Comments on: Beyond the Bathrobe http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=743 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 04:48:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.6 By: Francis http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=743&cpage=1#comment-39933 Francis Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:02:30 +0000 http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=743#comment-39933 I am delighted to see such a forum and think it is long overdue. As a transplanted American who has lived in Paris for the last few decades, I have seen the European opera scene transformed and energized by the simple idea of hiring important stage artists to create a new vision of a familiar work. Important American directors, like Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars, have worked in Europe for decades and have inspired countless young people to rethink what opera can be. Opera has lost its elitist image and enjoys a higher profile as a result. A good discussion of this movement - sometimes inspired, sometimes not - in America is long overdue. I am delighted to see such a forum and think it is long overdue. As a transplanted American who has lived in Paris for the last few decades, I have seen the European opera scene transformed and energized by the simple idea of hiring important stage artists to create a new vision of a familiar work.
Important American directors, like Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars, have worked in Europe for decades and have inspired countless young people to rethink what opera can be. Opera has lost its elitist image and enjoys a higher profile as a result. A good discussion of this movement – sometimes inspired, sometimes not – in America is long overdue.

]]> By: Batty Masetto http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=743&cpage=1#comment-39326 Batty Masetto Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:11:19 +0000 http://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?p=743#comment-39326 Scary to be the first here! This is a wonderful idea, and I hope it gets the amount of response it deserves. A disclaimer in advance. For me, opera, when it works, is the most powerful form of theater western civilization has ever devised. But that means I automatically respond to it as theater, not as a concert in fancy clothes, and a performance by a bunch of posturing canary birds just gives me a headache, no matter how pretty the singing was. As I see it there are several major difficulties with the whole problem of “regie” – or more properly speaking, people’s reactions to it. First, directing opera – or in fact any kind of theater – can be hellishly difficult. Anything can undermine it, from sudden budget cuts to technical glitches to clueless singers throwing their weight around to a maestro who absolutely refuses to go along with the timing necessary for your ideas. Rehearsal schedules are usually totally unrealistic, and a director is incredibly lucky if 75% of what was intended actually shows up in some recognizable form onstage. Yet people judge as though everything that appears were fully intended. Well, OK. “Never apologize, never explain.” But still … Second, very few people can see opera direction itself. They can like or hate the sets or costumes, or various gestures or moments, but they can’t see when performers are going against the whole grain of the production, or failing to realize key character points or essential moments. And they also can’t see when a production is just skating across the surface, refusing to engage with the real issues the work raises. As long as the performance goes along with their preconceived notions, they’re happy and think somehow the direction was good – when it may really have been crappy. (I.e., bad blocking, futzed focus, clichéd choices, etc.) Third, opera, unlike conventional theater, is still partly burdened by the canard of the “composer’s intent.” Shakespeare would be incomprehensible if we pronounced the language the way he heard it, and almost certainly would not work for a modern audience if we used only the level of technical stagecraft available in his day. (Not to mention the orange-sellers yelling in the pit.) Few Shakespeare productions today make much attempt at any kind of historicity, and audiences are perfectly happy. Yet people still labor under the illusion that the exact way Donizetti would have visualized the theater – terrible lighting, bad sets, totally non-historical costuming, audiences having a nice chat between arias, acting that was totally hit-or-miss and for most people today revoltingly stylized – somehow sets a standard that must absolutely be applied today. (What they usually really mean is that this is how they saw it with Milanov or whoever in 1953 and it must NEVER change!) Shakespeare is actually a pretty good example. People have been doing him in stripped-down, modernized, reinterpreted productions since the 1930s or earlier, and it’s now understood that a reconceptualized version of Troilus and Cressida, for example, may have plenty that’s valid and interesting to say about the play. Why can’t the same thing apply to Aïda? So kudos again on the idea, and I hope to see lots of smart discussion. Scary to be the first here! This is a wonderful idea, and I hope it gets the amount of response it deserves.

A disclaimer in advance. For me, opera, when it works, is the most powerful form of theater western civilization has ever devised. But that means I automatically respond to it as theater, not as a concert in fancy clothes, and a performance by a bunch of posturing canary birds just gives me a headache, no matter how pretty the singing was.

As I see it there are several major difficulties with the whole problem of “regie” – or more properly speaking, people’s reactions to it.

First, directing opera – or in fact any kind of theater – can be hellishly difficult. Anything can undermine it, from sudden budget cuts to technical glitches to clueless singers throwing their weight around to a maestro who absolutely refuses to go along with the timing necessary for your ideas. Rehearsal schedules are usually totally unrealistic, and a director is incredibly lucky if 75% of what was intended actually shows up in some recognizable form onstage. Yet people judge as though everything that appears were fully intended. Well, OK. “Never apologize, never explain.” But still …

Second, very few people can see opera direction itself. They can like or hate the sets or costumes, or various gestures or moments, but they can’t see when performers are going against the whole grain of the production, or failing to realize key character points or essential moments. And they also can’t see when a production is just skating across the surface, refusing to engage with the real issues the work raises. As long as the performance goes along with their preconceived notions, they’re happy and think somehow the direction was good – when it may really have been crappy. (I.e., bad blocking, futzed focus, clichéd choices, etc.)

Third, opera, unlike conventional theater, is still partly burdened by the canard of the “composer’s intent.” Shakespeare would be incomprehensible if we pronounced the language the way he heard it, and almost certainly would not work for a modern audience if we used only the level of technical stagecraft available in his day. (Not to mention the orange-sellers yelling in the pit.) Few Shakespeare productions today make much attempt at any kind of historicity, and audiences are perfectly happy. Yet people still labor under the illusion that the exact way Donizetti would have visualized the theater – terrible lighting, bad sets, totally non-historical costuming, audiences having a nice chat between arias, acting that was totally hit-or-miss and for most people today revoltingly stylized – somehow sets a standard that must absolutely be applied today. (What they usually really mean is that this is how they saw it with Milanov or whoever in 1953 and it must NEVER change!)

Shakespeare is actually a pretty good example. People have been doing him in stripped-down, modernized, reinterpreted productions since the 1930s or earlier, and it’s now understood that a reconceptualized version of Troilus and Cressida, for example, may have plenty that’s valid and interesting to say about the play. Why can’t the same thing apply to Aïda?

So kudos again on the idea, and I hope to see lots of smart discussion.

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