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muckefuckI'd like to write a longer review of Fledermaus, but I've got to be up in a little over six hours from now to prepare for my trip home for Christmas. So to save time, I'll start off by saying that I agree with what ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bunj had to say about the sets and costumes, but not about the dancing, which was, in a word, amateurish. Quick scratch test: If you're not synchronised, it's not ballet; it's simply a lot of flopping about the stage. Oh, you've got a guy who do backflips. Better use him a lot so no one notices that you're about a dozen rehearsals shy of being ready for curtain.
I also agree that Banse's failure to hit the high note at the end of the czardas was a major low point. (Act 2 in general was very weak; on top of the bad dancing was the worst blocking the night--though a lot of the entrances and exits in Act 3 don't make much sense either.) Her singing was alright otherwise. Fally looked and acted the part, but her pretty little voice is simply too small for the hangar-like dimensions of the Lyric. It's a damn shamebunj didn't get Spyres because he's a perfect Alfred. Skovhus is a solid Eisenstein, just as he was last time, and ditto for our British baritone. I really enjoyed our Viennese Dr Falke, Adrian Eröd; he had some real 1. Bezirk flair.
I understood a good chunk of the German, which was nice because--as my brother says--they slipped in some jokes nur für unsereins. When Frosch turns to a broom and says, "Broomhilda!" it gets a laugh from everyone. But when he follows it up with "Wann kehrst du wieder?" only cognoscenti got the pun a verb which can mean both "come back" and "sweep". The non-native speakers didn't bother me as much as the fact that only Fally and Eröd sound Austrian. There's a lot of physical comedy that works in that scene and some which doesn't.
Overall, I enjoyed it all but wished it hadn't been so long; we didn't get out until 11 p.m., which seems unfair for an operetta. Despite the lashing rain, we persisted in our plan to hit the Christkindlmarket first. I don't regret my first Germknödel, but I wish I'd known what not to eat in order to avoid this acid reflux.
bunj had to say about the sets and costumes, but not about the dancing, which was, in a word, amateurish. Quick scratch test: If you're not synchronised, it's not ballet; it's simply a lot of flopping about the stage. Oh, you've got a guy who do backflips. Better use him a lot so no one notices that you're about a dozen rehearsals shy of being ready for curtain.I also agree that Banse's failure to hit the high note at the end of the czardas was a major low point. (Act 2 in general was very weak; on top of the bad dancing was the worst blocking the night--though a lot of the entrances and exits in Act 3 don't make much sense either.) Her singing was alright otherwise. Fally looked and acted the part, but her pretty little voice is simply too small for the hangar-like dimensions of the Lyric. It's a damn shame
bunj didn't get Spyres because he's a perfect Alfred. Skovhus is a solid Eisenstein, just as he was last time, and ditto for our British baritone. I really enjoyed our Viennese Dr Falke, Adrian Eröd; he had some real 1. Bezirk flair.I understood a good chunk of the German, which was nice because--as my brother says--they slipped in some jokes nur für unsereins. When Frosch turns to a broom and says, "Broomhilda!" it gets a laugh from everyone. But when he follows it up with "Wann kehrst du wieder?" only cognoscenti got the pun a verb which can mean both "come back" and "sweep". The non-native speakers didn't bother me as much as the fact that only Fally and Eröd sound Austrian. There's a lot of physical comedy that works in that scene and some which doesn't.
Overall, I enjoyed it all but wished it hadn't been so long; we didn't get out until 11 p.m., which seems unfair for an operetta. Despite the lashing rain, we persisted in our plan to hit the Christkindlmarket first. I don't regret my first Germknödel, but I wish I'd known what not to eat in order to avoid this acid reflux.