![]() ![]() Given the opera’s love-hate dichotomy raging within its titular character, that this final image emphasizes the destructive power of the latter. We get projections of a storm at the start of the final Act and when all is said and done, the final image showcases Medea, wrapped in the corpses of her two children, a projected fire consuming them and that entire world inside the palace. The opera grows increasingly darker with the golden gates going from glossy in Act one and two to looking corroded in the final Act. It’s the ever-lasting conflict that any stage director at the Met has to traverse – staging an opera on the massive stage to a cavernous audience where one decision will favor one audience section over another.) ![]() #Metropolitan opera house phone full(Admittedly depending on where you are sitting, the upstage section can be impossible to view from the orchestra section, one had to rely on the mirror to get the full effect though in speaking with friends and family that saw the opera from the balcony and family circle, it was clear they got a bigger picture of the numerous tableaus on offer. Inside the gates, we see a large mirror that, in addition to showcasing projections, also allows audiences to see the back of the set more clearly. She occupies the space outside the gates, which are drenched in chiaroscuro lighting. The stage itself features two golden gates that open and close to reveal shifting sets and the world of Creonte’s palace where Medea is barely ever allowed to enter. A curtain portrays the face of a woman, mouth agape, one of her eyes in the dark (or gone altogether, signifying a certain blindness). ![]() The same for this “Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci” double bill where the former paled in comparison with the poignancy of the latter.īut his “Medea,” despite its dark palette (which more than a McVicar touchstone, is a modern opera director’s cliché for creating a dark brooding atmosphere), is definitely a step up from most of his recent Met output. While aspects of his Tudor Queen trilogy work well (while others didn’t), productions like “Don Carlo” lacked any visual contrast to support an opera with a wide-ranging dramatic palette. His finest productions, a revelatory “Il Trovatore” and exhilarating “Giulio Cesare” seem like distant memories, replaced in recent years by increasingly monochromatic tableaus to hit or miss effect. McVicar’s career at the Met has been a bit of a seeming downward spiral in many ways. The simplicity of this dramatic structure was reflected in Sir David McVicar’s production. The Met Opera’s program explicitly notes the opera’s straightforward structure as one big “dramatic tidal wide,” an emotional crescendo if you will, in which Medea’s anger and rage increasingly dominates the proceedings. Medea, in her rage, concocts a plan to murder Glauce and, to hit Giasone where it hurts the most, kill her children. But at every turn, she is rejected as a monstrous witch and told that she has one day to leave in one day or she will face certain doom. But Medea, who has lost everything after giving herself over to Giasone, won’t relent and begs for reconciliation so that their family, which includes two children, can be together. After acquiring the Golden Fleece, Giasone has left Medea in order to marry Glauce, daughter of Creonte. Written by François-Benoît Hoffmann, the work was based on the famed Euripides play and “Medée” by Pierre Corneille and is rather razor sharp in its dramatic layout. The opera, which premiered in a French version back in 1797, was a major hit throughout the 19th century (with numerous translations, including the Italian one on offer at the Met) until it fell into seclusion, only to be rescued in the 20th century by one Maria Callas, whose interpretation remains the touchstone to this day. The Metropolitan Opera opened its 2022-23 season with the company’s first-ever performance of Cherubini’s “Medea.” ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |