Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Grand Scale Opera

Each summer, the Bregenz Festival in Austria presents stunning opera stages, set on Lake Constance. Whether its a giant eyeball for Tosca, during which performance a part of the James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace" was filmed, or a skeleton opening a book for Verdi's Masked Ball, the festival's creativity doesn't cease to amaze. This year, for Umberto Giordanos French Revolution opera "Andrea Chenier", the organisers have erected the statue of Marat, murdered in the bathtub, as seen in the famous painting by J.L.David. A giant staircase runs from Marats eye down to his neck and shoulder. To his right there is an over-sized open book of Cheniers poems and to the left a guilded mirror on which images are projected. One thing this stage is not, is discrete. But opera purists should be appeased by the spectacle it offers. 
The festival runs until August 21st, but if you miss it you have another chance next year, as the stages are built every two years.


Stage for Andrea Chenier 2011

Aida 2009-20010

A masked ball 1999-2000

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