To the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on Saturday for Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment with Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Florez. Quite Wonderful. A review will appear in due course.
The programme included various informative articles, including one about women appearing on stage in the guise of soldiers. But there is one aspect that neither the production nor the programme book addressed. As the opera opens, Marie has become a Vivandiere (translated as mess-girl). Now, these women were not noted for their morals and in the opera Marie has sworn to marry a member of the regiment, one of here 'Fathers'. This sexual aspect would, surely, have occurred to the French listeners, well the male ones as well, so that the entire performance would have had an underlying feel of the incest taboo, even if the stage events did not emphasise this. Thankfully Laurent Pelly chose to ignore this as well in his production.
Another area which he ignored was language. The troups, and Marie, are French, Tonio is Tyrolean and the Marquise is not French either, she's local. So there would have been a great deal of scope for mixing of accent and language in the dialogue. Something that was missed
Technorati tag:classical music, opera
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Zoe Martin) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro ; Mary Bevan, David Irela...
-
Wagner: The Flying Dutchman - Robert Hayward as The Dutchman and Edgaras Montvidas as Erik/ Steersman - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop) ...
-
Janáček: Jenůfa - Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila - Royal Opera (Photo: Camilla Greenwell/RBO) Janáček: Jenůfa; Corinne Winters, Karita Mat...
-
Last month (28 January), Cardiff University confirmed plans to close Cardiff University School of Music, a facility that has produced outsta...
-
Schubert Birthday Concert - Ammiel Bushakevitz, Konstantin Krimmel - Wigmore Hall (Image from Live Stream ) Schubert Birthday Concert : Sch...
-
Inner Temple Hall in its modern incarnation built in the 1950s Handel: Solomon; Tim Mead, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, Frances Gregory, Anna...
-
J.M.Synge's Riders to the Sea at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Ralph Vaughan Williams' operatic masterpiece, Riders to the Sea , his 19...
-
Concertos for the Left Hand : Ravel, Korngold; Mathias Halvorsen, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Otto Tausk; Backlash Music Reviewed 22 January ...
-
Katherine Potter: Eight Nocturnes; Katherine Potter, Adam Pinto; ABC Classic Reviewed 27 January 2025 Personal reflection, late night jazz a...
No comments:
Post a Comment