As Seen on Facebook – Devil, Dogs, and Discomfort

The devil you say!

Just when you thought Luca couldn't get any hotter.
(In Faust at the Houston Grand Opera.)

It's a dog's life.

Lenny and Tristan chillin!

This looks like it will be a dramatic and appropriately uncomfortable rendering of Mozart's problematic opera (though probably not as icky as the Bieito production!) After all, the it's not the Rescue from the Seraglio, it’s the Kidnapping (abduction is too romantic a word). This blogger looks forward to a video!

Pavol Breslik "rescues" Olga Peretyako in the new
Zurich production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail.  

Watching the Radio – Opera on Concerthuis 4

From Radio 4 in the Netherlands: More reasons to spend time in front of your computer!

Handel: Orlando* 

Bejun Mehta

Sunhae Im

Lenneke Ruiten

Rene Jacobs conducting (2014)

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte

Miah Persson

Topi Lehtipuu

Daniel Schumutzhard

Rene Jacobs conducting (2012)

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Anders Dahlen

Lenneke Ruiten

Cynthia Seiden

Frans Brüggen conducting (2011)

Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa

Lado Ataneli

Gelena Gaskarova

Yuri Kissin

Alexander Vedernikov conducting (2014)

Happy listening!

*This one is great fun! I just finished listening to it, and I'm ready to do it again!

Monday Mozart – Ach Belmonte! Ach mein Leben!

This is Christof Loy’s interpretation of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Loy’s visions don’t always work for me (sometimes they just look low budget), but this performance does work on several levels. I also like the HIP feeling from the Ivor Bolton and the orchestra.

This quartet is the finale of Act 2  (and one of my favorite parts of the opera—it’s almost a little opera by itself), when the lovers are reunited for the first time. We know Konstanze has mixed feelings about seeing Belmonte again (as usual). She starts to go to him, then goes past him; he has to catch her. It seems Belmonte may not be too far off the mark when he asks if she’s in love with Selim. Pedrillo and Blonde seem to be on better terms, and they make up quickly (Pedrillo seems a lot more contrite than Belmonte). Meanwhile, Konstanze is not happy with Belmonte, even as they sing "Viva Love!"

Gratuitous Friday – Thomas Ebenstein on "Open Mike Night"

From the Jedermann Bühne (Everyman Stage – kind of an “open mike in the plaza”) in Salzburg, Thomas Ebenstein sings Pedrillo's lovely little ballad from Act 3 of Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Im Mohrenland gefangen war. (The guitarist is not awesome, but then again, he’s not why I posted this clip, is he?) This was recorded this past summer, before the Hangar 7 TV production of Die Entführung.

Servus.TV präsentiert 

Thomas Ebenstein auf die Salzburger Jedermann Bühne

Die Entfürhung aus Hangar 7 – The Review

From the folks who brought you La Traviata in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, this Servus TV production, which is part of this summer's Salzberger Festpielen, is novel and pleasant. But ultimately, it’s more of a spectacle than a drama-with-music. 

Clearly, from an acoustic standpoint, an airplane hangar is a less-than-optimal setting for the singers, and ensemble work is occasionally dodgy. On the other hand, given the obstacles, the singers do remarkably well. Of course, such flaws are part of the excitement of live performance. The acting and singing range from OK to quite good and the visuals are almost always fun, fascinating, or at least interesting. All that is to say it’s a fun cool experiment, and if it gets more people even superficially interested in opera, then job well done.

Re-Abducted – Mozart in Hangar 7, Part 2

Blonde (Rebecca Nelsen) rocks out in rehearsal.

1. The wonderful Blonde in this production is Rebecca Nelsen. (She's a new discovery for me but Smorgy interviewed  her a few years ago. I need to catch up!)
2. You can see a much higher quality video than the one on the Tube of Yoo (and some nifty rehearsal photos) at the Servus TV website.

Abduction from Hangar 7 – Salzburger Festspiele Fernsehproduktion

On August 26, Hangar-7 at the Salzburg Airport was transformed into an event location resounding with culture, when Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, produced especially for TV viewers in co-production with ServusTV, was broadcast live from there. 

I just found this copy of the broadcast. Watch it before it disappears. We'll chat about it later.

(Updates 9/9/2013: 1. Rebecca Nelsen is Blonde in this production. 2. You can see a much higher quality video at the Servus TV website.) 

Lighten Up People. It's Only Opera!

I love love love love love love opera.

I love to watch it, sing it, listen to it, write about it, read about it, watch it, listen to it…oh, I said that already. 

But for heaven's sake, people, it's OPERA. It’s a vital and living art form. It’s probably the highest art form the western world has to offer. It’s more than an art form—it’s a composite art form: Music, Dance, Singing, Scenery, Lighting, Words, Instruments, Acting…

Gratuitous Friday – Richard Croft is Belmonte

Richard Croft rocks Belmonte in this 1990 performance from
the Drottingholm Palace Theater. This difficult aria from Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail is often cut, and many tenors (unwittingly) demonstrate why that's a good idea. 

In this case, keeping it in was an even better idea.

Curtain Calls and Scene Changes

For some reason, when watching an opera video, I really dislike seeing the curtain calls between scenes and after each act. But I don't mind at all seeing behind-the-scenes stuff.  In the Met HD Elisir, I liked seeing the (excruciatingly long) set change between scenes in Act 1. In the Neuenfels' Lohengrin you can see the chorus getting ready for the final scene, and during the prelude to Act 3, there is a specially produced video of backstage stuff. But those are video-only bits. The audience in the opera house doesn't see that. It's part of the video production. 

This video continues past the Act 3 Prelude. 

The mice/rats singing of the Bridal Procession 

is pretty cool (and yes, a little weird.)

I guess that maybe why it doesn't bother me. Scene changes don't take me out of the drama, because changing the scenery is part of the production. I enjoy the mechanics of theater. Sometimes you even get to see the scenery changes right on stage (e.g., the wonderful Minghella Butterfly) and those changes really are part of the show.  Somehow that artificiality is not distracting to me. 

Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Stuttgart, 1998 (Part 2: Buy One, Get One Free)

Konstanze & Belmonte 2 (far L & R)
congratulate the singers after a
lovely performance of the Act 2 Finale.

Double casting Entführung (or any opera) raises questions. What's the difference between the singing and the acting on stage? What separates the singers from the actors? What brings them together? Are we supposed to recognize each pair as playing one character? Don't you just love it when my reviews degenerate into a list of questions?

Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Stuttgart, 1998 (Part 1: Double Fun)

A lot of folks have already written thoughtfully about this Hans Neuenfels' Die Entführung aus dem Serail , so I will stick with some observations that I think are my own and that I think no one else has pointed out, or at least not dwelt on as much. In this production, Neuenfels has cast each role (save one) with both a singer and an actor. But not in a way that you might be expecting. 

Konstanze and Belmonte 1 (center) have decided to die for love.
No one else thinks this is a very good idea.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich, 1980 (Part 2: It Must Never Excite Disgust)

(This is actually the quartet at the end of Act 3)

I’d forgotten how much beautiful music there is in this opera. My current favorite is the quartet at the end of Act 2. The nobles and servants each get slightly different styles of music, although when the men beg forgiveness, Pedrillo takes his cues from Belmonte, and echos his entreaties. This scene could be the basis for a whole opera, and the conflict is over pretty fast. But I don’t thing Mozart meant us to take this story very seriously.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich, 1980 (Part 1: Time to Get Down On Your Knees!)

The booklet with this DVD of Die Entführung aus dem Serail contains liner notes from 1980 that defend the idea of opera on film. Nowadays, we take it for granted—film or video being medium through which most of us get to experience more “live” opera than we otherwise would. I appreciated the 1980s camera work, which captured the live experience well. I noticed when fast-forwarding that there are not a lot of edits, or different camera angles. The camera lingers so that you really do get a sense of watching a staged production.

What Did Entführung Ever Do To You?

Reri Grist as Blonde - 1980

My readers know I am a fan of reworking the classics. Many new angles and insights are revealed when we rethink tradition.  Sometimes these Regie-rethinkings are crap; sometimes they tell us something vaguely interesting, and sometimes they can be real eye-openers.  No opera is immune to a regie approach, but some get much more attention than others.

Lately, I've been pondering why Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail gets the regie treatment so often. More importantly, why do directors feel free to add and/or delete spoken text willy nilly?

The First Post: In which the author expounds a bit on Regieoper

Welcome, dear reader(s), to my little opera blog. (As if the world is crying out for more opera blogs -- just like Washington, DC needs more chamber choirs!)

Recently, I have become frustrated by what seems to be almost willful misunderstanding (and therefore, dislike and rejection) of what is known as Regieoper. (There is another term, which will only ever appear ONCE in this blog, but you'll have to wait for the next post to read it.)