(no subject)

So, my mom gets opera tickets every summer. She divies up the operas between people she knows might enjoy them. I always get to pick one, and often get to go to a second that no one else was interested in. This year I picked Troilus and Cressida.

But this Sunday, my mom had an open seat for Tales of Hoffmann. I know enough to have heard of ToH, and OTSL is always worth hearing, so of course I go with her.

I'm still sort of recovering. Okay, so the deal is, ETA Hoffmann is drunk off his ass in the bar during a performance of Don Giovanni. His girlfriend, who he's recently broken up with, is singing. She's sent him a note offering a reconciliation and asking him to visit her in her dressing room after Act 2, but the bass has intercepted this note (Basses just do that sort of thing, cause that's how basses are), so Hoffmann never gets it. Meanwhile, Hoffmann's muse is pining because Hoffmann has abandoned her for human women, who never treat him right. The muse has dressed up like a man and is posing as Hoffmann's servant Niklaus.

Hoffmann then proceeds to tell the stories of the three great loves of his life. These are all based on stories of Hoffmann's. In the end he concludes that the three loves are just facets of the opera singer who's recently done him wrong. The opera singer comes in, angry and presumably hurt that he's ignored her attempt at reconciliation, finds him drunk off his ass and kicks him permanently to the curb. Hoffmann swears off women, much to the joy of his muse.

Are you boggling yet? How about this? Those three facets of the opera singer--who we hardly see at all in person--those three facets, what do they tell us about this opera singer? Well. She's a whore who steals men's souls for money, a gifted singer who for some inexplicable reason chooses to sing and die young rather than live a long life doing Hoffmann's laundry and never singing again (<.sarcasm>Obviously she can't do both! And what sane woman would want to exercise her artistic and creative gifts instead of giving that up so Hoffmann could have lots of babies?<./sarcasm>), and, to top it all off--or to start with, since it's actually the first of the facets presented--she's not human at all. She's just an automaton!

I boggled.

Add in the fact that the first act was played for humor. The first act that's based on "Der Sandman." Oh, that story is high-larious, let me tell you!

Actually, that story is highly creepy, if not an outright horror story. And bits of the creep were left in. "Beautiful eyes!" Played for laughs. Much of which was clearly in the libretto to start with, but OTSL's production turned it up to eleven, and the ultimate effect was like someone had made a nice, zingy curry the original recipe for which called for, say, some raisins or apple or something added for contrast, for a touch of sweetness, but instead the cook had slathered on an inch of powdered-sugar frosting.

Yes, I know. Coppelia! Nothing but sugar! Right. There's no curry in Coppelia, no chunks of horror bobbing up in the sea of sugar, for no discernable reason except to remind you the story isn't really as funny as they're all pretending.

Well, the music was gorgeous. It always is, with OTSL. I particularly enjoy their chorus. Composers take note! If anyone were to write an all-chorus opera I'd be right there. I'd probably die on the spot if OTSL staged it, from sheer ecstasy. Lovely chorus. Lovely singing.

(no subject)

So, my mom gets opera tickets every summer. She divies up the operas between people she knows might enjoy them. I always get to pick one, and often get to go to a second that no one else was interested in. This year I picked Troilus and Cressida.

But this Sunday, my mom had an open seat for Tales of Hoffmann. I know enough to have heard of ToH, and OTSL is always worth hearing, so of course I go with her.

I'm still sort of recovering. Okay, so the deal is, ETA Hoffmann is drunk off his ass in the bar during a performance of Don Giovanni. His girlfriend, who he's recently broken up with, is singing. She's sent him a note offering a reconciliation and asking him to visit her in her dressing room after Act 2, but the bass has intercepted this note (Basses just do that sort of thing, cause that's how basses are), so Hoffmann never gets it. Meanwhile, Hoffmann's muse is pining because Hoffmann has abandoned her for human women, who never treat him right. The muse has dressed up like a man and is posing as Hoffmann's servant Niklaus.

Hoffmann then proceeds to tell the stories of the three great loves of his life. These are all based on stories of Hoffmann's. In the end he concludes that the three loves are just facets of the opera singer who's recently done him wrong. The opera singer comes in, angry and presumably hurt that he's ignored her attempt at reconciliation, finds him drunk off his ass and kicks him permanently to the curb. Hoffmann swears off women, much to the joy of his muse.

Are you boggling yet? How about this? Those three facets of the opera singer--who we hardly see at all in person--those three facets, what do they tell us about this opera singer? Well. She's a whore who steals men's souls for money, a gifted singer who for some inexplicable reason chooses to sing and die young rather than live a long life doing Hoffmann's laundry and never singing again (<.sarcasm>Obviously she can't do both! And what sane woman would want to exercise her artistic and creative gifts instead of giving that up so Hoffmann could have lots of babies?<./sarcasm>), and, to top it all off--or to start with, since it's actually the first of the facets presented--she's not human at all. She's just an automaton!

I boggled.

Add in the fact that the first act was played for humor. The first act that's based on "Der Sandman." Oh, that story is high-larious, let me tell you!

Actually, that story is highly creepy, if not an outright horror story. And bits of the creep were left in. "Beautiful eyes!" Played for laughs. Much of which was clearly in the libretto to start with, but OTSL's production turned it up to eleven, and the ultimate effect was like someone had made a nice, zingy curry the original recipe for which called for, say, some raisins or apple or something added for contrast, for a touch of sweetness, but instead the cook had slathered on an inch of powdered-sugar frosting.

Yes, I know. Coppelia! Nothing but sugar! Right. There's no curry in Coppelia, no chunks of horror bobbing up in the sea of sugar, for no discernable reason except to remind you the story isn't really as funny as they're all pretending.

Well, the music was gorgeous. It always is, with OTSL. I particularly enjoy their chorus. Composers take note! If anyone were to write an all-chorus opera I'd be right there. I'd probably die on the spot if OTSL staged it, from sheer ecstasy. Lovely chorus. Lovely singing.