La Cieca has the first top-secret highly classified eyes-only report from inside the hermetically sealed Attila dress rehearsal at the Met. Our spy (possibly pictured above) speaks out — after the jump, naturally.
UPDATE, Acts 2 and 3: La Cieca’s spy adds that Carlos Alvarez canceled after the first half, “though he didn’t sound sick.” Costumes “continue runway-worthy, like Hugo Boss on a beaver hunting expedition, superb tailoring.” The staging, though, our spy found “inept and boring.”
FURTHER UPDATE: Photos of a dress rehearsal of Attila (minus those annoying watermarks) are posted by Friend of the Box Nick Scholl over at fashionista.com. [Above photo by Ken Howard, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera, via fashionista.com.]
Going great so far [Prologue and Act 1]: MUTI AMAZING.
The costumes are runway-ready, all industrial leather and fur and boots and crumpled textures like “downtown chic”. Sometimes looks rather silly: “Like my fur? It’s Prada, baby!”
The Roman soldiers carry shields that look to me like enormous iPods. Coincidence? I think not! (Unsure what connection would be, however!)
The chorus dressed in jeans and rumpled designer t shirts and reminds me of Mark Morris Orfeo just a bit. Are they a religious cult?
The prologue is staged atop a concrete rubble pile that looks like Hunters Queens. Act one has a lovely lush green terrarium look. There’s certainly nothing really wild or, to be honest, all that interesting going on. the singing is ok but only Ildar Abdrazakov is a standout.
We have no photos yet, so La Cieca is going to assume [accurately! – LC] the opera looks sort of like this:
More after part two.
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Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
