Met ギャラ”トスカ”Booing巡る討論会

前にMetropolitan Opera の2009-2010年シリーズ開幕ギャラ公演で，「トスカ」の新演出家 Luc Bondy が一大ブーイングを巻き起こしたことを書きました．そのことを巡って，討論会が開かれたそうですから続報を書きます．

20年以上使われて今回新演出に代わったトスカの前演出家 Franco Zeffirelli が新演出家 Luc Bondy を批判して  “third-rate” director and violator of Puccini’s spirit と述べたことに強く反発していますが，論点は3点に要約されます．オペラ・ストーリーの順序は無視しますが，　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　①After she kills her would-be rapist, Scarpia, the title character fails to put candles around his body, as Puccini stipulated.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　②Prostitutes not in the text fawn over Scarpia.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　③Scarpia lustily embraces a statue of the Madonna in church.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　の3点です．

これらについて，Luc Bondy は自分は創作されたオペラよりも，原作に忠実に演出していると反論しています．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　①のキャンドルを並べるというのは原作にはないのだが，Puccini がSarah Bernhardt improvise one night in the stage play　で劇場上演で演出家が即興でやったのを見て取り上げたモノで，自分は原作に忠実にやっただけだといっています．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　②は，自分が第2幕の開幕シーンを飾ろうと，3人の美女をとりいれたもので，まったくオペラの進行に関わっていない．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　③は，Scarpia’s cry, “Tosca, you make me forget God!,” supports his Madonna hug. という Scarpia の言動からそういう行動を取らせたのだと弁じています．

Booing にかかわる論点はこの3点ですが，討論で私が新知識をえたことは，オペラの演出家は元来は劇作品公演の演出家を兼ねている訳ですが，オペラと劇場作品との演出上の重大な違いとして，オペラは「時間」に制約されるという点です．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　劇場作品なら演出家は時間を大部分ほとんど自分で決めていけるのだが，オペラでは指揮者がいてそのバトンが時間を決めるので，それは大きな制約だと皆が合意している点です．

あとは，私の前のMet Opera 記事とこの記事との原文を，お気の向くままにご参照下さい．

 

October 8, 2009, 11:28 pm

The Opera Goes to the Library, and the Talk Turns to (What Else?) ‘Tosca’

By Daniel J. Wakin

 

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Karita Mattila and Marcelo Álvarez in the Met’s new production of “Tosca,” directed by Luc Bondy.

The ghost of “Tosca” lingers on.

The Metropolitan Opera’s new and loudly booed production of the Puccini staple dominated a panel discussion at the New York Public Library on Thursday night that featured the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, and three directors of productions being presented this season: Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau and Bartlett Sher.

Mr. Bondy was a last-minute addition to the panel, and a good thing, too, because it was his “Tosca” that set off the booing and received generally negative reviews. Traditionalists were angered by his sometimes racy additions to the stage business, by his omissions of longtime practice and by the Met’s abandonment of its classic production by Franco Zeffirelli.

“I was scandalized that they were so scandalized,” Mr. Bondy said of the audience. “I didn’t know that ‘Tosca’ was like the Bible in New York,” he said at another point. Mr. Bondy stressed he was not trying to shock anybody. Mr. Gelb also took up the sacral metaphor. He said the instructions in the libretto should not be treated like a “religious manuscript.”

In brief, here are a few of the main objections to Mr. Bondy’s “Tosca”: After she kills her would-be rapist, Scarpia, the title character fails to put candles around his body, as Puccini stipulated. Prostitutes not in the text fawn over Scarpia. Scarpia lustily embraces a statue of the Madonna in church.

Mr. Bondy has responded to some of these points in previous interviews. On Thursday, he talked about the candles. That was a touch Puccini added after seeing Sarah Bernhardt improvise one night in the stage play on which the opera is based, he said. “I think it was an awful idea,” he said.

As for the prostitutes, what is wrong with them? “They are are pretty women on stage,” he said.

Mr. Gelb said he had no regrets about discarding the Zeffirelli production after 25 years of noble service. “At some point it would have to go,” he said. “All I’m trying to do with my colleagues at the Met is to keep the Met alive and vibrant.”

Mr. Gelb acknowledged that the “Tosca” reception was “not a happy experience for me,” and said he was not interested in “courting controversy.”

Mr. Bondy said he would never want to have his “Tosca” live as long as 25 years: “I say four years is enough.”

He went on, without prompting, to continue a public feud with Mr. Zeffirelli, who had called Mr. Bondy a “third-rate” director and violator of Puccini’s spirit. “It was Puccini, not Zeffirelli, who wrote this,” he said. “This is an arrogance which is very senile. Ga-ga.”

 

Keith Bedford for The New York Times The director Bartlett Sher, whose “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” is returning to the Met this season.

The directors also entered into a running discussion about the nature of booing. It represents “another level” of expression that is “outside the normal thing,” said Mr. Sher, whose “Barber of Seville” is being revived this season. He called booing a “self-interested expression of ownership.” Mr. Bondy pointed out that the sound of “BOOOOO” is more potent than the sound of “bravo.” Mr. Gelb said that the many fans of the new production outnumbered the booers. The audience of several hundred in the library’s South Court Auditorium seemed generally friendly.

Mr. Chéreau, who is directing Janacek’s “Tales from the House of the Dead” this season, said that he and Mr. Bondy came mainly from the world of theater and film. “We’re interested in telling a story with the music,” he said. The challenge of opera is that “time is measured.”

It passes according to the beat of the conductor’s baton. “In this apparent absence of freedom, you have a lot of freedom,” he said.

On another matter, Mr. Sher said he approached his new production of Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffman,” which opens at the Met on Dec. 3, by focusing on the composer’s place in society as a Jew who was struggling to be accepted, “to try to find his way into the group.” Hoffman reflects that struggle by trying to find acceptance with the women he falls in love with, Mr. Sher said.