Why opera productions faithful to libretto still matter: drama, music, and character cohere when directors serve the work instead of themselves.
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What is Regietheater in opera? A clear look at the term, its origins, methods, and why many opera lovers see it as a betrayal of the work.
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Posts from overseas. Although many British critics were also shocked by the scene, Opera Gazet’s fierce, principled activism against this production drew considerable criticism within the British opera community, including on English-language forums and platforms. The accusation of prudishness: British opera lovers and progressive critics accused Keegel of having \’narrow-minded, Victorian morality\’.
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La flûte enchantée. This opera is also clearly a coming-of-age story, a tale of initiation, which explores the path towards knowledge and wisdom, towards fulfilment. It has also been described as a Masonic narrative, reflecting Mozart’s involvement in Freemasonry through a wealth of characteristic symbolism found in both the libretto and the score.
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Le Nozze di Figaro. Het toneel is onderverdeeld in een souterrain en een verdieping daarboven, vanaf nu aan te duiden als ‘beneden’ en ‘boven’. Beneden is de wasserij met kluisjes voor het personeel en een morsige matras, alles overgoten met een flets tl-licht. Boven zijn de vertrekken van de Graaf en Gravin, steriel als een museumzaal met opzichtige kunst. De Graaf (Björn Bürger) draagt handschoentjes en heeft in onbewaakte momenten perverse interactie met een kunstwerk, net als het personeel trouwens.
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Götterdämmerung. Hagen’s hunting party wanders across a bare stage of a forest, with a huge boar hung by its feet above the stage. Hagen’s spearing of Siegfreid is not credible as the hero hardly turns around enough to watch those Batman-caped ravens flying off to Valhalla. Then, we come to a most questionable staging of Siegfried’s ‘Funeral March,’ wherein Sieglinde and Siegmund returning from the beyond; she with a 20-foot-long white linen shroud used to symbolically embalm the son she last saw while giving birth. Then, for seemingly hours, the parents break into tears, their bodies shaking violently in emotion. Wotan the Wanderer also returns, broken spear in hand, approaching Siegfried’s corpse, then only to fall to the ground in shock upon discovering who has been killed. None of this was needed.
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Het 401NederlandseOperas Handboek. Nu staan er in het boek ook zaken die vragen oproepen. Wat doen bijvoorbeeld Händel, Mozart, Beethoven en de beroemde oratoria van Haydn in het boek? Het voorwoord beantwoordt die vraag al direct: Seghers brengt het hele speelveld in kaart.
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Punished by Facebook. I do have a hunch where the “many complaints” are coming from —namely, from those who are covertly working against us— but I can’t prove anything, so speculating about it seems pointless.
Facebook’s latest announcement was that our suspension would end on May 16. We’ll see.
La Clemenza di Tito. Tito’s audience chamber, or office, was correspondingly presented as a sober corporate interior with a large desk and matching furniture. Entirely superfluous, meanwhile, was the stage business during his aria ‘Del più sublime soglio’, when, in the manner of classic Regietheater, several suited men climbed through a gap in the mahogany wall, unwound strips of celluloid from film reels, and draped them over the head of the kneeling Tito as he sang. Quite what this was meant to signify remained wholly obscure; more to the point, it felt studied and inert.
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The Passenger (Die Passagierin). *The Passenger* (1968; based on the book by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz) is his best-known (aria-poor) work, based on an Auschwitz experience. The opera takes place on a cruise ship, where two former “inhabitants” of the Auschwitz concentration camp meet. One is Lisa, who worked as a guard in the camp and is now traveling to Brazil with her husband, a diplomat. The other is Marta, a Polish Jewish woman, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz when Lisa was a guard there; Marta’s fiancé, Tadeusz, is with her. The opera explores the emotions of the main characters on the ship in the present and, in flashbacks, in the concentration camp.
Read More →Die Passagierin. De Passagierin (1968; gebaseerd op het boek van Auschwitz-overlevende Zofia Posmysz) is zijn bekendste (aria-arme) werk, gebaseerd op een Auschwitz-ervaring. De opera speelt zich af op een cruiseschip, waar twee voormalige “bewoners” van het concentratiekamp Auschwitz elkaar ontmoeten. De ene is Lisa, die als bewaakster in het kamp werkte en nu met haar man, een diplomaat, op weg is naar Brazilië. De andere is Marta, een Poolse Jodin, die in Auschwitz opgesloten zat toen Lisa daar bewaakster was; Marta’s verloofde, Tadeusz, is bij haar. De opera vertelt over de emoties van de hoofdpersonen op het schip in het heden en, in flashbacks, in het concentratiekamp.
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Siegfried. Alexander Soddy, heard again in bringing off the score with flair, offered a truly symphonic version – the big passages never hurried, measured stiffly, but colorful with variations. sprightly version of this chapter in the Ring saga.
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Scylla et Glaucus. Nevertheless, none of this detracts from the artistic achievements of the singers.
Chiara Skerath impressed as Circé with dramatic intensity and virtuosic coloratura in her aria “Il me fuit, hélas” – for us, perhaps the musical highlight of the evening.
Das Rheingold at La Scala. Overall, not a bad rendition of Wagner’s prelude to his Tetralogy. Lots of nice touches from McVicar, but also many ideas that were only able to satisfy the need to stage an episode, playing all straight out. Doing for the sake of doing. The weakness lay in the lack of an overall concept. True, better perhaps this version from those elsewhere that go astray, towards the ridiculous, towards what is estranged from Wagner himself. Perhaps, yes, the Ring is impossible to stage. Might there be a curse upon the ring?
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Les Enfants terribles Hypnose, fascinatie en de betoverende kracht van deze repetitieve muziek, nooit hetzelfde en toch altijd hetzelfde. Muziek die die tijdloze wereld oproept waarin deze tragische helden zouden willen leven; muziek die ons in haar ban houdt, in de dubbele betekenis dat zij ons als het ware gevangen houdt en ons verleidt.
Read More →Les Enfants terribles Hypnosis, fascination and the spellbinding power of this repetitive music, never the same and yet always the same. Music that evokes that timeless world in which these tragic heroes would like to live; music that captivates us: in the double sense that it imprisons us, so to speak, and seduces us.
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Jevgeni Onegin in Sydney. De productie van Tsjaikovski’s ‘Jevgeni Onegin’ door Opera Australia, geregisseerd door Kasper Holten, is een complete ramp – een mislukking van epische proporties.
Read More →Eugene Onegin in Sydney. Opera Australia’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, directed by Kasper Holten, is a hot mess — a misfire of epic proportions.
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Theory of Flames. Filmmuziek schrijven kan van der Aa als de beste: hij maakt gebruik van spannende harmonieën en trefzekere ritmische patronen. Er zit vaart en grote, drijvende dynamiek in de muziek bij het filmgedeelte.
Opera vraagt echter om een driedimensionale klank, drama en ontknoping. De scenes op het voortoneel kennen weliswaar schitterende harmonieën (met name de scenes met koor), maar de monologen en dialogen doen verticaal aan, als een ladder waar men op- en afklimt.
Das Rheingold at La Scala. Overall, not a bad rendition of Wagner’s prelude to his Tetralogy. Lots of nice touches from McVicar, but also many ideas that were only able to satisfy the need to stage an episode, playing all straight out. Doing for the sake of doing. The weakness lay in the lack of an overall concept. True, better perhaps this version from those elsewhere that go astray, towards the ridiculous, towards what is estranged from Wagner himself. Perhaps, yes, the Ring is impossible to stage. Might there be a curse upon the ring?
Read More →Among the endless drivel of directors, a sublime exposition of what opera is really about.
Too critical for some…
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