Who would have thought, sharing a slate with Tristan, Ballo, Rigoletto, Manon, Carmen and Don Giovanni, that a production of Gluck(!) featuring one prop, no furniture, entirely black costumes, a pit chorus, some chalk and water would be the season's dramatic high point? Brava, Susan Graham, and bravo with extra air kisses to production director Robert Carsen. Regardless of what's going on at La Scala, he did something completely right here.
Simplicity in an opera production is probably the hardest thing to pull off successfully, so I'd like to join you in your air kisses for director Robert Carsen. His "Dialogues of the Carmelites" at La Scala a few years ago was similar -- a totally bare stage surrounded by hundreds of supernumeraries in rags representing the revolutionary mob, and it worked as well as the Gluck.
Besides Susan Graham, I was also knocked out by the performances of Bo Skovhus and Paul Groves as the homoerotic pair of Orestes and Pleyades. Instead of being silly, they were actually touching. Glad you crawled out of your sickbed for this.
Posted by: sfmike | Jun 27, 2007 at 09:31 AM
More air kisses to Carsen. I recently did his production of Carmelites at the Lyric and was surprised at how well the concept worked.
I also very much enjoyed Iphegenie. Susan Graham is fantastic. I can't imagine anyone else doing this role.
What did you think of the Giovanni, by the way? Considering all of the Hope Briggs/Donna Anna drama? I saw it and was impressed by Van der Heever, as well as Mariusz Kwiecien (sp?) and Twyla Robinson.
And if you haven't seen Rosenkav yet, I highly recommend it. DiDonato is fabulous.
Posted by: Rachel | Jun 29, 2007 at 11:43 PM
someday i'll find time to post something coherent about this. for now i'll just say that i was glad to be there to witness opening night.
Posted by: M. C- | Jul 19, 2007 at 11:47 PM