parterre box

I really haven’t paid much attention to “opera regie,” so I can’t give you a firm definition of it. A while ago, a pithy and biting piece called “How to Opera Germanly” made the internet rounds, and it serves as a handy guide for we who are un- or under-initiated.

This production of Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, recorded for TV (on DVD, EuroArts 2057788) at the Staatsoper Unter der Linden, Berlin in May of 2009, lacks certain de rigueur regie elements: no one is lit from beneath while wearing pale makeup with dark shading, there are no inexplicably homo-erotic moments, no part of the set looks lethal to any inattentive singer.  Read more »

In the past ten years there has been a renaissance of the countertenor, perhaps from a renewed fascination with period pieces performed in authentic period style. While no one is thinking of lopping off body parts just yet (although with some of these Regie productions, who knows?), many major opera houses now engage David Daniels, Brian Asawa, Michael Chance et. al. for the roles once relegated to trouser wearing mezzos. Read more »