- This played without interruption, something over two hours. This is a better way to see this opera, and no doubt many others, than with intermissions. More a feel of whole cloth.
- Great music, great stagecraft, setting, lights. But...
- Costumes were another matter. The director tried to bring "modern relevance" to this opera by connecting it to -- can you believe this? -- the Holocaust, to which end he used what might be called Holocaust pajamas and 40s cocktail attire in various scenes. What a dumb idea.
- Lots of empty seats from the start. Wagner? No intermission?
- While far from perfect, this may be my favorite opera I've seen here.
Now someone should write a manual for directors that includes a chapter on what to do to rid yourself of any notion whatever about trying to make a story set in the past "modern" and "relevant to a modern audience." Anybody ever hear of the human condition? This story begins with a woman who falls in love with a picture. How in hell, in this age of Homo Consumerus, with images of studs and vamps on every magazine, TV screen and billboard in America, can anyone not understand the "modern relevance" of somebody falling in love with a picture?
Never in a zillion years did I imagine someone could do something related to the Holocaust that would make me laugh but this director did it, the moment I first saw, under the ship, all these sad looking dudes in their Holocaust pajamas. Give me a fucking break. What can you do but laugh at such gratuitous attempts at profundity?
Fortunately, these moments were few and easily ignored by closing your eyes and listening to the music. Except for the intrusion of "relevance," a fine production indeed!
2 comments:
I've not seen all of Der Fliegende Hollander, but at least I know the complete storyline...
And I cannot even fathom any way it can be used to depict the Holocaust at all. Especially if it was Anti-Holocaust.
Wagner is rolling over in his grave as a dramatist and as a Proto-Nazi.
It is well known Hitler used the Political and Philosophical writings of his favorite composer (and didn't have to misrepresent a word). Another bit of trivia is that Wagner's grand-daughter snuck Hitler his paper as he sat in jail writing Mein Kampf.
But anyway, what I am getting at: Even if a Wagner Music Drama could be contrived as an anti-Holocaust message, Wagner's own political and philosophical views (which, again, would have been in full support of Adolph Hitler AND the Holocaust) would be irrelevant.
Therefore, Wagner's intent could not possibly be shown in such a production.
This interpretation is NOT an anti-H one. As near as I can guess, the imagery is meant to communicate suffering.
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