# If you could direct opera, which ones would you and how?



## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Share your ideas


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Wagner. He needs rescuing. Great Romantic music shouldn't accompany postmodern sewage onstage.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

I'd like to see a big-budget film adaptation of the Ring, where everything is possible. Real giants, actual flying horses, dwarf-sized nibelungs, a Dragon Fafner who doesn't look ridiculous but at least as realistic as Smaug. Also, actors who look the part + singers who can do it Right.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I did produce and direct a comic operate once for an amateur production. We had a young, talented cast and a packed house each night. Great time. I don't think, however, my talent (or lack of it) would stretch to anything beyond this


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Flotow's Martha. I would direct it as a traditional production and more opera semiseria and avoid an opera buffa approach like the plague. Wikipedia says Martha is a romantic comic opera. My feeling is that the buffa treatment does not work with this opera based on examples of the recent release conducted by Weigle (Regietheatre too), and the older one sung-in-English that was overly buffa to the extreme of seemning like a G&S opera.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Nothing for me, all is been done, who can outdo the famous opera movies and the magnificent Met productions.
Not to mention Salzburg in the good old days.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

I'd probably do Il trovatore. 


- banish the red/blue colour coding. I'd probably go for rich autumny colours for Team Manrico, and white with some accents of black for Team Luna. 
- di Luna's coat of arms is a wolf (insert werewolf jokes)
- I want Ferrando to be super protective of his lord, after all, he most likely raised him
- generally give Ferrando a bit more characterization instead of handling him like an NPC who is only there to infodump
- Azucena is banned from having long, unruly grey hair. She's like what, 35? 15 years ago she was a young mom. (if you start thinking about it, you realize Manrico is a teenager, which really explains why he's such a reckless fool)
- every lead character can summon up flames from the stage when they are feeling Dramatic. Just go all out. (di Luna has blue fire because I can't resist that Last Agni Kai imagery)
- no cuts in cabalettas! conductors: fight me
- no dancing or stupid fake fighting during the Soldier's Chorus. just get it out of the way the least cringey way possible
- not sure what era, really. probably just a fantasy setting. Not a fan of Generic Modern, they all look the same with ugly uniforms
- anyway: onstage murder. would YOU be content just watching your rival be executed from a window or would you want to personally stab him multiple times? 
- and here's why I wanted di Luna in white: so he can be splattered with blood at the end


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Wagner. He needs rescuing. Great Romantic music shouldn't accompany postmodern sewage onstage.


I would love to utilize the full resources of the modern theater to prove that the archetypes of the _Ring_ can still be revelatory and deeply meaningful to modern audiences. High tech productions have often pursued perverse aims; realistic productions have often lacked imagination and insight into the resonance of mythical symbols.

Virtually everything and everyone in the _Ring_ represents something archetypal, whether an aspect of nature or of the psychological and moral life of man. A production must search out and clarify these meanings. The Rhinegold, symbol of the life force, must awaken like a living thing and fill the dark waters, womb of the world, with the light of life. Nibelheim, the realm of unconsciousness, hate and enslavement, must be a fearful, cavernous place, its dripping blackness lit with the red glow of forges like the fires of hell. Valhalla, representing Wotan's glorious but deluded hope that absolute power and moral authority can coincide, must be a sunlit, soaring edifice as aspirational as a skyscraper but as intimidating as a fortress. Loge, the embodiment of intellect unencumbered by moral conscience, must flit, flicker and dance like the fire that represents him. Erda, the mother of life and older than memory, awakened from dreaming the secrets of the world's continuance by a threat to its moral foundation, must reveal to us and the stunned Wotan a premonition of the light draining from the world and of the fortress in the sky dissolving in mist as she warns of the end of all things.

The _Ring_ is a long-forgotten dream that lives inside us all, but the grown-up Wagner never forgot it. He saw its story and characters in his imagination, they carried deep import for him, and he wrote remarkable music for them which tells us things that had waited till his advent to be told. I think he can still make us of the computer age relive the primal dream, if we're willing to take his vision seriously, seek out its meanings with humility, and use our best technology to give it a reality beyond anything he could have hoped for.


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## OperaChic (Aug 26, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> I think he can still make us of the computer age relive the primal dream, if we're willing to take his vision seriously, seek out its meanings with humility, and use our best technology to give it a reality beyond anything he could have hoped for.


As you've noted in another thread, a big part of the difficulty of adequately producing one of Wagner's music dramas in this day an age is a lack of artists who are able to do the music justice. Personally, if I had the money to produce my ideal Ring, I would license one of the great audio recordings of the mid 20th century to use as the soundtrack, and use CGI animation to bring the drama to life. Given the amazing things that are able to be done with CGI technology, this would undoubtedly be more cost effective than trying to produce a live action Ring, and would allow the animators to sync the lips of the characters to those of singers on the recording. Something along the lines of Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf movie, which is now 10 years old and CGI technology can render an even more realistic visual.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

OperaChic said:


> As you've noted in another thread, a big part of the difficulty of adequately producing one of Wagner's music dramas in this day an age is a lack of artists who are able to do the music justice. Personally, if I had the money to produce my ideal Ring, I would license one of the great audio recordings of the mid 20th century to use as the soundtrack, and use CGI animation to bring the drama to life. Given the amazing things that are able to be done with CGI technology, this would undoubtedly be more cost effective than trying to produce a live action Ring, and would allow the animators to sync the lips of the characters to those of singers on the recording. Something along the lines of Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf movie, which is now 10 years old and CGI technology can render an even more realistic visual.


You're hired!

You weren't expecting to be paid, though. Were you?


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## OperaChic (Aug 26, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> You're hired!
> 
> You weren't expecting to be paid, though. Were you?


Are you kidding? It would be a labor of love. I would be happy if it didn't make a dime. Of course, that being the case, it's also contingent on me winning the lottery.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

A really authentic period Macbeth, i.e. without the trenchcoats and machine guns that have been the style of every Macbeth I've seen so far.

For many operas I've seen over the years, I tip my hat to the creative teams that have made them so engrossing and authentic.

And I'd stage the Ring cycle as a major sports team, maybe gridiron.... just kidding Woodduck, I'll leave it to you of course.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> A really authentic period Macbeth, i.e. without the trenchcoats and machine guns that have been the style of every Macbeth I've seen so far.


_Everything_ seems to have trenchcoats and machine guns now, all battleship gray like the sets, lighting, and drawn faces of the protagonists. The Met's _Tristan und Isolde_ even takes place on an actual battleship, doesn't it, with the lovers trysting in the boiler room? No wonder death looks so appealing.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> _Everything_ seems to have trenchcoats and machine guns now, all battleship gray like the sets, lighting, and drawn faces of the protagonists. The Met's _Tristan und Isolde_ even takes place on an actual battleship, doesn't it, with the lovers trysting in the boiler room? No wonder death looks so appealing.


:lol:.........................


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Woodduck said:


> _Everything_ seems to have trenchcoats and machine guns now, all battleship gray like the sets, lighting, and drawn faces of the protagonists. The Met's _Tristan und Isolde_ even takes place on an actual battleship, doesn't it, with the lovers trysting in the boiler room? No wonder death looks so appealing.


Also: I'd ban double-breasted suits. They look horrible on everyone, no matter their size and build.

Longcoats at least look flattering, but they are really overdone.

And why do modern sets have to be ugly minimalist office style or ugly grey ruins? You could have modern houses with realistic detail that look like actual living spaces.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I'd love to do the Ring in a striking minimalist type production like Wieland? did with great lighting and great singers.
Same for Tristan.

For Meister and Parsifal I'd like simple, but beautiful sets. Meister and Parsifal with much color and warmth. With more light and shade for Parsifal.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Itullian said:


> I'd love to do the Ring in a striking minimalist type production like Wieland? did with great lighting and great singers.
> Same for Tristan.
> 
> For Meister and Parsifal I'd like simple, but beautiful sets. Meister and Parsifal with much color and warmth. With more light and shade for Parsifal.


I wonder whether sets and staging notes for Wieland's 1950s productions still exist. The Wagner archives at Bayreuth save everything, don't they? Such a pity we don't have full-color films of all those productions, in which some of the greatest singer-actors like Hotter, Uhde and Varnay participated.

Lighting is absolutely critical in Wagner, and Wieland apparently made the most of it, seeing it as the visual equivalent of music. Our technical resources are even greater now. All we need is a genius director.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I have a Scottish Opera Rigoletto to go to in a minute. Not lounge suits, merely dinner jackets. Will report back later.

I recall the Tristan und Isolde, sounds like the one as ENO. Anish Kapoor if I recall. Abstract and some strange costumes, but at least it had colour. Was okay.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Don Fatale said:


> I have a Scottish Opera Rigoletto to go to in a minute. Not lounge suits, merely dinner jackets. Will report back later.
> 
> I recall the Tristan und Isolde, sounds like the one as ENO. Anish Kapoor if I recall. Abstract and some strange costumes, but at least it had colour. Was okay.


That jerkass also directs opera? Maker why


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

2016 - Baden Baden Easter Festival and the Met...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Becca said:


> 2016 - Baden Baden Easter Festival and the Met...
> 
> View attachment 110147
> 
> ...


Heart-warming, isn't it?


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Another idea: I'd like to see Peter Grimes not in a later era but an earlier one, specifically, 17th century, with English Puritans. The whole witch hunt aspect and the narrow-minded villagers would fit in nicely with that kind of atmosphere. So the costumes would look like a traditional production of The Crucible and the sets would be realistic but rather simple.


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## aussiebushman (Apr 21, 2018)

Sieglinde said:


> Also: I'd ban double-breasted suits. They look horrible on everyone, no matter their size and build.


I'd go for the Ring any time and the concept of, say, the 1966 Solti,or the 1955 Keilbeth (even better) and potential for OperaChic's CGI techniques are potentially amazing - thank you.

As for double-breasted suits, I concur that the Ring is not an appropriate place for them but really Sieglinde, you are a bit naughty decrying their attractiveness in the real world.

I'm not at all ashamed that despite my advanced years, I still have 5 or 6 double breasted suits in the wardrobe - left-overs from my corporate life and now only used for weddings and funerals. Styles like these are not for the short and fat but nothing is more elegant for someone tall and slim. Regrettably, the latter description might not apply to many opera singers - hence the CGI solution


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Becca said:


> 2016 - Baden Baden Easter Festival and the Met...
> 
> View attachment 110147
> 
> ...


A warehouse/factory setting with slowly rotating cooling fan blades is about as hackneyed as it gets.


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

A futuristic minimal-starwars mix for the *Wagner Ring,* most of the time in complete darkness and illuminated by neon lights in bright shades.

*Verdi's il trovatore* in the medieval era but with a lightning setting like Cinema noir. *La Traviata* with a British Pub as a setting and white teenagers falling for each other in the middle of Metal music and beer.

Magnard's *Guercoeur.* I'm longing to watch a complete production of it.

A Gay Tannhäuser x Wolfram


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

Becca said:


> 2016 - Baden Baden Easter Festival and the Met...
> 
> View attachment 110147
> 
> ...





Woodduck said:


> Heart-warming, isn't it?


The first opera I ever watched. I'm still paying therapists for the harm they made to me. Now I can't stop buying.


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

I'd also like to do Boccanegra in a rich, elegant Risorgimento era setting. It always seems to be either Big Dramatic Robes And Silly Hats or Minimalism With Suits. 

The Pearl Fishers with actual South Asian singers, on film, in a grand Bollywood style. Also, Zurga actually dies (fight me, Met production).


(Side note: not opera but I want an Edo era Les Mis so badly...)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Becca said:


> View attachment 110148


Isolde: "Hey, where ARE we anyway? Where's that murmuring stream I heard? Where are those rustling leaves? Where did those hunting horns come from? What is this horrible place? Why...you TRICKED me! You TRICKED me! You blighted knave! You scurfy worm! You two-inch codpiece! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!!"

Tristan: "Please, not here, sweetheart! The audience is expecting Schopenhauer!"


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I've actually directed a couple of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas (*Ruddigore* and *HMS Pinafore*) and the G&S 'tribute' operetta *Little Mary Sunshine*, as well as a handful of Musicals (*101 in the Shade, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Assassins, Tomfoolery, Godspell*, etc.).

But I know my strengths _and_ my limitations, and were I to direct another opera, I'd probably choose one *in English*, which does limit my choices significantly.

I think *Britten*'s *A Midsummer Night's Dream*. Not only does it have a stellar score, but Britten follows Shakespeare's original work closely, and I do love me some Shakespeare.

Runner up: *Purcell*'s *Dido and Aeneas*, lovely olde and mouldy music, witches, storms, gods, love, tragedy; this opera has everything but the kitchen sink, and I'd think about finding a way to put one into the finale.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Woodduck said:


> I would love to utilize the full resources of the modern theater to prove that the archetypes of the _Ring_ can still be revelatory and deeply meaningful to modern audiences. High tech productions have often pursued perverse aims; realistic productions have often lacked imagination and insight into the resonance of mythical symbols.
> 
> Virtually everything and everyone in the _Ring_ represents something archetypal, whether an aspect of nature or of the psychological and moral life of man. A production must search out and clarify these meanings. The Rhinegold, symbol of the life force, must awaken like a living thing and fill the dark waters, womb of the world, with the light of life. Nibelheim, the realm of unconsciousness, hate and enslavement, must be a fearful, cavernous place, its dripping blackness lit with the red glow of forges like the fires of hell. Valhalla, representing Wotan's glorious but deluded hope that absolute power and moral authority can coincide, must be a sunlit, soaring edifice as aspirational as a skyscraper but as intimidating as a fortress. Loge, the embodiment of intellect unencumbered by moral conscience, must flit, flicker and dance like the fire that represents him. Erda, the mother of life and older than memory, awakened from dreaming the secrets of the world's continuance by a threat to its moral foundation, must reveal to us and the stunned Wotan a premonition of the light draining from the world and of the fortress in the sky dissolving in mist as she warns of the end of all things.
> 
> The _Ring_ is a long-forgotten dream that lives inside us all, but the grown-up Wagner never forgot it. He saw its story and characters in his imagination, they carried deep import for him, and he wrote remarkable music for them which tells us things that had waited till his advent to be told. I think he can still make us of the computer age relive the primal dream, if we're willing to take his vision seriously, seek out its meanings with humility, and use our best technology to give it a reality beyond anything he could have hoped for.


YES! YES! YES! I came here to say something like this, but you have said it so well that I need not add to it. I agree. Poor Wagner! His operas are basically only satires today. The world needs to end the reign of Regietheater and have the artistic Renaissance that you describe!  :tiphat:


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

It just hit me: I masnadieri as a spaghetti western. Or hell, just the original play as a spaghetti western. You have your landowner dad, sibling rivalry, outlaws, pure love interest, over-the-top drama, gritty violence. It would work beautifully.

I'm actually surprised the Germans didn't make it into a western back in the 60s/70s. They apparently did it with Don Carlos.


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