2023-09-01 15:01:43
I am an Austrian living abroad, born and raised in Getreidegasse, and come from a musical family. My father was a musician in the Mozarteum Orchestra and my sister an opera singer. What I mean by that, I grew up with music in Salzburg.
As an adult, I was drawn to Canada, where I still live today in Montreal and Florida. However, I come back to my beautiful hometown at least twice a year.
I love the Salzburg Festival and have to admit that I am very outraged by the modern “circus” that is being performed here. It’s a shame how the audience is being fooled. He is made aware that operas have to be modernized, because one is supposed to keep up with the times! No, ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to!
When I looked at the oh so sparse gray stage set of “The Marriage of Figaro” with the Countess sitting in the bathtub and she having to sing her aria in it with her back to the audience, as well as other unaesthetic obscene performances or Falstaff with the swimming pool scene etc. look at me had to, I was extremely shocked. I don’t go to the opera just to hear the music and the voices, no, I would like to be transported back to the time of the composer with the magnificent stage sets and the exquisite costumes of the epoch, because I call that an elixir for my eyes , a real feast for the eyes.
As far as I might tell, locals and foreigners alike were outraged by the festival, and some of my friends even left the performances during the intermission, highly disappointed. Is that what the “stage directors” of the festival want to achieve? Or do you just want to save money because stage sets and costumes cost a lot? I can’t imagine the singers feeling comfortable in their suits and swimming pools on stage. You can get into your role much better if you wear contemporary clothes, see e.g. B. in films like “Bridgerton” or “Outlander”, where the actors can fully immerse themselves in their role thanks to their beautiful costumes.
Isn’t it nice to show today’s youth what it was like back then? With magnificent costumes and imaginative sets? Today I can see and buy modern clothes and pictures every day, but epochal costumes are something rare and require a much greater effort in the design of the master couturiers, just as set designers might bring back and display their artistic skills of the old days.
So I can only hope that one day the people of Salzburg will return to the “old” contemporary operas and drama performances. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy my operas at our lovely Sarasota, Florida Opera House, where they still go to great lengths to present all operas in their original form as much as possible.
Christine Pfleger, Montreal
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#Operas #dont #modernized
