Ancien regie
Some good guesses, but, no, last week’s Regie quiz was neither Ariadne auf Naxos nor Auntie Mame, but rather that faded valentine that the occasional opera buff years to see revived: Thomas’ Mignon. (That blonde was, obviously Titania.) The staging was done for the Buxton Festival by Annilese Miskimmon.
And and now for something completely Regie.
Remember, cher public: if you recognize the production, hush!
Magic Flute:
1) Monostasos, for once cast as the hunky one;
2) Tamino refuses to speak to Pamina;
3) Papageno and Papagena.
“ancien regie” and the presence of someone who looks very much like Patricia Petibon in the second picture leads me to believe that this is a French Baroque piece, so I’m going to go with Lully’s Roland because the man in the first and third pictures looks like a crazy person.
That’s clearly Lucia.
The ‘ancien regime’ quip goes towards the Stuarts and the Oranges. The pictures are in reverse order of the acts
pic 1 is Edgardo whiling away the time at Ravenswood while waiting
pic 2 is Enrico being Enrico with Alisa
pic 3 is the garden scene from Act 1. That’s the ghost on the canvas.
AIDA
Pic. 1 “.”Salvator della patria……Vieni e mia figlia di sua man ti porga il serto trionfale
Pic. 2 Amneris with a “bianca larva.”
Pic. 3 “Tu, in questa tomba?”
It has to be Tosca.
I guess if I would take ancien regime very literally, it would point towards a ruler in classical times (hey, I’m an archaeologist, I can’t help it!). And it is Petibon in the second picture. That leaves a somewhat limited repertoire, so I’m going with early Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto?
1. a countertenor Farnace;
2. Mitridate and Aspasia (after she confesses her love for Sifare?);
3. Counter-Farnace and Ismene.
I once saw a production of Pelléas et Mélisande that involved a giant chandelier that descended to the floor. This has a giant chandelier descending to the floor. Therefore, it must be Pelléas et Mélisande.
I was going to guess something by Siegfried Wagner, Der Kobold perhaps, but everyone is harping (hoho) on the Ancien Regie trope and, well, we know our doyenne, so having forgotten the synopsis of La Muette de Portici, I’m guessing:
Les Huguenots!
1: Marcel wrecks the chandelier at the ball so everyone will get a little excited about the massacre going on outside. (or it’s St. Bris in Act IV leading the oath on the swords and getting carried away)
2: Raoul and Valentine attempt to repress their baser instincts in Act IV.
3: Raoul flirts with the Queen in Act II. Or maybe it’s Valentine warning Marcel of Raoul’s impending assassination in Act III.
What IS the plot of La Muette de Portici?
Or it’s a very Regie production of The Ghosts of Versailles….
It’s either Elektra or one of the versions of Cinderella.