Not
surprisingly, one picks up a lot more of an opera performance when sitting
attentively in the theater and paying attention to the screen; not checking
email; not looking up odd words in the subtitles; not googling the baritone to
see what else he’s done, etc. There was a post not long ago over at
operaramblings about this phenomenon.
This
production is way more powerful than it was on YT. Guth’s
ideas about this story are predictably dark, but not necessarily as weird as
some of his other productions.
On
the big(ger) screen, I found Act 1 least engaging. It looks and sounds
like only half the chorus was offstage. The
chorus is not as spot-on as I’d hoped, perhaps because of the staging – Guth
seems either to be at a loss with blocking large groups or just doesn’t like to
do it. He frequently has them just standing about in some stodgy formation. He seems to
save his dramatic energy for the soloists, which of course is not a terrible
thing! The La Scala Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, on the other hand, is sharp and superb. Speaking
of sound, I thought I was having a hearing problem, but the audio on the copy
we saw clearly was compressed, as if for TV broadcast. Bits that should have
been overwhelmingly loud seemed to get cut back suddenly (and not subtly). This attenuated some of the dramatic musical effects.
The more
intimate scenes were more effective. Act
2 is so well acted: Ortrud is terrifying with Telramund; and when she
turned on the charm with Elsa, it made me giggle a bit (but quietly…I don’t
think you’re supposed to laugh during Lohengrin!) Another reviewer was less thrilled with the voices of the villains, but I
appreciate a soprano Ortrud who does not go all squally and shouty at the end.
I know she’s really annoyed, but…I don’t know, I think Ortrud can sound annoyed
without sounding ugly. (Even though I love Petra Lang, I really don’t care for
her sound in those final lines. Scary!) I believe Tómas Tómasson had a cold or the flu, but I thought he did a
great job in spite of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are very welcome! They won't be moderated; but rude, abusive, and/or radically off-topic posts will be removed.