Klarinet Archive - Posting 000508.txt from 2004/10

From: "Thiel, Mark" <thielm@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] the Worst Scenery Ever
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:03:51 -0400


We've all, I'm sure, attended shows where the stage sets have been
irrelevant to the action, intensely annoying and incredibly stupid.
However, the scenery actually being noisy is a new one on me, but that's
what I experienced Friday at a performance of Traviata. This was a
touring production of the Stanislavsky Opera company (a Bolshoi
offshoot) at University of Missouri St. Louis. The sets consisted of 11
boxes, each about a meter square and 5 meters high which were arranged
in various configurations for each scene. The boxes had transparent
walls, lights of varying colors, contained confetti or some sort of
scraps of paper, and had blowers if the base to agitate the confetti
somewhat like enormous snow-globes. The brightly lit paper blowing
around created so much motion on stage it was often difficult to locate
the singers on stage. The blower noise started before the curtain came
up and was audible throughout the entire opera except in the loudest
parts. There was practically no furniture. Vi had just a mattress on
the floor to plop herself on occasionally during her dying act. Singers
and orchestra were competent, though the trombone was a bit blattier
than even a trombone need be on a couple occasions. If the musicianship
ever rose to excellence, I was way too annoyed by the noisy sets to
notice it.

Now what, you may be asking, relevance does this rant have to clarinets?
Oh, yes, clarinets -- I remember. The orchestra was a few (6+3+3+3+1)
strings, 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet!, NO bassoon!, 3
horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, 1 harp (I didn't see it -- must have been
camouflaged or upstairs), and 2 keyboards! (1 with a triangle hanging
from it), no other percussion or tympani. Now, I am in principle in
favor of bass clarinets taking over the world but having no bassoons
seems rather odd.

So, questions: Anyone know if there's a bassoon shortage in Russia?
And: Can anyone top this as far as annoying scenery?

Mark Thiel =20

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