As recently as 1986, when I had been General Director of Seattle Opera for three years, a soprano brought her costume with her and planned to do “her” interpretation of the role. Of course in the performances she used our costume and performed the director’s vision of her part, but the idea of a star using one’s own costume—and doing one’s own thing dramatically--characterized many opera … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2014
WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF STAGE DIRECTION?
Two very erudite, sophisticated South American opera lover friends of mine have recently defended to me the work of Calixto Bieito, a Spanish director who not only brings opera into the present but frequently uses graphic images of sex and violence. The immediate subject was a Boris Godunov, described to me, in which allegedly Boris could have been Joseph Stalin at his cruelest. This despite the … [Read more...]
IN MEMORIAM: JULIUS RUDEL
I first heard Julius Rudel conduct on two consecutive nights in the fall of 1957, my first year as a graduate student in New York: Turandot with Frances Yeend and Susannah with Phyllis Curtin and Norman Treigle. I had never heard either opera, and his dynamic leadership as the conductor made a huge impression on me. He had joined the New York City Opera in 1943 even before the company started … [Read more...]
ON THE STATE OF OPERA
Photo credit: Elise Bakketun; Marcy Stonikas, Sarah Larsen; Seattle Opera's Consul A lot of ink has recently been spilled about the demise of opera. Audiences are supposed to be drifting away; the number of subscribers is dwindling; people generally are not interested in our art form; all is gloomy, and opera has been described as being pushed off a precipice by public disdain and … [Read more...]