In the LOS ANGELES OPERA'S new staging of Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet the director is quite excited to show we the audience that the soprano is decidedly not fat and ugly, as per operatic stereotype. No, in fact, she's hot, she's skinny, and she can sing. So our director proves this to us by staging the bedroom scene with her and her Romeo - who also, Mr. Director takes great care to show, is also incredibly sexy and dreamy - rolling around on the bed naked. And we're not talking scantily clad here: we're talking naked. The curtain goes up and you see a large patch of skin. 'That can't be what I think it is!' you think. But then our heroine rises from the bed with her back towards us, flips her hair back, and suddenly we realize that yes, she is topless - and yes that was Romeo's naked posterior we saw on curtain up. Meanwhile, for the rest of the lovely duet, you can't keep your mind off the fact that they both appear to be naked (we later discover that they are wearing nude colored underwear over key places), but still you keep trying to see whether any ta-tas or danglies are visible.
This is one way to stage an opera. If you don't want your audience paying attention to the music. Or the lacking overall direction. Or the dreary sets. Or the feeling that Gounod's opera is really nothing more than a set of 20-minute duets strung together by 40 minutes of otherwise blah music. Oh, but the view was nice...
I suppose I shouldn't dismiss our otherwise lovely lead singers - Anna Netrebko as Juliet and Rolando Vilazon as Romeo. Vilazon was stunning as Romeo: tremendous charisma and a gorgeous tenor voice that could melt hearts all the way up to the fourth balcony. Netrebko has a lusciously creamy voice (even if she botched her first song), and she is certainly pleasing to look at (even if her Romeo inadvertently upstaged her every time he was on stage). So basically, with this production of "Romeo," it was all about the duets; things were dull when R&J were off stage, brighter when they were on it, and distracting when they were on it but their clothing wasn't.
LA Opera's production of Verdi's "Aida" was a traditional staging in comparison. Verdi's opera is constructed in such a manner that it faithfully lumbers onward towards operatic gratification no matter what they do to the production. This production - which the LA Opera shares with the Houston Grand Opera - is certainly attractive and elaborate. It appropriately leaves room for the singers to sing and provides a the necessary backdrop of spectacle.
Unlike in "Romeo," the singers here weren't quite so skinny. But their singing was nonetheless marvelous, and they weren't naked so we could actually pay attention to their singing. I particularly enjoyed Irina Mishura's portrayal of Amneris: she has this dark beauty to her that just looks appropriately evil for the role, and then her voice has an immensely satisfying timbre to it that makes you happy even when she sings low notes. Michèle Crider sang Aida gorgeously, but with less emotion than might be desired overall.
This "Aida" was immensely enjoyable - as I said, the opera tends to faithfully lumber onward thanks to Verdi's unstoppable score. The only squeamish portion was the dancing: they brought in a choreographer to add some weird modern dances for the ballet portions. I'm not sure what was up with the strange Martha-Grahamish hooded dancers during the temple scene, and the choreography for the fight ballet was bland athletic tricks. Do not take a seasoned balletomane to watch opera choreography: he will slash it to bits.
Relevant information
LOS ANGELES OPERA: ROMEO AND JULIET
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
February 17, 2005 (ends Feb. 20)
LOS ANGELES OPERA: AIDA
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
February 19, 2005 (closing performance)
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