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Attila. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Dir. Gabriele Lavia
I got a bunch of opera tickets from my friend C in advance of her leaving the Bay Area, and this was one of the performances that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Like any fan of opera I love Verdi, but I haven't seen a ton of his operas, and I was surprised at how much I liked this one. It's remarkable in that the most sympathetic character in the opera is its antihero, who is beset by perfidious Romans left, right, and center, although I also really liked the fearless Odabella, who decides to avenge herself on Attila for the sake of her vanquished city, and won't take no from any man for an answer on that respect.
This production was distinguished by being, evidently, much less Orientalist than the last time the SFO did this opera, in 1991. Hooray for less exoticism in opera! I also really loved the positive decision this production made, which was to stagger the historical setting in each of the three acts: the first takes place in a recognizably late antique, end-of-the-Roman-empire setting, while the second takes place in a ruined theater of the mid-19thC (viva Verdi! Vive l'empereur!), and the third shifts the scene to a movie theater of the fascist era, with clips of classic Hollywood movies featuring Attila on loop in the background. This is the kind of stuff that I eat up with a spoon, and like I said, I absolutely loved it. I have to admit, though, that I was totally tickled, eavesdropping on my fellow operagoers on our way back to the BART, to hear them saying that they loathed it and in particular were distracted by the movie montage. If you can't pay attention to Verdi's music because of a movie montage, I question whether you should be attending a Verdi opera.
Oddly enough, I thought the opera did a fairly credible job of conveying the chaos and scrambled loyalties that the end of the Roman empire in western Europe involved and engendered. And Odabella, though I find her kind of morally questionable, is a BAMF.
I got a bunch of opera tickets from my friend C in advance of her leaving the Bay Area, and this was one of the performances that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Like any fan of opera I love Verdi, but I haven't seen a ton of his operas, and I was surprised at how much I liked this one. It's remarkable in that the most sympathetic character in the opera is its antihero, who is beset by perfidious Romans left, right, and center, although I also really liked the fearless Odabella, who decides to avenge herself on Attila for the sake of her vanquished city, and won't take no from any man for an answer on that respect.
This production was distinguished by being, evidently, much less Orientalist than the last time the SFO did this opera, in 1991. Hooray for less exoticism in opera! I also really loved the positive decision this production made, which was to stagger the historical setting in each of the three acts: the first takes place in a recognizably late antique, end-of-the-Roman-empire setting, while the second takes place in a ruined theater of the mid-19thC (viva Verdi! Vive l'empereur!), and the third shifts the scene to a movie theater of the fascist era, with clips of classic Hollywood movies featuring Attila on loop in the background. This is the kind of stuff that I eat up with a spoon, and like I said, I absolutely loved it. I have to admit, though, that I was totally tickled, eavesdropping on my fellow operagoers on our way back to the BART, to hear them saying that they loathed it and in particular were distracted by the movie montage. If you can't pay attention to Verdi's music because of a movie montage, I question whether you should be attending a Verdi opera.
Oddly enough, I thought the opera did a fairly credible job of conveying the chaos and scrambled loyalties that the end of the Roman empire in western Europe involved and engendered. And Odabella, though I find her kind of morally questionable, is a BAMF.