Klarinet Archive - Posting 000528.txt from 2004/10

From: "Matthew Lloyd" <matthew@-----.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Opera productions that should be damned
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 19:15:41 -0400

I can't accept this. The reason for the way the production is done in a
certain way shouldn't need to be explained.

In addition I find your comments about "many youngsters" patronising and
the suggestion that opera was the pop music of the day fatuous.

Don Giovanni (to take the example I was talking about) is first and
foremost a work of genius that deserves respect. Respect was the one
thing that it did not have.

Had I seen that as the first opera I had been to, rather than Karl Bohm
conducting Cosi fan Tutti in a traditional production at Covent Garden
would I be more or less likely to be a subscriber to Covent Garden now?
Much less likely I would suggest.

I have nothing against modern production - indeed I am taking my wife to
see the current modern dress Cosi at Covent Garden on Saturday as it is
superb (I saw it a couple of weeks ago). What I don't accept is
productions that display no sympathy, empathy or even knowledge of the
opera itself.

Would you put a bit of beat to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto if it would
make it more hip with the youngsters? If not, why do the same (or at
least an analogous adaptation) to one of his operas.

Matthew Lloyd

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Truesdail [mailto:gir@-----.net]
Sent: 19 October 2004 23:59
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Opera productions that should be damned

Don't put down a musical production unless you are aware of the reason
behind the scene that made it what it is that you dislike.

Many youngsters don't understand that at one time Opera and chamber
ensemble performances were the POP genre of their time. Maybe some of
the opera productions of today are trying to reach out to a new
audience. My hat is off to them as it must take a lot of "guts" to spend

big bucks on an experimental audience. There must be many of these
attempts made and over a period of time until a successful "hit" is made

and a new generation of ticket purchasers is enticed into the arena of
live musical performance and in an area of music that was once
considered "hoity toity".

I have played several operas and ballets and enjoyed every one of them.
They are permanently engraved in my memory as world class compositions.

It takes gimmics, pleading, free tickets, etc., to get new, unexposed
persona to participate in a musical form that is unfamiliar to them.
Sometimes a background scenery set, being designed to be "out of the
box" looking can draw in a different set of patrons. It must be very
difficult for set designers and coreographers to try to "top" all
previous attempts to make their version "new" and "fresh" worthy of
buying a ticket to see what you have already seen numerous times.

If the current comments regarding a dumb, non-functional set is truly a

comment about the set then OK.

GaryT

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