Refused for Classification.
These ratings could be the dawn of a new era of classifying opera productions. Instant lore (if there is such a thing).
As for the Bayreuth “Lohengrin”, it’s rat tacky, as we used to say down south.
Dawn, BRAVA! La Cieca herself wrote very cogently on this subject yesterday. Thank you both.
Opera-L, where time becomes “why isn’t Robert Merrill singing in the new Traviata production?”
The FT briefly reviewed the Neuenfels Lohengrin in English (I’m not familiar with this critic):
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1c968bca-98d2-11df-9418-00144feab49a.html
Manuel Brug wrote a long, interesting and mostly positive review in German:
http://www.morgenpost.de/kultur/article1358386/Neuenfels-tierischer-Lohengrin-begeistert-Bayreuth.html
Oh, some of us do try to bring a little more thought into Opera-L. See this posting from Theresa Muir about the nature of the current young audience, which falls into the category of “disturbing, if true”:
http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1007D&L=OPERA-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=210206
(My apologies in advance to Ms. Muir for linking to her posting; some people are very sensitive to such things.)
Totally agree with Dawns ratings. Should be implemented immediately. Though I would add another
* NR – no concept; just different for different’s sake
Saw a FALSTAFF in D.C. this year where the director said he didnt want to use the conventional sets that had been rented so decided to have the sets turned around and have Falstaff get dressed at the the beginning. Distracting, stupid and often careless sightline considerations. THIS is the kind of thing that gives “regie” a bad name. And I suspect Bondy’s TOSCA would get an “NR” rating as well.
I loved that DC Falstaff, but if you think that’s the epitome of concept-less Regie, for your own sake, never go to opera in Europe, I beg of you.
that is one of the few times where the director admitted he was just doing it to be different. I have loved many of the regie productions I have seen — D.C.’s Trelinski ANDREA CHENIER (which started at the French Revolution and ended with Maddelena and Andrea being gassed in a Nazi concentration camp), the Ponnelle “nightmare” TRAVIATA immediately come to mind. I dont even mind reading the director’s notes ahead of time (Dawn’s “X” rated production need an advance notice of where we can read about the production ahead of time). I will be happy to attend a well considered regie production. . .but if most of them in Europe are different to be different. . .then yes.. .I would hope not to see that.
I checked out the entire discussion at opera-l, and what struck me most was 1) the snobbery of people lucky enough to have seen numerous Bayreuth performances (damn you, rich bastards), and 2) Theresa’s post bewailing the reality that young people today do not have a historical context into which they can easily put a traditional production. To them, the lab and the rats thus make more sense.
I saw a dynamite Trovatore a few years ago at DC’s Summer Opera Theater. Intimate house at Catholic U. Amazing, committed singing. The company had rented (?) surtitles that must have been translated about 100 years ago and actually used the word “guerdon.” If you have not read a lot of old fiction or seen a lot of old historical swashbuckler movies, or steeped yourself in Camelot and Morte d’Arthur, you’d be scratching your head about “guerdon.” In part my enjoyment of opera is in stepping into that very old world, meticulously recreated, in all its folly and furor and beauty.
I also find that I can discern new meanings in repeated viewings of the very same production–if the singers or conductors are different. Case in point, the Met’s now-retired Don Carlo. But to a regie audience, the attention to period costume or building detail would be anathema, would be presumed to stifle the discovery of meaning. It seems to me that regie is more about a continuation of theater, which is a very different thing from opera.
Having seen the photos of this Lohengrin, especially the striking ball gowns, I believe that this production did in fact offer some of what might be described as the cheesy thrills of a more traditional production. Nor is Jonas wearing a T-shirt and sneakers as in other productions, which makes sense because Lohengrin is not Everyman, is he? He’s special.
But to a regie audience, the attention to period costume or building detail would be anathema, would be presumed to stifle the discovery of meaning.
See, I disagree that this would be so automatic. A “regie audience” might well be quite satisfied with period costumes and buildings so long as there was something interesting happening dramatically. The “anathema” would be the grand opera approach in which the visual element was lavish for the primary purpose of looking impressive or evoking envious “ooohs” from the bourgeois crowd.
The modest country cottage rented by Violetta that in the Met’s production looks like Martha Stewart’s formal living room in the Hamptons — that’s an example of what a smart audience might reject. That is, unless the lavishness of the set were used ironically as a comment on Violetta’s mania for luxury: i.e., she is so out of control that this mansion is her idea of roughing it on the cheap. (I’m confident that Zeffirelli meant no such ironic comment in this scene.)
There is a very important point lurking hereabouts: that ‘traditional’ productions can often show just as much disregard for the work and for its storytelling as regie productions can.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it drove me mad in the Zeffirelli ‘Turandot’ when Calaf sang ‘lasciatemi passare’ to three people who weren’t remotely in his way, and with his back to them.
YES. . .careless direction is just as infuriating as “regie” for most of us. Still get pissed when I remember Franco Corelli talking to chorus members as Turandot sang “In Questa Reggia” or Cornell MacNeil walking through an imaginary wall during Rigoletto.
Sophie walks through a wall in Act III of the Met Rosenkavalier, too. At least, I presume it’s a wall- that’s the only explanation for Faninal and the Marschallin taking a long diversion to use the door. Sloppy.
Cara Cieca – I thought your Opera L post that included a frontal assault on the vacuity of spectacle of a certain sort was wonderful.
However the Zeffirelli set does provide an acoustical shell of some worth and does have some textual justification –
ATTO SECONTO – Scene V
GERMONT [to Violetta]
(guardandosi interno) Pur tanto lusso
Well, yes in the sense that there should be some evidence of “nice things” in the place: silk curtains, for example, or a nicely upholstered settee. But Germont has a pretty clear idea of how much money Alfredo has on hand, and it’s not much, certainly not enough to rent and to furnish a mansion like the one Zeffirelli puts onstage.
In fact, the description of the scene is quite modest:
The intention was to create a shallow set (taking up only the downstage area) so that the main part of the big salon for the ballet and choral finale could be in place behind it, allowing for an almost instantaneous change of setting. That practical necessity in this case fit perfectly with the dramatic sense of the scene. The implication is that even living in relative simplicity in the environs of Paris is not cheap, and neither Violetta nor Alfredo have much income to draw upon. To suggest that Violetta has hired a chateau for the season grossly distorts her character.
Incidentally, the imposition of a long set change (or even an act break) between the two scenes of Act 2 Traviata is an obvious violation of how Verdi wanted the work performed.
Nicely put! It’s just so that so many Zef sets annoy me intensely and the above mentioned is one of a handful that don’t
It seems to me that regie is more about a continuation of theater, which is a very different thing from opera.
What makes theater different from opera? I don’t get how the presence of singing makes the sort of visual difference you’re talking about. After all, there are plenty of spoken plays that take place in the past.
There are some people who, for whatever reason, see theatre as a dirty word where opera is concerned. They’re the Flamands of this particular Capriccio- all that matters is voice, voice, voice, and the drama can go hang, so long as it’s set at the right time and has the right frocks.
It’s never a very consistent position though- such people are much more likely to say ‘it’s supposed to be set in 19th century Paris’ than they are to say ‘she’s not supposed to be obese’.
I am loving so many of the comments on this thread, certainly illuminating a rather dull Wednesday morning.
“its supposed to be set in Egypt!” never seems to interfere with “its being sung in Italian” or, at the root of it “everyone walks around singing at everyone else, all the time.”
I would argue that there isn’t that much inconsistency between an opposition to sizism in casting and regie productions as standards of beauty have significantly changed, or narrowed, over the course of the last century. With the exception of characters actually dying of consumption, traditionalists have a leg to stand on in demanding larger women for particular roles, especially those involving regal and well fed figures. Ariadne’s supposed to be wasting away mentally, not necessarily physically.
Unfortunately, as I discovered this year, the two issues, “looks vs. voice” and “regie vs. traditionalists” are intricately connected. As a person (13 more months) under 30 who loves opera I’ve only been able to con peers into seeing opera with me if:
A. It’s La Boheme, Madama Butterfly or some other opera where there’s a broadway musical reference point.
B. It’s Porgy and Bess and here primarily for the potential to witness racial anachronisms presented without irony.
C. There is a prospect of seeing an intellectually rigorous meditation on [insert concept here].
And that’s kind of it. The quality of the singing, determined by the casting process, is at most an ancillary part of their consumption of the evening as a whole.
In the case of Porgy and Bess we had a lively post-performance conversation about the kinds of messages the production and plot conveyed and how original audiences would have reacted to/why it became so popular.
Yet, I was at a complete loss attempting to explain why I found the performance of our svelte Bess intolerable and that my initial concerns, after reading in the Playbill that she counted Micaela and Salome in her performing rep, were confirmed by a hooty, hollowed out, swoopy voice. And while my friend recognized that the not so svelte and vocally successful Clara “was great” she really didn’t notice or care all that much that Bess couldn’t sing.
Worse she pooh pooh’d my suggestion that the two performers should have switched roles. Her exact quote “but how would she have embodied Bess’ unbridled sexuality.” I tried to refer her to the Jill Scott/Bessie Smith/Dinah Washington tradition as well as to the many larger female hip hop artists whose work drips with sex appeal and her response was something like “but their music is sexy, operatic music isn’t sexy, so the performers have to visually do that work for the audience.” Nonetheless her report to mutual friends of ours was that it was an enjoyable evening, made her think, etc. etc. etc. A positive review with no mention of singing.
Which is is why the regie directors will eventually win out. Younger people who might go to the opera not only don’t know that much about opera they don’t know *anything* about singing to the point where people can recognize high quality singing, but they aren’t listening for it in that way that it really enters their souls the way it does most of the people on this board. More importantly, these productions have to appeal to the first time opera goer to the point that they, not the rare opera nerds in their life, will report to other people and encourage them to go.
Maybe the concert format is what the lovers of great voices will have to be content with.
This is directed to post 5.2.1.2 — Opinionated Neophyte:
Thank you so much for your very interesting and informative commentary, particularly as it confirms to a high degree my occult suspicions as to what is happening with audiences, especially the under thirty set. I know that speaking of vocal performance, quality, etc., is largely becoming a big taboo as one is looked upon as a curmudgeon and malcontent if one doesn’t exclaim “Wasn’t that Great!!” about anything and everything. I, for one, am still in therapy, trying to recover from the Salome of Nadja Michael last autumn, e.g.
I wish you good luck, my dear! You are brave to try to take along your friends! I hope you find a soulmate who will comprehend your views, sooner or later.
ON, very interesting post.
But I have to stand up for the new operagoers for a second. Appreciating singing–and art music in general–requires ear training, and classical, unamplified singing is not something that one often encounters these days outside the opera house. It takes real practice and attention to learn to distinguish different kinds of operatic voices and vocal qualities when the basic sound is so unfamiliar. While people familiar with art and theater can easily appreciate the visual elements of many productions, listening skills take time to develop. Some people will decide they want to put in the time for this, and some people won’t. But don’t give up on them entirely.
There are two important things I wish I could know about a production before I buy tickets:
1) What audience is the director communicating to? One that has seen the work a zillion times and craves something different; young audiences raised on video games and MTV; an audience that has never seen the work before; an audience that really doesnt follow the words so the opera should be filled with extraneous gimmicks and slapstick ala the three stooges so they wont get bored; etc. etc. etc.
2) Does the director love the art form of opera? Does he believe it is a legitimate way of telling a story or does he feel like he needs to fix it?
As we continue this discussion, we must keep in mind that opera, unlike other art forms, has two very different audiences: those that love opera as music and those that love opera as theatre. Most of us fall in the middle; but there are many at either extreme.
OPERA-L outtakes:
“Rats are not kosher and the greatest tenor ever, Richard Tucker, would not have permitted them onstage as Brabantians–not that he would have sung in LOHENGRIN, an opera I have never attended. – Ed Rosen
“Durn it, even out her where I live with the best damn man on Earth we don’t like varmints runnin’ around. Someone on that there Green Hill needs some friggin’ terriers” -Hermine
“Better rats onstage than countertenors! I am SO proud that the world-class Princeton companies always use hamsters and gerbils; and please, Dave or others, I mean no harm by introducing gerbils into the conversation. Some of my best friends keep gerbils, and the great dramatic baritone Thomas L. Thomas adored them, according to a letter I have from Gladys Swarthout.” – James Camner
[*INSTANTLY* FOLLOWED BY:]
“Weren’t you going away?” – David Shengold
“Corelli frequently discussed the importance of lowered larynx technique and why he rejected Marcella Pobbe’s offer of oral sex before Act Three of Gino Penno’s last Lohengrin on my show. For details see the 64-page booklet to the DVD Corelli in Concert.” -Stefan Zucker
“In a week when thousands of documents have been released proving American malfeasance in Afghanistan, how pathetic that the uninformed, retrograde readers of this List are complaining about the brilliant, inexorable Rodentregie now taken for granted by the lowest denizen of hardly ‘old’ Europe.” -Frank Cadenhead
“Wagner Requires No Rodents [link to the blog "Kriemhild's Revenge, and Mine"]” -A[nn] C[oulter] Douglas
“Ja, they only used the rats because die Dasch was so poor. Had a good friend of mine resting from triumphs in Verdi elsewhere done Elsa this would have been a better evening. But still all the alte Leut who booed should die soon, opera will be better when you are all dead.” -Marco Schmid
“For many years the Met, the greatest opera house in the world, proudly put Zeffirelli’s capybaras on view. IMHO rats are trivia.” – Donald Kane
“Mr. Kane, *nothing* of import happens at the Met. It should have closed years ago. I hate it. *Damn* the Met and all its stupid public.” -Patrick Byrne
“According to my three published articles on Maria Zamboni, mice– NEVER rats– appeared in 1930s Wagner-in-Italian stagings in major seasons in Bari, Jesi, Lucca, Rovigo and–once or twice, can anyone confirm the details?– Vicenza. Also on tour with a group involving Oltrabella and Viglione Borghese in Santiago and Montevideo. Mice were *never* part of the bill at the major houses. Ha!”- Robert Rideout
“I can remember after a thrilling afternoon in the Redoutensaal watching Alfred Jerger audition new female pupils, a big rat ran by. How Laurence Dutoit and I squealed! I left the building with KS Hilde Zadek, who praised my voice and asked why I didn’t give Dermota a run for his money. Today I have been listening to Giuseppe Taddei’s records. He was truly something.” -George Topinges
“Vienna has the only important Opernhaus. Nothing else matters.” -Dorothea Penizek
“I have no dog in this race, but the best LOHENGRIN Laurie and I have ever seen or heard is in rehearsal at our Connecticut Lyric Opera and opens Saturday night at the Groton Clam Shack. Hope many Listers can make it.”
-John F. Deredita, Ph.D.
Unlike nearly all attempts at humor on this site and opera-l, this posting is truly, screamingly funny, partly because it’s oh-so true-to-life!
Bonnie BABs!!! What a delicious posting, Miss Babs!!! You are a talent of
Benson-esque proportion. Brava!
And while we are on rodents, don’t forget that when Mme Vera Galupe-B.
sang Marguerite in the little Boito scene at Town Hall some, what? twenty
years ago, she had a large wind-up rat cross the stage during L’Altra Notte,
and it brought the house down. As Vera said, “After that, it was smooth
screaming all the way!”
What am I missing? What does “Babs” have to do with this thread at all?
That’s what I’m wondering. I’m purposely staying out of thing. Unless I think I really have something to add. Those who do not learn from the post don’t have to worry; it’ll be posted again next time the subject comes up. I’ve decided that unless it has spiders or bathtubs, I’m not interested.
. . . or full-frontal male nudity.
. . . . full backal male nudity sometimes.
Whups! I can’t imagine why, but I had confused
Nerva with BABS here. For give, please.
My point remains about Vera’s Rat; anyone
see it at Town Hall.
Bravo!!!
Brilliant Nerva!
Am I the only person here who has never read opera-L? I don’t even really know what it is.
Jacquino, Nerva skewered Opera-L brilliantly and unless it’s improved markedly in the last couple of years, you learn more here than reading through all the Opera-L posts.
It’s a mailing list–once the dominant form of Internet discussion, if you can believe–devoted to discussing opera, which includes a lot of discussion of current performances/productions as well as more recording and work-specific discussions. The post above skewers some of the list’s more distinctive personalities with considerable verve and accuracy.
Brava Nerva! Henceforward thou shall be called FORTE – never Nelli.
How sadly accurate!
Dear Jesus . . . this is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long, long, long, long time. It wasn’t in the least disrespectful, yet hilariously captured the essence of its subject(s). Brilliant! Bravo!
Another debut tonight at Bayreuth- Johan Botha in “Die Walkure”
He started his carreer as choir memeber at Bayreuth.
I’ve come to recognize that my defense of crazy revisionist productions is less about my actual interest in them (god knows I don’t ever want to see anything like last year’s Attila again) than it is a reaction to the latently anti-intellectual, statively indignant pearl-clutching that goes on around them. So I think what I’m saying is I should just bow out of these discussions.
“…the latently anti-intellectual, statively indignant pearl-clutching…”
“Actually, Dr. von Karajan, these are the cheap fake pearls I buy with my Vienna fees!”
Don’t bow out – it needs saying again – and again. Keep on trucking!
Maury D — don’t you dare recuse, excuse or accuse yourself — we see far too little of your postings as it is.
This is a truly fascinating thread: brimming with ideas that are going in all directions and would deserve to be summarized and mined further.
And then, to boot, there is this absulutely hilarious Opera-L potpourri!
(absolutely, that is…)
For instance:Is the quality of the singing secondary for the young opera goers (the world over) and, if so, why?
Do political tendencies determine preferences for “traditional” or “novel” productions, regardless of their intrinsic quality? Shouldn’t the criteria for judging a production be defined on a finer level and, if so, what are they? Dawn Fatale (1) offers a good starting point.
Etc.
Great singing is disappearing because it is not AS valued as it was. Can you imagine what would happen to the relative numbers of virtuoso instrumentalists if audiences were incapable of making the distinction between competence and mastery? They would decline because it takes tremendous commitment to master an instrument to that degree.
Same thing holds for singing, or at least grand opera singing.