[Saw it live in the house on March 7th, earlier in the run than this HD broadcast]
Great performances from the cast (justice for Ying Fang!) but really disappointing direction, and even seemingly sloppy conducting — didn't hold together dramatically or musically. Lots of dead air. Lots of guns (which diminishes the impact of Leonora pulling a gun at the climax). And we didn't like how they played Jaquino as a shitty little junior Nazi and then Marzelline's miserable at…
This is a movie about the power of fabric!
Not exactly coherent, but absolutely gets over on enthusiasm.
This is also the movie that taught me that, between the 袁 Yuen family (including director Yuen Woo-Ping and his ten siblings, at least four of whom are in this movie) and the alumni of the China Drama Academy who took the name 元 Yuen after their master Yu Jim-Yuen (including star Biao Yuen and briefly-glimpsed actress Qiu Yuen), there are a hell of a lot of people in HK kung fu movies named Yuen.
Birgit Nilsson singing the Liebestod in the middle of a giant vaginal staircase in the middle of an ancient Roman amphitheater in the middle of the night. What more do you want?
A committed performance by Emily D'Angelo, a premise with lots of rich ideas to explore, and impressive orchestration by Jeanine Tesori carry this piece. I know the creators were unsatisfied with the Washington premiere and revised it substantially in the transfer to New York, but a times it still feels underbaked.
D'Angelo as Jess faces an enormous challenge: holding our attention for almost the entire opera while traveling an enormous emotional range and selling the fundamentally tricky premise of a…
