Martin Kušej’s new production of Schiller’s Maria Stuart features a wall of naked men.
The same gimmick was seen recently by Calixto Bieiro in the Vienna State Opera’s Tristan und Isolde.
Mass nudity is what directors do when they run out of ideas.
Click here for the Salzburg version.
The tenor Ian Bostridge shocked Symphony Hall Birmingham…
He is already music director of the Metropolitan…
The conductor continues his agitation for a new…
The Berlin Philharmonic chief conductor Kirill Petrenko has…
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It’s very practical. Directors can do the ONLY thing they can or care about while the actors or singers can keep some clothes on, and the figures abundant in their profession (that Goetterdaemmerung final…). The only problem is that when you have seen one, you have seen all.
How are they weathering shrinkage, and is advertising space on the collective asses available?
When directors run out of ideas, lighting a cigarette (Salzburg Elektra), throwing chairs (Bayreuth Tristan), simulating gay and straight sex (almost all productions), stripping down to underwear (Berlin DO Ring) or total nudity (everywhere except the Met) is their last resort at brilliant direction.
Oh, the Met has had total nudity a few times. Karita took it all off as Salome, the Naked Maidens and Youth in Moses und Aron have actually been naked once or twice, and Akhnaten has all his previous clothes stripped off before being robed and crowned as pharoah (an instance which has been covered extensively here at Slipped Disc).
There is one advantage in nudity on stage: it shows how all humans are made of the same. we are all one humanity. whatever silly misunderstandings people have about „diversity“ or „exceptionalism“. their bare nude reality washes away all these mental constructs. we are all one humanity.
(„diversity“ is just reverse racism. trying to erect artificial divisions between humans.)
Judging from my gym locker room, it is not true “all humans are made of the same”, I’m very sorry to report. Most definitely, in our birthday suits, there is „diversity“ and „exceptionalism“.
Still, I don’t need my nose rubbed in it, especially on stage.
Yes, but his humanity is a bit bigger than mine…
The keyword being erect.
“Mass nudity is what directors do when they run out of ideas.”
We can expect to see more of it then.
That was Salzburg 2021 and then moved to the Burgtheater.
The bare-faced cheek of it!!
Shouldn’t they all be on stilts?
“Mass nudity is what directors do when they run out of ideas.”
That’s right, NL. Pathetic, it most certainly is.
It’s the type of thing you do to be in the news. Everyone tries to shock, not realising there’s nothing original about it. Has been done and rehashed so many times, it just got boring.
‘Mass nudity is what directors do when they run out of ideas.’
Or when they want to get a mention on Slipped Disc…
Total waste of time. Once you’ve seen a bunch of naked fake
nuns, cesarian scars in some cases as shown in the Evening Standard at the time, climbing walls of ROH’s Fiery Angel in the 80s to no avail, then its time to do something new than just take more clothes off!
For heaven’s sake – the stalest of news. The production was in 2021!!
A good ploy when the costume department budget is dwindling and you’ve had to lay off half of wardrobe…
Wouldn’t mind having the phone number of the blonde to the left of the lead singer…
With selling of favors legal, why not display available partners using said format, the house retaining 50%.
The second part of Les Troyens I attended recently in Munich had about 10 nude men, full monty, constantly on stage, doing.. well.. and 70’s style gay porn on large screens. What did it mean? the decadence that caused the fall of Cartago under Dido? (performance, singing, conducting, orchestra was superb).
“What did it mean? the decadence that caused the fall of Cartago under Dido? (performance, singing, conducting, orchestra was superb).”
Even more like Sodom and Gomorrah. I think it means that as you have to close your eyes to enjoy actual art in music, you can have a better deal at home.
Marilyn Horne told she hates this, as well as wokeness, and asks, how much worse it will get in 50 years.
Great singers had none of this. They will have none of this.
I stopped counting at one.
It’s economical, keeps the wardrobe budget to zero.
We all must do our part to fight inflation.
And ecological, keeps air conditioning to zero.
We all must do our part to fight climate change.
You would think there would be some measure of budget relief…but (in the US at least), wardrobe unions would exact their pound of flesh…
It’s been said before – controversy is the art of the untalented.
One word: Eurotrash
That’s indeed the one and only thing that the moronic citizens of a culturally backward nation, where art cannot survive without the money of billionaire and millionaire Philistines, have to say about the contemporary versions of an art form in the continent that invented it.
Nah, Eurotrash is a great descriptor. Unfortunately it creeps over here occasionally and the woke critics love it and the audience hates it. But who buys the tickets.
Reducing an entire production to a single nude scene is what critics do when they get out of touch.
How can i take my grandmother to watch this.
Is he knew i went she would cut me off of her will.
Isn`t this THE Idea of the theatre?
Also, a metaphor.
I couldn`t be less interested in the ideas of directors. Recordings are so nice, you can cancel the theatrical directors.
I am baffled by people who still attend, and pay for the privilege to complain live during the intermission.
It would be interesting to get inside the minds of people who actually pay good money to see this mind-withering tripe. I mean, what sane person would actually hand over cash to insult their intelligence in such a manner?
The Director can’t get butts in seats, so he puts them on the stage.