The "Christmas Gift": Wagner By The Hour... "The Ring Cycle"

So Someone Who Shall Be Nameless...do give The Old Man a boxed set of The Met's Complete "Ring" Cycle on DVD for Christmas. (Very nice present some of you may say... which indeed it is.)

Now... I may not have mentioned this already but.... I am not a Wagner fan. The Old Man however is a passionate devotee (see this previous post as proof). And as he do sprout yet another strange medical condition the other day... one hand looking like a bunch of sausages... (so far a blood test taken but no results....) .... I do feel he may need a treat and do agree to the watching of said DVDs... In truth I am a great Lepage fan and as this is his 2012 production for The Met... I really do want to see them as well.

I am surviving. Some of the scene effects are magical... wish I could have been there to see them. And some of the singing is wonderful. (Don't that sound grudging?) The Old Man grumbles a bit. For some reason he decides to try me out (without my realising it) on the final act of the entire thing. So he be a bit disgruntled that the immolation wasn't immolating enough as far as he was concerned! But equally he do peer at me occasionally to see how I have taken a particular passage... and I can tell... that his eyes be full and his voice might be choked... as he waves his banana hand around.

More Robert Lepage - "The Confessional"

Remember catching this at the cinema.... Lepage's "Le Confessional". A fusion of films ... netting Hitchcock's "I Confess" into the scenario. I do forget that Lepage's film features Kristin Scott Thomas.... born in Redruth, Cornwall.

Looking For My Memories Of Lepage Productions I Have Seen

... and this is the awful truth... that being elder.... the productions that I do see of Robert Lepage's work in London in the 1990s.... pre-date the wonders of web memories and clips. Now... I do feel elder.

.....And to try and explain the impact of "Midsummer Night's Dream" at the National Theatre... with a stage covered in a mud pool, Puck played by a contortionist and the front row audiences being issued with plastic macs against the splatter... (Did I just make that up?)

Or "Needles and Opium"  ... Cocteau, Miles Davis.... the wonders of stage illusion ...

Ah well go and Google around and you will find much more stuff that is more up to date.....
Than me.

Robert Lepage - Short Documentary - National Film Board of Canada

Robert Lepage by ONFB , National Film Board of Canada

The NY Met, Lepage... and Wagner

So next Saturday (April 20th 2013) the Live from the Met broadcast on BBC Radio 3 will be "Siegfried"... and if you want a taster of what I mean by a Lepage production you can see the Met's clip in the next post. Yes... I know... not much to see on a postage stamp blog post...

So bear with me over the next post or two whilst I recount my admiration of Robert Lepage's work.
You see I am a set-tilting, smoke and mirrors kinda girl when it comes to theatre.

"Siegfried" - Act 3: Wanderer's Entrance - The Metropolitan Opera