HowlRound Theatre Commons: Opera need not be opulent to be marvelous. Opera del West, helmed by Eve Budnick, brings fully staged—if fringe—opera to the Metro West area of Massachusetts and provides a space for young professional singers to tackle exciting roles. Between August 9 and 11, the company, under the insightful direction of Rebecca Miller Kratzer, picked up their ladders, tulle, and sparkly shoulder pads and transported their production of Cendrillon, by Jules Massenet, to the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA).
3 comments:
I really like this article. I particularly like that the title gives you the impression that this is about creating something yourself. I immediately thought of a business or play, etc. While I was reading, I quickly noticed that this was not the case. I became disappointed because what was being said was not what the Title lead me to believe. As I read further, I noticed quickly that the piece in discussion was pulling on viewpoints, to which it later revealed, but this led me to come around. This article wasn’t about doing things for yourself. It wasn’t about taking what you want and making it real. This article was showing that part of performing is doing things yourself. A tricky double meaning. Performing is best done when you interact and work with the environment, play with the tempo and pace of what is occurring. It is quite brilliantly written and executed. This is also to mention that the piece is very intriguing as well and rather refreshing from what has become more popularized theatre now-a-days.
It’s amazing how Opera del West is able to design for what they have and make it a reality. The ability to envision big ideas and make them happen with limited resources, especially in an opera that is often about wealth is wonderful. I wish the article went more into detail on how this production was a DIY production. Though the article makes it sound like the production was done beautifully on the cheap, I wonder how what part they considered DIY as opposed to low budget. Did they make something unusual or build something out of odd parts? Nevertheless, I love that this opera company was able to create a magical world out of nothing. This shows how clever lower budget theater can be. This company found a way to design to fit the budget, rather than bigger than the budget, and get a bunch of symbolism, allegory, and aesthetic beauty into the production.
The idea of creating an opera that is associated with opulence on a small budget with creative use of objects is intriguing. However, I felt the article lacked a focus on the physical design aspects of the show and centered more on the portrayal of the characters and the author's opinions of them. Given the title, what I found in the article felt divergent from what I expected to see. This is in no way a bad thing, unless, like me, you went into the article hoping for descriptions of things you didn't get. Most of the design aspects I gleaned from the pictures rather than the text. Their use of "low budget" design is a bit evident in the way the stage felt almost a bit underdone. Not to say a giant set was needed, because it wasn't, it wouldn't have fit well in such a show or such a space, just that I would have liked to see them use the space and create depth and levels a bit more. The execution was still beautiful and in particular, I loved the use of fabric to create a sense of flow and softness in the space; however, I felt the stage felt barren at times and cluttered at times and that should have been combatted by the director's blocking and the designer's use of space.
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