Terry Gilliam's interpretation of Hector Berlioz'
La Damnation de Faust inaugurated the opera season at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on Sunday with much applause. Gilliam packed in a strong visionary spectacle, full of colors and projections, as is the style of the nonpareil director.
"In the Kristallnacht scene, one of the darkest episodes in human history, when the Nazi soldiers, performing acts of terror, killed and deported thousands of Jews, there is a funny and cheerful music so that increases in some ways the tragedy. This creates a cognitive dissonance in the spectator who feels even more shocked. And then, when I am in doubt, always choose irony to tell anything."
"Faust enters bringing back a huge box that opens and becomes part of the set, a large blackboard, a heavy and complex mechanism that until the evening before the first performance in London, we did not know if we would be able to operate. And this is a really exciting thing about theater, one that makes it completely different from film: the unexpected, the uncertainty of the outcome."
Hector Berlioz
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Conductor: Roberto Abbado
Set: Hildegard Bechtler
Costumes: Katrina Lindsay
Assistant director / choreographer: Leah Hausman
Lighting Design: Peter Mumford
Video Design: Finn Ross
Faust: Gianluca Terranova
Marguerite: Anke Vondung
Mephistopheles: Lucio Gallo
Orchestra, Choir and Choir of the Teatro Massimo
Chorus Master: Andrew Faidutti
Teatro Massimo of Palermo, in co-production with the English National Opera and Vlaamse Opera
A brillant, fantastic opera night on the 22nd January 2012! For ever unforgettable event with the great Terry Gilliam`s direction, Maestro Roberto Abbado conduct and the wonderful singers, first of all Tenor Gianluca Terranova, Bariton Lucio Gallo and Mezzo-Soprano Anke Vondung! The night was real MAGIC!
ReplyDeleteuhaoooo maestro!!! when we will work together again??? your damnation was my best job!! gianluca terranova
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