#Hans Schavernoch.

[fitzrove]

Like omfg guys you don't even get it. Set designer Hans Schavernoch went "to symbolise the kitschified spectacle people made of empress Elisabeth's life we will put in a bunch of circus/funfair stuff like spinning mirrors, carousels, ferris wheels, bumper cars, gigantic crowns and cash registers and such :)"

Except for Schatten 1 & 2 we will put an exact replica of the funeral hearse used to transport these people's corpses IRL. Hope that helps xx

LIKE THEY TOOK THIS FROM US!!! They took this from us and replaced it with a cringefail potocopy winged boat and/or mark seibert with a whip!!!! Murder!!!!!! Murder!!!! Robbery!

[operaeoperanews]

DON GIOVANNI, pesanti bocconi da gigante

DON GIOVANNI, pesanti bocconi da gigante

DON GIOVANNI, pesanti bocconi da gigante – Mozart a Vienna – 

Review by Neco Verbis © dibartolocritic

Vai a Vienna, ti godi la città sembre bella e ospitale nonostante il freddo, ti sorbisci anche il balletto di repertorio, sia pur grazioso, qualche giorno prima, e aspetti con trepidazione un Don Giovanni da manuale…

Invece il 29 gennaio 2017 il Don Giovanni di Mozart andato in scena alWiener…

[loosealcina]

RICHARD WAGNER’S DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG AT LA SCALA, APRIL 5, 2017

I'll state right away that this Meistersinger experience (a first for me) was a pretty disorienting one. First and foremost, it's strange of Richard Wagner to deliver such a work. I can't say I wasn't warned; every single piece of writing on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg points out it's an outlier: the only Wagner comedy (there would be Das Liebesverbot, but…), the only Wagner mature opera with a real/historical setting and no sign of supernatural activity whatsoever… I knew it all right by the time the curtain raised. The problem is, it's much punchier in the flesh. At times I was like, please give me a dragon. Some angry god, a wicked spell. I'll even settle for a small-time prophecy, but I need it now… It was that severe. (It's not like I crave sorcerers, myth, and fairies no matter what. Given I can't erase the hours I spent in the company of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Tristan und Isolde, everything about Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg—subject, music, words—is at risk of feeling… what's the word… small). At the same time, this opera generates a great many questions. Is it a deliberate detour, a sort of intermezzo in the middle of a long string of serious numbers? Was it meant to be a dissertation on the very nature of art? And what are we supposed to do with the German art thing that pops up during Hans Sachs's final outburst? I think it would take a lot of time—and it would be fun, as well—to discuss these topics. Unfortunately, Harry Kupfer's staging (created in Zürich in 2012; scenes by Hans Schavernoch, costumes by Yan Tax, lights by Jürgen Hoffmann) was the opposite of a catalyst for any kind of discussion.

It just embraced the lively/joyous side of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, placing it somewhere between Hogwarts and a very tame version of Broadway. That's it. (It also looked like someone in the costume/makeup/hair department has seen Manhattan [the WGN America series about the Manhattan Project] and is having a crush on Rachel Brosnahan, 'cause the master singers' female apprentices were dead ringers for the character she plays). The orchestra conducted by Daniele Gatti was crisp, energetic, and colorful; yet I'd say their effort was ultimately hampered by (if partly responsible for) a lack of dramatic depth. There were beautiful details (as an example, the horns' interventions were both forceful and perfectly even), and there were memorable moments too. The Prelude came off as a fiery, luminous stand-alone extravaganza. The great wacky brawling sequence that closes Act II (a fugue) put on another massive, exuberant wall of sound. The Prelude to Act III—I loved its brooding cellos and double basses. And I was captivated by the dreamy Act III quintet «Selig, wie die Sonne», which I thought was definitely reminiscent of Der Rosenkavalier. As for the cast, I liked the relatively laid-back approach of Michael Kupfer-Radecky (Hans Sachs) and Markus Werba (Sixtus Beckmesser). Jacquelyn Wagner was sweet and elegant as Eva, but my favorite performance of the night was Anna Lapkovskaja's in the smaller role of Magdalene: her mesmerizing, original phrasing was a natural showstopper, and left me wanting for more.