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I really like the production design of this 1995 Glyndbourne Makropulos Affair. I do have to headcannon that the lead singer looks younger to the other characters than she does to the audience; but she’s doing a really interesting/creepy job of suddenly looking *even* older, depending on the angle and expression. I’m trying to decide if the costume designer deliberately made her look ironically younger in her last couple of scenes before death, mainly by virtue of abandoning the skull-hugging scarves and headpieces she wore in the first two acts. I do kind of wish she’d run off with the crazy old Count who seems to be one of the few people she still has human feelings for.
ETA — also the count doesn’t look nearly as old as the character logically ought to.
another ETA — This Russian production apparently has ghosts running around in the background through the whole show: https://youtu.be/x2P0ghVqTTQ
ETA — also the count doesn’t look nearly as old as the character logically ought to.
another ETA — This Russian production apparently has ghosts running around in the background through the whole show: https://youtu.be/x2P0ghVqTTQ
Take Not Death's Great Name in Vain
Dec. 14th, 2015 07:53 pmYears ago, I saw a production of Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis and became fascinated by it. Last night I came across a 2006 production by Teatro Colón; no subtitles, but I remembered enough of the story to follow everything.
It's a balancing-act of an opera -- every production has to decide whether to emphasize its fairy-tale theme or its origins in Terezin, and the best juggle both until the epilogue. This production manages all the subtleties: Death is slightly comical right up the point where, despite his Uncle Fester make-up, he's not. Kaiser Overall is basically Hitler, except Ullman and the librettist Peter Kien made their villain complex and gave him a chance of redemption, even as they suffered under his real-life counterpart. The staging keeps Overall in a grotesque desk/motorized wheelchair contraption until Death frees him.
The interlude with the two soldiers, unable to die, who fall in love on the battlefield was performed with particular charm. Harlequin walks the tightrope between otherworldly clown and prisoner; there's a subtle diamond pattern overlaid on his shabby jacket, and a tattered yellow star on his left breast. I like the idea that he's won the Drummer over by the time Death comes through Overall's mirror.
It's a balancing-act of an opera -- every production has to decide whether to emphasize its fairy-tale theme or its origins in Terezin, and the best juggle both until the epilogue. This production manages all the subtleties: Death is slightly comical right up the point where, despite his Uncle Fester make-up, he's not. Kaiser Overall is basically Hitler, except Ullman and the librettist Peter Kien made their villain complex and gave him a chance of redemption, even as they suffered under his real-life counterpart. The staging keeps Overall in a grotesque desk/motorized wheelchair contraption until Death frees him.
The interlude with the two soldiers, unable to die, who fall in love on the battlefield was performed with particular charm. Harlequin walks the tightrope between otherworldly clown and prisoner; there's a subtle diamond pattern overlaid on his shabby jacket, and a tattered yellow star on his left breast. I like the idea that he's won the Drummer over by the time Death comes through Overall's mirror.
