Reply With QuoteThe eyepatch needs work, try some flashy sequins and rhinestones........but be careful we don't want to be too flambouyantOriginally Posted by Clayton
Stop with the Haight Ashbury colors, already - you're giving me flashbacks!
The eyepatch needs work, try some flashy sequins and rhinestones........but be careful we don't want to be too flambouyant
The first and third act of La Monnaie's production of Jenůfa, with a kind of exaggerated Czech folkoloric design with an Art Nouveau flavour, are probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in opera:
The stills don't do it justice because you need the movement from the line up of dancers behind the main characters, the Art Nouveau projections, and the very stylised gestures of the principal characters.
Many critics have commented about the disjoint between these two acts and the middle one, which takes place in a gritty naturalised "kitchen sink drama" set inside Jenůfa's home.
It made sense to me when I realised that we were looking at the contrast between the public false-idyll of village life, and the dark interior secrets that small-mindedness and gossip can force on the on those who transgress against the social mores of society.
Emma Matthews as Jenůfa and Charles Workman as Laca were both wonderful, but really the whole cast made this a very powerful experience.
You can still catch it on Cuturebox, and I recommend you do.
Natalie
For a change from my usual diet of Italian and French operas...
I really enjoyed Julie Taymor's 1992 movie of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.
It's very multicultural. The music was composed by a Russian; the libretto written by a French poet and sung in Latin. The narration is in Japanese, with English subtitles. It has a good international cast including Jessye Norman.
It successfully blends opera with classical Greek drama and traditional Japanese theatre. The dancers and singers wear sculptures based on prehistoric museum pieces.
It can be confusing at first that sometimes one character is portrayed by two people on stage, a singer and also an actor/dancer nearby. That works well once you get what's going on.
Oedipus is the last person to realize what the two witnesses (a soldier and a shepherd) have implied - that he killed his father and married his mother. Finally it dawns on him, and he isn't happy about it.
Last edited by Soave_Fanciulla; January 4th, 2018 at 08:46 PM.
I've watched it & agree with Nat.The first and third act of La Monnaie's production of Jenůfa, with a kind of exaggerated Czech folkoloric design with an Art Nouveau flavour, are probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in opera:
You can still catch it on Cuturebox, and I recommend you do.
"Every theatre is an insane asylum, but an opera theatre is the ward for the incurables."
FRANZ SCHALK, attributed, Losing the Plot in Opera: Myths and Secrets of the World's Great Operas
Again thanks to Medici TV, I watched a good production of Khovanshchina from la Monnaie. The two stand-outs were Willard White singing the role of ruthless and lustful Prince Ivan Khovansky, and the final scene in which the schismatic "Old Believers" gather in the forest to kill themselves and avoid capture. Each believer held a candle, and one by one they extinguished their candles and fell to the floor, until it was covered with unmoving bodies. Very powerful.
Natalie
Today I had the most bizarre dream about Britney Spears playing Sesto in Giulio Cesare. I believe it was a sign from God telling me to rewatch this.
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Julie Taymor is masterful creator of visual images with an imagination and visual excitement that I find just thrilling, her recent MET Magic Flute is a revelation in visual beauty and effective story telling of fantasy and abstract concepts......if only her prodigious visionary talents would have been used for recent huge budget MET Ring in stead of the contrived cumbersome visual albatross that is "the machine"
Last edited by Soave_Fanciulla; January 4th, 2018 at 08:46 PM.
halochef liked this post
I never thought of that, DA. A Julie Taymor Ring - it's a brilliant idea. Maybe you have a 2nd career ahead of you after Peter Gelb leaves the Met ...Julie Taymor is masterful creator of visual images with an imagination and visual excitement that I find just thrilling, her recent MET Magic Flute is a revelation in visual beauty and effective story telling of fantasy and abstract concepts......if only her prodigious visionary talents would have been used for recent huge budget MET Ring in stead of the contrived cumbersome visual albatross that is "the machine"
Festat, I about fell over when I read your posting!Today I had the most bizarre dream about Britney Spears playing Sesto in Giulio Cesare. I believe it was a sign from God telling me to rewatch this.
The only thing worse in your would-be production is if Ethel Merman also was cast as Cleopatra.
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I'm a blind stag when it comes to who Britney Spears is (no idea) but that Giulio Cesare has got to be the single biggest reason for me getting a DVD/Blue-ray player.
halochef liked this post
Do it! Do it! Do it!
Natalie
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No, don't! No, don't!
Had to have a wallow in glorious music, fantastic production and wonderful singing (and acting, particularly from the silent actress who played Marie).
Oh, and I have a new baritone-love: Markus Eiche
Last edited by Soave_Fanciulla; June 9th, 2014 at 10:25 AM.
Natalie
Just watched the Jenůfa Natalie mentioned a couple of posts above and, man, it screams for a blu-ray issue! Even the second act, which is kind of meant to be ugly, is gorgeous. Those old, worn out walls are so beautifully done they deserve close-ups.
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