Opera Time!

I have two papers due tomorrow and yet I went to the 5-hour production of Verdi’s Don Carlos. In Stehplatz (standing room.) They were able to keep the drama and energy going the whole show. I was not bored once, although my concentration was sometimes tested. A lot of people left at intermission. I love Verdi. My favorite was the Eboli, although the father did an excellent job as well. I didn’t like the timbre of the tenor’s voice, but I’m picky about tenors. They often sound screechy or yelly (bellowy). This one was the latter. I was not sure, but I think some people booed him. Sad times.

The concept for this production was somewhat odd. The first act was completely period, but after, it just got weirder and weirder. The set was white with 6 short doors on either side and 6 in the back, from which the singers made their entrances and exits. That was fine. Then intermission came. I was with a friend who’d gone to another night of the production and she told me that we should go to the grand staircase, but didn’t tell me why. They had screens up all over and people with cameras feeding directly to them. I was on the big screen a few times because I was right at the bottom of the staircase. After about ten minutes an actress playing a reporter announced that the King and Queen of Spain were coming! (Don Carlos is about the Spanish royal family.) They started by taking actors playing the prisoners awaiting execution and taking them through the operahouse, accompanied by policemen beating them in slow-mo. Then the actors playing the four main roles walked in from outside in modern cocktail wear, posed at the head of the staircase not 7 feet from me and walked back in the theatre. All the lights were up and they started the ball scene, Act 3, Scene 2. No one in the audience really knew if it was part of the opera or what. The weirdest part was when the prisoners were begging for a stay of execution and some ushers FLYERED the Staatsoper, as in threw flyers from all the balconies. The rest of the show was somewhat normal. I liked how they made the opera more interactive, but, a) it made the opera 5 hours long and b) the Act 3, Scene 2 part was really distracting. I still don’t know what it was about.

I’m afraid all these performances will irrevocably raise my standards and I won’t be able to sit through anything in the States anymore.

I’m afraid all these performances will irrevocably raise my standards and I won’t be able to sit through anything in the States anymore.

Ugh. Paper time.