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Oct. 25th, 2013
Flying Dutchman was the name of his BOAT.
Oct. 25th, 2013 06:10 pmInteresting, 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).
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).
