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In Reply to: RE: Oh please stop.... posted by Ivan303 on June 22, 2015 at 12:18:47
. . . you admit in your post above that you go for the music, not the setting. Hey, I love the music too (as I content myself with my Gergiev/Valencia Eurotrash production on blu-ray - better to turn off the video here, but at least the music is in hi-rez!).EDIT: BTW, I saw the SF Opera production of Les Troyens in LA's Shrine Auditorium in 1969 (I think that's the one Swed referred to in his review - Crespin doing both Cassandre and Didon!) - maybe it was a little dowdy, maybe it wasn't. At least it was respectful of the composer's vision.
Edits: 06/22/15Follow Ups:
The same production that played two years ago in London is available on BlueRay. Sorry, no Susan Graham. :-(
Lucky us, we got Susan Graham but not the top part of the sets as the War Memorial Opera House is to small and the had to lop off the top part of the sets. Still a real problem getting everything back stage along with parts of the orchestra and a HUGE chorus.
And the horse, of course!
I used to own that blu-ray too. It didn't stay around in my collection for very long. The staging on the Gergiev/Valencia album that I've kept was no improvement on the Pappano/ROH staging (i.e., they're both visually annoying IMHO), but as long as I was no longer going to play either one with the video turned on, I thought at least Gergiev conducted a more exciting performance. So, it was bye-bye Pappano. BTW, I used to have JEGgie on blu-ray too, which I jettisoned at the first opportunity. I DO try! ;-)
"JEGgie" is John Eliot Gardiner, right? I remember from the last thread, when I incorrectly guessed Gordon Getty. I'm going to have to put together a glossary so I can understand your posts. Well worth it, of course.
. . . there aren't that many blu-rays of Les Troyens, so you could have used the process of elimination too! ;-)
It DOES have Antonacci as Cassandra and Susan Graham in the lead role. ;-)
Like the staging or no, The San Francisco production with Graham and Hymel plus Antonacci as Cassandra was wonderful. Runnicles in the pit was likely better that either Pappano or (perish the thought) even JEG (on a good night).
Had a chance to chat up director Leah Hausman a few days before opening. We attended a 'free talk' at the Conservatory of Music which included a panel of the four main stars plus Runnicles and Hausman. After the talk we happened to see Leah walking past Hayes Street Grill. We said 'hi', thanked her for her talk and mentioned how much we looked forward to the opening night performance. She seemed quite comfortable chatting with two aging opera buffs and shared a bit of her experiences fitting this huge production with chorus and dancers into our small opera house.
With all of the talk of the production, the very best performance of the evening is Dido/Susan Graham singing her long Act IV aria alone in front of the curtain.
IMNSHO, the reviewer from LA is just being a 'dick'.
Agree with Steven Winn below:
"The Greeks and Trojans had much in common with the age of Napoleon III. David McVicar and his team (Es Devlin, Moritz Junge, Wolgang Göbbel), brilliantly captiure the expansive, extravagant spirit of Berlioz's time. France at its imperial peak, colonizing Africa and Asia. Paris was being rebuilt on a grand scale. Berlioz wasn't doing history re-enactment but writing to stun Paris with its audacity. His orchestration isn't the music of antiquity, but the most advanced and adventurous of its time. Berlioz isn't doing history re-enactment, and his audiences interpreted Virgil through the filters of Claude and Poussin."
Great stuff!
Europe, birthplace of Lego?
In the EU, do they call American productions "Ameritrash"?
. . . but the whole lame "Regietheater" movement (which is what I'm referring to when I use the term "Eurotrash" - "Regietheater" doesn't do justice to my contempt for it) began in Europe, not America. In any case, these productions are SO predictable and boring!
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