art and vision
Bernard Gould
stamp a production,
with his/her vision.What artist/painter would they choose,
what opera and why.
Bernard
REG
artists of the period participated in a number of theatrical and, to a
lesser extent, opera, productions, including classic theatre like Don Carlos
and Lecourveur and Principessa Turadnot. We are unlikely to see those
productions again - there is one film that circulates of a Malevich work,
but little else.
I think that, because, of the Avant-Gardists, Popova was the most versed in
theate, and very sensitive of costume and design, I'd like to see a Pelleas
by her.
Closer to reality would be resurrecting Eisenstein's Valkerie, which he did
at the end of '39 to celebrate (on orders, of course) the Hitler-Stalin
pact. It was not a long-lived production.
"Bernard Gould" <gm...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:3c54779b$0$233$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
Capa0848
>From: "Bernard Gould" gm...@dial.pipex.com
>Date: 01/27/2002 1:52 PM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <3c54779b$0$233$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com>
=========
I think I would have Salvador Dali do Puritani -- just so he couldn't get his
hands on any of the ones that made sense.
Pat
"Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?"
Benedick, "Much Ado About Nothing"
A Tsar Is Born
I've always wanted to stage Aida in a sort of 20s Art Deco "King Tut"
style. Erte, I suppose, would be the artist. We'd need a willowy
Amneris, someone who could really _slink_. (Zajick is out.)
My favorite artists (in chronological order) are Mantegna, Giorgione,
Caravaggio, Velazquez, Vermeer, Vigee Lebrun, Turner, Redon, Monet,
Pissarro, Klee and Picasso. If one were to choose an opera for each to
set, avoiding the period and place where they lived, I think I'd give:
Mantegna -- Don Carlos, because it's about the contrast between the
external show and internal soul of each of the five main characters,
and he could give us both at once
Giorgione -- not Gioconda (too obvious; I think I'll give that to
Bosch); perhaps Death in Venice for the athletics
Caravaggio -- not Billy Budd (too obvious again); something
deceptively dainty with good raucous undertones, like Le Nozze di
Figaro
Velazquez -- Les Hugeonots, because he could give individual
personality to all those rather blurred individuals
Vermeer -- Bluebeard's Castle, or perhaps Jenufa -- the former because
it is so mythic, it requires de-mythicization to make it more real to
us; the latter because the humanity of all the simple characters is
what especially appeals to us. Or is that too obvious? Should we make
him work on something way out of his line, like Esclarmonde?
Vigee Lebrun -- Figaro would be the obvious choice, so instead I'll
give her Billy Budd; she'll find it easy to present a fresh-faced
Billy, but her Claggart will be intriguing.
Turner -- another one where Billy Budd would be too obvious, also
anything with a grandiose or antique landscape, like any opera seria.
Instead, lets have him work on something intimate and brooding in the
foreground, like Forza del Destino
Redon -- seems the obvious choice for Zauberflote or Frau ohne
Schatten, so instead let's give him Cosi fan tutte, and let the vivid
colors bring the characters to life.
Monet -- Manon is too obvious; let's have him take on a Ring and do
variations on the same set: Valkyrie Rock at sunset, Valkyrie Rock at
dawn, etc.
Pissarro -- you're thinking Louise, aren't you? Of course you are. So
I think he should handle some Biblical spectacular like Nabucco or
Moise or Samson et Dalila.
Klee -- another obvious Zauberflote man, so let's give him something
realistic, like Street Scene or Porgy and Bess
Klimt will be given Salome by so many others -- I'd like to put him in
charge of Lohengrin or Parsifal
Picasso -- His obsession with the eternal feminine goads me to give
him Billy Budd, but I think we should strike out into the archetypal
and do some Handel stagings.
Jackson Pollack -- something with a focus on stillness, or on mayhem.
Four Saints in Three Acts?
Hans Lick
atsar...@hotmail.com
Pat Finley
> "Bernard Gould" <gm...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message news:<3c54779b$0$233$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com>...
> > If members of this forum,could choose an artist/painter,from any period,to
> > stamp a production,
> > with his/her vision.What artist/painter would they choose,
> > what opera and why.
** Great stuff, John. Just a couple of thoughts that would never have
occurred to me had you not prompted them... They may, perhaps, involve
too much 'type-casting'
>
>
> Mantegna -- Don Carlos, because it's about the contrast between the
> external show and internal soul of each of the five main characters,
> and he could give us both at once
>
** Good; but I like Velazquez even better here for much the same
reasons (cf "Las Meninas" et al); besides he was Spanish and a
near-contemporary -- he was born in 1599, the year after Philip II
died.
>
> Vermeer -- Bluebeard's Castle, or perhaps Jenufa -- the former because
> it is so mythic, it requires de-mythicization to make it more real to
> us; the latter because the humanity of all the simple characters is
> what especially appeals to us. Or is that too obvious? Should we make
> him work on something way out of his line, like Esclarmonde?
** Vermeer I see doing something domestic -- I think he would be
perfect for "Meistersinger" Although Leonardo has a little
experience doing male groups of 12 + 1 also.
>
>
> Monet -- Manon is too obvious; let's have him take on a Ring and do
> variations on the same set: Valkyrie Rock at sunset, Valkyrie Rock at
> dawn, etc.
** The Ring is a wonderful choice! In no opera is nature more
beautifully evoked -- and what a Rainbow Bridge he'd give us! But if
I could, I'd want Cezanne to paint Brunnhilde's Mont St Victoire, and
I'd want Michelangelo to do Valhalla; Monet would do a splendid job
with the cherry blossoms in "Butterfly" as well, and the shimmering
images of "Pelleas"
>
> Picasso -- His obsession with the eternal feminine goads me to give
> him Billy Budd, but I think we should strike out into the archetypal
> and do some Handel stagings.
"Rosenkavalier", I think -- can't you see the final trio aux
"Demoiselles d'Avignon"? Not to mention his signal success with his
"rose" period
>
>
> Hans Lick
> atsar...@hotmail.com
A couple of others "La Boheme" by Utrillo; "Carmen" and "Otello" by
Delacroix -- "Les Pecheurs de Perles" by Gauguin; "Elektra" by Munch;
But what by Renoir? -- who painted (IMO) some of the loveliest women
and a number of attractive settings of men and women enjoying life's
pleasures -- "Manon", perhaps; or Act II of Boheme
Or Van Gogh the turbulent, tortured genius -- "Tristan"? "Peter
Grimes"? "Boris"?
Thanks to Bernard, too, for a provocative suggestion.
Pat
Valfer
spectacular.
Valfer
"Bernard Gould" <gm...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:3c54779b$0$233$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
Bernard Gould
but here's a taster.
William Blake,Samuel Palmer.Richard Dadd,Henry
Fuseli,Pre-Raphaelites,Emile Nolde,Edvard Munch,
George Grosz,Max Beckmann,Stanley Spencer,Edward
Burra,Wassily Kandinsky,Willem de Kooning,Roy
Lichenstein,Fernand Leger,Monet,Manet,Degas,Seurat,
[Far too many]
"The Ring of the Nibelung"
Blake /Wagner I think this would be a good mix,because of Blake's belief in
a spiritual world and his vision of the
human condition expressed in his art and poetry.Blake
would be in his element,imo, what would he make of the destruction of
Valhalla.
"Madama Butterfly"
The Japanese graphic artists of the nineteenth century ,perhaps the best
known one being, Hokusai,
"The Wave",but there were many more[though perhaps
an obvious link] . Their lyrical quality and stunning imagery would be a
visual feast.
"Billy Budd"'
I'm always bowled over by Sir Stanley Spencer" The
Resurrection Cookham" is a masterpiece, an evocation
of joy, the resurrected already in heaven and the
brotherhood of man.It would be fascinating to see
what he would do with "Billy Budd"
"Salome"
I think Paul Gauguin"Faa Iheihe"To beautify adorn embellish,the colour
orchestration
imo fits, I feel these are the colours of the music.
This must stop now ,I can hear a plaintive voice telling
me the tea is getting cold.
Bernard
This morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas,
What it was doing there I don't know!!
Bernard Gould <gm...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
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