#kinda like the bayerische staatsoper one

[shredsandpatches]

Eventually I am gonna watch this production of Mefistofele, ft. my guy John Relyea and a giant ball pit (it will be a while before I have time because February Choral Madness begins this week) but I just want to say how much I want those shoes.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

I know the opera ask is a couple days old but I was thinking and wanted to ask: What's a production of an opera you've seen that's mediocre/bad, and if you had the power to change it, how would you make it better?

There are a few that stick out as being Particularly Bad (which I think says a lot because I tend to be a very forgiving viewer). One production that jumps to mind is the Bayerische Staatsoper’s production of Les vêpres siciliennes.

Let me start by saying that a) (at least for the most part) the cast is fabulous and b) the production concept itself isn’t all that bad. Setting it in the 1800s? I actually prefer that over the original time period (the 1200s) tbh. Evoking the shadow of Mt. Etna? Well, we’re in Sicily, so sure. Procida being from another time period? A little weird, but okay, I’ll play along.

There are three major problems:

1. The production is incredibly ugly. This in and of itself isn’t bad— not all things should be beautiful, especially in such a violent opera— but it’s the cheap, garish, eyesore kind of ugly. I don’t know why everyone is put in whiteface and made up to look like they’re dead. I watched the production preview video and apparently it’s supposed to be like ‘under occupation you’re only half-alive’ or something, but even MONTFORT looks like that, so something that could have been effective kinda-sorta loses its impact. Also, some of the sets and costume pieces actually look like trash. (I swear to God that the masks are a) made out of paper and b) resemble those Halloween kindergarten ghost puppet thingies. Also one of the sets looks like somebody just decided to hang a huge tarp or trash bag from the rafters down to the stage and then...nothing else.)

2. The stage direction is...odd. It plays into the half-alive concept, I guess, but it mostly just comes off as extremely bizarre. The two big things I think of here are 1) there’s a scene where one of the characters starts throwing what appears to be raw meat in the middle of the stage and the chorus members start trampling each other in order to eat it and 2) Montfort has a huge water tank with what appears to be a life-size model of the Virgin Mary inside (although IIRC from reviews it was actually Henri’s mother, which is really creepy???)

3. Arguably the thing I dislike most about the production, THE BALLET. This is one of those ballets which I would prefer cut entirely, but that’s not my issue. My issue isn’t even that they moved the ballet to in between the last 2 acts. The issue I have is that THEY MIXED THE BALLET MUSIC WITH ELECTRONIC MUSIC I WISH I WERE KIDDING BUT I’M NOT. Like...seriously? Just leave the music be, would you, or cut it, not do whatever the hell it is you did with it? (It did not help matters that Erwin Schrott was forced to kick things off by loudly spelling the word ‘seasons’ into a microphone, but anyway.)

Let me repeat, not a bad concept, but I thought it was pretty poorly executed. I think I already mentioned how I’d want to do things differently, but honestly, I’d try to just make it more straightforward, not ‘???’

Anyway that’s my mini-rant for the day.