Opera stuff

[lesbiassparrow]

Just got back from seeing LA opera's new shiny production of Grendel.  Hmmm, while the production is amazing - they had an animatronic, wood clockwork sheep-goat thing and it doesn't get any better than that - the opera is not one for the ages.  The best scene was Denyce Graves as a dragon giving advice to Grendel about the futility of it all.  The worst was Beowulf in his knickers fighting off Grendel. Though I did appreciate the dancer, who was very fine on many levels, the choreography was a bit silly, with lots of strange arm gestures and even stranger leg kicks. And the chorus then singing Beowulf's words word by word as if he was doing semaphore was probably not the most ideal way to set that scene.

But the set was amazing, as were the monsters -  this is really something to see for Julie Traymor's production rather than anything else.  It might be better if they ever got around to rewriting the second act, though, which is the bit at which I think the composer got a bit bored and started reusing his old film scores.

The La Traviata I saw for my birthday was nice - the lead soprano (Futral) is absolutely astonishing and worth going to anything to hear. And she can act (though not so much in this) - I saw her a couple of years ago as Cleopatra in Handel's Julius Caesar, and she was astonishingly good. She ripped my heart apart in that farewell scene with Alfredo and in the horrible bit at the party where he flings money in her face and she colllapses. 

But here the production was a bit wobbly. La Traviata doesn't strike me as an opera which updates that easily - the plot is rather wobbly and only totters along if you get into the 19th century hypocrisy and demand for courtesans.  (As opposed to prostitutes).  But they updated it to the 1920s which got rid of the lovely 1850s gowns in favour of some rather nice flapper costumes. But the updating made no sense thematically; you're not getting anything out of moving a plot about double standards and bourgeois small-mindedness into a era in which many of those double standards are being very publically challenged.

Also, sadly there was no real set to speak of, except for some mad thing with black matting and spider webs painted on it for Flora's party in the second act. There were also, sadly, disco balls.  I do not like disco balls. Except in 70s films. 

And the side effect of having actual life things going on was that I entirely missed reading dw_hate.  Which is probably good for my psyche but now everyone is talking about stuff and I am getting a bit confused. 

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

The only part I thought was neat was a discussion of why Who-porn was so unadventurous. There was one posting that I actually thought was you, somebody complaining about the phallocentrism of ficsex, then worrying that (s)he was becoming One Of Those Internet Feminists.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Your comments on Traviata make sense. Similarly, Measure For Measure only works (if it does) when set in a society that values virginity over everything else. A friend of mine has a staging rule that Everything's Better In The Twenties, but I think even he would admit that MfM wouldn't work.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I was not the internet feminist. I managed to miss the entire thing, though I've been seeing the fallout on various journals.

However, regarding unadventurous sex I am now wondering how you do have sex on a Vespa, which there seems to be a call for, without both of you crashing to the ground? Why would you even want to do this? Would someone be driving? Wild sex does not need to involve unstable motorbikes!

Okay, now I feel very old.

And Traviata updated (or this update) doesn't make a great deal of sense. I've seen the updating thing work well, but it usually has a great deal more thought that 'Violetta would look great in a flapper costume.'

BTW, enjoy Urinetown on Saturday!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I have read (in other fandoms) both sex on horseback and sex on a motorcycle. In the first case, the horse was trotting around an indoor ring, and in the second, the kickstand was deployed.

In any case, I think sex on a Vespa would be like sex with an aspirin clutched between the lady's knees -- more of a proof of concept than a serious attempt to get off. (A friend of mine in college executed the latter, as a matter of scientific curiosity.)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

There's kinky sex and sex where you just marvel at the wonder horse that wouldn't be freaked out by two people having sex on its back (have these people ever been on a horse? Unless they're a circus animal they're not too happy at people being bouncy up there). And why you would bother except as some sort of experiment.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I think it must have been a horse that had read The Tough Guide To Fantasyland. (Have you? Fabulous book.)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I have never - it looks great. I think I will get a copy this summer when I have time to read.