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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (126995)	10/3/2001 3:25:42 AM
From: Bruce Brown	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

send in the clowns... Now there's people discussing Burgtheater and heuriges here. This will end baaad (gg). Alles Gute Why not discuss them? Actually, I made no mention of the Burgtheater - although the current director of that facility used to be my boss at one of the opera houses and was responsible for assembling the team which produced the most recent operatic version of Faust in Vienna. Goethe's subject of Faust goes over better on a playbill in the theatre than it does in musical form (Gounod or Boito) in the opera houses. I was recalling one instance where the Gounod operatic setting didn't cut the mustard here in Vienna - even though the production was fabulous and thought provoking. The production of Faust where Mephisto ripped his heart out of his chest, dripping with blood and took a big bite out of it as he roared in laughter while fake blood dripped down his chin and on his bare chest is the one I was thinking about. In the meantime, Faust was behind him on the floor in a WW II soldier's uniform designed to represent the SS wearing a gas mask while a naked woman was on top of him going up and down while other women were watching and beating him with leather whips. That was just one scene. The rest of the opera was equally 'reflective' of WW II and created a mass exodus of the Trachten and operetta crowd in every performance. The production was done by one of the Alden brothers from NYC and the conductor was from Israel. Nothing like a little spice and WW II reflection combined with the story of selling one's soul to the devil to send everyone scrambling for the doors to snag a fresh piece of Schnitzel and some sour Grüner Veltliner. In spite of that, even a 'normal' operatic production of Faust void of any WW II flavor doesn't sell too well in this Catholic region either. With or without a star studded cast. Since local boys like Schumann and Schubert penned so many songs using Heine poems, I guess that music is digested easier. BB