So, I'm two operas done, two to go in the Ring Cycle in Brisbane.
I have thoughts! Some, briefly, because I'm busy at work:
* most famous person I have seen in the audience (and I was walking beside him on the way to the pub for an intermission dinner last night) - David Faulkner from Hoodoo Gurus. I'm positive it's him, although he also seems to be in the company of people who don't look at all like former rock people. I don't know - I don't think I have ever been game to say hello to a famous person in public, even if I like their work and want to say something blandly nice like "love your work". (I think it's a travesty that ACDC became the world famous loud guitar rock band from Australia over the Hoodoos, by the way.)
* The staging: very good for the most part, but a bit "fussy" in some bits. But really - you're likely never going to be ecstatic about every artistic decision make over 15 or so hours of theatre.
* The singer's performances - seem pretty good to me, but I'm not an expert.
* The orchestra's performance - from what I can gather, this is causing the most controversy, with some saying it's not "exciting" enough, but others perfectly satisfied. Again, from a non expert point of view: I can see how there is a bit of an issue with this opera that it is easy to overwhelm the voices, and finding the balance between both is the trick, I guess. For what it's worth, I think that the orchestra is doing well enough, but I think I can also see where some of the criticism is coming from, because in my (again, completely non expert opinion) the Opera North production which I have watched in full on Youtube did have a more dramatic feel to the performance. I would be curious to see if the third cycle is the best for their performance, or if they will be exhausted by then.
* I have been reading about how Wagner created the operas and now understand a lot more about why so much has been written about them - more on that in a separate post, I think.
* The first opera didn't invade my dreams, but last night's Die Walkure did. I forget the details, but there were swords, and confusion at work about Nordic names and how I had to fix errors in them. Just what I need - Wagner invading one of those generic anxiety dreams that never seems to end!
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