Opera Season in your neighbourhood

[Catmando]

Did you hear that we started a new opera program on Beethoven Radio!?

Saturday Nights at the Opera started last Saturday at 8PM... Each Saturday at 8PM EST tune in and hear a full length opera, commercial free! This Saturday (7 April) will be the Marriage of Figaro!

Nicole,

On the main Beethoven.com screen, it says this Saturday's Opera is by Wagner, but I can't seem to find which Wagner Opera it is in the link provided?

[OperaTenor]

Our production of Wozzeck is living up to its disturbing story line. So far, according to my sources:

1) The production is $2 million over budget
2) Ian Campbell(SDO GD) and Des McAnuff(much celebrated theater director making his opera debut) have been at each other's throats a couple of times, and Des has threatened to sue the SDO
3) Stage management has threatened to walk off the production
4) Des wanted one of the choristers fired(as a scapegoat, IMO), causing a toe-to-toe with the chorus master
5) The vaunted high-tech set has yet to work at all, resulting in the inability to get through the 90-minute opera in a four-hour rehearsal
6) Said set, which was built here for this production and cost ~$600K to build, has yet to attract a rentor, and will most likely be scrapped if there are no takers when the show ends

Oh yeah, we're scheduled to open Saturday....

[navneeth]

Call me naive, but I never realised that running an opera could cost millions of dollars.

[OperaTenor]

Our budget for this season - five productions - is something like $18 million. Compare that to the Met, which is something like $280 million.

[navneeth]

Our budget for this season - five productions - is something like $18 million. Compare that to the Met, which is something like $280 million.

[OperaTenor]

The show is set to open this Saturday, and we still have yet to get through the 90-minute opera in the space of four hours. Not even half of it.

[barfle]

Please post the videos. It should be fun. Especially from the other side of the country.

[Serenity]

Our budget for this season - five productions - is something like $18 million. Compare that to the Met, which is something like $280 million.

Good luck Saturday OT! I wish I could fly out there and see the show. If my calculations are correct, you must be doing well financially based solely on trickle-down salary

[OperaTenor]

I rode the elevator out with the Production Manager tonight after rehearsal. He says he's never seen anything like this production in his entire experience. Says it will never happen again at the SDO - Des McAnuff is too expensive[and abusive].

Last night, however, the set seemed to work as designed, and we managed to get through the 90-minutes opera in a mere 2-1/2 hours.

So far:

-Stage management has threatened to walk off the production
-Ian Campbell(SDO GD) has been in Des' face
-Des has been in Ian's face
-Ian has been in Des' face
-Des has threatened to sue the SDO
-Des wanted a chorister(not me) fired, precipitating a face-off between him and the chorus master
-The chorus is threatening to not take a bow
-The $750,000 set and costumes has no taker for rental after the show, and will probably be scrapped
-The production is >$2 million over budget and counting

The production vacillates between being a giant technical difficulty and a safety hazard. Twice in last night's rehearsal, I was climbing a very steep ladder, 30' up, and they turned off the frappin' lights, as a for instance. The lead banged his head hard enough on the set to require an ice pack hours later, and one of the stage hands hurt her leg falling into a hole in the set.

We're having fun...

[treebeau]

Next season here in Winston-Salem, NC:
"La Traviata" by Joe Green.
"Amahl and the Night Visitors" (yes, 2 years in a row and I get to use my joke again..."If you've seen Juan you've seen Amahl.")
"Die Fledermaus" by Strauss (in Eeeengleesh).

Regards,
Tim B.

[barfle]

I suppose "break a leg" is in order.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

There's a review of the SDO Wozzeck at Here . The review goes on and on and on, in typical "critical reviewer" blither, but there's a very nice photo of the set that's giving OT so much trouble. And the critic does say:

The chorus, as usual, was excellent.

I'm looking forward to OT's comments on the performance (which it appears that they finally managed to complete, after all those dreadful rehearsals) from the other side of the lights.

[OperaTenor]

I think the prevailing sentiment from the stage was relief we got through the show wothout anything breaking.

I guess I'm a musical neanderthal - the intricacies of that atonal stuff are pretty much lost on me. If it doesn't connote a clear emotion other than frenzy, I simply don't get it, or the appeal of it.

Much of the visual spectacle is directed at the audience, and none of us on the stage are aware of it. for instance, when Wozzeck drowns himself at the end of the opera, all we see is him getting hoisted up on the central turntable in a sort of crucifix position and slowly revolving around. It so happens there is a projection of water combined with this for the audience, and it gives a good impression of him floating around under water. We had no idea...

[OperaTenor]

Here are the reviews from the Sandy Eggo U/T and the LA Times:

Sandy Eggo Union/Tribune(Making noises like a genuine review for once - I think she cheated and cribbed off Opera West.)

LA Times

And here I am, up on that damned set:

[Marye]

Wow OT! I think the set looks fabulous and if I had been in the audience I would have been gobsmacked. I know it was a major pain for the cast, but, wow... Atonal works without a wonderful set and an excellent chorus are painful.

I saw Luisa Miller, Verdi opera, on Sunday and was bored senseless. There was little in the way of set design except to say that for the last act there was a gigantic, and I mean gigantic, crucified Christ, lying on its side, filling half the stage. I have no idea what the point of it was. Christ had a six pack, very well defined body portions (ahem), and big hands: like Michaelangelo's David, an out of proportion right hand. I was thoroughly distracted by all this not to mention the costumes. The women, when they were not being peasants wearing night dresses with dressing gowns, were wearing royal robes with the Flying Nun's headdress. Eye-poking ugly.

My next opera is Elektra. As I recall SURTITLES were invented in Toronto for this opera back in 1980's - and I last saw it then. That is the sum total of my recollection. Bad sign.

Congratulations, OT, on being among the excellent!

[treebeau]

Last night was "La Traviata".
Wow, what a beautiful performance. The costumes lighting, and stage were top notch. Violetta was GORGEOUS, a terrific actress, and what a powerful voice. She could sing standing, sitting, lying on her side or back, and slumped over...all perfect. Look for this gal if you can...Cristina Nassif.
http://www.cristinanassif.com/

Giorgio was also wonderful. He was played by Robert Overman, who has performed here a few times in other roles.

The ONLY thing I didn't like was that the "libiamo..." toast seemed just a little fast. It was great, but just a little too quick.

http://www.piedmontopera.org/traviata.html

Regards,
Tim B.

P.S. Next month, "Rigormortis" by "Joe Green", in "Verdisboro" NC.

[Mahlersfifth]

We are hearing and seeing War and Peace this Sunday afternoon at the Opera in Toronto...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/freeheadlines/LAC/20081013/OPERA13/thearts/Arts

Has anyone see this opera before? OT?

[Shapley]

We are hearing and seeing War and Peace this Sunday afternoon at the Opera in Toronto...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/freeheadlines/LAC/20081013/OPERA13/thearts/Arts

Has anyone see this opera before? OT?

I'm not at all familiar with it. From the scale of it, I would doubt it gets too many performances....

Hope you enjoy it!

[shostakovich]

We are hearing and seeing War and Peace this Sunday afternoon at the Opera in Toronto...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/freeheadlines/LAC/20081013/OPERA13/thearts/Arts

Has anyone see this opera before? OT?

I've been slowly reading "The Rest is Noise" by Alex Ross. It's about the 20th C and its effect on music. I just finished the section on Soviet music. Ross said Prokofiev never heard the complete opera in his lifetime. Interesting.
Shos

[Mahlersfifth]

No kidding, Shos.

I am really looking forward to this opera.