Trevor Allen wrote:
>
> Okay....I did a little searching and found out that
> the opera runs approximately 2 and half hours. If
> anyone knows it well enough, are the any places that
> could be chopped out and still have the opera make
> sense?
>
> Grazie,
> TJA
This is a wonderful work, a masterpiece. Britten has
adapted Shakepeare's text so brilliantly, that I don't think
you can cut out a note if you're presenting the entire
opera. I saw it done this summer at Wolf Trap opera. My
feeling was that it is a huge challenge musically (Britten
is never easy music to learn the notes of, though he writes
beautifully for the voice), and also for the stage
director. I had become acquainted with the stage director
who did the production at Wolf Trap, and when I talked to
him before the show he told me he was surprised by how
difficult a challenge he found the opera to stage (though I
thought he succeeded very well with his stage movement,
though I didn't care for the sets or costumes in the
production). My sense of the music was that it fit well
into the voices, and the roles would work for a wide variety
of singers who have good technique, but you need a lot of
great tenors! Which this production had, in spades!
That said, there are definitely scenes that could be
excerpted in a workshop setting. Again, if you have a bunch
of terrific male singers, the artisan scenes are sure-fire.
The Titania/Bottom scene is hilarious (though Titania needs
a great coloratura soprano, and you need to come up with a
great "ass"-head that doesn't get in the way of the singer),
and the lovers quartet scene in the second act (after
affections have been turned every which-way by Puck) is
virtuosic opera-writing by Britten. But very tricky to
stage, I think.
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
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