Regietheater

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Regietheater (in English, director's opera; more commonly producer's opera) is a term that refers to the modern (essentially post-World War II) practice of allowing a 'director' or 'producer' such freedom in devising the way a given opera is staged that not only may the composer's specific stage directions (where supplied) be completely disregarded, but also major elements of geographical location, chronological situation, casting and plot.

Historically, it can be argued that 'Regietheater' began with the work of Wieland Wagner (1917-1966), who in the years after WWII responded to the profound problematisation of his grandfather's work that resulted from its earlier appropriation by the Nazis by designing and producing 'minimalist' and heavily 'symbolic' stagings of Wagner operas in Bayreuth and elsewhere. Guided by the theories of Adolphe Appia, Wieland Wagner's productions allegedly sought to emphasise the 'epic' and 'universal' aspects of the Wagner dramas, and were 'justified' as being attempts to explore the texts from the viewpoint of (often Jungian) 'depth psychology'. In practice this would mean, for example, that the opening act of Die Walküre (the second work of the 'Ring cycle'), specifically described as set in Hunding's forest hut, was presented on a stage shaped as a large, sloping disc: no hut was either seen or implied, and the composer's many detailed instructions relating to the actions of 'Wehwalt', Sieglinde and Hunding within the hut were flatly disregarded even where the details of the scoring meant that they were underlined or illustrated musically.

As recent examples of 'Regietheater' at its most blatant one might cite an American production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in which a character was seen to indulge in intravenous drug-abuse, or an English National Opera production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera that at one point imported toilet cubicles and representations of gang rape. Slightly less recent was the 1976 Patrice Chéreau production of the 'centenary' Bayreuth 'Ring' that apparently sought to make manifest an 'anti-capitalist' and even Marxian sub-text held to be present in the work: as a result, Wagner's innocently mischievous 'Rhine-daughters' became three ragged whores plying their trade near a hydro-electric dam; Siegfried used an industrial steam-hammer to forge his sword, and an apparently demented Brunnhilde eloquently apostrophised a horse that was not seen at any point.

Supporters of 'Regietheater' will insist that works from earlier centuries not only permit but even demand to be radically re-invented in ways that not only 'fit' the contemporary Zeitgeist but even strive to connect them with situations and locations of which the original composers and librettists could not have conceived. Opponents, however, will accuse such producers of shallowness, crudity, sensationalism, lack of real creativity, insensitivity to the richness of the original setting, neglect of the role played by the music, 'Oedipal' hostility to the composer and libretttist, of pandering to the appetites of ephemeral journalism, and more besides. Stories also circulate of 'celebrity' producers who, though they cheerfully impose their 'interpretations' upon other people's operatic masterworks, are not actually able to follow musical scores and are observed in the theatre to be working from CD booklets in which the composer's original stage-directions are not reproduced.

The rise of 'deconstructionism' gave a new lease of life to 'Regietheater' in Europe and elsewhere. Prominent American 'deconstructionists' active on the Continent include Peter Sellars, David Alden, and Francesca Zambello.

[edit] See also

See also the List of opera directors.

Opera Terms
Aria • Arioso • Bel canto • Cabaletta • Castrato • Coloratura • Comprimario • Convenienze • Da capo • Diva • Intermezzo • Leitmotif • Libretto • Melodrama • Melodramma • Prima donna • Recitative • Regietheater • Sprechgesang