Klarinet Archive - Posting 000564.txt from 2004/10

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] OT: (almost) Carmen, baseball & music; was, Opera productions that
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:47:36 -0400

Lelia Loban wrote:

>Exactly -- but some wildly revisionist, modernist productions do work, such as the 1983 Spanish (Emiliano Piedra) flamenco film of "Carmen," directed by Carlos Saura. I think it's outstanding. This version has a modern, flamenco staging of the original "Carmen" as the setting for a parallel modern story of jealousy and murder among the dancers...
>
>(Anyone else overdosing on baseball playoffs...?)
>
>
>
Lelia,

the 1938 flamenco adaptation of Carmen that you mention sounds like a
modernization that keeps the heart of the work intact. In this
situation, modernization is not an attempt to banalize the work; it is
simply a change in setting, staging and style. (I would LOVE to see this
- flamenco dancing ...wow!) This doesn't sound like a
sensationalization of elements of the plot, in order to exploit the fame
of the opera, as it did in the case of the production of Don Giovanni
that Matthew was talking about.

As for baseball, I don't ever get tired of it; I'd best not, one of my
sons is a baseball player -- though I wish it was the Baltimore Orioles
pounding the c*** out of the Yankees instead of the Red Sox. Oh, well,
THAT is as much or more wishful thinking as wishing every single reed in
a box of Vandorens would play. :p

Patricia Smith

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