Tag Archives: rose

Ballet/Opera Fusion

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Handel’s Acis and Galatea is a peculiar piece in some ways.  It was written to be performed at Cannon’s, the Edgware residence of the then Earl of Caernavon, presumably for his guests.  Apparently the performance style was to have the singers sing from music stands in front of a painted backdrop.  So, a sort of oratorio with curtains.  It’s not uncommon to stage Handel oratorios as opera these days.  Theodora is done quite often and even Messiah has been staged so it’s no great surprise that Acis and Galatea should be given a similar treatment.  In fact Wayne McGregor’s 2009 Covent Garden production stages it as an opera and a ballet simultaneously combining the resources of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera.

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de Bello Gallico

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Bellini’s Norma is a tale of illicit love between two Gaulish priestesses (can women be called druids?) and a Roman tribune.  In this 2006 production for the Bayerische Staatsoper director Jürgen Rose has set the piece in the present day in a vaguely Middle Eastern setting.  Within that framework the story is told quite straightforwardly and there’s no attempt to project some kind of agenda.  The designs are very striking.  Blue figures a lot.  Norma’s home is an underground bunker.  When the Gauls arm for war they put on ski masks and supplement their spears with assault rifles.  It all looks really good.  The acting is also excellent and we get some real intensity in the Norma/Pollione/Adalgisa love triangle and in the tension between Norma and her father Oroveso.  It works as drama.

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