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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: Tchaikovsky’s “Evgeny Onegin”
Post Subject: "Contemporary" productionsPosted by Paul S on: 9/15/2008
I have no problem with updated and/or altered settings for classic operas.  I saw/heard an excellent "updated" Cosi Fan Tutti a little while back that held my interest throughout, in terms of the music and singing, anyway, and the story certainly remained credible in its new guise.

The thing that gets me with too many of the "contemporary" versions is when everyone invloved gets "equal billing", as it were; from the "director" to the costume designer to the sound engineer, each person invloved "adds" a big, egotistical "special something" to the production, to the point where the original, timeless value of the work gets totally obscured by a veritable blizzard of "creative" nonsense.  What happened to the tyranical genius with a solid vision?

Then, just to twist the dagger, the "critics" get their "turn"  and they fall all over themselves with grandiloquent "reviews" of the thing that make it sound like the Reflected Glory of God, often with no significant references to what actually matters about the work.  With the long/venerable history of true art/music/literary criticism, you'd think it would evolve and get better instead of becoming the promotional drum beat for the kinky producers.

Feh...

Sorry, that kinda got away from me.  I guess I needed to get it off my chest.

Paul S

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