Janos Gereben wrote:

>At the end, there was a broad, deep rumble, instantly exploding into a
>roar that literally shook the walls.  In a deluge of a response to being
>overwhelmed, the audience in the Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight became
>part of music's most unrestrained orgy of sound and emotion.

Blend this reply with the Greatest Music I Don't Like thread.

I was at this performance on 10 December.  The orchestra was beyond
belief.  But, I found the overall experience excruciating.  I don't care
much for vocal music which had me prejudiced going in (subscription seat,
ticket exchanges can be difficult due to low availability of other
events).  The video was worthless.

>Much has been made of the Tristan Project's "production values," concept
>and direction by Peter Sellars, video by Bill Viola.  You have to be in
>the hall to appreciate (or the opposite) the video projected on a huge
>screen behind the orchestra (and blocking the view from the seats there)

That's where I sit.  Kurwenal came through clearly but wherever he may
have been standing, he was obscured by the giant screen.  The little
screen on the back of the hall was obscured by one of the billowing
ceiling swoops.  Tristan and Isolde were headless for most of their slow,
interminable walk.  The supertitles were almost unreadable.

>I have no idea what it means, but it's distracting like hell.  Before
>the finale, the screen goes blank, and for the next 10 minutes, you are
>grateful for not having to look.

I stopped looking long before that but agree with the sentiment.  I
focused as best as I could on the orchestra and tried to blot out the
rest.  The orchestral seating arrangement was changed so that the basses
were directly underneath my seat.  The sound was exquisite.

>As to the direction (meaning mostly that singers move around the hall),
>there was at least one important, commendable aspect of it.  As the ship
>is arriving, and the lovers are made to return to the real world from
>their newly-found ecstasy, gradually all lights are turned on in the
>hall, and the audience shares the characters' confusion and rude awakening
>from magic into the "real world." It's a tricky business, but it works.

I found this disco ball effect inappropriate for a concert hall. It took
Los Angeles nearly twenty years to build this dedicated facility and
to get away from the multipurpose liabilities of the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion.  But high on the priority list are projects that require turning
Toyota's masterpiece of an auditorium into a multimedia performance
space, obscuring the lines, blocking views, and encouraging showmanship
for its own sake.  This is unfortunate.

I'll soon be in Italy for a short vacation and had purchased a ticket
to a performance at Teatro La Fenice to have the experience of the place.
Tristan 1 was my final check to see whether I could handle that much
vocal music at one sitting.  I can't.  I'll be trying to unload the
ticket to 'Le Roi de Lahore' when I get there.  A tour of the hall should
suffice.

Ravi Narasimhan
Redondo Beach, CA
http://www.rettacs.org