god bless opera
Nov. 11th, 2003 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/arts/music/11MOON.html?8hpib
RIO DE JANEIRO — Those in the opening-night audience at the Teatro Municipal here hated the director Gerald Thomas's radical reworking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," and they were eager to let him know it.
Though cast members were spared when they came out to take their bows, the moment Mr. Thomas appeared he was greeted with a fusillade of boos, jeers and insults.
So Mr. Thomas responded in a way that many artists who feel misunderstood or unappreciated have undoubtedly dreamed of. As his leading lady looked on with a horrified expression, he turned his back, dropped his pants and green drawers and mooned the audience.
...
Born in Rio, the child of a German Communist refugee from Hitler and a Welsh psychoanalyst of Lithuanian Jewish extraction, Mr. Thomas, 49, spent his early adult years in London and then headed for New York, where he directed 18 Samuel Beckett plays at La MaMa from 1979 to 1984 before returning home. In a telephone interview from London, where he has temporarily taken refuge, Mr. Thomas acknowledged that his staging of "Tristan und Isolde" was meant to be revisionist and provocative. During the overture a woman sits masturbating on a sofa. Another scene much mocked by critics has Sigmund Freud sniffing cocaine and tossing it into the air like confetti, and the production also features a chorus of Hasidic Jews and a fashion show.
"I'm not a realistic director," Mr. Thomas said. "I love mixing things up and doing all this metalinguistic stuff that I do. But I thought that I had created a pretty formal opera with a thoughtful concept. Fashion really does kill passion, especially in a piece like `Tristan und Isolde.' "
RIO DE JANEIRO — Those in the opening-night audience at the Teatro Municipal here hated the director Gerald Thomas's radical reworking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," and they were eager to let him know it.
Though cast members were spared when they came out to take their bows, the moment Mr. Thomas appeared he was greeted with a fusillade of boos, jeers and insults.
So Mr. Thomas responded in a way that many artists who feel misunderstood or unappreciated have undoubtedly dreamed of. As his leading lady looked on with a horrified expression, he turned his back, dropped his pants and green drawers and mooned the audience.
...
Born in Rio, the child of a German Communist refugee from Hitler and a Welsh psychoanalyst of Lithuanian Jewish extraction, Mr. Thomas, 49, spent his early adult years in London and then headed for New York, where he directed 18 Samuel Beckett plays at La MaMa from 1979 to 1984 before returning home. In a telephone interview from London, where he has temporarily taken refuge, Mr. Thomas acknowledged that his staging of "Tristan und Isolde" was meant to be revisionist and provocative. During the overture a woman sits masturbating on a sofa. Another scene much mocked by critics has Sigmund Freud sniffing cocaine and tossing it into the air like confetti, and the production also features a chorus of Hasidic Jews and a fashion show.
"I'm not a realistic director," Mr. Thomas said. "I love mixing things up and doing all this metalinguistic stuff that I do. But I thought that I had created a pretty formal opera with a thoughtful concept. Fashion really does kill passion, especially in a piece like `Tristan und Isolde.' "
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-12 08:32 am (UTC)