Eis a síntese das premières a que o público do Met poderá assistir na temporada que se avizinha:
«PATRICE CHÉREAU has been a prominent director in Europe since his 1976 staging of the “Ring” cycle at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, which placed him at the forefront of Regietheater, a term applied to high-concept, sometimes outlandish reinterpretations of operas.
Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera since 2006, will presumably not import some of the tackier elements of Regietheater. But he has recruited major directors from theater and film for recent stagings, with varying degrees of success. As part of the first season planned entirely by Mr. Gelb and the music director, James Levine, Mr. Chéreau will make his American debut with Janacek’s dark “From the House of the Dead.”
One of eight new stagings at the Met this season, “From the House of the Dead,” a co-production with several European companies, will open on Nov. 12 with Esa-Pekka Salonen in his house debut, conducting a cast that includes the excellent baritone Peter Mattei.
The opera is Janacek’s last and is based on Dostoevsky’s novel “The House of the Dead,” a fictional account of life in a Siberian prison camp inspired by his own experiences. Written for a large and almost entirely male cast and chorus, the Janacek opera had its premiere in Brno, now in the Czech Republic, in 1930, two years after Janacek’s death. It is seldom staged.
Janacek wrote his own libretto and specified that the action should take place in the Siberian countryside. Mr. Chéreau’s widely praised production uses enormous gray walls to suggest a modern prison. Within those walls, Mr. Chéreau suggests, exist the same power struggles, relationships, humiliations and passions of contemporary society.
On a more lighthearted note, the imaginative South African artist William Kentridge, who designed the sets for a production of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2007, will also make his Met debut with a new production of “The Nose,” by Shostakovich, opening on March 5.
The Met recruited visual artists like Marc Chagall and David Hockney to design sets. Mr. Kentridge’s production will incorporate archival footage and animated films as well as plaster and papier-mâché costumes for the title character.
Valery Gergiev will conduct Shostakovich’s theatrical score, a blend of folk music and atonality that had its premiere in Leningrad in 1930. Paulo Szot, now starring in “South Pacific” on Broadway, will play Kovalyov, the bureaucrat drawn from Gogol’s 1836 satire about a civil servant who wakes up and discovers he has lost his nose. When Kovalyov confronts the missing appendage, he learns that it has attained a higher rank than his own. But man and nose are reunited in a happy ending.»
(fotos de O Nariz - à esquerda - e Da Casa dos Mortos - à direita)
«PATRICE CHÉREAU has been a prominent director in Europe since his 1976 staging of the “Ring” cycle at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, which placed him at the forefront of Regietheater, a term applied to high-concept, sometimes outlandish reinterpretations of operas.
Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera since 2006, will presumably not import some of the tackier elements of Regietheater. But he has recruited major directors from theater and film for recent stagings, with varying degrees of success. As part of the first season planned entirely by Mr. Gelb and the music director, James Levine, Mr. Chéreau will make his American debut with Janacek’s dark “From the House of the Dead.”
One of eight new stagings at the Met this season, “From the House of the Dead,” a co-production with several European companies, will open on Nov. 12 with Esa-Pekka Salonen in his house debut, conducting a cast that includes the excellent baritone Peter Mattei.
The opera is Janacek’s last and is based on Dostoevsky’s novel “The House of the Dead,” a fictional account of life in a Siberian prison camp inspired by his own experiences. Written for a large and almost entirely male cast and chorus, the Janacek opera had its premiere in Brno, now in the Czech Republic, in 1930, two years after Janacek’s death. It is seldom staged.
Janacek wrote his own libretto and specified that the action should take place in the Siberian countryside. Mr. Chéreau’s widely praised production uses enormous gray walls to suggest a modern prison. Within those walls, Mr. Chéreau suggests, exist the same power struggles, relationships, humiliations and passions of contemporary society.
On a more lighthearted note, the imaginative South African artist William Kentridge, who designed the sets for a production of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2007, will also make his Met debut with a new production of “The Nose,” by Shostakovich, opening on March 5.
The Met recruited visual artists like Marc Chagall and David Hockney to design sets. Mr. Kentridge’s production will incorporate archival footage and animated films as well as plaster and papier-mâché costumes for the title character.
Valery Gergiev will conduct Shostakovich’s theatrical score, a blend of folk music and atonality that had its premiere in Leningrad in 1930. Paulo Szot, now starring in “South Pacific” on Broadway, will play Kovalyov, the bureaucrat drawn from Gogol’s 1836 satire about a civil servant who wakes up and discovers he has lost his nose. When Kovalyov confronts the missing appendage, he learns that it has attained a higher rank than his own. But man and nose are reunited in a happy ending.»
(fotos de O Nariz - à esquerda - e Da Casa dos Mortos - à direita)
É, sem dúvida, uma temporada que promete. Confesso que nunca ouvi "O Nariz", embora adore a "Lady Macbeth" e as sinfonias do Shostakovitch.
ResponderEliminarA única versão da "Casa dos Mortos" que conheço (a que tenho) é a da Supraphon, de 1979, com o Richard Novák, a Milada Jirglová e o Vilém Pribyl, dirigida pelo Vaclav Neumann. É uma ópera muito intensa, de que adoraria assistir a uma récita.
Em igual situação caro Gus, mas eu tenho a versão da Decca da "Da Casa dos Mortos" dirigida pelo Mackerras. É uma daquelas músicas que nos conquista a pouco e pouco e, como diz, resulta intensa. Também gostaria muito de assisti a uma récita.
ResponderEliminarRaul
Infelizmente Boulez não estará no Maestro´s Pit nesta nova Produção do Met DA CASA DOS MORTOS, que, por acaso, também é uma estreia absoluta naquele prestigiadíssimo palco mundial. Na sua vez, estarão dois debuts prometedores e que farão, de certeza, correr muita tinta: o do super-produtor Patrice Chéreau e do maestro que irá substituir Boulez: Esa-Pekka Salonen.
ResponderEliminarRefiro isto, porque há pouco adquiri e visionei o DVD desta mesma produção, mas em récitas de Aix-en-Provence e dirigidas por Boulez. Meus senhores: 10 em 10 !! :-)
… e quem não chorar no fim, é lingrinhas e anda a disfarçar que gosta de Ópera!... :-D :-D ;-))
LG
Raul, é verdade o que disse sobre a casa dos mortos. foi o meu primeiro passo em óperas ditas mais modernas e confesso que ao inicio aquilo que estava a ser algo a custo tornou-se numa valente "bofetada". utilizo este termo para definir aquela sensaçao de espanto e de ficar preso a uma obra intensa e original. a unica que conheço é um dvd recente dirigida por boulez e mr. LG, é verdade, é realmente comovente! agora, quando ouço só a abertura sinto um enorme pesar sobre os ombros só de pensar nas histórias que vao sendo contadas ao longo da ópera.
ResponderEliminarPergunta de algibeira: porque é que - acabo de os ver - os prémio de 2009 da Classical fm/Gramophone são tããão previsíveis na sua maioria e com taaanto pendor para os compositores britânicos? Uma decepção!
ResponderEliminarGus,
ResponderEliminarÉ sempre assim. É ignorar ;-)
Gus,
ResponderEliminarAssino a Gramophone e é, como diz o caríssimo Dissoluto, é sempre assim. Quanto ao desfilar de crítica aos CDs a inclusão de música britânica está sempre presente nos tops 10 e na apreciação geral. Desta característica eu acabo por tirar vantagem: não as leio, salto por cima, e assim poupo tempo,se acaso me abalanço para uma leitura integral da revista, que é o que normalmento faço. Sou um Brhamasiano, no duplo sentido de adorar a sua música e partilhar a ideia de que a Inglaterra não tem música e, como o outro diz, quando a tem não pode fugir de uma paisagenzinha.
Raul