I guess you could say a whole new world has been opened up to me culturally. I always think I’m pretty ecclectic music and entertaniment wise – about the only thing I know I don’t like is “hardcore rap” with the cursing/down on women stuff. (I find that offensive.) For the culture expansion – I’m thankful as I think I have a new appreciation for musical talents.
Last night, with some organization (Thanks Watson!), 5 of us got all gussied up (DAAMMMNNN!!!! ) and went to see the Barber of Seville at the Berlin opera. (Don’t know it – I’d bet money that you do – think…… Figaro! FIGARRROOO! Figaro, Figaro, Figaro… – see, I knew you would.)
Anyhow, the performers were wonderful as was the music. The costumes were lovely (for the most part) and I thought that the experience was worthy of the opportunity to go. Will I go see an opera again? yes, certainly.
Would I go see one at the Berlin Staat opera house? Well, let’s just say probabally not. Truly there were challenges that made it so that I might have enjoyed the performance much more. For example, the theater is shaped like a Letter D.
The line part of the D would be where the stage is, and the curve being the arrangement of where the seating is. I figured ok, we’d be able to see the stage from where we are – 40 Euro tickets in the balcony on the right. Well…. we could see the stage…. sort of – but not comfortably. Instead of having the seating face the stage where the performance was going on, the sides of the opera seating are arranged so that you are facing the OPPOSITE side of the audience and looking down into the seating behind the Orchestra and/or the Orchestra. (Better view of the opposing audience than the stage.) This means that to see the Opera, you had to turn yourself (or your head) at a 90 degree angle to your Right for the entire performance. Oh – and if anyone was sitting in front of you, you were constantly shifting to be able to see what was going on on stage. Not really a good set up (Uncomfortable chairs too, but that I can handle) since I wound up practically sitting in JTW’s lap or the lady on the other side of me’s lap (and vice versa) for the performance. Someone called it “site line issues” and I’d have to agree.
The other thing that really bothered me was that I’ve seen opera on TV, I’ve seen musicals, plays, and ballet in small theaters and on broadway. They all had some amazing sets. I was expecting something well…. normal? That I could relate to? I don’t know… but obviously NOT what was used.
For this version of Barber of Seville, the set was horrible – no.. beyond horrible in my opinion. (JTW mentioned that the opera version he saw in Sydney Opera house had a more “normal” set….) I’ll say that it appeared to me that their set designer had quit and someone just said oh hey – let’s do it this way to save money. Seriously. It was that bad.
How do I describe it since I have no pictures. It was literally a bunch of white sheets that were strung up on a wire in the shape of a square. On the sheets were a sort of “newsprint” or “cartoon” illustration in black with cross hatching of (when the curtains were closed) a city street with buildings as if you were walking up it, and (when curtains were opened) a vision of a room with holes cut out (windows/doors? ) where the performers were entering and leaving through. The few bits of furniture used/needed (chair, harpsicord or piano) were covered in this same “draping” so that instead of a piano, it was a white sheet with a black drawing of a piano draped over it for example.
Holly and Cecile said that they thought it was a good minimalistic type effect because you could see the characters better. They liked it. Black and white – just add the color in the costumes to make it pop. They figured that someone probabally paid alot of money for the set because it had artistic vision. (Ok similar to the painting that’s just all red paint that is something anyone could do but sells for 1 million bucks?!?)
To me, this set was quite honestly – distracting, cheap looking, off-putting and confusing. Here’s why – it had no depth/color to add to visual imput for those of us who were trying to “get it” – which means that to me, I can’t figure out which room they’re supposed to be in (at one point it’s the girl’s bedroom, at another it’s a drawing room, and at another it’s the church chapel.) or the location of what’s happening (outside on the town square, seranading the girl at the balcony, running from the army thru the city). In addition, they kept using the side draping curtains to “hide” from other characters – huh? Are they inside or outside? How can you hide behind a curtain if you’re outside… I don’t get it….
And distracting?!? UGH. For each of the scenes, they had different people (Dressed as servants, army, etc.) wandering around in the background pretending to “do something to” the room (clean, look for the count, etc.). At one point, during a lovely solo by a female soprano, there was this guy “cleaning” the room and hooking wires to the bottom of the curtains and making noise.
The music she was singing was beautiful, and between the Italian and the German (in subtitles beamed to a screen at the top) I was able to follow the program and get the gist of what was being said. HOWEVER, this guy doing whatever in the background was drawing my attention – and not her. (me – WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING?!? Why’s he hooking wires to the bottom of the curtains in the house scene? Now, he’s moving out props…. and (riippppp) opening a window sealed by velcro…. GERR what’s she singing again? Oh Now what’s he doing….. ) Totally distracting.
At any rate, in the next scene after all the distraction (which caused me to miss part of what she was singing) , the wires are used to make the “walls” of the house move back and forth like “curtains” in a storm. There’s storm background music… and etc.
Re Vague/confusing – It took me nearly the whole scene to figure out that this was supposed to be OUTSIDE and an ILLUSTRATION of a tempest (this wire moving of the inside curtain view back and forth) . I just was thinking “earthquake?”, “fire?”, natural disaster? “What the HELL is this ? Time warp? WTF? Ok I give up”. It was only when the characters came through with capes and umbrellas expanded did I get it. GERR. hello.. not patently obvious to me (OR Leah – also a first time Opera goer too.)
So, my question.. for 40 euros times x number of patrons, why couldn’t they simply invest in a set? Or, better yet, buy some markers, color the set and maybe get a couple more “scenes” so we could figure out where and what was going on…..
Then again, maybe I’m just expecting too much and this is supposed to be “berlin” sexy opera updated to something modern ish? I don’t know. Yes, I will go again – I did enjoy the music, the people watching, and the performance overall. And maybe, just maybe, the next thing I choose will be more to my set expectations… now that they’ve been lowered to a set of sheets…..
*Edit* Oh.. I did find a picture of the set on the berlin opera’s website for illustrative purpose of the crappy set:
Leah also took a couple of the way we were facing and the set:
Crappy Set Street view (behind the performers)
How we were facing:
