pallas_athena (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pallas_athena) wrote2008-11-12 08:10 pm
pallas_athena) wrote2008-11-12 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
Wer sind diese Damen?
I should be relieved to have my time, brain and voice back-- and I am, but I do miss my cast. I have decided to combat the nostalgia by posting silly photos. Tonight's post will be devoted to the Queen of the Night and her Ladies, who rule the world of the opera with an iron fist.
I got most of my production ideas by looking at the story and asking "why?" One of my big problems with this opera is its gender politics, so I asked "Why are the men in this story so angry and suspicious about women?" My answer to this was to set the opera in a world where women are the stronger sex and wield oppressive power. So the Queen of the Night became the absolute dictator of this world, with the Three Ladies as her elite guards.
At my first production meeting, the producer told me happily that we had a brunette, a blonde and a redhead. More importantly, I was happy to meet three friendly, competent, enthusiastic artists. In most productions, the Three Ladies are terribly glamourous in veils and evening gowns. When my three heard what was in store for them, they didn't bat an eyelid. Like true commandos, they adapted quickly:
At their first rehearsal, I gave them dogtags with their numbers, which seemed to make them happy. By the first night, they were designing tattoos:
Later, I learnt that they had used their covert-ops skills to execute a daring mid-show raid on the college bar...
Mission accomplished!
They proved stalwart in defence of their Queen:
For the Queen of the Night herself, I was lucky to have a soprano with stage presence, a strong voice and a fine top F. Her performance was spine-chillingly excellent.
A director's ideas are worth nothing unless people take them and run with them. I was lucky to have a cast of marathon runners. So here's to the Ladies and their star-blazing Queen!
I got most of my production ideas by looking at the story and asking "why?" One of my big problems with this opera is its gender politics, so I asked "Why are the men in this story so angry and suspicious about women?" My answer to this was to set the opera in a world where women are the stronger sex and wield oppressive power. So the Queen of the Night became the absolute dictator of this world, with the Three Ladies as her elite guards.
At my first production meeting, the producer told me happily that we had a brunette, a blonde and a redhead. More importantly, I was happy to meet three friendly, competent, enthusiastic artists. In most productions, the Three Ladies are terribly glamourous in veils and evening gowns. When my three heard what was in store for them, they didn't bat an eyelid. Like true commandos, they adapted quickly:
At their first rehearsal, I gave them dogtags with their numbers, which seemed to make them happy. By the first night, they were designing tattoos:
Later, I learnt that they had used their covert-ops skills to execute a daring mid-show raid on the college bar...
Mission accomplished!
They proved stalwart in defence of their Queen:
For the Queen of the Night herself, I was lucky to have a soprano with stage presence, a strong voice and a fine top F. Her performance was spine-chillingly excellent.
A director's ideas are worth nothing unless people take them and run with them. I was lucky to have a cast of marathon runners. So here's to the Ladies and their star-blazing Queen!
