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Feb. 28th, 2010 10:44 pmSo I saw Attila last night. And oh man, it has cemented my love for Violeta Urmana. Her "Santa di patria" was amazing.
Anyway, I'm trying to write about the reasons the production was kind of ok, I guess, but not really effective in German, so I'm doing it here first because it's easier (and will probably make more sense in general.)
So, it's no secret that I prefer traditional settings. Mainly because I like the pretty clothes and sets, but also because modern settings tend to try to Say Things, because Opera is a Thing now, and not the pure entertainment it was created to be. Attila in particular. It's a very simple revenge plot; there's no reason to place the chorus under the action, or have Attila's tent/sleeping quarters be a circle in a leafy green scrim.
What I mean is that both of those things emphasize the distance of opera from life. Clearly the Hunnish horde wouldn't have broken into song at dramatic moments, nor would Attila; but as long as the chorus is fully integrated into the scene, or Attila sings in a space that mimics normal human space - a building, or a tent, it doesn't really matter, you can almost forget. As soon as the production is abstract, it's more about the decor than the music; the question "why" arises.
"Why," in this production, did they choose to set the prologue on what seemed like bombed concrete? Why, having done that, did they choose to keep the characters in something like ancient dress? and the bigger question of why they chose to have the chorus of Huns in shirts and pants or shorts. It creates distance from the music; in an ideal production the decor would work with the music to create a single unified whole.
Let it be noted that I'm not arguing against modern productions in general. If you really feel the need to do that, I can't stop you. However, one can have a modern production without making the staging isolating. It simply doesn't make sense for Attila to be about isolation; if you want that, put on Die Frau ohne Schatten or something that has any indication in the libretto that it's not a simple thriller.
Appropriateness is, I think, the biggest problem. Attila is, as I have said, a thriller. It makes as much sense to make it thinky as it would to produce The da Vinci Code a hundred years from now as a deep study of man's inhumanity to man.
Anyway, I'm trying to write about the reasons the production was kind of ok, I guess, but not really effective in German, so I'm doing it here first because it's easier (and will probably make more sense in general.)
So, it's no secret that I prefer traditional settings. Mainly because I like the pretty clothes and sets, but also because modern settings tend to try to Say Things, because Opera is a Thing now, and not the pure entertainment it was created to be. Attila in particular. It's a very simple revenge plot; there's no reason to place the chorus under the action, or have Attila's tent/sleeping quarters be a circle in a leafy green scrim.
What I mean is that both of those things emphasize the distance of opera from life. Clearly the Hunnish horde wouldn't have broken into song at dramatic moments, nor would Attila; but as long as the chorus is fully integrated into the scene, or Attila sings in a space that mimics normal human space - a building, or a tent, it doesn't really matter, you can almost forget. As soon as the production is abstract, it's more about the decor than the music; the question "why" arises.
"Why," in this production, did they choose to set the prologue on what seemed like bombed concrete? Why, having done that, did they choose to keep the characters in something like ancient dress? and the bigger question of why they chose to have the chorus of Huns in shirts and pants or shorts. It creates distance from the music; in an ideal production the decor would work with the music to create a single unified whole.
Let it be noted that I'm not arguing against modern productions in general. If you really feel the need to do that, I can't stop you. However, one can have a modern production without making the staging isolating. It simply doesn't make sense for Attila to be about isolation; if you want that, put on Die Frau ohne Schatten or something that has any indication in the libretto that it's not a simple thriller.
Appropriateness is, I think, the biggest problem. Attila is, as I have said, a thriller. It makes as much sense to make it thinky as it would to produce The da Vinci Code a hundred years from now as a deep study of man's inhumanity to man.
