# Regie You Want to See



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

You know, as much abuse as Regie directors take for their admittedly sometimes overblown and inappropriate concepts, it seems to me it must be an awful lot of fun to take one of the old warhorses of the operatic repertoire and do something dramatic and different with it. In practice, I mean, if you were a director, you could have a lot of fun.

Isn't there some opera that you've always wanted to see just a little different?

To me, I've been listening to Trovatore a lot lately, and it struck me recently that the whole thing resembles nothing more than a tale told by children to children, of the poorly understood events in their parents' lives. My dad is in love with your mom and your dad doesn't want to give her up, even though they have problems of their own. Your grandma is frighteningly terrible and chews tobacco and gives really bad advice. (I dig chicks who chew - don't you?) My dad fought with your dad and your dad lost, and mom ran off. You see how this works. I see the cast and the chorus all dressed as kids and pretty much all mixed up together on stage, with all this gargantuan furniture on stage, to emphasize their smallness and powerlessness. The adults, the ones the tales are told on, are enormous puppets put through their clumsy paces, miming the action as the kids relate it. Grandma is made of straw, and of course really does go up in flames at the conclusion of the action.

Or you know what else, for some reason TB is not a disease that guys ever suffered, in the opera world. Shouldn't we change that? Can't you just see Placido Domingo, extending his range still further into the bass, to play Violetto, the boy toy who made the mistake of falling in love with a client? All we'd have to do is transpose Violetta's arias down two octaves, and the deed is done. He'd be SO GREAT! Ripati giuro! (I know, wrong opera.) E Tardi!

Or what. Well, I don't know how many of you love and cherish the Anna Moffo video of Sonnambula, as I do. To me one of the dearest, most adorable parts of it is how ridiculous some of the supers act, at times. They wave at people off stage, they grin and say hi to their mom, they make it clear how ridiculous they think what they've been asked to do is. It's like, these people aren't playing idiots - they're actually idiots! Not one of them has ever seen a camera! lol And that kind of innocence and rustic charm could be valuable. Sets off the action in ways that are hard to describe. I mean, Amina and Elvin are totally into it. They aren't mugging for relatives. But the people around them ... pretty loose hold on the concept. If you could get a few people to act like that on stage, why, the thing would be fresh.

You must have had ideas. No?


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Oh snap! Do Parsifal in the music, but with the libretto and action from Barber of Seville! No one would argue about whether it was Christian or not ...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

God help us where's the way out??


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Lock all the doors...unleash the nibelung puppets!

awww sockmonkey wotan http://sockofages.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/sock-monkeys-opera-and-der-ring-des-nibelungen/


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

quack said:


> Lock all the doors...unleash the nibelung puppets!


That's what I'm talking 'bout ...


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

guythegreg said:


> Or you know what else, for some reason TB is not a disease that guys ever suffered, in the opera world. Shouldn't we change that? Can't you just see Placido Domingo, extending his range still further into the bass, to play Violetto, the boy toy who made the mistake of falling in love with a client? All we'd have to do is transpose Violetta's arias down two octaves, and the deed is done. He'd be SO GREAT! Ripati giuro! (I know, wrong opera.) E Tardi!


Oh, please don't give some people ideas!!!  :lol:


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

MAuer said:


> Oh, please don't give some people ideas!!!  :lol:


I've got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals ...


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