Let’s stipulate that there is no rational reason for two sumo wrestlers the size of young hippos to collide center stage during a Handel opera. Let’s further acknowledge that Semele, an 18th-century work with an English libretto and an ancient Roman setting, does not take place in a Ming Dynasty temple (or actually have anything to do with China). Oh, also? Handel did not write the Communist “Internationale” or intend it to be hummed as the final curtain falls. And let’s accept the visual artist Zhang Huan’s admission that he has no feeling for, or understanding of, opera, even though he directed this one. The six-year-old production that has just arrived for a short stint at Bam, complete with the original temple, should by rights be a disaster; instead it has a weird seductiveness, strengthened by some very fine singing.Baroque opera lends itself to fanciful interpretations,...
- 3/6/2015
- by Justin Davidson
- Vulture
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