We festivaled again last night: ‘DIdo and Aeneas’ at the Lyric Theatre in Star City (wasn’t that the name of the Soviet space exploration site) Casino.
Before show time we walked around looking at the glitz, and there is a lot of it. But mostly what strikes the observer is the ranks of ATMs for quick cash! They are everywhere by the ranks, well not quite everywhere, none in the bog. (Probably next time.)
http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Music/Dido-Aeneas/
We entrained from old Macdonaldtown Station, rather than Newtown, seeking as always a new sensation, and then took the tram from Central Station, all on our blue tickets! Smooth sailing, oops, smooth railing is more accurate.
Time came take out seats and the show began, and what a show! The water tank at the beginning was beguiling, fascinating, confusing, metaphorical, and appropriate. I am sure if Henry Purcell (1659-1695) could have done in his day, he would have. He loved a show himself. The combination of dance, opera, drama, and some slap-schtick worked for us.
It took a moment to realize that Dido and Aeneas had two representatives on stage, a singer and a dancer. Purists fainted at that I am sure. But I recalled Luis Buñel once cast three women as a single character in a film, saying he wanted to make the character complex and he could not decide which of the actresses could do that best, so he used all three!
The energy, the spectacle, the wit, the movement, the pathos, the drama, and that water tank were all good.
By the way, the program notes, which are all too often as banal as sports talk, are very cogent about the aim of the production — to balance the three major components of drama, dance, and song — and to return to Virgil’s story of exile and the synthesis of love and hate. And most of all, of course, the choice of Aeneas to accept his duty, his fate and leave Dido for Rome.
Pedants note, The Aeneid has always left me cold from my first effort to read it in college to a couple of repeated attempts including an audio version bellowed out by Simon Callow, who always seem to bellow even when whispering, something about voice projection. While I enjoyed this show, it did not inspire me to try Virgil again.
