![]() ![]() His eye for the telling detail, his ear for the striking phrase, and his sensitivity to long-forgotten real-life personalities shortly to appear onstage-all this made for thrilling listening. ![]() On opening night, a crowd of hundreds showed up early to hear Sellars on the historic, social, and political background of the new opera and its striking pertinence to hot-button issues (racism, feminism, diversity) of the present day. Beginning with Nixon in China (1987), each of his operatic collaborations with the composer John Adams has rung variations on such themes, as does the epic documentary Girls of the Golden West, which had its premiere in San Francisco in late November. As subject matter, he likes events that have turned the world upside down, viewed through prisms of intimate personal experience, from the clashing points of view of outsiders and outcasts, players with their hands on the wheel, and anyone in between. Imagine instead, if you will, the boom-and-bust scenario of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny minus Brecht's populist punch and Weill's dynamite showtunes, reconstituted from historic newspaper clippings by eccentric academics and a busy team of research assistants whose hearts are in the footnotes.Īs the world has long known, the director, occasional librettist, and full-time theatrical provocateur Peter Sellars always has a lot more on his mind than entertainment. Remember Minnie, Puccini's Girl of the Golden West, with her rifle, her saloon, her Bible, and those aces up her skirt? Well, you can forget about Minnie. Strike it rich! Pickaxe in hand, Clarence (Ryan McKinney) awaits his cue. ![]()
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