la boheme opera performance in 1964 in washington dc area

The movements of all the characters in this production are matched consistently to an orchestral or vocal expression, emphasizing thus the union of choreography with lyrical and declamatory effect. Already from the subdued opening accompanied by muted strings an underlying tension is evident in the darting figure of Puck, a spoken role assumed in this production by the actor Jason Griffin. In its recent performances of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Chicago Opera Theater affirms its reputation for carefully gauged and well cast productions. Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Chicago Opera Theater All other dramatic extremes - be it fevered love declaration, jealous rage or elegant death - was conducted in an almost balletic minimalism of physical effort. It was the supporting actors/dancers, Kabuki-like, who supplied the human activity - including a memorable “a capella” rhythmic foot-stamping war-interlude. If the singers were disadvantaged physically by what they were wearing, they didn’t seem to show it - although to be fair none had to move at anything more than a dignified pace. The heavy, stylised, costumes - extravagant to the point of caricature - are in themselves a theatrical tool that both enable and yet also constrain the drama of this young Mozart’s early work. The time is about 65 BC and the world is one of an old Asia Minor versus a rising Rome, with an ageing King Mitridate fighting off both martial and sexual invasions of his territories. Essentially, director Graham Vick and designer Paul Brown and their team created a world, half historic, half fantastic, and one is left with a visual memory replete with starkly simple blood-red sets, kaleidoscopically coloured bizarrely shaped costumes and arrowed shafts of silver light, almost painfully reflecting from armoured breastplates. To this newcomer’s eye it is still both amazingly original in its design and concept, and yet also oddly frustrating. I can only dimly imagine how this singular and arresting production was first greeted at Covent Garden back in 1991.

La boheme opera performance in 1964 in washington dc area