The Conceptual Cabinet of Curiosities. Irony: the favorite Swiss Army knife. Contemporary directing harbors, likely out of incompetence, an almost pathological fear of sincerity. You see it time and again: comical extras during tragic music, sexually charged actions in formal scenes, ugly sets to strip the music of its noble aura.
Simone Boccanegra. And then there’s Jetske Mijnssen’s direction. We have to admit: we’ve seen worse. The director “transposed” the opera to 1871, the year the revised version premiered. Two questions arise: 1) Why relocate? 2) Why 1871? The idea that the nineteenth-century costumes and sets place the characters in a world closer to Verdi himself than to medieval Genoa is utter nonsense. What is closest to Verdi is his own opera, and that is set in Genoa in the 13th (or 14th?) century.
Turandot. I love traditional productions as much as the next fellow, but I take Regie productions one at a time. Claus Guth’s Freudian look at Salome was the most potent and disturbing iteration of that opera I’ve ever seen, while the Met’s Carrie Cracknell-conceived Carmen is absolute junk – no Spanish flavor, and a second act that takes place in a moving railroad boxcar! If the audience is puzzled or disgusted, you’re doing something wrong. Worse, even, was Simon Stone’s Lucia di Lammermoor, now taking place in a run-down town in the American rust belt, peopled by drug addicts and cameramen filming the action. Wretched.
Simon Boccanegra.
Er was ook een regie, en we moeten zeggen: we hebben het erger gezien. Zij “verplaatste” de opera naar 1871, het premièrejaar van de herziening. Twee vragen vliegen ons gedachtenraam binnen: 1) Waarom verplaatsen? 2) Waarom 1881? Dat de negentiende-eeuwse kostuums en decors de personages in een wereld plaatsen die dichter bij Verdi zelf staat dan bij het middeleeuwse Genua is je reinste kul. Wat het dichtst bij Verdi staat, is zijn eigen opera, en die speelt in Genua, 13 eeuw (of 14e?), naar wij dachten.
ELEKTRA. Nothing is happening on stage. And the costumes do everything they can to maintain this sense of nothingness. Elektra is a car mechanic clad in overalls; she’s trying to fix the family car, but the damn thing won’t start, so she just sits down on a low wall to sing a little. Needless to say, in addition to the car, the inevitable video projection also made an appearance. In short, where are we here, what are people doing here, and why not? What artistic catastrophe is unfolding here?
ELEKTRA. Op het toneel gebeurt niets. En de kostuums doen er alles aan om deze nietsigheid in stand te houden. Elektra is een overall gehulde automonteuse; ze is bezig de auto van de familie te repareren, maar het kreng (de auto) wil niet starten, dus gaat ze maar een potje zitten zingen op een muurtje. Onnodig te vermelden dat er naast de auto ook de onvermijdelijke videoprojectie haar opwachting maakte. Kortom, waar zijn we hier, wat doet men hier en waarom niet. Welk artistieke catastrofe vindt hier plaats?
Pelléas et Mélisande. Sara Blanch was a superb Mélisande, attempting a diverse role, one requiring stamina, a middle voice, and total immersion in a character on stage for almost all the opera. She seems to be the same person on the outside, but is the victim of changing moods, and thus so it is in the music that we discover her performance’s beauties.
Wij van WC-Eend. Wanneer medewerkers van externe recensiewebsites tegelijk bijdragen leveren aan Odeon, wordt de discussie over journalistieke onafhankelijkheid gevoelig. In dit kleine cultureel ecosysteem van “opera in Nederland” lopen kritiek, toegang, netwerk en institutionele belangen door elkaar heen. Opera is tenslotte niet alleen een kunstvorm, maar ook een sociaal stelsel van foyers, premières, ons-kent-ons en daaruit voortvloeiende wederzijdse afhankelijkheden..
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\’.
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.