A week ago, I went to the Strasbourg Opera with Malou, Ariana, Kat, and Kat's mom (who was visiting for the week). And honestly, Kat and I were highly amused by the performance. I'm sure the story of King Arthur was meant to be tragic, but I couldn't stop laughing. (Trust me, I received a lot of glares for my chuckling).
We saw Le Roi Arthur, which was luckily performed in French. The title characters were obviously Lancelot, King Arthur, and Guinevere, but the director of the opera seems to have taken a lot of creative license because there were a lot of changes made to the original story. First of all, instead of taking place in sixth-century England, the opera was set in France. The time period must have been changed to modern times, as well, for unless I'm mistaken, there were no nuclear weapons in the sixth century. And the singing of the entire second act took place on a stage full of nukes and guns, something that Kat and I found hilarious as well as historically inaccurate.
To summarize: Lancelot falls in love with Guinevere (who's married to King Arthur); they promise to love each other; Lancelot almost murders a guy; everyone goes off to war, Guinevere has abandonment issues (and sings about them for a good 30 minutes straight); King Arthur begs Merlin to help him defeat the French (?) Saxons; an upside-down tree descends from the roof of the stage; Merlin (in a lime green suit), throws an apple at King Arthur, tell him that he's going to die soon, and disappears; Guinevere--still singing about being abandoned--hangs herself from the French flag; Lancelot (who looks a little like Jesus) returns from war gravely wounded; he begs King Arthur to forgive him for the fling with Guinevere and dies; King Arthur has the nurses remove his uniform and dress him in armor; ....and the opera ends with this shiny-armored Arthur walking through a graveyard with flower petals falling down onto the stage.
All of this lasted three-and-a-half hours. And despite how hilarious Le Roi Arthur turned out to be, I've decided that operas aren't my favorite form of entertainment.
We saw Le Roi Arthur, which was luckily performed in French. The title characters were obviously Lancelot, King Arthur, and Guinevere, but the director of the opera seems to have taken a lot of creative license because there were a lot of changes made to the original story. First of all, instead of taking place in sixth-century England, the opera was set in France. The time period must have been changed to modern times, as well, for unless I'm mistaken, there were no nuclear weapons in the sixth century. And the singing of the entire second act took place on a stage full of nukes and guns, something that Kat and I found hilarious as well as historically inaccurate.
To summarize: Lancelot falls in love with Guinevere (who's married to King Arthur); they promise to love each other; Lancelot almost murders a guy; everyone goes off to war, Guinevere has abandonment issues (and sings about them for a good 30 minutes straight); King Arthur begs Merlin to help him defeat the French (?) Saxons; an upside-down tree descends from the roof of the stage; Merlin (in a lime green suit), throws an apple at King Arthur, tell him that he's going to die soon, and disappears; Guinevere--still singing about being abandoned--hangs herself from the French flag; Lancelot (who looks a little like Jesus) returns from war gravely wounded; he begs King Arthur to forgive him for the fling with Guinevere and dies; King Arthur has the nurses remove his uniform and dress him in armor; ....and the opera ends with this shiny-armored Arthur walking through a graveyard with flower petals falling down onto the stage.
All of this lasted three-and-a-half hours. And despite how hilarious Le Roi Arthur turned out to be, I've decided that operas aren't my favorite form of entertainment.
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