Flying Dutchman was the name of his BOAT.

[albadger]

Interesting, that -- I'd never noticed that the "title character" of Wagner's most-produced opera is never actually named, and isn't really the title character. Also, it's a ship, not a boat.

I caught the opening night of the Flying Dutchman run, which is SF Opera's way of "celebrating" Wagner's 200th birthday without actually doing anything they wouldn't normally do. So it's like getting socks for Christmas. But these were really good socks, Gold Toe perhaps, and a satisfying if odd evening. Though the orchestra sounded underpowered, the singing was mostly great, with Greer Grimsley wobbly but powerful in the lead, Lise Lindstrom good once she warmed up, and Kristinn Sigmundsson (a guy!) great as Daland. Ian Storey struggled as Erik, and if you're struggling as Erik maybe you should rethink the heldentenor thing entirely. A.J. Glueckert was in great voice as the Steersman, and great eye candy to boot. And the staging actually told the story, MOST of the way...

...until ten minutes into act 3, and WTF took over, singers and supers wandered about aimlessly, no attempt whatever to convey the interactions and movements of the finale, pretty piss-poor in all accounts. I found out later that the GM had fired the director with a week to go, so obviously nobody bothered to take his place. But it does seem par for the course with this management -- they are quite ready to kick people to the curb with malice (no "indisposed" or "creative differences" for these folks), but then they can't seem to clean up the resulting mess. As long as they've got somebody to blame, I guess.

So, balance of 4 productions this season -- 2 perfect, 1 great production of crappy opera, 1 half-assed production of a well-sung masterpiece. And Barber of Seville to come. Rumor is that next season will be expanded by 2 titles; hope they're not both la Boheme (see earlier rants about overuse of operatic chestnuts).

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Is David Glockley still there?

[albadger.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sigh. I find him profoundly irritating.

Since I am not extremely wealthy, he doesn't care.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

As I'm sure you know,he was in Houston before moving to SF. I had the distinct displeasure of working with his wife of the time in a production of Showboat at HGO. The entire production was taken to Cairo, Egypt. She's the singer who was so inflexible that when told along with the rest of the opera chorus to not sing straight at the conductor, tapped me on the shoulder and said nastily, "Excuse me, but you're in the path of my voice!" I told her to move her voice!!!

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

Oh, PLEASE don't tell me what 'Rosebud" is!

I am nothing if not Spoiler

[albadger.livejournal.com]

Rosebud was the name Kane used when he dressed up as his mother and killed people.

[andybr.livejournal.com]

I've seen 2 Dutchmen this year - one in Berlin and one in Sydney, both a great sing but concert performance only.
Barber sounds good to come - its a jolly good show.

[albadger.livejournal.com]

Dutchman is such an odd beast, it's far and away the most-performed Wagner (because it's the shortest I suspect), but I've yet to see a satisfactory production of it -- might as well be done concert-style. The previous production in SF had the sailors AND the village girls dressed up as Halloween ghouls, which made no sense whatever. Don't the directors read the scripts?

As for Barber, I'm just hoping that they haven't cast thin, sexy people who can't be heard past the 10th row... as they've done here in years past for it...

[andybr.livejournal.com]

thats a real problem - the best singers are usually not thin sexy people and music lovers can see them and still appreciate them, but directors cannot. Figaro and Dr Bartolo should be hefty! Rosina too, they need max lung capacity for the runs in Rossini

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

Maybe for "Barber", they'll do audience participation and offer free haircuts :)