Saint François d’Assise. To all this, the stage director Romeo Castellucci has added two perhaps not totally necessary scenes to the First Act: the saint’s renunciation of worldly possessions, striping naked to demonstrate his choice of a new existence; his encounter with the terrifying Wolf of Gubbio, uniting him with Nature. We will also encounter a strutting peacock and, as a final touch after the death of Saint François, a small flock of wandering sheep.
Tag: Vincent Lombardo
Rienzi. An Epochal Life of Images. The Second Act followed immediately with no break, and the huge screen flew upwards to reveal the same slow-motion clapping citizens seated upon a white bleacher-like section; frankly not one of the most attractive scenic elements, as it also will be over-used until the end of the opera, where it is out of place. Its sole purpose was to house the vast chorus center-stage, neatly arranging them unobtrusively it must be said. As to the length of Act One and Act Two joined for a total of two hours, there is little else to do if the Ballet is to included which it was here. Originally, a wise move by Wagner, opposed as he would be in being forced to insert a ballet into the Third Act of his Tannhauser 16 years later in Paris, which he spitefully did, but at the beginning of the First Act, causing a riot out of which grew his hate for Meyerbeer and his gang. Yet, to paint History rightfully, we must recall that Meyerbeer also helped Wagner produce his operas in Dresden.
Posts from overseas. Although many British critics were also shocked by the scene, Opera Gazet’s fierce, principled activism against this production drew considerable criticism within the British opera community, including on English-language forums and platforms. The accusation of prudishness: British opera lovers and progressive critics accused Keegel of having \’narrow-minded, Victorian morality\’.