Great Performances at the Met
Partly, I am posting to see if my title shows up on Billy's blogroll. My god, it might actually lead to people reading this. Which means I might have to actually think about what I'm saying. Which is contrary to the mission of this blog.

Oh well.

Anyway, I am currently watching the Met's recent production of Verdi's Macbeth, which is being broadcast as a special subseries of PBS' Great Performances. I found it already in progress while I was channel surfing. Looking at the series website, I realize I have actually run into 3 or 4 of these the same way. Every time, I have stayed to watch, amazed. Admittedly, I am the type of person who will often stop to watch an opera broadcast on TV, including the bits and pieces on Classic Arts Showcase.

But what really strikes me about these Met productions is...the productions! The staging and directing decisions are bold! innovative! applying modern theatrical approaches to a form considered by many to be stale and stagnant. And yet never gimmicky (at least as far as I have seen). Who is the artistic director behind this? Surely not James Levine?--I thought he just handled the music part.

For example, this Macbeth is set in post-WWII Europe (not unlike Geoffrey Tennant's Macbeth!) and I cannot even begin to describe to you the setting of their Fille du Regiment .

No, rather than being gimmicky, I find that these productions and re-settings help identify and relate to the audience what the work has captured about the human experience--which is universal (not across individuals, but across space and time). And in my opinion (I know others differ) that is the highest purpose of art.
- posted by k @ 6:01 PM