What concerts are you looking forward to? (Part II)

[(poco) Sforzando]

I got to interview the director of that Carmen when that exact recreation-production was here in Dallas. (It premiered in Paris with Bru Zane.) They were actually afraid that people would hate it! They see this as an experiment to find out whether today's audiences will still enjoy the style of opera production. Suffice to say the question has been answered. 

Much more detail about that production at this link.

I'd like to see an Escamillo in high heels.

[JBS]

Brian, thanks for weighing in with that great article! Really engrossing in many ways, from the lighting issues, to Marina Viotti's "best metal" Grammy.

And of course, this makes sense. Part of me longs for the chance to see productions from the past, especially if highly praised. But then, ephemerality is a given in this art form.

At least some from the last few decades are available in video format.
Of the few I've seen, the one that should have been preserved but wasn't was Chagall's Mozart Flute.

There was apparently a book documenting it.

https://www.amazon.com/Chagall-Zauberflote-Mozart-Metropolitan-Opera/dp/B000HW5RX6

[Wanderer]

This production looks like a fascinating artifact of its time. Bravo to the GNO for going to the trouble of recreating it. As an aside, I often wonder why opera companies don't revive productions from the past, especially if the sets haven't been destroyed.

Also, good for you, going more than once. I fully affirm attending any opera or concert multiple times, if it's something you like. After all, then it's gone, and who knows when it will return.

It's indeed a fascinating production. It's a co-production with Palazzetto Bru Zane and the operas of Versailles and Rouen.
While I understand the "artifact of its time" feeling, I'd say this one goes well beyond that. To me, something like the Bieito Carmen I saw in Paris a couple of years back (with the car on stage and the full male nudity (thankfully I wasn't too close to the stage for that one)) feels more like a true artifact of its time - in its limiting sense. What I saw yesterday struck me as genuinely timeless. It's obviously modern too, especially in the choreography and crowd interactions. The sets and costumes add an immediate sense of immersion and the whole directorial concept is an extremely successful and felicitous mix of modern and historical. The original scenic directions were often quite sparse, so the production isn't slavishly 1875; it feels remarkably right.
One aspect that benefits enormously is clarity. In this staging the libretto one hears and reads is not merely a suggestion, it is fully and intelligently represented visually and dramatically (and quirkily) on stage. Intended subtext is not lost in translation. This is something that many Regie productions tend to downplay or even dismiss but which I think is very important. A perfect example is the presentation of the bullfighters in Act IV: their costumes, props and movements actually show you what these people are doing (taunting the bull, placing banderillas, etc.), so the text isn't just a catalog of terminology. It becomes the believable backdrop to the tragic scene that follows.
Carmen herself shows very little actual skin, yet she's more alluring and seductive than in any modern production I've seen. Of course this is as much about the quality of the leading lady as it is about the production itself. Arquez is a wonderful actress as well as a great singer, and the choreography played beautifully to her strengths. Castronovo was also a very dramatic José; he really brought home that this opera is as much the story of his own ruin as it is about Carmen (in the same way that Jenůfa is as much about Kostelnička as it is about Jenůfa). I'm very curious to see what Carè will do with the role tonight.

And as for your second note, I completely agree. I love going to operas and concerts multiple times when possible and the performance is truly worthwhile. In opera you also get to compare different casts this way. I've done it quite often; the most "extreme" case was after a particularly thrilling Sonnambula here in Athens, when I bought tickets for four more performances spread across the month. I've also done it abroad with Das Wunder der Heliane, Mahler 2, Mahler 8, Turangalîla, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, the Busoni Piano Concerto and quite a few others. As you said, once it's gone, you never know when (or if) you'll have the chance to see it again. And it's true about performers as it is about repertoire.

[brewski]

Your comment about "clarity" really rings true. If a production and the artists don't communicate what the opera is "about," then might as well stay home and listen to a recording. And it sounds like they used the original production as a starting point, keeping things that were well-defined, but filling in some blanks for elements that were not. That is savvy direction.

[ritter]

Just bought tickets for next Friday's concert of the Spanish National Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus (RTVE) at the Teatro Monumental (around the corner from my home here in Madrid), under the baton of music director Christoph König. The works on the programme are a suite from the Falla / E. Halffter Atlántida (with vocal soloists Sonia de Munck, Maite Beaumont and Adam Kutny) and a purely orchestral suite from Strauss's Elektra.

[Wanderer]

A superb and magnificently sung Rosenkavalier yesterday at the Wiener Staatsoper. Today, Mahler 8 (Wiener Philharmoniker/Nelsons).