Someone Named Teodora Vladinski Wants Me Dead

Okay okay, "dead" may be just a wee bit strong ("severely injured" might be closer to the mark), but just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean she's NOT out to get me.

Had another "Maclean's on the bike at the Y" session this morning, and right there in the November 30th Letters section, Teodora Vladinski--note: isn't that a GREAT name!--takes a great big swipe at Vancouver Opera, and clarifies why she won't be renewing her subscription. She writes of recent VOA productions she has hated (IN THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, TURANDOT, RIGOLETTO and SALOME), and one that she is prepared to hate (NIXON IN CHINA), lamenting that "every season there is an opera that no one wants to see and no one enjoys." Ouch. She goes on to say that "the staging is becoming more and bizarre and the costumes ridiculous." Double ouch, as yours truly was the director of the TURANDOT "with Chinese peasants wrapped like Egyptian mummies in rags." Ouch for the third time in a row.

Now, as a Baptist Bible-Belt-born Libran, who just wants everbody to be happy, I can sorta see Ms. Vladinski's point. This is the era of "Regietheater", where the more outlandish the directorial and design concepts the better...and I'm with her, I hate that, too. Trouble is, none
of the productions at the excellent Vancouver Opera is particularly radical or conceptualized:
trust me, we in North America are considered almost bland, overly-traditional and overly-faithful to the composer when compared to the Europeans. Case in point, "my" TURANDOT...
with hat doffed to the superb costume design of Anna Oliver: boy, how the heck else would you
dress the hordes of peasants in ancient China than the raw silk, historically-correct extra-long
sleeved, stylized pyjama-cut costumes of the production? Egyptian mummies??? Not a chance.

But IF that is "over the top", consider the Europeans. Consider the Berlin production of Mozart's delightful and romantic ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO, in which the seraglio
becomes a blood-spattered bordello, and the traditional happy ending is replaced by the last
onstage survivor, Konstanze, slowly placing a machine gun in her mouth as the lights snap to black. Consider the Dutch production of Verdi's NABUCCO, where, for some unfathomable reason, the chorus of Hebrew slaves are all dressed in--get this!--bumble bee costumes, tiny little wings and all. Or how about the Spanish production of CARMEN, where all of the poor factory women are decked out in Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie? I'm not making this up, you know. TURANDOT? The new Deutsche Oper production has Calaf and Turandot together assassinating the Emperor, and are climbing the steps for the slaughter of Ping, Pang and Pong as the curtain falls. Yikes.

Ms. Vladinski is correct in decrying the worst excesses of "director's theatre", but to be honest,
we Canadian operalovers in whatever Canadian city tend to be offered pretty great storytelling with pretty great singing and musical values, in productions with a genuine commitment to truthfully interpreting the vision of the opera's creators. Tell you what: when my lottery
ticket pays off, I'll schlep her to Europe for the best and worst that opera has to offer. We come off pretty darned well in Canada.

Gee, I kinda liked TURANDOT in Vancouver.

ps I don't know if anyone reads these things, but my next bundle of thoughts will hopefully come from somewhere in the Galapagos Islands. In the meantime, if you haven't checked them out already, promise me you'll google both "Antwerp Train Station Sound of Music" and "Opera at the Market 2009". I wept.