A thousand words is worth a picture
You know how La Cieca gets when one of her darling Regie productions gets dissed sight unseen, as happened on these shores with last Sunday’s unveiling of the Hans Neuenfels Lohengrin at Bayreuth. (Not so much on this site, because La Cieca is happy to report that here at dear parterre.com all schools of opinion—even stupid ones—are given a full measure of respect.)
So anyway, a photo or two of choristers in rat suits do not the experience of a production make. Ten minutes of video highlights is not the ideal solution either, but until some enterprising impresario in the U.S. imports Calixto Bieito‘s take on Parsifal (or we all charter a package tour to Stuttgart), the following selection of video highlights will have to do as conversation fodder. (Anyone who finds extended video of the Neuenfels Lohengrin is asked to alert your doyenne!)
Note: there is a glimpse or two of nudity in the following video, so workers should be cautious.
Mein Gott in Himmel, thank you La Cieca
If you call some opinions, “stupid” respect is not the first word that comes to mind.
La Cieca was being gently ironic, as she hopes her gentle and ironic public are with her.
Stupid though she may be, she can’t help feeling as a witness to a desecration. Physically sick and utterly disappointed.
But it is probably what Bieito was going for anyway.
Wagner is pooping his pants in his grave.. so as far as I’m concerned, a great success!
Flowermaidens in Saran Wrap and Klingsor in Jockey Shorts! Why didn’t I think of that?
I sincerely love the Bieto Flower maidens – and Bieto probably doesn’t even watch Law and Order Special VIctims Unit! Notice the absolute committment the singers have given to this work and the way they have totally bought into the concept without sending out press releases that they can’t sing in saran wrap while cutting themsleves with Bingo markers. As for the flame thrower – Wagner would have LOVED IT and probably ordered six more of them.
Stunning. I would love to see the whole thing.
Desecration of the First Order!
Calixto Beito is a neurotic case
study – if judged by his work.
Could this only happen in Germany?
Probably. Maybe Spain: they like
blood mixed with religion
We shall soon find out how they (and we) like Bieito in Spain: he will be directing Carmen, of all things, at Liceu Barcelona in September, with Alagna and Uria-Monzon.
Bieito has previously directed Un ballo in maschera, Wozzeck and Don Giovanni at the Liceu.
Only the 3? For some reason in my head the Liceu is one of the places I most commonly associate with Bieito.
I’ve only seen the video of the Giovanni, but for the first time I found the opera a challenging, visceral piece. Fab.
Dirty bugger didn’t wash his hands either in that first clip! Probably wanting to spread the ‘production disease’.
If only those flames had burned down the whole damned place.
MrMyster, Bieto is as much Nero-rotic as neurotic and someone should kick his infantile heinie out of opera.
Jay, you be right!
Any volunteers? I’ll kick
the right side if you’ll
kick the left side, and
opera will be better
for it!
On a very superficial level (because I really like Bieto most of the time), why does his designer and Zambello’s dreker Michael Yeargan think that Wagner operas should be set under highways either ravaged by destruction or under construction? I guess its like the obligatory couch or the now dated over abundance of empty chairs so popular by Conklin and others… and didn’t the Konwitchny AIDA have the lovers out on some highway to the skys too?
Well, this is the only Wagner Bieito has set under a highway. He explicitly has said his inspiration for the production was Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and so the highway overpass is a fairly obvious visual symbol.
Also, the text of Parsifal makes frequent use of road and traveling metaphors, e.g.:
Yes but you have not see the second act of Yeargan’s design for Zambello’s Walkuere. Looks like unfinished portions of I-95 in the 1990′s or post earthquake in Los Angeles – but then that was the “American Ring”.
I agree with you that Bieto’s Parsifal makes one really think about the opera and Wagner’s genius.