Anne, It is broadcast in UK cinemas towards the end of the month, and we intend to go.
Last time I saw it, at the Edinburgh Festival, I could have cried with boredom. I really wanted to escape at half time, and it is a short opera. I do love the music, but a poor production is difficult to survive.
Saturday, January 24, 2009 ORFEO ED EURIDICE (1:00 p.m. EST / 12:00 p.m. CST / 11:00 a.m. MST / 10:00 a.m. PST/ 18:00 p.m. UTC; 19:00 p.m. CET) – Stephanie Blythe and Danielle de Niese star in Mark Morris’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. James Levine conducts.
The Edinburgh production had the Mark Morris dancers in it too. I cringed while watching Mark Morris himself, tossing his long locks about, stomping round like a sweaty carthorse, in a very short chiton and holding hands in chains of dancers weaving about aimlessly during all the ballet music. Hold in your mind's eye, someone who looks like Boy George as he is now overweight, DANCING. I am hoping he manages rather more inspired choriography and stays off the sodding stage.
As you can imagine, I am going for the singers. I hope Levine is in pixie mood. I don't want it to end up sounding like Parsifal. Stephanie Blythe has been superb on all the discs I have of her and the crit makes me eager to hear her in the opera. I must get hold of the tickets!
Mike
