The Passion of Opera

Though I am familiar with Philip Glass' musical style and his immense impact on the world of opera and classical music at large, I have never viewed or attended a performance of one of his operas and was quite excited to do so. This production is shared by several opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, and is quite excellent. While I thought some of the typical Glass musical elements could have been pushed even a bit further here, the performance was quite good and, of course, mesmeric. This performance was given the day after the death of Nelson Mandela. Someone took the stage before the performance began and lead a one minute (really two minutes) standing period moment of silence. The trifecta of Gandhi on stage singing, Martin Luther King on stage acting, and Mandela in our minds was reflectively poignant.  General information & synopsis:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha_(opera) Satyagraha | Philip Glass Credits: Director | Phelim McDermot...

This post is just to address the overall arc of the Wiener Staatsoper's Fall 2011 production of Der Ring des Nibelungen . These observations didn't feel appropriate to describe in any of the reviews of the individual operas, but a review of the cycle as a whole would be incomplete without them. The set design was very mediocre. In the first three operas of the cycle it tended toward the abstract without actually going all the way down the rabbit hole. It is respectable that designers want to get away from the massive, grand sets and costumes with horns and metal bras. I imagine that there is a feeling among designers that they just can't top a "period" Ring set and that this well is dry. Nonetheless, if the decision is to go abstract, then full abstraction is probably requisite, rather than trying to make a literal interpretation feel abstract. This just leads to a sense that things were left out or skimped upon. Perhaps the greatest failing in the first three...