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| I'll have a second helping of this, please. |
The praise is merited. In fact, if SFO's General Director David Gockley had a better record of putting productions of this caliber onstage with any kind of regularity instead of with maddening infrequency, I'd be an ardent supporter. While it's not going to be everyone's musical cup of tea (I observed numerous departures during both intermissions), no single composer is, of course- even Puccini has his (wrong-headed) detractors- anyone with an interest in opera as an art form needs to take advantage of its presence here and see what all the fuss is about.
While I was watching and listening to it last night, I revelled in its constant musical allusions to Wagner, but this morning I'm also pondering unexpected parallels with thematic aspects of the Ring Cycle. I also awoke to the "News" aria running through my mind. It's all too rare when something this memorable, thought-provoking and challenging shows up on the War Memorial stage, the last time was The Makropulos Affair a couple years ago, so don't miss it.
More than that I'll keep to myself until after I've seen it a second time.
I really have to agree with you. As an Angeleno, the idea of dragging myself up the coast for another mediocre production is getting ever more tedious and expensive. I have the impression that the SFO is overly invested in tired and grandiose ideas of what the opera experience should be, often at the expense of artistry (and perhaps audience development). So it's a great delight to see a production of this quality and vitality - I'm only disappointed that I didn't see it twice, as well!
ReplyDeleteI agree there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the "experience of attending" at the expense attending an experience, if you know what I mean. Gockley's tenure has largely frustrated me. As time goes on his support seems to have become wider so a lot of people obviously like what he's doing. And then he brings in something like this fantastic production and naysayers like myself just have to applaud.
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