After Aida
Mon, 25 June 2001, 08:29 amLeah Maher1 post in thread
After Aida
Mon, 25 June 2001, 08:29 amI wasn't going to say anything about After Aida. I didn't feel qualified becasue I don't know anything about opera. But then I heard that it doesn't look like it will get the audiences it deserves and I feared people like me who don't know anything about opera might be being scared away. I decided it was up to me to comfort and council my fellow philistines and say "It's OK guys. Yes people sing in that funny warbley way and yes the words are pretty silly but it's funny and the performances are great".
First of all, I loved the set, blank stage apart from a piano, two chairs and three movable white screens. I think real theatre is minimalist theatre. The real art is to create the space in the minds of the audience, not physically. I would even have gone further though and dressed the singers in blacks. The period and class differences between the singers costumes were a little jarring. The singers themselves were amazing. The sound was brilliantly professional and lost nothing from being live on stage with piano accompaniement.
The acting was truely ensamble and very well done. Perhaps the librettist guy (no program sorry) was a TRIFLE over-enthusiastic at times but I still loved him as a character and Verdi was perfect. The little monolouges were really touching and funny and beautifully done but I don't think the characters had to move quite that much. The lady's monolouge would have been just as effective if she had sat on her chair for the whole peice.
And there were several times when the whole audience just roared with laughter. The physical comedy was incredibly well done, flawless even. You didn't see the punchline coming from a mile away and in such a talky play it never looked unatural.
My one big gripe was with the fact that the peices were sung in English. I know it was to try to made them more accessable, but this could have been done with a projected translation. Singing Verdi in English just seems to rob it of some of it's magic, and allows the audience to realise just how silly the words are. And when the focus of the play was on a librettist, I felt it made him a little ridiculous. I've seen Rigaletto and the thing that stood out in it for me was those amazing voices making those amazing sounds. In English it's not quite the same.
After Aida is a different kind of play. The operatic peices serve to highlight themes in the text as well as being a little history of opera lesson. Not only did I really like the erformance, I feel I actually learned something from it. Well done to David Meadows and his talanted cast, wonderful singers and truely amazing accompaniest!
First of all, I loved the set, blank stage apart from a piano, two chairs and three movable white screens. I think real theatre is minimalist theatre. The real art is to create the space in the minds of the audience, not physically. I would even have gone further though and dressed the singers in blacks. The period and class differences between the singers costumes were a little jarring. The singers themselves were amazing. The sound was brilliantly professional and lost nothing from being live on stage with piano accompaniement.
The acting was truely ensamble and very well done. Perhaps the librettist guy (no program sorry) was a TRIFLE over-enthusiastic at times but I still loved him as a character and Verdi was perfect. The little monolouges were really touching and funny and beautifully done but I don't think the characters had to move quite that much. The lady's monolouge would have been just as effective if she had sat on her chair for the whole peice.
And there were several times when the whole audience just roared with laughter. The physical comedy was incredibly well done, flawless even. You didn't see the punchline coming from a mile away and in such a talky play it never looked unatural.
My one big gripe was with the fact that the peices were sung in English. I know it was to try to made them more accessable, but this could have been done with a projected translation. Singing Verdi in English just seems to rob it of some of it's magic, and allows the audience to realise just how silly the words are. And when the focus of the play was on a librettist, I felt it made him a little ridiculous. I've seen Rigaletto and the thing that stood out in it for me was those amazing voices making those amazing sounds. In English it's not quite the same.
After Aida is a different kind of play. The operatic peices serve to highlight themes in the text as well as being a little history of opera lesson. Not only did I really like the erformance, I feel I actually learned something from it. Well done to David Meadows and his talanted cast, wonderful singers and truely amazing accompaniest!
Leah MaherMon, 25 June 2001, 08:29 am
I wasn't going to say anything about After Aida. I didn't feel qualified becasue I don't know anything about opera. But then I heard that it doesn't look like it will get the audiences it deserves and I feared people like me who don't know anything about opera might be being scared away. I decided it was up to me to comfort and council my fellow philistines and say "It's OK guys. Yes people sing in that funny warbley way and yes the words are pretty silly but it's funny and the performances are great".
First of all, I loved the set, blank stage apart from a piano, two chairs and three movable white screens. I think real theatre is minimalist theatre. The real art is to create the space in the minds of the audience, not physically. I would even have gone further though and dressed the singers in blacks. The period and class differences between the singers costumes were a little jarring. The singers themselves were amazing. The sound was brilliantly professional and lost nothing from being live on stage with piano accompaniement.
The acting was truely ensamble and very well done. Perhaps the librettist guy (no program sorry) was a TRIFLE over-enthusiastic at times but I still loved him as a character and Verdi was perfect. The little monolouges were really touching and funny and beautifully done but I don't think the characters had to move quite that much. The lady's monolouge would have been just as effective if she had sat on her chair for the whole peice.
And there were several times when the whole audience just roared with laughter. The physical comedy was incredibly well done, flawless even. You didn't see the punchline coming from a mile away and in such a talky play it never looked unatural.
My one big gripe was with the fact that the peices were sung in English. I know it was to try to made them more accessable, but this could have been done with a projected translation. Singing Verdi in English just seems to rob it of some of it's magic, and allows the audience to realise just how silly the words are. And when the focus of the play was on a librettist, I felt it made him a little ridiculous. I've seen Rigaletto and the thing that stood out in it for me was those amazing voices making those amazing sounds. In English it's not quite the same.
After Aida is a different kind of play. The operatic peices serve to highlight themes in the text as well as being a little history of opera lesson. Not only did I really like the erformance, I feel I actually learned something from it. Well done to David Meadows and his talanted cast, wonderful singers and truely amazing accompaniest!
First of all, I loved the set, blank stage apart from a piano, two chairs and three movable white screens. I think real theatre is minimalist theatre. The real art is to create the space in the minds of the audience, not physically. I would even have gone further though and dressed the singers in blacks. The period and class differences between the singers costumes were a little jarring. The singers themselves were amazing. The sound was brilliantly professional and lost nothing from being live on stage with piano accompaniement.
The acting was truely ensamble and very well done. Perhaps the librettist guy (no program sorry) was a TRIFLE over-enthusiastic at times but I still loved him as a character and Verdi was perfect. The little monolouges were really touching and funny and beautifully done but I don't think the characters had to move quite that much. The lady's monolouge would have been just as effective if she had sat on her chair for the whole peice.
And there were several times when the whole audience just roared with laughter. The physical comedy was incredibly well done, flawless even. You didn't see the punchline coming from a mile away and in such a talky play it never looked unatural.
My one big gripe was with the fact that the peices were sung in English. I know it was to try to made them more accessable, but this could have been done with a projected translation. Singing Verdi in English just seems to rob it of some of it's magic, and allows the audience to realise just how silly the words are. And when the focus of the play was on a librettist, I felt it made him a little ridiculous. I've seen Rigaletto and the thing that stood out in it for me was those amazing voices making those amazing sounds. In English it's not quite the same.
After Aida is a different kind of play. The operatic peices serve to highlight themes in the text as well as being a little history of opera lesson. Not only did I really like the erformance, I feel I actually learned something from it. Well done to David Meadows and his talanted cast, wonderful singers and truely amazing accompaniest!