Opera Chic

Terry Gilliam's Berlioz Faust for the ENO Will "Rattle Your Bones and Shake Your Fat"

Although Milan lost its chance, London steals the rebound and it's all net, no backboard. That awesome creator of all things insanely-cool, Terry Gilliam, and the English National Opera wait for Sir Gilliam to f**k up Berlioz for his opera-directing debut in a few months with The Damnation of Faust. Gilliam's shaolin tiger style always brings a cinematic, surreal fantasy like we loved in Fear and Loathing, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Baron Munchausen but in Faust, love will be his new protagonist in Goethe’s dramatic poem about the desperate, insane depths of love.

Conducting is young, bright thing (and Twilight's R-Patz body-double) Edward Gardner, ENO's Music Director. Christine Rice is Marguerite, Christopher Purves is Mephistopheles, Peter Hoare is Faust.

ENO's website put up a clip of Gilliam talking about Berlioz (above) and, ummmmm, hey, check out @1:25 Gilliam's swastika fetish! Third Reich Faust? Mephistopheles as Hitler? We can hardly wait until May to find out...

Nekrošius’ Mutinous Faust La Prima: La Scala Makes For a Wild Ride to Hell

 

La Scala's new Eimuntas Nekrošius production of Gounod's Faust should have been one of the slightly cooler beacons in a depressing season packed with banal duds and tarnished stars. Lithuanian director Nekrošius, a master of modern stage direction, is celebrated in Europe for good reason as a progressive, imaginative, intelligent artist who brings peculiar and unique symbolism to theater and opera repertory. But La Scala, brimming with political nonsense and selfishness, blew up the new production quicker than the Hindenburg (too soon??!).

Cranky loggione (and frankly, all rightful ticketholders of Scala's bloated prices and hefty, non-refundable processing fees) decided from the punctual, 8pm separation of the magenta curtains that the show would not triumph. Not that there was much to be celebratory for: the week leading to opening night carried ripe rumors of a strike-keen staff. And when the curtain finally raised last night, there was a inconvenient stipulation: the chorus -- an unmatched mass in plain clothes and yellow ribbons pinned to their chests -- came out on stage before Stéphane Denève took to the podium and read their union's statement (bafflingly, in Italian only) explaining to the audience that they'd be un-costumed and unwilling to follow Nekrošius' direction in protest of government budget cuts. WTF? The loggione rioted with shouts of "Vergogna" and "These people have no respect -- we've paid for our tickets", booooo, hiss, rinse, repeat -- just another night at La Scala where opera is a contact sport and drama is a way of your life, right?

Then there was the orchestra, in mismatched jeans and t-shirts, who passive-aggressively delayed the curtain opening at the end of each pause, culminating in an opera that lasted 4.5 hours (the website estimated the show would only last 3.5 hours) and a booo-soaked curtain call that jeered the entire cast (including the supers!) -- although Irina Lungu’s Marguerite was spared consternation for her excellent interpretation. Booing which was not completely deserved by a decent (‘tho at times mediocre) cast and an adept conductor. But Nekrošius was robbed of his vision by the childish tactics of a chaotic, disorganized opera house that just can't seem to sort it out. If you destroy it, they won't come.

Click the link to read the rest!

Angela Out, Her Replacement Rejoices: the Tragedy, the Damnation, the Drama!

Shafted again! Angela Gheorghiu plays hooky tonight. Come 7:00 pm local Vienna time, Gheorghiu will be nowhere near Staatsoper Wien for her appearance as Marguerite in Charles Gounod's Faust with IRL hubby Roberto Alagna as scheduled.

'Tho the secondary cast is Piotr Beczala for Alagna's Faust and Soile Isokoski for Gheorghiu's Marguerite, soprano Alexandra Reinprecht has been called in tonight to sub as the jeweled lady.

The terrible twosome ~Clan Alagna~ have lately been streaking through cancellations left and right. First a double walkout on a live radio program in Vienna, then Roberto Alagna canceled his scheduled appearance at the Pavarotti Tribute Concert in Petra, Jordan (as so kindly pointed out by la Diva herself, Cynthia Lawrence). Now it's Angela's turn for a solo bounce. We're wondering if she ate undercooked Mansaf in Jordan? Or is she just playing hard to get?

No Worries...Angie's Back!

We found her chillaxing at the Sacher Spa, and really, who can blame her? Here she is channeling Celine Dion, rehearsing her upcoming role as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust for the Wiener Staatsoper (premiering October 11, 2008) with chubby hubby Roberto Alagna.

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Alagna & Gheorghiu Reunited...And it Feels So Good.

Opera's unflappable duo is getting ready to unleash their vocal terror on the unsuspecting Viennese, as seen in rehearsal for the October 11, 2008 premiere of Gounod's Faust at the Wiener Staatsoper. Roberto Alagna will sing the title role, partnered with Marguerite sung by Angela Gheorghiu. Korean singer Kwangchul Youn rounds out the duo singing Méphistopélès. Bertrand de Billy conducts, and we'll sit back and wait for the reviews. Where's Angela? Your guess is as good as ours.

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(Kwangchul Youn...doing his thang)

Faust For Halloween

Philippe Fénelon's "création mondiale" of Faust in Toulouse revolves apparently around a large carved skull large carved pumpkin. The Capitole opera house in Southern France seems to appreciate the subtle dig at hellish US tradition and the nice "Peanuts" hommage. Dutch Tenor Arnold Bezuyen and US baritone Robert Bork play Faust and Mephistopheles, German conductor Bernhard Kontarsky tries to make sense of the orangey mess.

The Seventh Seal Has Been Broken: Hugo De Ana Rearranges Berlioz's Faust

First Gounod, then Berlioz. Nothing is sacred!

In 2006, Teatro Regio di Parma gave full control (direction, staging, costumes, and lighting) to Argentinian director Hugo De Ana to produce Charles Gounod's Faust. Opera Chic was there, and I can tell you: it was not pretty.

Guess who's back? Hugo De Ana is back! This Thursday, January 25, 2007, the second interpretation within one year of the Faustian legend will have its premiere at Teatro Regio di Parma. This time, the sacrificial lamb is Hector Berlioz's La damnation de Faust, and again, De Ana will apply his creative vision to direction, staging, costumes, and lighting.

(Gounod's Faust from 2006 at Parma: Trapped inside a Tiffany Lamp)

Last year's De Ana Faust (Gounod) featured two very creepy girls in Act V to escort Marguerite's soul to heaven, muscle-bound men flitting and gyrating around the stage wearing leather chaps and giant strap-on d1ldos, and lots of dominatrix-themed costumes inspired by Jean Paul Gaultier-era Madonna. The lighting made one feel like they were trapped inside a giant Tiffany lamp, but not in that cool Art Nouveau way. There were so many revolving, shiny structures on stage (which acted as a giant disco ball) so the audience was directly assalted by the reflections almost the entire performance.

(Gounod's Faust from 2006 at Parma: Weirdy Weirdy)

Which leaves us to wonder :trepidatious: what is to be displayed in the upcoming Berlioz? Well, De Ana has already promised that this new Faust will be "cruel", with violent transitions between the scenes, and provocative images. Can it get any better? Maybe possibly yes.

De Ana hints that he has implemented as scenery a parabolic dish (satellite dish) with antennae, "like the kind that NASA uses to capture signals from space". He goes on to say that he uses the dish on stage to capture the thousands of images that are provoked by Berlioz's music.

I'm choking on foods from laugh. I'm just sitting here patiently waiting for his next opera: with robots.

^^^^^update^^^^^

Our friends at Playbill have an excellent Gounod piece here