Robert Veel laments the trend for ‘overture acting’
When was the last time you sat down for a staged performance of opera, either at home or in the theatre, and really listened to the overture? For years now there’s been an international directorial conspiracy underway to deny our ears the pleasure of getting in sync with the musicians and composer before the action begins. Let’s call it overture acting; the director’s insistence that those precious moments of calm and reflection before the curtain goes up be filled with gratuitous stage action. And it’s got to stop.
Consider the overture to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. It’s 10 minutes of musical heaven, a piece than can,...
Dear Robert Veel, what a timely brilliant article . I agree wholeheartedly however our position would be derided as anti- contemporary by the clique of innovative trendsetters. I must admit that after the grotesque productions at Bayreuth of the last 20 years the Barrie Kosky Mastersinger was a shining light . Sometimes a staged overture does work. The fabulous Bayreuth Lohengrin with Peter Seiffert a case in point .( The Lohengrin before the laboratory rats production). It was a simple scene at the pond with the swan rising out of the water and Elsa’s brother trapped in a glass prism .
It set the scene with minimum action so wasn’t distracting.
I write to take issue with Robert Veel in his article in which he deplores what he calls ‘overture acting’.
I watched the entire 2017 Bayreuth Barrie Kosky production of the Mastersingers of Nuremberg to which he refers, and was thrilled from beginning to end.
The ‘overture acting’, far from detracting from the superb playing from the pit, was an integral part of the drama and laid the foundations for the approach that Kosky took to this most troubling of operatic plots.
The Wagner family, complete with little Wagners in velvet berets and floppy bows; Cosima, Franz Liszt, and Hermann Levi were all gathered for afternoon tea at Wahnfried. Liszt and Wagner vied for the piano as each belted out the score of what we were listening to, while Cosima dealt with a migraine.
As the overture segued into the chorale that opens Act 1, all except a reluctant Levi fell to their knees; and then Kosky worked his magic as we saw unfolding before our very eyes his vision for his mise-en-scene: Wagner became Hans Sachs; his eldest son became Walter; Cosima, Eva Pogner; Liszt, Eva’s father; the parlour maid, Magdalena; and Levi, Beckmesser. There was more to come: Wahnfried became the Mastersingers’ hall; (as seen in your Photograph); Act 2 took place in an overgrown ruin while a moon/clock with whizzing hands mocked time itself. Then Renaissance Nuremberg became – yes, the mind boggles – 1945 Nuremberg, and the Meadow, the court of the Nuremberg trials. Breathtaking, audacious and successful.
None of this, not a bit of it, would have been possible without the elaborate mime of the acting scene during the overture. Just as the ‘Wagners at home’ scene segued into the Walter-meets-Eva scene, so did the overture segue into the chorale. Perfect.
That Mr Veel seems to miss all this is a pity. He also misses the irony of his own words: ‘If you get … fine music, great acting and clear direction – it’s the experience of a lifetime.’
Philippe Jordan, Barrie Kosky and brilliant cast, chorus and orchestra gave us just that, and how.
Dunno about overture acting but I do know about gratuitous overture talking in the audience. Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh! I hate it. It completely destroys any chance of the audience engaging with the orchestra’s scene setting role. So rude!