Klarinet Archive - Posting 000536.txt from 2004/10

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Opera productions that should be damned
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 06:50:42 -0400

Matthew Lloyd wrote:

>I can't accept this. The reason for the way the production is done in a certain way shouldn't need to be explained.
>
><snipped for space>
>
>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.
>
>
>
>
I must agree with Matthew here. The point I feel he was making, and
that I concur with is that it is one thing to adapt staging and setting
of a work in which the timeless heart is intact. It is something else
entirely when that work is presented in such a way that it is obvious
that those presenting the work have no concept of the heart of the work
at all.

Certain "adaptations" come off as gratuitous and tacky, no matter when
they occur.

Patricia Smith

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